Death Dealing: Ned Doheny, Hugh Plunkett & LA Noire

Old Blood

In 1929, the son of oil magnate Edward Doheny was found dead beside his secretary in an apparent murder-suicide. The news exploded onto the papers for three days before the district attorney canceled the inquest and closed the case. When detectives decided there had been foul play, they were silenced, leaving everyone to wonder what truly went on that night at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Sources:

Columbia, David Patrick. “The Continuing Mystery of The Greystone Mansion Murders.” New York Social Diary. April 12, 2022. https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-continuing-mystery-of-the-greystone-mansion-murders/

Davis, Margaret Leslie. The Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny (Berkeley, University of California Press: 1998).

“If These Walls Could Talk…” Los Angeles Public Library. July 30, 2013. https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/if-these-walls-could-talk

Lockwood, Charles and Persic, Peter V. “Greystone Historical Report.” August 30, 1984. https://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/11/519277.pdf

Marshall, Norman S. “Californians and the Military: The Forgotten Bagman of Teapot Dome: Edward ‘Ned’ Doheny Lawrence Jr.” Cal Guard Military Museums. https://www.militarymuseum.org/Doheny.html

Meares, Hadley. “We Shall Never Know: Murder, Money and the Enduring Mystery of Greystone Mansion.” KCET. July 25, 2014. https://www.kcet.org/history-society/we-shall-never-know-murder-money-and-the-enduring-mystery-of-greystone-mansion

Rasmussen, Cecilia. “D.A. Fitts Was Good Match For Scandalous 30s.” Los Angeles Times. September 19, 1999. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-19-me-12084-story.html

Rayner, Richard. A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption and L.A.’s Scandalous Coming of Age (New York: Anchor Books, 2010).

Skene, Gordon. “1930s Los Angeles – Buron Fitts: L.A.’s Little Corruption Problem And Clifford Clinton’s War On City Hall.” Past Daily. August 23, 2017. https://pastdaily.com/2017/08/23/1930s-los-angeles-clifford-clinton/

Starr, Kevin. Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

Stein, Jean. West of Eden: An American Place (New York: Random House, 2016).

White, Leslie T. Me, Detective. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936.) Ch. 18.

Welton, Benjamin. “Vintage Noir: The Tragedy at Greystone.” Crime Magazine. May 16, 2013. http://www.crimemagazine.com/vintage-noir-tragedy-greystone

Van Landingham, Andrea. Hollywood Horrors: Murders, Scandals, and Cover-ups From Tinseltown (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2022).

Music: Credits to David Fesilyan and Luke Holizna

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