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Buron Fitts

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Buron Fitts
Fitts c. 1935
29th District Attorney of Los Angeles County
In office
December 3, 1928 – December 2, 1940
Preceded byAsa Keyes
Succeeded byJohn F. Dockweiler
29th Lieutenant Governor of California
In office
January 4, 1927 – November 30, 1928
Preceded byC. C. Young
Succeeded byHerschel L. Carnahan
Personal details
Born(1895-03-22)March 22, 1895
Belcherville, Texas, U.S.
DiedMarch 29, 1973(1973-03-29) (aged 78)
Three Rivers, California, U.S.
Cause of deathSuicide by gunshot
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
Irene Wixson Shugart
​
​
(m. 1919, divorced)​
Marion Warner Fitts
​
(m. 1924)​
ChildrenMary Lou Fitts
EducationUniversity of Southern California (L.L.B.)
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUS Army
Army Air Corps
Army Air Forces
Years of service1917-1919
1942-1945
RankMajor
UnitPacific Overseas Air Technical Services Command
Battles/warsWorld War I

World War II

AwardsPurple Heart (2)

Buron Rogers Fitts (March 22, 1895 – March 29, 1973) was an American lawyer and politician from Los Angeles who served as the 29th lieutenant governor of California, from 1927 to 1928, and as Los Angeles County District Attorney thereafter until 1940.

Early life

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Born in Belcherville, Texas, Fitts received his law degree in 1916 from the University of Southern California and while a student there worked as a clerk for prominent attorney Earl Rogers.

Fitts was a severely injured veteran of World War I whose base of political support lay in the American Legion organization of war veterans. He had taken shrapnel in his right knee during the Battle of Argonne in 1918, and after ten years of surgeries he was forced to have his leg amputated.[1][2]

Career

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Prosecutors Fitts and Mabel Walker Willebrandt were troubling L.A. slot-machine businesses in the late 1920s, but according to Rev. Bob Shuler "slot-machine king" Bob Gans later made large contributions to Fitts' campaign funds[3]

Fitts was appointed deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County in 1920 during the term of District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine and chief deputy in 1924 under Asa Keyes. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1926 and served in the administration of Governor C.C. Young. Fitts served as lieutenant governor from January 4, 1927, until his resignation on November 30, 1928. Governor Young appointed H. L. Carnahan as lieutenant governor to succeed Fitts on December 4, 1928.

In 1928, Keyes was indicted for bribery (in connection with the Julian Petroleum Company scandal). Fitts resigned as lieutenant governor both to become a special prosecutor in that case and to become district attorney of Los Angeles County--he was elected to that office on November 6, 1928.

Fitts was also on Paramount Pictures’ dole. In 1930, actress Clara Bow's fiancé Rex Bell (wrongfully) accused Daisy De Voe, Bow's secretary, of embezzlement and extortion. Fitts saw to it that De Voe was arrested, not allowed to contact a lawyer, interrogated for twenty-seven straight hours and jailed without being charged, and her safe deposit box searched without a warrant. No evidence was found, and De Voe refused to sign a confession. She subsequently filed a false imprisonment suit against Fitts, and in retaliation he induced a grand jury to indict her on thirty-five counts of grand theft. After three days of deliberations, the jury found De Voe not guilty on thirty-four charges, and, inexplicably, guilty on one. She served an 18-month sentence; the judge also was friendly with Paramount executives.[4][5]

In 1930, Fitts ran for the Republican nomination for Governor of California, finishing third in the primary behind incumbent Governor Young and the winner, San Francisco Mayor James Rolph.

Fitts was elected to a second term as district attorney in 1932, and he investigated the death of Hollywood producer-director-screenwriter Paul Bern, husband of actress Jean Harlow. Samuel Marx, in his book Deadly Illusions (1990), accuses Fitts of having been bribed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio executives to accept a fabricated version of Bern's suicide to avoid scandal in Hollywood. Fitts was also indicted for bribery and perjury in 1934 for allegedly taking a bribe to drop a statutory rape charge against a millionaire real-estate promoter; he was acquitted two years later. He was also accused of using his position to block action against the rapist of Patricia Douglas at the MGM Sales Convention in 1937--a case that was the subject of David Stenn's 2007 documentary film Girl 27.

Despite all the lurid scandals, Fitts was elected to a third term as district attorney in 1936. On March 7, 1937, he was wounded by a volley of shots fired through the windshield of his car.[6] No one was ever arrested for the apparent assassination attempt.

In 1940, Fitts was defeated in his bid for a fourth term as district attorney by a reform candidate, former U.S. Representative John F. Dockweiler. Fitts, John D. Fredericks (1903–1915), and Steve Cooley (2000-2012) are the only Los Angeles County district attorneys to serve three complete terms.

Fitts with his car after being shot at

In 1942, during World War II, Fitts joined the Army Air Corps with the rank of major. He was chief intelligence officer for Pacific Overseas Air Technical Services.

Death

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Fitts' last residence was in Three Rivers, in Tulare County, California, where he killed himself with a pistol shot to the head on March 29, 1973, one week after his 78th birthday.

References

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  1. ^ Parrish, Michael (2001). For the People: Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000. Angel City Press. ISBN 978-1883318154.
  2. ^ Vassar, Alex (24 March 2015). "Politics Can Be Brutal: The Painful Life of Buron Fitts". One Voter Project. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  3. ^ Shuler, Robert (2012). Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing. p. 100. ISBN 9781457508035. OCLC 787859023.
  4. ^ Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild by David Stenn, Cooper Square Press, NY, 2000, 368 pages.
  5. ^ Clara Bow, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 2, p. 435.
  6. ^ "Dist.-Atty. Fitts Shot by Gang of Gunmen". Los Angeles Times. March 8, 1937. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  • For the People — Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 (2001) by Michael Parrish. ISBN 1-883318-15-7
  • He Usually Lived With a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman (2006) by George Garrigues. Quail Creek Press. ISBN 0-9634830-1-3
  • Deadly Illusions by Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen (Random House, New York, 1990), re-published as Murder Hollywood Style - Who Killed Jean Harlow's Husband? (Arrow, 1994, ISBN 0-09-961060-4)
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Political offices
Preceded by Lieutenant Governor of California
1927—1928 		Succeeded by
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