Beverly Hills Confidential: A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders

The very name Beverly Hills conjures images of glamour, wealth, and success; in reality, the place has more than its share of malice, mayhem and, yes, even murder. In the breathtaking, and sometimes-macabre pages of Beverly Hills Confidential, the underbelly of the tummy-tucked gets exposed. Straight from the files of the Beverly Hills Police Department come the scoops the media often missed, and many never-before-published images enhance the blood-curdling accounts. Meet a Hollywood wannabe―at least she’s finally a cover girl, now―sprawled on a gurney, but what’s that mysterious message carved on her back? See Bugsy Siegel’s gruesome stare, his eyeballs shot out of their sockets; and a dead macaw in its ornate cage, its silence the clue that led investigators to the mummified remains of a talk-radio icon’s mother.

In Beverly Hills Confidential, investigative reporter Barbara Schroeder and BHPD CSI inspector Clark Fogg reexamine the sensational and never-to-be-forgotten stories of the past century, such as the Charlie Chaplin paternity trial, and the mystery surrounding the death (was it murder?) of Jean Harlow’s M-G-M mogul husband. Revisit the most horrific crimes: the heinous Menendez murders; the ill-fated Van Cleef & Arpels heist; the much-publicized shooting of high-powered publicist Ronni Chasen. Beverly Hills Confidential shows how greed, jealousy, passion, corruption, and sometimes just simple bad luck, turned the once-idyllic movie star sanctuary into a haven for headlines.

From a murder-suicide at Greystone Mansion in the Twenties―was it a gay love affair or a political payback?―to a fashion designer-turned covert molester who catered to the contemporary Who’s Who of 90210. Then there’s the nude female police aviatrix falling from the sky, and a millionaire madam running a stable of beautiful women and selling sought-after drugs―the BHPD has seen it all. Now, for the first time ever, the renowned department has opened its files to share the captivating chronicle of a city and its crime stories.

Barbara Schroeder has won multiple Emmy awards for her work as an investigative reporter. She received a National Gracie Award for a documentary on child abuse and was part of the news team that received a National DuPont award for coverage of the Rodney King trial. She began her career at the ABC affiliate in Flint, Michigan, moving to Los Angeles as a reporter and anchor for KTTV. After a brief stint at the Hollywood entertainment show Extra, Schroeder wrote, produced, and directed the Paramount film Talhotblond (2009), which won several best-documentary awards.

Clark Fogg is the Senior Forensic Specialist at the Beverly Hills Police Department Crime Lab, where he has worked since 1983. Fogg is certified by the International Association for Identification as a Senior Crime Scene Analyst and Latent Print Examiner. He has conducted more than thirty thousand crime scene investigations, participated in more than one hundred homicide/death investigations, and testified in federal and state courts in more than two hundred cases. Fogg has authored articles and taught numerous classes on CSI techniques. His photographs have appeared in a multitude of publications and books. He began his career in law enforcement as a reserve police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.