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| Doesn't he look like a Mario Puzo character here? |
Edward D. Wood, Jr. was not in a good place—careerwise, healthwise, or otherwise—in 1975. He was still writing short stories and articles for various pornographic magazines, along with the occasional dirty paperback, but he wasn't nearly as productive as a writer as he'd been just a few years previously. (Ed was at his most prolific from 1968 to 1973.) Ed's film career by then consisted of making X-rated loops and writing screenplays for other directors. And, by my count, only one more of those scripts would actually be produced in Eddie's lifetime.
As poorly as Ed was doing back then, one of his old cronies from the 1950s, actor Timothy Farrell, was doing even worse. Under his real name, Timothy Sperl, he'd been tried and found guilty of misconduct in his role as a Los Angeles county marshal—illegally dispatching his subordinates to work at campaign events for a politician named Jim Hayes, then covering up the evidence of this. As with the Watergate scandal, which was raging at the same time, the Sperl case was as much about the coverup as the crime itself.
After two months of damning testimony by Sperl's coworkers, Judge Richard A. Gadbois determined that the star of Jail Bait (1954) and Glen or Glenda (1953) had falsified timesheets, misappropriated funds, destroyed radio logs, and interfered with civil service examinations. He was looking at a six-month prison sentence, a $500 fine (that's about $3,200 today), and four years of probation. In addition, he had been publicly humiliated, and his reputation was tarnished beyond repair.
But his story wasn't over. As we shall soon see, there were more twists in the Timothy Sperl saga.
January 29, 1975: Another Los Angeles politician, Baxter Ward, was still not satisfied with the Sperl investigation. He felt that Jim Hayes, the recipient of various illegal favors from Sperl, had not been punished sufficiently for his role in the matter. But the Los Angeles County Grand Jury decided not to reopen the case. This story was reported in many California newspapers in January 1975, but I am including the version by William Farr that ran in The Los Angeles Times.
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| Let's leave well enough alone, okay, guys? |
February 20, 1975: Was there any good news for Timothy Sperl? Sure, a little. He was still getting his $1,950 monthly pension. And, according to this article in The Los Angeles Times by Myrna Oliver, he'd only been suspended from his job, not dismissed. There was even a possibility, if only a slim one, that his conviction could be overturned and that he could return to work.
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| Everything's coming up roses. |
March 25, 1975: By March, the Los Angeles newspapers were referring to Timothy Sperl as "retired." The former marshal issued a five-page statement criticizing municipal judges who were, he said, well aware of the "courtesies" he and his department were showing to Supervisor Jim Hayes. This article in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner included a picture of Mr. Sperl in what looks like a very flashy suit. The article also confirms that his case was still before an appellate court.
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| Every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed man. |
May 15, 1975: Unfortunately for Timothy Sperl, the "good" times did not last. A panel of judges upheld his dismissal. Les Goldberg covered the story for the Los Angeles Herald Tribune, complete with a photo of the scowling ex-actor.
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| Turn that frown upside down and smile, smile, smile! |
August 19, 1975: Another indignity! The Los Angeles Times reported that the municipal courts were finally interviewing candidates to replace Timothy Sperl as marshal. In his absence, they'd simply left the position vacant for months and months. It makes one wonder how important this job actually was.
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| Sorry, job seekers. I'm sure the position is filled by now. |
December 12, 1975: The Sperl case was largely out of the headlines by fall 1975. It seems Tim's appeal was still dragging on, though. Meanwhile, his replacement, Police Lt. John Francis Mahon, had been elected. Here's how the story appeared in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. (Many newspapers reported this same story.) For Tim, this must have given his drawn-out dismissal a true sense of finality.
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| There's literally a new marshal in town. |
January 22, 1976: Yet more grim news for Timothy Sperl. The District Court of Appeal upheld his conviction, so he was planning to appeal to the California Supreme court. That six-month jail term was still looming. Yet again, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner told the tale.
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| The flood waters were rising for Timothy Sperl. |
May 20, 1976: The wheels of justice turn slowly indeed. At least they did in Timothy Sperl's case. His appeal was somehow still dragging on at this late date. And he was suing for unpaid wages. I'll say this for him, the man did not give up easily. Here's what the Los Angeles Herald Examiner had to say about it.
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| Surrender? Never! |
June 4, 1976: Timothy Sperl was rapidly running out of options. A full 19 months after his conviction, he was allowed to remain free pending the outcome of his appeals. But William Farr reported in The Los Angeles Times that Tim had "exhausted" his appeals and was asking for his jail sentence to be shortened or modified. The case had lasted so long that the original judge, Richard Gadbois, had moved to Juvenile Court and had been replaced by a new magistrate, Jack E. Goertzen.
