William A. Worton

William Arthur Worton (January 4, 1897 – July 25, 1973), a former Marine Corps General, served as interim Los Angeles Police Department police chief from June 1949 to 1950.

Early life
Worton attended Harvard and Boston University Law School before entering the Marine Corps during World War I. He saw combat service in France, particularly the Battle of Belleau Wood where he was seriously wounded. After the War, Worton remained in the Marine Corps, spending twelve years on Marine assignments in China in the 1920s and 1930s, including two years as an undercover Intelligence officer, conducting the first American espionage operations against Japan using agents recruited on the Chinese mainland.

US Naval espionage service before World War II
In 1935, having already served in China for ten years as a Marine officer, Worton was assigned to the Far East Section of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Given a "cover story" as "a disgruntled officer leaving the Corps to establish a business in the International Settlement in Shanghai", he returned to China once again, and began to recruit agents who agreed to travel to Japan to secretly collect information for the US Navy. One of these may have been the French Jesuit Priest and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Working with closely with Chiang Kai-shek's secret police chief, Dai Li, Worton performed his assignment ably until he returned to Washington in June 1936.

World War II Service
As a Brigadier General, Worton served with the III Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) during the Battle of Okinawa, being elevated to chief of staff of IIIAC on June 30, 1945. IIIAC was tasked with assaulting the Tokyo Plain during Operation Downfall, the planned Invasion of Japan. When the war ended after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, IIIAC subsequently was tasked as part of the American forces designated to occupy northern China to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in the region. As part of that mission, Worton was with an advance party to Shanghai, China. In northern China, IIIAC battled with Chinese puppet troops aligned with Japan (many of whom later switched allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek) and with Communist guerrillas and regulars.

Los Angeles Police Chief
Worton was appointed the 42nd chief of the L.A.P.D. on June 30, 1949 by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron after the resignation of Chief Clemence B. Horrall in the wake of the Brenda Allen scandal. Horrall's assistant chief, Joe Reed, also eventually resigned after Worton took office, as he too was ensnared by the police corruption scandal.

Worton was tasked by Mayor Bowron with the job of cleaning up the department. A little more than a year later, Worton resigned on August 9, 1950 and was replaced by his chief of Internal Affairs, William H. Parker, whom he had groomed for the office.