This of Yarrow and Massey turns out to be much more Noirish than one might have expected. The details are too byzantine and lengthy for me to reproduce or even summarize here; but it involves corruption, manipulation of liquor licenses, the State Board of Equalization, phone calls with disguised voices, a secretary with chutzpah and a little red book and a little maroon book, a man named Parrot, and indeed a host of colorful characters male and female.
Here are just three little items which caught my fancy, the first one being a bit of background on Massey:
LA Times, 7/8/1923
LA Times, 7/24/1935
The proceedings of the inquiry seem to have been made for a noir film. This detail of the testimony made me chuckle:
LA Times 6/23/1936
You'll be pleased that Yarrow was clean, but due to regulations he could not serve longer than the unexpired term of the person he replaced, Massey, and so had to step down from his position (and returned to his old job).