Visions & Voices: True Crime: Detective Fiction and the Film Noir Myth of Los Angeles: Home

Death On the Nile - Agatha Christie

The Birth of the Detective

• Eugène François Vidocq, Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de sûreté (Paris: Tenon, 1828–29)
• Major Arthur Griffiths, The History of Romance and Crime: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (London: Grolier Society, 1908)
• Peter Haining, Mystery: An Illustrated History of Crime and Detective Fiction (New York: Stein and Day, 1977)

Victorian Sleuthhounds

• Voltaire and Cesare Beccaria, An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (London, 1767)
• Ian Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1976)
• Charles Dickens, “On Duty with Inspector Field,” from Household Words (June 14, 1851) via Dickens’ Journalism, Volume 2: The Amusements of the People and Other Papers: Reports, Essays and Reviews—1834–51 (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1996)
• Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (New York: George Macy Cos., 1959)
• Charles Dickens, Bleak House (London: Nonesuch Press, 1938)

Early Tools of the Trade

• George Combe, The Constitution of Man: Considered in Relation to External Objects (O.D. Spafford, 1845)
• John Casper Lavater, “Essays on Physiognomy,” from Embodied Selves: An Anthology of Psychological Texts, 1830–1890 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998)
• Toxicologist and forensic chemist Dr. Alexander Gettler in a laboratory with New York City’s first chief medical examiner Dr. Charles Norris, October 21, 1932
• Deborah Blum, The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (New York: Penguin, 2010)
• Joel Levy, Poison: A Social History (Brimscombe Port: The History Press, 2011)

On the Culprit’s Trail

• Charles A. Siringo, A Cowboy Detective: An Autobiography (Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1912)
• Charles Howard Shinn, Graphic Description of Pacific Coast Outlaws (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1958)
• D. J. Cook, Hands Up; Or, Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains (Denver: W. F. Robinson, 1897)
• Thomas S. Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (San Francisco: James H. Barry Co., 1910). Formerly owned by Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon; On loan from Julie M. Rivett, granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett
• The Dime Novel Detective (Bowling Green: Bowling Green Univ. Popular Press, 1982)

We Never Sleep

• Allan Pinkerton, Thirty Years a Detective (New York: G.W. Carleton, 1884)
• Allan Pinkerton, The Detective and the Somnambulist: The Murderer and the Fortune Teller (New York: G.W. Carleton, 1875)
• Allan Pinkerton, Professional Thieves and the Detective (New York: G.W. Carleton, 1880)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear (New York: Bantam Books, 1914). On Loan from Leslie Klinger.
• “Abduction of Charlie Brewster Ross,” printed leaflet produced by the Pinkerton Detective Agency about a six-year-old child, July 1, 1874. On loan from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Seaver Collection
• Article from The Los Angeles Times (October 15, 1953), about the kidnapping of Charlie Brewster Ross. On loan from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Seaver Collection

*Unless otherwise noted, all items are from USC Libraries

The Game’s Afoot

• Collier’s, vol. 33, no. 26 (September 24, 1904)
• The Sherlock Holmes Game (Massachusetts: Parker Brothers, 1904). On loan from Leslie Klinger
• Arthur Conan Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: Eleven Famous Cases (New York: Bantam Books, 1949)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (New York: Baker Street Irregulars, 1948)
• The Original Illustrated Strand Sherlock Holmes (Lombard: Mallard Press, 1990)

Down These Mean Streets

• Raymond Chandler Mystery Map of Los Angeles, 1985. On loan from Los Angeles Public Library
• Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (New York: Knopf, 1940)
• Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (New York: Vintage Books, 1976). On loan from Ned Comstock
• Film still from The Maltese Falcon (1941). On loan from Julie M. Rivett, granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett
• Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (New York: Modern Library, 1934). On loan from Julie M. Rivett
• Photograph of Dashiell Hammett (labeled “Papa”) with Pinkerton Agency Detectives, ca. 1915–1922

Hardboiled Dicks

• Dick Tracy press book, 1945
• Pocket Detective Magazine, vol. 1, no. 6 (May 1937). On loan from USC Warner Bros. Archives
• Ed Lacy, Moment of Untruth (New York: Lancer Books, 1964)
• Mickey Spillane, Vengeance is Mine (1952). On loan from the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
• Dashiell Hammett, Too Many Have Lived, from The American Magazine (October 1932). On loan from Julie M. Rivett.

To Live and Die in LA

• Jim Heimann, Sins of the City (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999)
• Leslie White, Me Detective (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1936)
• Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990)
• Craig Rice, Los Angeles Murders (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947)
• Film still from Chinatown (1974).

Just the Facts, Ma’am

• Jack Webb, The Badge (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Inc., 1958)
• Los Angeles Detective Badge, ca. 1935–1940. On loan from the Los Angeles Police Museum
• Press book for Dragnet (1951). On loan from the USC Warner Bros. Archive
• James Ellroy and Glynn Martin, LAPD ’53 (New York: Abrams Image, 2015)
• Press folder for L.A. Confidential (1997)

A Dame Named Agatha

• Lobby card from Murder Most Foul (1964)
• Film still from Murder on the Orient Express (1974), featuring detective Hercule Poirot
• Film still of Margaret Rutherford and Agatha Christie on the set of Murder She Said (1961)
• Agatha Christie, The Clocks (New York: Pocket Books, 1964)
• John Curran, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making (New York: Harper Collins, 2009)

