Office History

Henry Clay Dillon was born in Wisconsin and practiced law in both his home state and Colorado before coming to California in the late 1880s. In addition to serving as District Attorney between 1892 and 1894, Dillon also was president of the Long Beach School Board, served as the Long Beach city attorney, and was a commissioner of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court. Well-known as an orator in Los Angeles legal circles, Dillon became a lecturer at the University of Southern California College of Law, which officially opened in 1901.

James C. Rives was born in Atlanta, Georgia and came to Los Angeles as a young child with his family in the late 1860s via ox-cart. He dropped out of school at age 14 to help support his family following the death of his father, a pioneer doctor in Los Angeles. Rives never went to college and started a printing business at age 16. At 21 he owned and published the Downey Weekly Review newspaper, which he ran while studying law. He joined the bar at age 23, became a successful lawyer and a term as District Attorney before becoming a superior court judge for nearly two decades. Rives was a pioneer of Downey, where his mansion stands today, registered as an historical site. Rives Avenue bears his name.

Public corruption and vice were high on the list of targets of this reform-minded prosecutor. Thomas Lee Woolwine even raided the prestigious California Club once in his zeal to control illegal liquor, gambling, prostitution and, most importantly, public corruption. Thomas Lee Woolwine, who began as a deputy district attorney in 1908, would go on as District Attorney to contribute to the downfall of two mayors, Charles Sebastian and Frederick Woodman, as well as leading and investigation of a particularly violent nest of Ku Klux Klansmen in Los Angeles. Woolwine obtained 35 grand jury indictments of Klansmen for assault with deadly weapons with the intent to commit murder after a Klan home-invasion slaying in Inglewood in 1922. None of the defendants were convicted, but Klan members heckled him from the audiences of his political campaign meetings from then on. Woolwine ran twice unsuccessfully for governor during his years as District Attorney.

Reprinted from For the People -- Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 by Michael Parrish. ISBN 1-883318-15-7

Buron Fitts was a proud veteran of World War I, returning with a knee injured in a gunshot wound that would require a score of operations over his life to avoid amputation. He became a leader in the American Legion, which always gave him a strong base of political support.

Fitts became a deputy district attorney in the Woolwine years and chief deputy under District Attorney Asa Keyes. In 1926, Fitts was elected California lieutenant governor. Two years later, when Keyes was indicted for bribery, Fitts was appointed special prosecutor to take charge of the case. Fitts ran for the District Attorney's Office as well and won.

In office, Fitts reorganized and cut the staff, while raising the salaries of the prosecutors and investigators who remained. He concentrated enforcement efforts on gambling and other crimes of vice. Then while making an unsuccessful attempt to run for governor in 1930 he ran into trouble himself.

A well-known District Attorney’s Office investigator, Leslie T. White, had come upon a prostitution ring specializing in underage girls. The ring's madam said that she had supplied young girls to several wealthy businessmen, including John P. Mills, a real-estate developer and friend of Fitts. The madam claimed that she had delivered a young virgin every week to Mills. A 16-year-old girl was willing to testify against Mills, and he was charged with statutory rape. Eventually, the other businessmen charged in the case were acquitted. Fitts dropped the remaining charge against Mills, saying that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to take him to court and that the complaining witness had disappeared.

Political rival and future reform mayor Fletcher Bowron, then a Superior Court judge, urged the grand jury to take a close look at several politicians. The grand jury responded with an indictment of Fitts -- and his sister, who worked as his secretary -- for bribery and perjury. The grand jury charged that Fitts and his sister had sold Mills a useless orange grove that the family had owned, receiving much more than it was worth in the trade -- essentially a bribe to Fitts to drop the rape charge. Two years later, Fitts was acquitted. His sister's charges were dismissed.

During World War II, Fitts went back into the military, joining the Army Air Force. He commanded combat operations in Europe and North Africa.

Reprinted from For the People -- Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 by Michael Parrish. ISBN 1-883318-15-7