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. Fitts was elected to a third term as district attorney in 1936 and remained until 1940, when he was defeated by a reform candidate, John F. Dockweiler. Fitts, J.D. Fredricks (1903–1915), and Steve Cooley (2000-2012) are the only Los Angeles County District Attorneys to serve three complete terms. On March 7, 1937, Fitts was wounded by a volley of shots fired through the windshield of his car. Nobody was ever arrested in that case. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 with the rank of major. He was chief, intelligence, Pacific Overseas Air Technical Services. Death Fitts' last residence was in Three Rivers, in Tulare County, California, where he committed suicide by a pistol shot to the head on March 29, 1973, one week after his 78th birthday. References For the People — Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 (2001) by Michael Parrish. He Usually Lived With a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman (2006) by George Garrigues. Quail Creek Press. 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, ) External links For the People excerpt quoted in Los Angeles District Attorney Web site Social Security Death Index University of California biography 1895 births 1973 suicides Lieutenant Governors of California District attorneys in California United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II People from Montague County, Texas Military personnel from Texas USC Gould School of Law alumni Suicides by firearm in California American politicians who committed suicide 20th-century American politicians United States Army personnel of World War I People acquitted of corruption American shooting survivors