WILLIAM E. SIMPSON
District Attorney

1946-1951

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William E. Simpson

In 1946, the Board of Supervisors appointed Chief Deputy District Attorney William E. Simpson, 47, to succeed Fred Howser. Simpson had attended Stanford Law School and became Fresno City Attorney after serving as a state assemblyman. He was a special deputy in the bribery trial of former LA District Attorney Asa Keyes, and then was in private practice representing an oil company. He returned to be appointed Chief Deputy District Attorney under DA Buron Fitts, having been one of the attorneys that successfully defended Fitts at his 1936 perjury trial

Simpson prosecuted the Douglas Aircraft sit-down strikers in 1937. He convicted a group of gamblers for fraud and contributing to the delinquency of minors for using underage jockeys to fix horse races. In 1943, he prosecuted LAPD Officer Compton Dixon for murder in the beating death of 44-year-old accountant Stanley Beebe, arrested on a streetcar for being drunk. The jury hung and charges were dismissed.

Soon after being appointed DA in 1946, Simpson formed an anti-gangster squad to combat what he called an influx of Eastern killer hoodlums. He joined with LAPD Chief C.B Horrall and LA County Sheriff Eugene Biscaluiz to participate in information-sharing agreements with 20 Eastern cities to follow the movements of gangsters. After serving two years as the appointed DA, Simpson ran unopposed in 1948. In 1949 he angrily called for a grand jury investigation when he discovered that, for two years. LAPD had secretly taped conversations in a home frequented by Mickey Cohen. Simpson suffered a chronic illness that led to his death in 1951.