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| This feels like a hail Mary pass by Timothy Sperl. |
July 31, 1976: Well, we have some good news and some bad news regarding the Timothy Sperl case. A judge vacated Sperl's six-month jail sentence because the ex-marshal was "grievously ill" with an unknown condition and was taking blood thinners. An article in The Los Angeles Times by William Farr confirmed that Sperl had been fired from his job and would never be rehired.
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| Timothy Sperl was allegedly too ill for jail in 1976. |
May 18, 1977: The legal wrangling would not end. In 1977, Los Angeles county supervisors sued Timothy Sperl in the hopes of recovering the public funds that Sperl allegedly misappropriated in his time as marshal. A wire service story about this appeared in numerous papers, including the San Pedro News-Pilot.
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| Yeah, good luck with that. |
October 6, 1977: The Los Angeles Times finally had some good news for Timothy Sperl. He wouldn't be paying taxes on his pension.
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| This calls for some Riunite on ice. So nice. |
November 29, 1977: And Tiny Tim did not die. More than a year after his jail sentence was nixed, Tim reemerged with a new lawyer, Donald Re, to get his 1974 conviction overturned. He was still getting that sweet $1,950/month pension. Here's how Richard C. Paddock covered the story for The Los Angeles Times.
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| Guess who's back? Back again. Timmy's back. Tell a friend. |
February 22, 1978: The first update on the case would not come until nearly three months later. But the only "news" was that there was no news. At least not yet. And Judge Gadbois was brought back into the mix. Naturally, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner had the scoop.
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| "Every time I think I'm out..." |
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| You figure this out. I can't. |
Jan 15, 1979: Remember when Timothy Sperl tried to get his conviction overturned? Yeah, that wasn't happening. A wire service article in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner told that story. What's interesting is that shorter versions of this article ran in some Ohio newspapers (including ones in Akron and Toledo) that week. Why Ohioans would care about this, I have no idea.
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| Enjoy this Timothy Sperl update, Ohio. |
April 17, 1983: Improbably and tragically, Timothy Sperl was in the news one last time during his life. His son, Anthony "Tony" Sperl, became a police officer who fatally shot an unattended five-year-old boy who was carrying a toy gun. Ultimately, no charges were filed in the case, but Officer Sperl did resign. Naturally, this was headline news across the country, even meriting a story on 60 Minutes. At least one nationally-syndicated wire service article featured some quotes from Timothy. Here's that article as it appeared in a Maryland newspaper called The Daily Mail.
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| A tragic end to the Timothy Sperl saga. |
Tony Sperl is a fascinating figure in his own right and may merit an article of his own someday, but I'm trying to stick to the facts about his father. But Tony had a few other brushes with infamy over the ensuing decades.
September 18, 1986: The Los Angeles Times ran an obituary for Shirley Sperl, Timothy's second and final wife whom he married circa 1951. The death notice mentions that Shirley was a member of SAG-AFTRA, was signed to RKO, and "played small parts in a number of motion pictures and early television shows." Ed Wood fans may know that Shirley played a nurse in Jail Bait.
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| Farewell to another Shirley. |
May 11, 1989: Death claimed Timothy Sperl aka Timothy Farrell on May 9, 1989. He was 66. An emotionless, businesslike obituary by John Kendall appeared in The Los Angeles Times two days later. It briefly mentioned Tim's acting career but did not namedrop Ed Wood or Glen or Glenda. Tim's stage name never came up either. Nevertheless, this article gives us a more complete picture of Timothy's entire life than we'd ever had in a newspaper article, including his life after being marshal and his early military service.
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| It was the end of the road for Timothy Farrell. |
June 21, 1989: I don't want to end this article on a down note, so here's a fun little addendum to the saga. In the 1980s and '90s, a writer named Joe Kane (1953-2020) penned a column called "Phantom of the Movies" for the New York Daily News. I've been meaning to get around to Mr. Kane's work, since he mentioned Ed Wood in his columns from time to time. On this particular date, while writing about numerous other topics, Joe also mentioned Timothy Farrell's last public appearance. I'm including the entire article so you get a sense of Joe's writing, but the part about Tim is in the third column, beneath the picture of Rick Moranis.
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| Tim Farrell made one last public appearance. |
So what do I think of Timothy Sperl, now that I've done a month-long deep dive into his life as a lawman? First, I am convinced that Mr. Sperl indeed provided inappropriate favors to a politician named Jim Hayes in 1972 and then falsified timesheets and destroyed radio logs in order to cover it up. But I am equally convinced that the investigation into Sperl's misdeeds was politically motivated and retaliatory. Frankly, I think Tim Sperl's many enemies were as crooked, if not more so, than he was. Not a single major figure in this case, apart from perhaps Judge Gadbois, emerges with a positive reputation. There are no heroes in this story, just some flawed, fallible human beings in an often-broken system.
