L.A. Noire / Characters

A list of characters appearing in L.A. Noire.

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Cole Phelps and Partners

Cole Phelps

Actor: Aaron Staton

"Ralph, friends who want to stay friends don't discuss religion or politics. In my case, you can add the war to that."

Our protagonist. A 27 year old Marine turned cop, born from a wealthy San Francisco family. Cole distinguished himself in the Pacific theatre, earning the Silver Star for his conduct. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles with his family, joining the LAPD. He quickly rises through the ranks, becoming something of a "golden boy", a visually pleasing, talented face that the public can admire.

0% Approval Rating: Cole was universally hated by his men while he was serving as Marine officer. His tactical inflexibility, hunger for glory, and perceived sympathy for the Japanese ended up getting a lot of men under his command killed, as well as many innocent civilians, leading the surviving ones to believe he was bad luck. It's honestly a wonder how he managed to survive the whole war without getting fragged by his own men though that doesn't mean somebody didn't try.
All-Loving Hero: One of Cole's greatest traits is his total lack of prejudice against anyone, possessing incredibly progressive views for The '40s. When charging Edgar Kalou during "Buyer Beware", he tells him he respects his Jewish beliefs and his right to hold.
The Atoner: Especially during the Arson arc.
Badass Bookworm
- Cole speaks fluent Japanese (though somewhat accented) to two captured Japanese soldiers during the Battle for Okinawa.
- In one particular Homicide case, he is recalled back to Central Station for the purposes of analyzing a poem left by the murderer. He quickly deduces it is not an original and identifies it as written by Shelley. One of the Technical Services guys even mentions, "That's why we asked for you."
Badges and Dog Tags: A former U.S. Marine Corps officer who served in the Pacific during World War II and joined the LAPD after his discharge.
Boxing Battler: learned to box in the Marines as an officer during WW2. These skills serve him well when subduing suspects as a detective in the course of the game. Of course, as the game takes place in 1940's America, before Eastern martial arts were popularized in the West, most of the NPC's use boxing-style fighting techniques as well.
Break the Haughty: As a result of his time in the war. Particularly after he decided to remain in cover on Sugar Loaf Field while everyone else, including his friend, died.
Broken Pedestal: Has became this to his colleagues and family following the scandal.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He doesn't remember Hogeboom and seemingly not burning a civilian hospital by accident.
By-the-Book Cop: Sometimes he is, but he's not afraid to be a cowboy a couple of times, especially near the end.
The Cassandra: He's the first to try to link every murder they have to the greater picture of a Serial Killer, but everyone burshes his theories off (at least, at first). Either because the department is expecting their arrests to fess up quickly and get it over with, or because Cole's blatant attempt at landing a huge investigation drive interests away.
Catchphrase: "You're being economical with the truth." or some variant of it. He doesn't say it constantly or even in every case, but you can count the amount of times this is uttered when accusing someone of lying.
Cultured Badass: He certainly can't resist showing off his education.
- He's well-versed in Greek mythology.
- He's well-read in poetry, like Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
- He's fluent in Japanese and familiar with Japanese culture.
Classical Anti-Hero: In the flashbacks he's this, as he's rather incompetent. Present game though, he averts this if the player succeeds during the cases and is instead a Tragic Hero.
Cultured Warrior: During his times as a Marine.
- He chides one of his men for not understanding why the Japanese attacked them at Pearl Harbor, citing America's oil embargo against Japan as the primary motivation.
- It turns out he failed miserably at the, "warrior" part during his time in the Marines.
Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, such as referring to "Rusty's Law" (see below) as the Lex Ignoramus.
Death Equals Redemption: However, his forgiveness happens after he died.
Decoy Protagonist: According to Word of God, Cole is actually the Back Story to the Film Noir story, as the real story starts when a Femme Fatale appears in the Investigator's office to help her special friend (Cole).
Driven to Suicide: After seeing what his mistakes during the war had done to Hogeboom and realizing that he was, by extension, responsible for all the people he'd killed, he allows himself to be drowned at the end rather than take Kelso's hand.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Rather abruptly drowned when the sewer floods, letting Kelso take over the drama.
Et Tu, Brute?: Definitely his reaction when Roy reports his affair with Elsa to the corrupt officials.
Everyone Loves Blondes: During the "A Slip of the Tongue" case Bekowsky asks him what kind of women he likes, after some coaxing he says he has a thing for blondes.
Expy: Of Detective Ed Exley from L.A. Confidential. Both of them are Glory Hound war heroes whom saw action in the Pacific during World War II whom initially earn the distrust of their fellow officers. Both of them are By The Book Cops who eventually learn to break the rules a little. And both of them only earned their medals - a Distinguished Service Cross for Exley and a Silver Star for Phelps - because they were the only survivors from their units due to cowardice.
