The Vicodin Thieves. Chip Jacobs

      Praise for Chip Jacobs

      “Finished with a particularly powerful, forward-looking epilogue, this friendly, accessible history should appeal to the American environmentalist.”

      —Publishers Weekly

      “…a meticulous chronicle of the city’s signature airborne grime and of the civic and social forces that emerged to stop it… The story of Smogtown is that of a city vying against time to reconcile incommensurables.”

      —Bookforum

      “Story of smog in all its hazy—and sometimes humorous permutations…a zany and provocative cultural history.”

      —Kirkus

      “In Chip Jacobs true-crime The Ascension of Jerry we are whisked back to L.A.’s Kodachrome world of the seventies. Through the eyes of the protagonist, Jerry Schneiderman, the ‘bright colors and greens of summer’ quickly change to the real life black-and-whites of mayhem and murder. But this is not just another Hollywood Whodunit. In the end we find it is really about one man’s search and struggle to find his own personal truths and redemption. Well written and highly recommended.”

      —Steve Hodel, LAPD Hollywood Homicide detective (ret.) and bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger

      “Chip Jacobs uses his boundless reporter’s energy and well-honed sense of Southern California to tell a gripping tale of serial mayhem and the curious life of Jerry Schneiderman. It’s reassuring to see the right writer was paying attention.”

      —David Willman, Los Angeles Times Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author of The Mirage Man: Bruce Irvins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America’s Rush to War

      “Chip Jacobs explores the underbelly of an L.A. murder-for-hire ring that leaves many dead and a successful space planner, Jerry Schneiderman, so affected by PTSD that he embarks on a widespread muckraking campaign that targets major political forces in Los Angeles and beyond. Pitched as a ‘roots of Occupy story’ (aside from Mark Twain’s, of course), The Ascension of Jerry…will leave you closing your blinds and forever looking behind your back for the crazed psycho-killer disguised as an ordinary blue collar guy.”

      —ForeWord

      “The pay for some deals is wonderful, but the drawbacks that can come along with it may be too much to swallow. The Ascension of Jerry…follows the life of Jerry Schneiderman, whose [space planning] career prospered, then quickly spun out of control when his business [partner] ate a bullet via assassin. Fearing for his life, he was on the run for [months], before he found his…life’s calling. The Ascension of Jerry is an enticing true tale of getting one’s life back in the midst of…skullduggery, highly recommended.”

      —Midwest Book Review

      “…a title for your shelf…a fascinating story.”

      —Foothills Paper

      “Chip Jacobs’ chops as an accomplished newspaperman are on brilliant display in The Ascension of Jerry, a delightfully off-kilter true-crime tale of a hero (sorta) who is neither especially loathsome nor lovable…Jacobs’ prose is intimate, darkly funny, and crisp as he follows the twisted path that leads SoCal businessman

      Jerry Schneiderman through a series of weird events…only to emerge as a merry prankster with a jones for social activism…Jacobs is a genuine writer, not a wannabe scribbler. He knows what makes us keep turning pages. So for those few true-crime readers who like their mayhem served up in a sumptuous story, seek this one out.”

      —Ron Franscell, celebrated true crime author.

      The Vicodin Thieves

      by Chip Jacobs

      This is a Genuine Vireo Book

      V

      A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books

      453 South Spring Street, Suite 531

      Los Angeles, CA 90013

      rarebirdbooks.com

      Copyright © 2013 by Chip Jacobs

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For more information, address: A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 453 South Spring Street, Suite 531, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

      ISBN-13: 9780988931251

      Contents

       Part One

       The Intimate Execution of America’s Youngest Mayor

       Operation Bald-Headed Eagle

       Scaffolding Man and Machine

       The Full Employment Act for Spies

       The Vicodin Thieves

       State as Slumlord

       The Mystery Million

       Greasing the Skids

       Death on the Tarmac

       Drowning with Eyes on Him

       Part Two

       Dan Quixote

       The Last (Los Angeles) Picture Show

       Dropping Science

       Holding On to Huey Long

       Dear Rifle

       Par for the Landfill

       Green Edifice Complex

       Requiem for the Lungs

       Godfather of South Central

       The Speculator

       Part Three

       Return of the Native

       When Bus Drivers Beat the Shit Out of People

       Drinking the Koulax

       Got Your Back

       Watching the Dumpster Divers

       Locked Out from Lockheed

       Stealth by the Sub-Division

       Outhouse Lawyers

       Karma for the Carmakers

      Also by Chip Jacobs

      The Ascension of Jerry: Murder, Hitmen, and the Making of L.A. Muckraker Jerry Schneiderman

      Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles

      Wheeling the Deal:The Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood’s Flashiest Quadriplegic

      To Nat Ross

Part One