The Long Beach ‘social vagrant’ investigations, 1914
From the Archives Vice officer who helped pioneer undercover stings targeting gay men dies in 1915 murder-suicide
An undercover vice officer who pioneered the use of stings targeting gay men killed himself after fatally shooting a woman with whom he was infatuated, according to a Los Angeles Times story published on July 21, 1915. W.H.“Billy” Warren — known for the “now celebrated ‘social vagrant’ investigations” in Long Beach a year earlier — shot Creta Carter and then turned the gun on himself, the newspaper reported.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1915