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Joseph Wambaugh, Creator of ‘Police Story’ and ‘Onion Field’ Writer, Dies at 88
Joseph Wambaugh, the former LAPD officer who brought realism to the "Police Story" TV series and books like "The Onion Field," died Friday.
As the NPR profile put it, “Wambaugh’s Los Angeles is populated not only with complex cops, but also wannabe actors and drug-addicted tweakers, wealthy immigrants, gawking tourists and colorful street thugs. He left the LAPD in the mid-’70s, after returning from the leave of absence he took to write “The Onion Field.” Wambaugh told Palm Springs Life in August 2007 that his fellow cops “showing deference to me was pretty unbearable. Summing up his career well, the Wall Street Journal said: “If Los Angeles police detective-sergeant-turned-author Joseph Wambaugh didn’t invent the modern cop novel, he’s been one of its most prolific and successful practitioners.
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