Fair Cop: Civilians will comment on it.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Cole actually didn't do anything worthy of earning the Silver Star, he merely was the last man standing (or, more accurately, sitting in a foxhole all night in shock from his close friend being indirect-fired to pieces) after a big battle, and the CO in charge just recommended him for the medal thinking he was a badass for managing to live through it. Cole is very much aware of this and knows that many of the men in the battle died because of his orders, so he has a lot of atoning to do.
Fatal Flaw: His ambition and his inability to take responsibility for his actions. The combination of these two things on Okinawa is what inadvertently sets the entire plot in motion and eventually leads to his death.
Glory Hound: He went into the War as this, and still retains traits of it through most desks, though this time it's about proving himself to be a better cop than he was a Marine. It's not until the Arson desk that he truly wants justice for more than personal gain. He's more concerned with protecting the city than his reputation, though. When the same MO keeps popping up over and over again, although he wants to solve a big case, while Rusty is more concerned about his career during the final murder case, Cole is concerned about putting a murderer in jail.
Good Cop/Bad Cop: He typically plays the good cop routine with almost all of his partners. In many interrogations, he's both. He responds in a good cop manner if you choose "truth" and a bad cop manner if you choose "doubt" or "lie".
- In a way, this ended up getting lampshaded in the Remaster, where the, "Truth," and, "Doubt," commands were renamed, "Good Cop," and, "Bad Cop," respectively.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks to being exposed as an adulterer, Phelps is almost legitimately hated by his co-workers, his family and the entire population of Los Angeles.
- Although, Ray Pinker subverts this in the, "Nicholson Electroplating," case where he admits to Cole that he thinks that he is, in his own words, a good officer.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To his partners. Phelps is always the one to do 'hard stuff'. The search for the Black Dahlia killer is literally Cole figuring out everything and finding the clues on his own. Funnily, considering all the stuff breaking down in that case, Rusty following close behind likely would have resulted in killing them both.
I Die Free: Given that his reputation is severely damaged from the adultery charges as well as being haunted by his actions during the war that created chaos in Los Angeles, death is probably an option for the best for Cole to be free of his harbored guilt and his now even more tarnished life.
Insufferable Genius: The wartime flashbacks indicate that he used to be very arrogant, and got all 35 of his own men and a large number of Japanese civilians killed on Okinawa because he thought he knew everything. This still creeps into some of his postwar dialog, though he is now quite conscious of it.
Irony: Cole wanted his orders followed without question which by Marine standards is no-no as it removes personal initiative. Ira followed his orders to burn out a cave as soon as he was able to, but didn't wait for the support and verification that Cole wanted him to have. When he saw Ira go into the cave, he was upset about him charging in while he and the other men were still pinned down.
Lawful Stupid: As an officer, Cole demanded being saluted, despite the front lines explicitly being declared "no-salute areas" so that Japanese snipers wouldn't be able to identify (and shoot) officers, and having orders followed to the letter regardless of the current situation while he was a Marine. Needless to say, his brothers-in-arms found it taxing. Although he seems to have gotten better as of his time in the LAPD.
Lieutenant Failure: Most of his men seemed to wish they weren't serving under him in the war. He is perceived as a Bad Luck Charm and overly sympathetic to the enemy. As an officer, Cole is certainly cautious and has a stick up his ass. Unfortunately, Okinawa was the kind of battle in which mediocre leaders got just as many men killed as bad ones.
Medal of Dishonor: Cole's Silver Star, awarded for surviving a night alone on Sugar Loaf Hill after the rifle platoon he led was wiped out to a man. Cole's incompetent leadership got them killed, and he survived by hiding in a hole, unnoticed by the Japanese.
Meddlesome Patrolman: His willingness to go the extra mile in a few cases that may not actually concern him is what gets him promoted to the Traffic Department so fast.
My Greatest Failure: He actually has two: seeing his group killed in battle and just sitting there in a state of post-trauma shock, and sending in a flame gunner (PFC Ira Hogeboom) to clear an enemy cave that turned out to be a hospital.
Nice Guy: Despite his faults, Cole is still one of the nicest people throughout the story, which is really saying something considering the year that L.A. Noire takes place.
- Most noticeably, Cole is notable for his lack of any discriminating views towards anybody and is shown to treat everyone equally.
  - He is also never seen or heard using either racist or slang and offensive terms to describe people either, unlike others whom he's either encountered or worked with (Roy especially).
- He very rarely uses profanity whenever he's interrogating someone or just conversing with others.
  - Usually, he only swears whenever he's in a very emotional state, the most frequent emotion being rage.
