July 25, 1957
Los Angeles
As surprising as it seems now, there was a time when the Los Angeles newspapers actively covered top-ranking personnel at the LAPD. Most readers would be hard-pressed to name the current head of Robbery-Homicide (Capt. Kyle B. Jackson), but in the 1940s and ’50s, the papers routinely
tracked retirements, transfers and promotions.
In the summer of 1957, Capt. Robert A. Lohrman, who had headed the Homicide Division since 1951, was transferred to the business office because he was planning to retire. The new head of Homicide was Capt. Arthur G. Hertel.
Lohrman’s term as head of Homicide included the L. Ewing Scott case, the alleged abduction of Marie “The Body” McDonald and the Barbara Graham case, which was made into the movie “I Want to Live.” He also
handled Busby Berkeley’s 1946 suicide attempt.
Hertel died of an infected pancreas in 1961, while he was still head of Homicide, at the age of 46. Lohrman died in 1999.
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