ICONIC '70S LAPD CHIEF ED DAVIS DIES AT 89.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

Former LAPD chief Ed Davis, a monumental presence on the California political scene for more than a quarter-century, died Saturday night after a 10-day hospitalization for pneumonia.

Age 89, Davis died at a San Luis Obispo hospital where he was taken April 12 after his wife was unable to wake him. He had regained consciousness Tuesday, but a family spokesman said his condition worsened Friday and he died at 7:15 p.m. Saturday.

Later a state senator, Davis was chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1969 to 1978, during a turbulent time in American history that included protests against the Vietnam War, airline hijackings and the political violence of radical groups like the Manson Family and the Symbionese Liberation Army.

As LAPD chief, Davis drew the nickname "Crazy Ed" for blunt statements like one he made in 1972 about airline hijackers: "I recommend we have a portable gallows, and after we have the death penalty back in, we conduct a rapid trial for a hijacker out there and hang him with due process out there at the airport."

But at the LAPD, Davis was credited with innovations such as the Neighborhood Watch program and the Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, unit.

After retiring from the LAPD, he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1978, then as a Valencia resident won a state Senate seat in 1980. He served three terms representing a district that included sections of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys and Simi Valley. He retired to Morro Bay in 1992.

Davis was born Nov. 15, 1916, in Los Angeles, graduated from John Fremont High School and served in the Navy, in which he was a decorated officer.

He joined the LAPD shortly after leaving the Navy in 1940. He rose through the ranks, serving as director of the police and fire union and later as a top aide to then-Chief William Parker, before talking the helm on Aug. 29, 1969.

The Ed Davis Emergency Vehicle Operations Center and Tactics/Firearms Training Center, which opened in 1998 in the San Fernando Valley, is named after the ex-chief.

Davis later received a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California, and was known for sporting a maroon blazer and gold pants on the floor of the state Senate.

Popular with conservatives, Davis was known to many as a "right wing idealogue" during his three terms, family spokesman Eric Rose said. However, he confused supporters and opponents alike when he championed such issues as environmental protection and gay rights.

Davis was divorced from his first wife, Virginia, in 1983, after 43 years of marriage. He married his Senate aide, Bobbie Trueblood, in 1984.

Davis made an unsuccessful bid in 1986 for the U.S. Senate seat held by longtime Democratic incumbent Alan Cranston. The Republican race was upended when one of Davis' opponents in the Republican primary, Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler, was indicted for allegedly offering him $100,000 to drop out of the Senate race.

The courts threw out the indictment, but the scandal marred both their campaigns, helping Ed Zschau win the Republican nomination that year.

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