- Probably the most notable example of his goodness is his experience with the Blue Room Jazz Club. After, "The Fallen Idol," case, when Roy takes him and Bekowski to the club, Roy is busy being a piece of trash to everyone he runs into, but when Cole encounters and meets one of the people working there (a frenchman with black heritage), his only response is to shake the man's hand and simply say, "Pleasure to meet you sir," with no questions asked or any indication of hesitation. Later, during his time on the Homicide desk, he returns frequently to the club to visit Elsa, and on one night he walks in, the same man that he was nice to previously (and whom Roy was a jerk to before) instead claps his hands happily and greets Cole as if he's an old friend. This moment alone, though brief, truly shows how Cole stands out from so many others as well as the positive impact that he was leaving on others.
  - Although, we don't see much interaction between Cole and the staff after his affair with Elsa is exposed and his demotion to Arson, technically, we also never see anything negative either.
The Neidermeyer: Let's just say that Cole wasn't the best of officers during the war. He's a much better cop, due in no small part to his awareness of exactly how lousy he was as a combat leader.
Never My Fault: He was infamously known for this during his time in the war where he never took responsibility for his fatal mistakes. During the present where he cheats on his wife, he can only make half ass excuses on why he cheated and never even says that he's sorry.
Never Speak Ill of the Dead:
- He pulls a gun on Earle for mocking Courtney Sheldon after they find his corpse.
- All adultery charges against Cole are dropped and labelled as fraudulent after he dies despite the fact that they clearly weren't fraudulent in the least.
Not So Stoic: He loses it occasionally during interrogations or when talking to Earle. In a flashback from Okinawa, he is shown to be unusually hysterical for a male Film Noir protagonist (to the point that his voice cracks in the final one).
No Indoor Voice: When questioning suspects (regardless of who they are), Cole's voice is basically a soft yell.
Old Cop, Young Cop: With Galloway and Biggs. Cole's the young one.
Only Honest Cop: He doesn't seem to care whose toes he steps on in his quest for justice. The contrasts is especially pronounced when he's partnered with Roy Earle.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Earle disrespects Courtney's body, Cole finally has enough the asshole and drops all politeness and actually swears at his former partner, something he rarely does in the entire game.
Precision F-Strike: Demonstrated for dramatic effect in the 12th newspaper cutscene; see Never Speak Ill of the Dead above.
Cole: He was a better man than you'll ever know! You say one more word about him and I will blow your FUCKING HEAD OFF!
Redemption Equals Death: It took his death to finally earn forgiveness by everyone.
Right for the Wrong Reasons:
- Sometimes, launching accusations of lying against people of interest will yield surprisingly accurate assessments, but fall short of actually being able to prove it's the case, and you'll only know how true each accusation is after-the-fact. This is of course where the "Doubt/Bad Cop" option comes in.
- Cole is one of the first few people trying to link cases of murder to the ongoing Black Dhalia investigation. He pounces on the opportunity to ask Rusty about it on his first day at the Homicide Desk, and is told by others to put the thought away when they're confronted with plenty of other reasonable suspects. Though it's clear he's mainly looking for the opportunity to crack a massive case wide open, he isn't the only one that starts thinking this. And he's eventually proven right.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Kelso's red.
Semper Fi: He served as a First Lieutenant in the USMC during World War II.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He often uses big words when conversing with others. In a humorous moment, Bekowsky even lightly mocks him for it in, "The Consul's Car," saying that nobody will invite him out for drinks because of it.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cole is haunted by the civilian casualties he inadvertently inflicted during the Okinawa campaign, which indirectly led to Ira Hogeboom's breakdown and Courtney Sheldon's motivation for the morphine scheme.
Smart People Know Latin: An educated detective who quotes Lex Parsimoniae and Deus Ex Machina.
Sole Survivor: Of his platoon's attack on Sugar Loaf Hill.
Sympathetic Adulterer: Yes, he did end up having an affair, but given what he has been through and not to mention the manner in which the secret was betrayed by his own partner only makes you feel sorry for him.
Tragic Hero: In his efforts to be a hero, his pride leads to him making decisions that have devastating consequences. This isn't just reflected on the player if they chose the wrong answers, but also on Cole during the narrative where he decided to hide on Sugar Loaf Field causing everyone including his friend to die, ordered Ira Hogeboom to clear an enemy cave that turned out to be a hospital full of innocents, and in the present decided to have an affair with Elsa that would later ruin his reputation. It ends up costing him his life as he refuses rescue in the final mission.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Neither the military surplus heist nor Hogeboom's killing spree would have ever happened if it hadn't been for his actions during the war.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With the exception of Roy, he has this kind of relationship with all of his other partners.
Waistcoat of Style: A hawkshaw, to be precise.
You Are Number 6: "Phelps, Badge Number 1247" (Almost always said as twelve forty-seven).

