Prominent investigator Ruggles dies

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

It took 38 years for Las Vegas investigator Jack Ruggles to see "Thicker Than Thieves," a 1950 nonfiction book he co-authored, made into a motion picture.

The book became the inspiration for the 1988 made-for-TV movie, "Shakedown on the Sunset Strip," about how Ruggles and other Los Angeles Police Department vice officers in 1948 cracked a cop-run prostitution ring out of the Vanderbilt Mansion.

Between those years, Ruggles handled many other cases. As an officer with the old Las Vegas Police Department in the 1970s, he helped bust a cop-run burglary ring. He also had successful stints as chief investigator for the Clark County district attorney in the 1960s and as chief investigator for the federal public defender in the 1980s.

Jack Dale Ruggles Sr., a crusty, old-school law enforcement officer and highly skilled World War II bomber pilot who flew 27 combat missions over Europe, died Saturday at his Las Vegas home following a two-month battle with liver cancer. He was 76.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 50 years will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Bunkers Mortuary. Visitation will be for one hour prior to the services.

"If I had to pick a person to go into combat with, it would be Jack," said longtime friend and Las Vegas attorney Dan Markoff, Ruggles' employer, first at the federal public defender's office and later in private practice.

"Jack was an absolutely fearless man. As a combat bomber pilot he looked death in the eye on many occasions. That helped make him a courageous investigator."

Amy Ruggles, Jack's wife of 19 years, said her husband "always stood for what was right. He helped a lot of attorneys get a lot of crooks convicted and he helped a lot of other attorneys get innocent people free. And all the while, he spoke his mind."

Ruggles' highly publicized Vanderbilt Mansion case resulted in 14 fellow LAPD cops being indicted and the police chief stepping down.

Two years later, Ruggles co-authored "Thicker Than Thieves." In 1988, "Shakedown on the Sunset Strip" starred Joan Van Ark as the madam who helped bust the bad cops and David Graf -- the big-gun-toting Eugene Tackleberry of the Police Academy movies -- as Ruggles. Ruggles served as a creative consultant on the film.

Born Nov. 27, 1924, in Hawthorne, Calif., Ruggles was the youngest of six children of contractor Charles Ruggles and the former Jenny Belle. The family first came to Southern Nevada in 1933, where Charles worked on the construction of Hoover Dam and Jack attended school in Boulder City.

The family returned to California that year and, in 1942, Ruggles graduated from Hollywood High. He joined the Army Air Corps and served as a B-17 bomber pilot in raids over Germany for the 398th Bomber Group. Once, in Belgium, he landed his plane -- riddled with 250 bullets -- on one working wing and a prayer.

Ruggles, who was in the Air Force Reserves for 40 years, graduated from the Los Angles Police Academy in the mid-1940s and was on the force just a short time before he participated in the Vanderbilt Mansion bust. He moved to Las Vegas in 1951 to work for the district attorney's office and later the Clark County grand jury.

In the early 1970s, Ruggles became a Las Vegas Police Department officer. He helped start the K-9 unit and conducted pistol range shooting instructions, losing part of his hearing in the process, his wife said. He later headed up LVPD Internal Affairs.

In 1978, Ruggles ran for justice of the peace, blasting a jail system that at the time provided no initial appearances on weekends for people arrested on Fridays.

"(Detainees) must exist in the overcrowded cells for several days and wait until the judges come to work on Mondays," Ruggles said at the time. "We provide everything in Las Vegas seven days a week, with the exception of justice."

Although he lost that campaign, as well as a bid for sheriff in 1970, the system later was changed so initial hearings and releases were conducted on weekends."

In 1979 Ruggles joined the federal public defender's office, leaving in 1989 shortly after Markoff went into private practice. Ruggles then reunited with Markoff and worked for him until his death.

In recent years, Ruggles spent much of his time reading philosophy and history books and local newspapers, and visiting his second home in the Dominican Republic.

At his request, Ruggles' ashes will be spread over a mango tree on a mountain overlooking Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic near where Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World. One of Ruggles' favorite books, his family said, was "The Log of Christopher Columbus" by Robert Fuson.

In addition to his wife, Ruggles is survived by three sons, Mathew Ruggles and Jack Ruggles Jr., both of Las Vegas, and Michael Ruggles of Hawaii; three daughters, Valerie Langley, Pam Wells and Shann Soffee, all of Las Vegas; a brother, James Ruggles of California; 12 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a sister and four brothers.