have Sinclair arraigned just before the close of court on Friday afternoon, effectively concealing his whereabouts by not pressing charges against him and movie him about in order to deny him his right to a writ of habeas corpus. Oaks' plan was thwarted when the plot was revealed to Sinclair's wife, Mary Craig, by a police official. Sinclair's attorneys were ready with a writ when he was finally brought to court. Charles P. Williams Charles P. Williams was the first African American policeman in the L.A.P.D. to be killed in the line of duty. Williams was working undercover when he was shot and killed by the owner of a house being used for prostitution. The owner was attempting to evict the prostitutes. Chief Oaks personally led the manhunt for his killer. (At the time, it was not publicly known that Williams was African American.) Termination Chief Oaks had a reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer. He was arrested by San Bernardino police, who discovered Oaks in the backseat of an automobile, accompanied by a "half-dressed woman and a half-empty bottle of whiskey." Reform-minded Protestant clergymen, including the politically active radio preacher Robert P. "Fighting Bob" Shuler, who was the president of the Ministerial Union, targeted Oaks. Shuler and other Protestant ministers had been active in the reform and anti-vice movements in predominately Protestant Los Angeles, and they had applied direct political pressure on both the mayor and the Chief of Police. Shuler staked out a speakeasy and saw the Chief exiting in an inebriated state, accompanied by two women, neither of whom were his wife. After publicly revealing that had he seen Oaks womanizing and drinking (the latter being a crime during Prohibition), Oaks was ousted as chief by Mayor Cryer. References |- Year of birth missing Year of death missing Chiefs of the Los Angeles Police Department