Ralph Dunn

Actor: Rodney Scott

"I tell ya, I'm jinxed—I always get landed with this crap."

An LAPD patrolman and Cole's first partner.

Dirty Cop: Perhaps the mildest example possible in that he isn't very interested in questioning the Orgy of Evidence in "Upon Reflection" despite the possibility of the suspect being innocent. The moment a homicide detective might be involved he orders Cole to just close the case.
The Generic Guy: Ralph's fairly average as a cop and as a character. He lacks many of the stand out traits that make the rest of Cole's partners so distinct.
No-Respect Guy: Despite helping Cole through a two murders and a police shoot out, remains a patrolman.
Police Are Useless: Wants to give up looking for a gun in an alleyway almost immediately after starting. Averted during the bank robbery where he's at least helpful against the criminals Cole fights with him.
Police Brutality: Opens fire without warning on a parolee violator, almost killing Cole.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Doesn't appear in the game after Cole is promoted to Detective. However he does make a brief appearance in the DLC case "Nicholson Electroplating", however, the only interaction he has with Cole is to address him as "detective." This could either be developer oversight, or he cuts his association with Cole after the affair goes public, as others have. Ralph is also present during Cole's funeral.

Stefan Bekowsky

Actor: Sean McGowan

"I've heard all about you, Phelps. You go easy on me and let me earn the odd citation, then maybe we'll get along."

A detective working in LAPD's Traffic Desk, and Cole's second partner.

Big "WHAT?!": Lets out this reaction at the start of "The Fallen Idol" when Captain Leary reveals that the crime scene is right across the street from the precinct.
Cowboy Cop/Reasonable Authority Figure: Tends to be pretty by the book and honest, even if he's snarky about it, but he's more than willing to insult mafia henchmen to their faces, no matter how life-endangering this is.
Deadpan Snarker: He's a pretty funny and easy-going guy.
Demoted to Extra: Downplayed, but after Cole moves up in the ranks, Bekowsky makes recurring cameo appearances in a few of Cole's Ad Vice cases.
Handsome Lech: If his (failed) attempts to curry favor with the female suspects/victims are any indication.
Hard Work Hardly Works: Bekowsky is baffled that Cole managed to rise up the ranks of the LAPD in such a short amount of time, while Bekowsky himself had to work as a patrol officer for six years before he got the chance to be promoted. Subverted, since Bekowsky ends up getting promoted to Homicide, showing that his hard work had indeed paid off.
Hidden Depths:
- For all of the jokes about his laziness, Bekowsky's first car ride with Cole in "The Driver's Seat" implies that he has a chip on his shoulder over working as a police officer in L.A. all throughout World War II while others were fighting overseas.
- "The Consul's Car" has him denounce illegal street racing... because he hates how many people get killed doing it.
  "The next time we scrape a sixteen-year-old off the pavement, you're calling the mother. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime."
- In "A Slip of the Tongue", he articulates a view on white privilege that is rather progressive for the time. When Cole suggests giving Cliff Harrison the benefit of the doubt in believing that he didn't steal the car they caught him with, Stefan accuses Cole of being biased because Harrison's background is similar to Cole's and states that he'd be "singing a different tune" if the suspect were black or hispanic.
Informed Flaw: Detectives like Roy joke that Bekowsky has a lazy work ethic. But the cases show otherwise, he still takes his work seriously, all jokes aside.
Innocently Insensitive: Bekowsky makes imaginative and overdramatic deductions of how Cole got his Silver Star. War flashbacks show that Cole got his Silver Star after being the Sole Survivor of an engagement, with his friend getting blown to smithereens right next to him.
Irony: Bekowsky is the only partner who doesn't complain about Phelps' vehicle choice, even if you forcibly take the car of a civilian he won't say a word, despite the fact that he is literally the one who works in a division that investigates vehicle-related crimes.
It Will Never Catch On: In a conversation with Cole during "The Consul's Car" he dismisses the idea of three-dimensional movies, claiming that it would scare people out of the theater.
Likes Older Women: He implies he's like this in "A Slip of the Tongue", when he's drunk, at least.
Refused by the Call: In their initial conversation, Cole theorizes that the reason Bekowsky is so fixated on the former's war record is because Bekowsky tried to join the war effort and was deemed "unfit for service", forcing him to remain in L.A. as a patrolman. Bekowsky doesn't outright confirm this to be the case, but his defensive reaction implies that there's some truth to it.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Bekowsky makes a fair number of snarky comments about Phelps' no-nonsense attitude, but they also probably have one of the smoothest partnerships of anyone in the game. He isn't as outright corrupt and antagonistic as Roy, as anti-social and cynical as Herschel, as worried about stepping into danger as Ralph, or as old-fashioned and resistant to exploring unorthodox motives as Rusty. And while his biggest flaw in-game is said to be a lack of ambition, he's more than willing to follow Cole's theories and back him up when the situation calls for it, even when it puts them in the line of fire on more than one occasion.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted. He shows up in two Vice cases having taken Cole's place in Homicide.

Rusty Galloway

Finbarr "Rusty" Galloway

Actor: Michael McGrady

"Rusty's Razor: You blame the guy that's banging her."

A seasoned detective working in LAPD's Homicide Desk, and Cole's third partner. Sarcastic, divorced multiple times, rarely completely sober, and more than happy to ignore the rights of suspects.

