Customer Reviews

The Dark Side of the Force: A True Story of Corruption and Murder in the Lapd

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This 1993 book is about two rogue cops in the LAPD. They ran prostitutes, sold automatic weapons, committed insurance fraud, armed robbery, and murder-for-hire. Their plan to kill an erotic dancer to collect life insurance failed, and exposed their schemes to Federal investigators. This landmark ruling expanded First Amendment rights for freelance writers in California. This book lacks photographs and an index.

The crimes described here could not be excused as "overzealousness" or "emotional anger": human failings. They were well-planned and done in cold blood. These two officers had impeccable records, and had received many commendations. How could they have fooled their superiors and co-workers? Such villains are rare in police forces, even more so in the LAPD. This story was omitted from Darryl Gates' "Chief" (p.5). This true crime story could be the origin of the many dramatic stories in film, TV, and books since the 1980s.

Page 12 tells of the destitute conditions of the Adams family. Partly due to poor choices in handling money (no mention of the effects of advertising on people's choices). Chapter 2 tells of experiences in Vietnam that won't be printed in your local newspaper. Page 87 tells how two policemen collected their rent money in downtown Los Angeles and avoided the threat of robbery by acting as if they were part of organized crime! There are a lot of pages devoted to personal history, as if the author was paid by the word. This slows down the story. Both Ford and Von Villas seemed to go bad after a personal tragedy and the stress that followed. The crisis occurred when Joany dated "Doctor A." and suspected he was trying to kill her! Bruce had contacted the ATF to protect himself. The ATF carefully checked out his story, and confided with the IAD of the LAPD (Chapter 13). On the night picked for the murder ATF agents went to watch the nude dancers; it was a dirty job but somebody had to do it (p.152).

California tends to have much longer trials than in other states due to judicial and legislature decisions (pp.202-203). Jury selections can also take longer (p.218). A finding of guilt may not be based on circumstantial evidence unless they cannot be explained by innocent acts, and are consistent with guilt (p.259). The jury quickly reached a verdict: guilty on most counts (p.261). Both Ford and Von Villas were found guilty of murdering Thomas Weed (the body was never found). Some said the guilty verdict resulted from their prior convictions (p.316). A wide range of people presented testimony on their behalf during the penalty phase; this was unprecedented (p.317). Both were sentenced to life without parole (p.349).

This was an extremely well-written book, a disturbing true story about some really really bad cops who engage in mayhem and murder, and the author does a great job of setting the locale for the reader. I know the parts of Los Angeles the author writes about, and his descriptions are authentic. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime stories.

Great to have a book that was about a case I was personally involved in. I worked for Donald Feinberg during this trial. He and Jack Stone defended Robert Von Villas. I worked for two years with the attorneys on this trial.