Daniel Gilmore; Longtime Police Detective in L.A.

Daniel B. Gilmore, a retired Los Angeles police detective sergeant who was as celebrated in the sensational newspaper headlines of his time as some of the fugitives he apprehended, died Jan. 7 at his home in Laguna Hills.

Gilmore was 87 and had retired in 1955 after 30 years of service, many of them with the old fugitive division.

Gilmore started as a beat patrolman in 1925 and in 1931 moved to the detective bureau at Wilshire division, where he worked in burglary and homicide.

He moved to the fugitive division in 1942, and for the next 13 years newspapers were filled with his successes as he apprehended bigamists, mass murderers, card dealers involved in bogus chip plots and industrial swindlers.

Exploits Trumpeted

The arrests took him around the nation, where he established a reputation not only with other departments but with detective magazines who regularly trumpeted his exploits.

At his retirement dinner in 1955, he was toasted as “both a competent investigator and a fun-loving comrade in arms.”

After his retirement he became president of the Retired Fire and Police Assn. and was on the board of the International Footprinters Assn.

Survivors include his daughter Bettye and several nephews and nieces.

Services are scheduled today at 1 p.m. at Forest Lawn in Glendale.