Samuel Delacroix (b. 1938) is the ex-husband of Christine Dorsett, and the father of Sheila and Arthur Delacroix. As a young man he was handsome, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He met Christine in an acting class in 1963 and the two married before Sheila's birth in 1964. With his Aryan looks, he landed a minor recurring role as a German soldier on the World War II drama First Infantry in the 1960s. He also appeared in one episode of The Fugitive with David Janssen. After his acting career ended he struggled to find employment, working at low-paying jobs including collecting golf balls at the city-owned driving range.
Christine left him in 1970 and filed for divorce in 1973, citing mental and physical abuse. At that time he began sexually abusing his daughter, and his chronic alcoholism became worse. He took nude and pornographic photos of her which he kept in a hiding place. He was aware that Sheila was physically abusing Arthur, but he did nothing to stop it. When Arthur was kicked out of public school, Samuel sent him to The Brethren School. Other than this, Samuel did little to care for Arthur's health or welfare.
In May of 1980, Arthur ran away, and Samuel became convinced that Sheila had killed the boy. He may have wanted to protect her, and he may also have wanted to avoid having his molestation of her revealed. He never filed a missing persons report on Arthur. He stopped molesting his daughter at this time, perhaps because he feared her. At some point he moved out of the duplex where they had lived in the Miracle Mile neighborhood, but Sheila continued to live there.
By the early 2000's, Delacroix was balding, with an enlarged red nose and a beer belly, living at the Manchester Trailer Park adjacent to his job at the municipal golf course. His trailer was dilapidated and reeked of cat urine. In January 2002 he was visited at home by LAPD detectives Harry Bosch and Jerry Edgar regarding the recent discovery of Arthur's remains. Samuel abruptly confessed to accidentally killing the boy in order to protect his daughter, but later recanted when he learned that she had not killed Arthur. Bosch cleared Samuel of the murder when he determined that he could not have carried his son's body up the steep slope where the bones were found. Bosch then found the nude photos of Sheila and deduced what had actually happened in the family.
Portrayal[]
Delacroix was played by Pat Skipper in the 2015 streaming series Bosch, and was mentioned as having made guest appearances on Mannix, Marcus Welby, M.D., and The Rockford Files.
Appearances[]
- City of Bones
- Bosch: "Blue Religion" (photograph)
- Bosch: "Fugazi"
- Bosch: "Mama's Boy"
- Bosch: "Us and Them"