The Alcoholic: He claims he does it because of a daughter he made while drunk. One would hope he'd learn from the experience, but apparently not.
Arbitrary Skepticism: Refuses to believe Cole that they're dealing with a serial killer framing others despite the same type of victim, the same type of murder weapon and all the evidence conveniently placed together in a convenient place belonging to a suspect with no alibi.
Back for the Finale: He makes a brief appearance in the final case A Different Kind of War, investigating Harlan Fontaine's death.
Book Dumb: Doesn't care for Phelps' more eloquent phrases and terms, and "The Quarter Moon Murders" reveals he doesn't know what an allegory is.
- On top of that, he's rather quick to assume the murders he encounters are the result of domestic disputes, and sticks with that assumption even when evidence begins to mount towards the contrary. This is especially egregious during "The Silk Stocking Murder" where after seeing an absurdly long trail of evidence left by the confident murderer, he can still suggest it was a husband or boyfriend who saw the Werewolf Killer's MO and saw a way out of their relationship.
Cowboy Cop: He's willing to shoot the child molester Eli Rooney just to avoid the paperwork. Phelps has to physically push down Rusty's gun to stop him.
Deadpan Snarker: He likes knocking down Phelps' holier-than-thou attitude with a healthy heaping of cynicism.
Demoted to Extra: Downplayed, but after Cole moves up in the ranks, Galloway is relegated to recurring cameos in a few of Cole's later cases.
Dirty Cop: Not as bad as some others on this list, but he's okay with beating up suspects and sending innocent men to jail so long as he doesn't get in trouble or caught up in anything worse. It's also heavily implied that he knows the true reason behind Floyd Rose's retirment and willingly obscures things when he dodges Cole's question about it.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": With a name like Finbarr, can you blame him?
Dumbass Has a Point: During one of the homicide cases, he points out that a man of Carruthers' profession may get too attached to the corpses they examine. Cole is baffled by Rusty's deduction. But later Carruthers reveals that he fired his chief assistant for associating with a necrophile, implying that his chief assistant could have been one as well.
Early-Bird Cameo: Appears briefly in the first case as Floyd Rose's partner, leaving the crime scene after it's been handed over to Phelps.
Embarrassing First Name: The only person he allows to call him Finbarr is Captain Donnelly.
Everyone Has Standards: Rusty says many times that he doesn't care about who he's putting away as long as his job's getting done, but if there's someone truly awful in his crosshairs, he starts taking his position more seriously.
- He may be a Straw Misogynist, but he rants against the oldest con in Hollywood. He makes this known when discussing the brutality of the Black Dhalia murder with Cole, where he also admits the BD killer and his taunting eats away at him.
- Pedophiles and necrophiles absolutely disgust him. Eli Rooney nearly got a bullet in his head had Cole not intervened, while Ferdinand Jamison catches a haymaker for his admission.
Hardboiled Detective: While all the Partner's share this tendency, Rust's alcoholism and world-weary remarks make him the toughest Egg by far.
Hidden Depths: During "The Quarter Moon Murders", he's actually fairly useful when it comes to deciphering the killer's clues. Near the end of their investigation, he manages to draw parallels with Shelley's poem and the BD Killer's motives, eliciting some praise from Cole.
Hypocrite: In the opening to "The Golden Butterfly," when Cole notes the similarities to their new case and their previous one, Rusty tells Cole to not make any assumptions about the case until they've seen the evidence first. Then later at the crime scene, when Officer Gonzales confirms that the victim's husband had filed a Missing Person's Report earlier that morning, Rusty immediately opts to go and arrest and charge the husband for the crime, causing Cole to call him out.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- During "The Golden Butterfly", he speaks calmly and reassuringly to Michelle Moller.
- He has a small rant in the third homicide case about how Hollywood chews women up and spits them out.
Leeroy Jenkins: He prefers kicking down doors and screaming "You're under arrest!" to discretion.
Meaningful Name: His detective skills are more than a little rusty. He's essentially useless to Cole as a partner.
Noble Sexist With A Badge: He's bitterly divorced and largely dismissive of women, but admits the killings you investigate with him are horrible and cares about keeping the streets safe, no matter what underhanded tactics have to be used. He also has a daughter whom he loves dearly.
Pet the Dog: He's one of the few people who's still friendly towards Phelps after the scandal with Elsa, while other officers would look down on Phelps with disdain. Notably, he calls Cole over to Dr. Fontaine's scene of homicide to scope the place out despite having nothing to do with Arson, knowing how much it involves Cole's investigations.
Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Cole constantly bicker and trade insults, but after a rocky start they both respect each other a great deal and save each other's necks numerous times.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted, in that much like Bekowsky, he actively appears during Cole's time in Vice, including one of the DLC cases.

Roy Earle

Actor: Adam John Harrington

"Everyone has their vices. Even you, Phelps."

A detective working in LAPD's Vice Desk, and Cole's fourth partner. Knows all there is to know about the shady businesses the Jewish Mafia conducts in Los Angeles, and is openly racist towards the city's black and Hispanic populations.