A Life in the Shadows

• Watabe Yukichi, A Criminal Investigation From the Wilson Centre for Photography (Paris: Editions Xavier Barral, 2011)
• Careers As A Private Detective: Your Own Detective Agency (Chicago: Institute for Research, 1976)
• LAPD Daily Training Bulletin, vol. 1 (1948). On loan from the Los Angeles Police Museum
• B.W. Gocke, Police Sergeants Manual (Los Angeles: Legal Book Store, 1967)
• LAPD Daily Report Detective Officer, 1943. On loan from the Los Angeles Police Museum

Nancy Drew, Girl Detective

• Press book for Nancy Drew Detective (1938). On loan from the Warner Bros. Archive
• Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman, The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988)
• Nancy Drew Sleuthing Kit (2007). On loan from Warner Bros. Corporate Archive
• Carolyn Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1959)

Vigilante Justice

• Charles. A. Siringo, Two Evilisms: Pinkertonism and Anarchism (Chicago: Charles A. Siringo, 1915)
• Press book for Shaft (1971)
• Press book for Dirty Harry (1971)
• Report of the Senate Interim Committee On Collection Agencies, Private Detectives, and Debt Liquidators (Sacramento: Senate of the State of California, 1957)
• William Ruehlmann, Saint with a Gun: The Unlawful American Private Eye (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1984)
• Lobby card for In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• Collection Agencies, Private Detectives, Debt Liquidators (Sacramento: Senate of the State of California, 1957)

*Unless otherwise noted, all items are from USC Libraries

Gumshoe Gals

• New York City detective Mary Agnes Shanley pulling a pistol out of her handbag, 1937, New York World-Telegram and Sun newspaper photograph collection, Library of Congress
• William Stephens Hayward, Revelations of A Lady Detective (London: The British Library, 2013)
• Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote (1984–1996)
• Publicity still for Charlie’s Angels (1976)
• Clerk views a footprint in a vandalism case, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (June 19, 1956)
• Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (London: Time Warner Books UK, 1998)
• Rhonda Wilcox, Investigating Veronica Mars (Jefferson: McFarland & Co., 2011)
• Veronica Mars Crime Scene Photo and Folder (2006). On loan from the Warner Bros. Corporate Archive

It Takes Two

• Arthur Conan Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, (London: George Newnes, 1915)
• Richard Castle, Heat Wave (New York: Hyperion, 2019)
• Richard Castle, Naked Heat (New York: Hyperion, 2011)
• Richard Castle, Heat Rises (New York: Hyperion, 2012)
• Two detectives examine dead woman’s dentures in Riverside County, Los Angeles Examiner (1955)
• Franklin W. Dixon, The Hardy Boys The Secret of the Old Mill (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1962)
• Film still from Dragnet, featuring Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Officer Frank Smith (1951). On loan from the Warner Bros. Archive
• LAPD detective badge from the film Gangster Squad (2013). On loan from the Warner Bros. Corporate Archive

Caught Red-Handed

• Police dusting for fingerprints on a bloodied handprint, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (March 30, 1956)
• Fingerprinting kit, ca. 1935. On loan from Los Angeles Police Department Museum
• Ronald R. Thomas, Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999)
• Colin Beavan, Fingerprints (New York: Hyperion, 2001)
• Crime lab technician examines blood spot in car, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (January 15, 1961)
• J. A. Radley, Photography in Crime Detection (London: Chapman & Hall, 1948)
• Suzanne Bell, Encyclopedia of Forensic Science (New York: Facts on File, 2008)
• A Bloody Mess: How Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Works, created by Forensicnursing.org

At The Scene of the Crime

• Crime and Its Detection, vol. 2 (London: Gresham Publishing Co., 1932)
• Investigator blows on a sheet of writing, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (July 25, 1943)
• Reginald Morrish, The Police and Crime Detection Today (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1945)
• Diagram of a crime from California Bank branch robbery, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (May 5, 1945)
• Diagram of a Bank of America heist from Vermont and Florence Avenues, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (April 28, 1931)
• Men investigate illegally exported gold in New York City, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (February 17, 1951)
• A book and heel of a boot used for smuggling, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (November 3, 1942)
• Scrapbook, 1930–32. On loan from Los Angeles Police Department Museum

Mug Shot

• Detective Rudy Diaz examines a bullet-riddled door, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (August 11, 1960)
• “How to Book Property—Firearms,” Los Angeles Police Department Daily Training Bulletin (August 14, 1950). On loan from Los Angeles Police Department Museum
• Brian H. Kaye, Science and the Detective (New York: VCH Publishers, 1995)
• Homemade gun fired by Van Nuys girl, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (August 10, 1961)
• Kodak Kodex No. 1 Six-20 Series III. On loan from Howard Smith.
• Gail Buckland, Shots in the Dark: The Crime Pictures (Boston: Bulfinch Press, 2001)
• Sketch of man who attacked Hollywood mother, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (February 26, 1956)
• “Can You Identify Her?” Los Angeles Herald Examiner (October 30, 1951)
• Gangster Book, 1930–1955. On loan from Los Angeles Police Department Museum
• Sculpted bust of suspect, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (February 6, 1960)
• Man sculpts bust of possible suspect, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (February 6, 1960)

Who Dunnit?

• Michael Connelly, Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2004)
• LAPD police jacket. On loan from Los Angeles Police Department Museum
• Miles Corwin, The Killing Season (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)
• Randall Sullivan, Labyrinth (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2002)
• Norman M. Klein, Bleeding Through Layers of Los Angeles, 1920–1986 (ZKM Digital Arts, 2003)
• L.A. Noire video game instruction booklet
• Clue board game, ca. 1949
• Film props from Gangster Squad (2013). On loan from Warner Bros. Corporate Archive

*Unless otherwise noted, all items are from USC Libraries