‘Jigsaw John’ Marks 50 Years With the LAPD
The Model T Ford with “Los Angeles Police Department” on both doors roared up Figueroa Street in Highland Park Thursday, its red light flashing and its siren blaring.
The vintage patrol car sped past Ramona Hall, made a tire-screeching turn and returned to stop in the hall’s parking lot.
Out stepped Detective John St. John in his trademark fedora, ready for the party celebrating his 50 years on the force. Two bodyguards in the back seat also wore fedoras and carried submachine guns to mark the occasion.
Many in the crowd of nearly 3,000 well-wishers--about half wearing felt hats--weren’t even born when the man they call “Jigsaw John,” who carries detective’s badge No. 1, joined the force.
The moniker came from solving a murder with a victim who had been dismembered jigsaw-style, one of the hundreds of cases he has unraveled. A book and a television series have chronicled his exploits, but when talk of his retirement comes up, St. John only smiles.
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