Antagonist in Mourning: It seems as such during the ending, but his line delivery clearly implies that he doesn't care about Cole and was just doing so to get Peterson to let him off the hook for being involved in the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.
A Sinister Clue: Roy is shown in gameplay to fire his pistol from either his left or right hand, showing that he's ambidextrous. And he's by far the nastiest of Cole's partners, if not the entire police department.
Bigot with a Badge: He's an LAPD detective who hates anyone who isn't a white male.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When Cole first meets Earle, the latter gives off a pleasant impression of him by inviting him to a club to celebrate. Cole's opportunity to befriend him crumbles when he witnesses him behaving rudely to an African-American doorman, Alfonse, and him slapping Elsa while she's mourning.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Of all the partners, he has the best deduction skills and could be really good at his job. His real job however is being on the take and has little desire to put in overtime for anything. When Cole and Roy find the morphine stash, Cole is puzzled about Finklestein being the one behind the heist but Roy immediately guesses Finklestein just made a deal with the original robber for distribution.
Cheshire Cat Grin: He tends to do this when he's feeling smug, which is pretty much all the time.
The Comically Serious: Several characters sarcastically remark about "what a funny man" Earle is.
Cool Car: Drives a crimson Cadillac Series 62 convertible, and is really pissed if Cole damages it.
Deadpan Snarker: Is the KING of this trope. Any lines he has for a suspect is barely masked contempt behind a calm tone.
Dirty Cop: He's pretty transparent about it. He responds to the day getting late with asking to hurry up and get it over with so he doesn't have to work over-time despite already getting paid like it.
Establishing Character Moment: Though he first appears in the first Traffic Case, he properly makes an appearance in "The Fallen Idol". He appears to bail Marlon Hopgood out as a Vice informant despite Hopgood being complicit in the rape of a 15-year-old girl. This establishes Roy as a Dirty Cop. He later makes another appearance at the end of the case, where he verbally abuses a black man and physically assaults Elsa, making it clear that he's quite a lovely man.
Even Evil Has Standards: In "The Set Up", Roy expresses a distaste for those using knives, commenting that he prefers to either use his fists or his gun.
Expy: Bears a resemblance to Detective Jack Vincennes from L.A. Confidential. Both men are familiar with the Hollywood and Mafia scene and both are Dirty Cops. The only difference is that Vincennes is actually likable and fairly pleasant.
Faux Affably Evil: It's obvious he is a slimy piece of trash but tries to be affable to Cole then he backstabs him for quick gain.
Gone Horribly Right: It's suggested that he pulled strings to have Cole assigned to Vice, seemingly considering him not as different based on dialogue early in the game; turns out that while Cole is something of a Glory Hound, he's frequently at odds with Roy.
Hated by All: Just about all of Roy's superior officers are at the very least implied to hate his guts. Anyone who has played the game will understand EXACTLY why. Even other Dirty Cops like the Vice lieutenant despise him simply because of how much of a Jerkass he is.
Hate Sink: Earle is utterly loathsome given his bigoted views, his status as a Dirty Cop and unpleasant personality in general. The fact that he sells out Phelps and gets away with it only twists the knife even further.
Jerkass: Aside from his casual racism, he's willing to slap Elsa in the face.
Jerkass Has a Point: One of the nastiest things about Earle is how he's the most self-aware partner and has a lot of insight into the true nature of L.A. and the Department. He knows the war on drugs cannot be won and isn't even necessarily a bad thing and points out how useless Rusty Galloway has become as a police detective. Take a look at his listed quote. He knew more than anyone Phelps' true character.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: While always unpleasant to be around, at first he seems to be a nuisance to fellow cops and only outright abusive to civilians and perps. When he reports Cole's affair to help mask his superiors' corruption however, it becomes clear that he's more than a jerk; he's an outright evil bastard.
Karma Houdini: He gives the eulogy at Phelps' funeral. His handshake with Petersen at the end implies he isn't prosecuted as a result of the Suburban Redevelopment fiasco.
Kick the Dog: Constantly; his Establishing Character Moment comes when he invites Cole and his current partner to the local blues club, where he puts his feelings for blacks and women on display.
Laughably Evil: Of the Deadpan Snarker variety. Roy is such a bigoted and crooked Jerkass. But he is so unapologetically smug and smarmy about it that it comes off as Refuge in Audacity.
Leeroy Jenkins: In shootouts, Roy rarely uses cover and often runs out to shoot enemies, firing his pistol from his hip.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By throwing Cole under the bus and having him demoted to Arson, he inadvertently sets up the endgame of the Arson cases, and the Suburban Redevelopment Fund being uncovered.
Obviously Evil: Dresses in an expensive suit, drives a luxury car and on First-Name Basis with drug kingpins. Even with the majority of the L.A.P.D shown as corrupt and abusive Roy stands out.
Older Than They Look: He looks and sounds like a man in his early 30s, but he's actually in his 40s.
Pet the Dog:
- Allowing the boxer to escape and agreeing with Cole's cover story directly afterwards, when he could easily have screwed Cole over, had the boxer caught, and gotten his money back. Which arguably makes the way he rats Cole out about Elsa even more of a Player Punch. Sure, he's a Jerkass Dirty Cop, but at the time, we thought he was our Jerkass Dirty Cop.
- He compliments Cole's skills and clearance rate during "The Naked City", albeit in a backhanded kind of way.
- In "The Naked City" case, he is sympathetic towards Virginia Reynoldson about Julia's death.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Hates black people and tends to be abusive to women. He also has a condescending attitude towards British people too, if his use of the word "limey" is of any indicator.
Quick Draw: Roy can shoot, best seen when he guns down a crook disguised as a janitor before the latter could pull out his machine gun. Doesn't quite balance out the racism, sexism and general Jerkassery, of course.
Sharp-Dressed Man: Early in the game, Cole comments on how he dresses like a movie star. He even snarks at Earle how he looks like he's made out of money.
Sixth Ranger: In that he does all the footwork for the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.
Smug Smiler: Always smiling and making snarks at how he'll make sure the judge will lean on his favor.
Smug Snake: He is a profoundly arrogant and smarmy man who knows he is above the law. This is one of his defining character traits.
The Unfought: There is no fight with him after he sells out Cole. Even when Kelso guns down many of the LAPD's Dirty Cops in the final level, you won't confront him in any way.
Would Hit a Girl: He slaps Elsa around, for instance.

