Max Herman; Headed LAPD’s Feared ‘Hat Squad’ Detectives

Max Herman, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s colorful and unusual old “Hat Squad” of detectives that filled hundreds of jail cells during its colorful reign, died Monday. He was 65 and recently had undergone heart bypass surgery.

Herman, who lived in La Canada Flintridge, joined the department in 1946 and retired in 1963 to practice law. In the intervening years he and Edward F. Benson, Clarence A. (Red) Stromwall and Harold N. Crowder prowled the byways of Los Angeles clad in felt-brimmed hats and expensive suits, seeking out those who had run afoul of the law.

Benson preceded Herman in death, while Stromwall and Crowder today are Los Angeles Superior Court judges.

Herman was the team leader, said Lt. Dan Cooke, a police spokesman.

“The clothing was part of their mystique. They were impeccably dressed, impressive physical specimens of men who established a national reputation for toughness,” Cooke said. “They were so feared and respected that when we’d announce that such and such a case had been turned over to the ‘Hat Squad,’ many of the suspects in those cases would voluntarily give themselves up.”

Cooke added that the four officers, who held what was then considered the most prestigious assignment in the entire department, all were so large that their suits had to be tailor-made.

The four are immortalized in a photo that hangs in the robbery section of the robbery-homicide division of the Police Department.

After leaving the force, Herman served as attorney for the Los Angeles Police Retirement Assn. for individual police officers. He retired from practice last year.

He is survived by his wife, Betty, a son, a daughter and 10 grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.