More of L.A.

Two weeks have sped by already since the dedication.  Lori has come and gone and the leaves on the oaks are bursting out all over.  It takes me awhile when having this many pictures to decide which ones are worthy of posting after weeding out and deleting all the really bad pictures.  Then I have to find the brain power to put words with the pictures.  This time I've left the pictures as they came from the camera, waiting for me to edit might have added another week of wait time... ha ha ha.  This is a quick draft so I hope I don't get too much twangled up and wrong.  I say quick with an eye roll as I've been at this for hours this evening...the sun was still up when I started.

Cousin Pat, Lori, Val and Cousin Mike

Andrea, Larry, Val and Michelle

So here we are back to March 9th.  We all met at the Los Angeles Police Museum where they had a lovely continental spread of food for our group, the other guests of the Museum and the Hettinger family.  The Hettinger's had been there for a bit and had already viewed the Onion Field display so then it was our turn.  Everyone was kind enough to let Lori's and my family have time in the room devoted to the Onion Field story alone.  

Dad's bagpipes that are on loan to the museum as part of the display explaining
how the tradition of bagpipes played at LAPD officers funerals began

As I can only speak for me, it was an odd experience to view a room devoted to a piece of my own personal history.  It was very well done, has many of the real pieces of historical evidence and a running reel of Karl Hettinger replaying the event for the investigation on one wall.  That must have been hard for his family.  

Michelle viewing one of the displays

I found I couldn't really focus on anything beyond seeing that the bagpipes were displayed nicely and that there were really large historical photos on the walls ringing the room.  Even after 50 years it was unpleasant to view the evidence dummy with rods protruding from it to show the trajectory of the bullets and to view the gun that was my Dad's and was used to kill him.

Me and Lori next to the bagpipes

After a bit the ceremony was to begin and we all went outside under the new portico where the ceremony was held.  It was a great presentation.  What an honor to have the Marine Corps band there.  The Los Angeles Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums played beautifully a song written by famous bagpiper Aaron Shaw specifically for this event titled Ian Campbell.

The picture is a photo of one of many re-enactments of the incident
that Karl Hettinger did for the department and court with
Lori and I in front.

I'm afraid I don't remember the names of all the speakers right now, but the Chief of Police, the Hollywood Divisions Captain, the Director of the museum and others that were partially responsible for the highway memorial sign spoke.  Chief Beck and Captain Girmala presented Lori and I with the certificate that accompanies the purple heart medal that we hadn't received because we hadn't attended that ceremony.  

The bands played the most moving Amazing Grace most of us had ever heard and they hadn't even practiced together.  The sound was huge under that covered area.  They started it with a lone piper, then the rest of the band's pipers joined in and then the marine band joined for the huge crescendo.  I've gotten pretty good at not letting that song get to me but I lost it and got my sister Lori's shoulder all wet.  We unveiled a replica of the sign that was already in place along the Hollywood freeway and then we were done with the ceremony.  

Lori, Chief Charlie Beck and I

We moved inside and I'm sure I've got the order of things all messed up...if I try to get it right it'll take me another week...hahaha.  Anyways, inside we talked with Joe Wambaugh and we were in the Onion Field room when he saw it for the first time.  He was impressed, moved and overwhelmed a bit seeing it all himself.  Oh, I forgot, before we went back in the Onion Field room there was an official ribbon cutting and opening of the exhibit. 

Larry caught me having a snack.

Wambaugh brought along three large boxes of signed paperbacks of "The Onion Field" that had been re-released a few years ago and the forward was written by James Ellroy.  Ellroy spoke at the ceremony, and he and Wambaugh very kindly personalized the books of anyone who asked.  The books were given freely I must add.














Downstairs Lori and I were presented with lovely framed pieces of the music for the song written by Aaron Shaw by the LAPES pipe & drum band.  We were given a tour of the long skinny basement that back in the day officers used for target practice and where our Dad would often practice his bagpipes.













I had a light bulb moment and killed two birds with one stone.  We had yet to hear our friend Cliff play his bagpipes solo for us and how cool would it be to hear how the pipes sounded in the basement?  A re-creation; I wish I could have been upstairs to hear how the sound carried.  Cliff was very kind to play for us as I dragged him away from his lunch.

Mike, Pat, Larry and Me

Those are the highlights, there will be more info on the picture captions.  After we were all done we headed back to the hotel.  After finding that the hotel restaurant wouldn't be open until dinner and we were all starved, we were on the hunt for food.  We discarded the option of driving anywhere so we all hoofed it a few blocks to Johnny Rockets where we had fabulous hamburgers and milkshakes outside in front of the diner.

It was a great time.  We had fun hanging out with our cousins and drinking their wine and eating their cookies in their room.

The next day Michelle and Andrea flew home, the cousins all headed wherever they were going and we headed out on our drive north.  

The Marine Corps band marching in

The LAPES Pipe and Drum Band entering

Glynn Martin, museum director; Captain Beatrice Girmala, Hollywood Division Commander;
Chief of Police Charlie Beck

Joe Wambaugh and Chief Beck taking it all in

I got the bright idea to get our picture with Wambaugh and
the Hettinger's children, Kurt and Christine

I do not remember any of the pipe band members names beyond Cliff's.

The band presenting us with the framed music...so wonderful!

Cliff Armas, Lori and I with our beautiful gifts from
LAPES

James Ellroy on the left, the "Campbell Posse" with
the Los Angeles Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums

I might have forgotten to mention that the museum is the last of the "old" stations
standing and almost exactly the same architecturally as the Hollywood station
that our Dad worked in back in '63.  This is the narrow basement
that the museum uses for storage now.

Cliff Armas piping for us.

Lori and Dave

Heading home past the beautiful
memorial sign.

I am posting this after a quick proof, so I apologize for any errors.  Please email me if you see anything that is horribly wrong (for example for some reason I keep putting Chief Gates instead of Chief Beck, but I corrected it before pushing the publish button).