Herschel Biggs

Actor: Keith Szarabajka

"Go soak your head, Phelps. This hero business is a full-time obsession with you."

An old and bitter detective working in LAPD's Arson Desk, and Cole's fifth partner. A veteran of World War I and a long standing member of the police, Biggs has seen just about all there is to see, and has a cynical outlook on his work as well as life in general.

All of the Other Reindeer: Biggs can barely stand most of his fellow officers, who generally hold him in low regard. Given that he’s been a cop since 1919 and the LAPD is shown to be rife with corruption, it’s clear that Biggs despises hypocrites like Donnelly and crooks with badges like Earle, and has stayed in Arson to be left alone. He is much more comfortable among LAFD firefighters, and gets along well with them.
Badges and Dog Tags: He's soldier-turned-cop just like Cole, having joined the force after serving in World War I.
Book Dumb: While not actually all that poorly educated by the standards of the time, the DLC case "Nicholson Electroplating" seems to constantly poke fun at Biggs in particular for being scientifically/technologically/culturally backwards. He mistakes the chemical explosion for a "Ruskie H-bomb", dismisses the idea of television and admits to not knowing what "radiation" means in very rapid succession, as well as believing microfilm has to be read by someone with "very good eyesight" rather than using technological assistance.
Character Narrator: He narrates the opening of the game, as well as the intros to all the patrol missions, but for some reason not any others.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: At one point he claims to have never fired his weapon in the line of duty. This is Blatant Lies if you've completed any street crimes prior to him saying this.
Hidden Depths: Well, nearly everyone in the game is presented three dimensionally, but Biggs in particular seems like a complete Jerkass but eventually becomes the Ensemble Dark Horse. He's essentially a burnt-out cop whom Phelps gets to actually give a shit once more.
I Work Alone: He isn't too happy about being assigned a partner.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not exactly a sociable person but he ended up standing up for Cole in some occasions, despite not particularly liking him, and in the end helped him in the final mission which had them going against the entire LAPD. Generally speaking, Biggs has a strong sense of fairness and can’t stand hypocrites.
Killer Cop: Tells Cole that whoever the arsonist is, they are going to kill him, end of story. Given that Biggs is pretty much a hump it has more to do with him being that angry at the sight of the dead family.
Knight in Sour Armor: He clearly thinks his job is a waste of time and isn't doing anyone any good, yet he keeps doggedly trying to solve the case anyway.
Not So Stoic: Loses it after seeing Mr. Morelli's charred corpse literally crumble apart. Granted, what he saw was incredibly disturbing.
Old Soldier: He served in World War I, and has been a cop for 27 years.
Private Eye Monologue: He seems to love giving 'em, despite being an actual cop.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: He fought in World War I, and was horrified by what he saw during his time there. He explains this is part of his reaction to Mr. Morelli's charred corpse crumbling apart in front of him.
Tritagonist: Biggs is the most important character in the narrative next to Cole and Jack, as he's not only Cole's final partner, but also the game's narrator for the opening and the patrol missions.

LAPD Law Enforcement

James Donnelly

Actor: Andrew Connolly

"God's mill may grind slowly, but it grinds finely, son!"

Captain of the Homicide Desk. Responsible for promoting Cole to detective.

Affably Evil: While he is likely a corrupt cop, given his Knight Templar tendencies, he always speaks to Cole in a fatherly tone and praises him every time he solves the case.
Anti-Hero: Of the unscrupulous variety.

Everyone Has Standards: He's willing to cover up the Werewolf's true identity for the sake of preserving USA face on the global Cold War stage (see Slave to PR below), but doesn't take the easy way out by simply letting the current suspects (several of whom he may hate for a variety of reasons) take the fall for the murders. Rather than allowing a Miscarriage of Justice, he resolves the issue by arranging with the District Attorney to have procedural errors and mistrials in each of their cases.
Expy: He pretty much IS Dudley Smith from L.A. Confidential.
First-Name Basis: With Rusty. He is the only person who can call him Finbarr without making him angry.
Hair-Trigger Temper: For the most part, Donnelly maintains a calm and professional tone, but one wrong sentence is enough to have him yelling in the face of the poor sap (usually Cole or Rusty) who dared to speak up.
Donnelly: You disappoint me, Cole Phelps. Get back in there and raise some lumps, boy! I need a confession.
Knight Templar: When he allows Cole to do his first interrogation at the station, he tells him that if he can't get a confession through questioning, Cole shouldn't be afraid of using violence to extract one. He's also rather enthusiastic about sending men to the gas chamber. In the first Homicide case he encourages Cole to convict their only suspect even though they have a better lead just to get the press off the LAPD's ass, and at the crime scene in the second Homicide case he even tells the journalists that are looking for a story that the LAPD are "doing God's work".
- Further shown in cases where you have a choice of who to convict, wherein he will tend to want the one conviction over another but only on political/religious/moralistic terms. He praises Cole if the latter charges Eli Rooney with the murder in "The Golden Butterfly," but berates him if he charges Hugo Moller; in the case, the evidence points more towards the latter, but Rooney is guilty of child molestation either way. A similar instance happens with Grosvenor McCaffrey in "The Studio Secretary Murder", whom Donnelly wants taken down no matter where the evidence points (although it does end up mostly pointing at him anyway.
Large Ham: Delivers his every word with the gravitas of a Shakespeare tragedy. Except when he shouts. Then he just becomes frickin' intimidating.
Officer O'Hara: Played by a native Irishman, who is implied to be one in-game as well.
Slave to PR: In reality, Donnelly's Knight Templar behavior is mostly show - he wants convictions partly because they make him and the LAPD look good, rather than out of a thirst for justice:
- He pushes Cole to convict suspects of publicly disliked backgrounds in spite of an investigation's findings, encouraging you to charge a pedophile with a woman's murder over another suspect, despite evidence implicating each of the two being roughly equal.
- His Large Ham persona is quite frequently displayed in front of the press.
- In the last homicide case, he forbids word of the Black Dahlia killer's return from leaving the police station, stating that the Department wouldn't survive the scandal of wrongly charging four innocents, unless the true culprit can be found. Later, he refuses to publicly expose Garrett Mason as the Werewolf due to the latter's relation to a high-level national politician.
What the Hell, Hero?: He gives one to Cole when he learns about the affair.

