Howard Philbrick

Who is Howard Philbrick?

Howard Philbrick was a private detective hired by local and state governments in California during the 1930s and 1940s. He worked for Atherton and Dunn investigation agency, famous for the Edwin Atherton report on SFPD police corruption in San Francisco, California in 1937. Next, Philbrick ran the investigations of graft in California state government, including investigating lobbyist Arthur Samish.

The final report, Known as the "Philbrick Report", was printed in the April 4, 1939 Senate Daily journal but it offended certain California lawmakers and was ordered by vote of the senate to have the journal copies destroyed and reprinted sans Philbrick's work. Copies reside in the UC Berkeley library system.