Finnegan's Week

Author Bio: Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh (1937–2025) drew on his own life experience in writing his numerous New York Times bestsellers, including The Onion Field, The Blue Knight, The Blooding, The Choirboys, and other fiction and nonfiction works. His books won a number of awards, including the Edgar Award and the Rodolfo Walsh Prize for investigative journalism, and several of his books were the basis for major motion picture. He served in the US Marine Corps and later joined the Los Angeles Police Department as a detective sergeant. He retired from the LAPD in 1974 after fourteen years of service but continued with his writing. His first four books and his work on the Police Story television series in the 1970s set new standards for subsequent writers, and many acknowledged their debt to him.