R. Lee Heath

Robert Lee Heath (1881–1974) was an American lawyer who served as Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department from August 1, 1924 to March 31, 1926. Heath had joined the L.A.P.D. in 1904 and was reputed to be the most adroit politician in the department, eventually rising to the level of top cop. He was a police captain when he was appointed chief, replacing Chief August Vollmer, the former Police Chief of Berkeley, California who had served as interim chief for exactly one year.

Five new police stations were constructed while Heath was chief. To battle bootleggers and rum-runners during Prohibition, Heath had the L.A.P.D. purchase ten 30.06 Browning Automatic Rifles to enable his police force to counter the gangsters' firepower. He declined to purchase .30-caliber Browning machine guns.

Biography R. Lee Heath was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania on June 28, 1881. He attended USC Law School, and was admitted to the California bar in 1913. He married Essie B. Kempson the following year, and they had one daughter.

Controversy Heath allegedly was a protégé of Kent Kane Parrot, the chief of staff of Los Angeles Mayor George E. Cryer, the assistant district attorney who was elected in 1921 as a reformer. Known as the "De Facto Mayor of Los Angeles", Parrot served as the political boss of Los Angeles. He reputedly was the architect of "The Combination", the alliance between politicians, the police and the underworld, that ran L.A. for decades. Parrot was said to have run the L.A.P.D., making personnel transfers without consulting the Chief. He was closely connected to the king of L.A.'s vice rackets, Charlie Crawford. The Combination became so notorious during the Cryer Administration that it was called "The City Hall Gang".