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  • Oct 9, 2026, 3:34 AM

    The problem with re-playing LA Noire is when you get to the Homicide desk cases. Knowing the twist ending (that every case was actually done by the perpetrator of the Black Dahlia killer, who you secretly take out) all other cases feel hollow and shameful on second play, because you know you are arresting/locking up the wrong person.

    It's made worse by the fact that there was SUPPOSED to be a Bunco (fraud) desk you played through before Homicide (you still hear Phelps is being transferred to Homicide after 6 months in Bunco). And, honestly? I suspect the cut bunco cases would have been awesome to see.

    That and the potential for a Robbery desk sound much better than having to slog through like 7 brutal murders of women where you don't even lock up the right person each time.

    A cut scene where evidence is inspected in the basement of the LAPD Central division HQ, featuring Captain James Donnelly, Ray Pinker (a real figure formative in the LAPD's technical services section fictionalised in this game as he is in the James Ellroy novels that heavily inspired LA Noire), Cole Phelps, Rusty Galloway and the LA County Coroner, Malcolm Carruthers.
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  • Oct 9, 2026, 3:44 AM

    This is the real Ray Pinker. Hired as a police chemist back when the idea of doing forensic analysis was pretty new, he began working as a civilian chemist for the LAPD in an era when the level of corruption was just beyond the pal. Far worse than anything we can easily imagine now. The LAPD Chief then, James Edgar "Two-Gun" Davis, was an out and out supporter of Hitler. His men busted up unions and Communist organisations, he expected his officers to show no mercy (that is, gun down) criminals without consequence, and he was appointed by probably the most corrupt mayor LA has ever had.

    Anyway, I mention that mostly because it's interesting to me that Pinker seems to be one of the only figures of the mid-20th century LAPD that comes out unscathed in just about every merciless depiction of that era of American policing.

    Whatever else Pinker seemed to be, he cared about scientific provable evidence more than who some thug cop wanted to pin a given murder on.

    I guess, in an era like that, it meant a lot.

    Black & White flash photo of Ray Pinker, young (he still has his hair) working in a chemist lab.
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  • Oct 9, 2026, 3:51 AM

    Another interesting note: Captain Connelly, head of Homicide in LA Noire, appears to be a heavily fictionalised version of Jack Donahoe, the real Captain in charge of Robbery-Homicide at Central division in the 1940s.

    He's probably also a heavy influence on the other inspiration for Connelly, Dudley Smith from LA Confidential.

    An old B&W photo of a round faced man in a hat, leanign over a desk - Captain Jack Donahoe.
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  • Oct 9, 2026, 3:57 AM

    Further random LAPD / noir trivia: Michael McGrady, who plays grizzled Homicide detective Finbarr "Rusty" Galloway in LA Noire, went on to play the real LA Police Chief who succeeded Two-Gun Davis, Clemence B Horrall, in Frank Darabont's underrated noir series, Mob City.

    Rusty Galloway in LA Noire.
    Some of the main caste of Mob City posing for a photograph. McGrady in character as Clemence B Horrall is in full uniform in the middle.
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  • Oct 9, 2026, 4:42 AM

    @vampiress If you "want" to see more stories of corruption in the police back in the day, have you seen the film Changeling with Angelina Jolie and Jeffrey Donovan? The writer did a TON of work to back up that everything portrayed in the film actually happened on a real case with real people. He wasn't happy with making something merely "based on a true story."

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  • Oct 9, 2026, 4:45 AM

    @troldann I don't mind stories about women getting murdered entirely, it's more the context of the LA Noire ones - and that not a single murder of a man is in the Homicide desk. It makes it incredibly depressing and unsettling to play. 😕

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  • Oct 9, 2026, 4:44 AM

    @troldann I haven't! It's been on my list for AGES though, especially given the real life figures and story surrounding it.

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