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You probably don't know his name, but odds are you've seen his badge: Los Angeles Police Dept. Badge 714, as seen during the credits of the old Dragnet TV series. Cooke, LAPD's official spokesman, not only briefed the news media on spectacular crimes (the Charles Manson murders, Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, the police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army after Patty Hearst's kidnaping), but also served as a technical advisor to many police shows, including Dragnet and Adam-12. He joined LAPD as a foot patrolman in 1953, became a media relations officer in 1964, and retired in 1988. Badge 714 will now reside at the Jack Webb Museum at the department's Police Academy. Lt. Dan Cooke died April 30 of bladder cancer at home in Rancho Bernardo, Calif. He was 72. From This is True for 2 May 1999 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Jack Webb List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $10.17 Editorial Review: Before Charlie's Angels, Miami Vice, or NYPD Blue, there was Dragnet. From 1951 to 1959, Jack Webb starred as Sergeant Joe Friday in the most successful police drama in television history. Webb ("Just the facts, ma'am") was also the creator of Dragnet, and what made the show so revolutionary was its documentary-style format and the fact that each episode was "ripped" from the files of the LAPD. But 1950s television censors deemed many of the stories in the LAPD's files too violent or sensational for the airwaves. The Badge is Webb's collection of stories that could not be presented on TV: untold, behind-the-scenes accounts of the Black Dahlia murder, the Brenda Allen confessions, Stephen Nash's "thrill murders," and Donald Bashor's "sleeping lady murders," to name just a few. Case by case, The Badge takes readers on a spine chilling police tour through the dark, shadowy world of Los Angeles crime. It is a journey that, even four decades after it originally appeared in print, no reader is likely to forget.  By: Jack CanfieldMark Victor HansenJennifer HawthorneMarci Shimoff List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $11.21 Editorial Review: Singles are coming into their own: Each year more and more people are single either by choice or by circumstance. This book celebrates the joys and challenges of living life single, and like its Chicken Soup predecessors, will be a source of inspiration, laughter and wisdom. With chapters on Love, Single Parenting, Dating, Family and Friends, Finding Your Mate, Overcoming Obstacles and Single and Happy, readers will relate to each of these stories no matter what their situation or stage of life. Chicken Soup for the Single's Soul will show readers that they're never alone as long as they believe in themselves. Whenever they find themselves in need of some reinforcement, this book will be a source of strength and comfort.  By: Michael Hayde List Price: $18.95 Amazon Price: $18.95 Editorial Review: The complete story of "Dragnet" and the theatrical feature films of producer/director/actor Jack Webb.  By: Aristophanes List Price: $5.95 Amazon Price: $5.95 Editorial Review: A poet who hated an age of decadence, armed conflict, and departure from tradition, Aristophanes' comic genius influenced the political and social order of his own fifth-century Athens. But as Moses Hadas writes in his introduction to this volume, 'His true claim upon our attention is as the most brilliant and artistic and thoughtful wit our world has known.' Includes The Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, Ecclesiazusae, The Frogs, The Knights, Lysistrata, Peace, Plutus, Thesmophoriazusae, and The Wasps.  By: Jack Webb List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $18.21 |
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