Gordon Leary

Actor: Ned Vaughn

Captain of the Traffic Desk. Cole starts out as a detective under his watch.

Beware the Nice Ones: He may be a nice guy in general, but he can have a fiery side when he is put under pressure by his balls-grilling, frying pan-toting chief. Can be seen here.
Nice Guy: He's an all-around pleasant guy and is very friendly with the officers in his Unit.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike many other LAPD officers, Leary's an out-and-out good guy.

Archie Colmyer

Actor: Steven Rankin

Lieutenant of the Vice Desk and Earle's former partner.

Dirty Cop: He's on the SRF's payroll, and has an "arrangement" that lets Victor Sanders off the hook in Reefer Madness.
Everyone Has Standards: Even though he's a Dirty Cop, even he can't stand Roy Earle.
Nice Guy: He tends to praise Cole and Roy for doing a fine job on a case, but as the intro for The Black Caesar shows, he's not afraid to get firm when Roy's being his usual douchey self.
Roy: We got better things to be doing than wasting our time on two dead junkies.
Colmyer: Did I ask your opinion, Detective? Two men dead on US Army issue morphine. That makes it an Ad Vice case! Beat it!

Lachlan McKelty

Actor: Randy Oglesby

Captain of the Arson Desk. Has a low tolerance for failure and a low opinion of Cole.

Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set him off and he'll especially tear Cole a new one if he interrupts him.
I Warned You: When Cole plans on investigating Elysian Fields Developments.
Jerkass: He never overlooks an opportunity to yell at Cole, and he doesn't treat Biggs much better.
Pet the Dog: If you aced the arson cases and despite not thinking highly of Cole, he still praises him and Biggs if they do a good job.

Malcolm Carruthers

Dr. Malcolm "Mal" Carruthers

Actor: Andy Umberger

Chief forensics expert for the LAPD. Mal is one of Cole's most useful and trusted allies throughout the course of the game, providing him with forensic evidence and autopsy reports crucial to solving his investigations. The most recurrent character in the game next to Cole himself, since he's present at pretty much every crime scene in the game, and he's most certainly earned his place amongst the fandom.

Consummate Professional: Mal takes his job DEAD serious. He's most definitely not the typical Deadpan Snarker coroner usually portrayed in fiction such as in CSI. He cracks no jokes, does not make fun of the dead and sees no morbid humor in his profession. He goes in, gets the evidence, provides it and that's that.
- The way he dismisses his personal feelings about Cole's adultery charge in favor of just doing his job and helping him investigate during Cole's time in Arson is also a perfect example of how professional he is. You can't help loving Mal after that moment.
The Coroner: This is his occupation.
Dead Serious: The reason he is such a Consummate Professional.
Not So Stoic: He noticeably smirks a bit when Cole does his Alas, Poor Yorick bit with the shrunken head.
- He also is visibly pissed off near the end of the Homicide desk. Not because of how the investigation is going but because he just had to fire his chief assistant for being a known associate of someone who is outed as a necrophiliac and thus a liability, so now he's understaffed at his job.
The Smart Guy: Comes with the job, but Mal is one of the best examples of said job in all of fiction.

Ray Pinker

Actor: JD Cullum

An investigator with Technical Services. He mainly shows up to help Cole handle evidence safely.

The Gadfly: He has a lot of fun pranking Carruthers and Cole with a miniature explosion.
The Lab Rat: LAPD evidence technician.
The Smart Guy: Probably shares this with Carruthers, though he shows up far less frequently.

William Worrell

The police chief of LAPD.

Alliterative Name: William Worrell
Da Chief: Says is right in his title.
Dirty Cop: Implied that he was in on the entire SRF fiasco and has a hand in covering up Phelps involvement...up to the point of straight-up trying to murder him.
The Dragon/The Heavy: For the SRF, in a way, considering that the SRF has the entire force in their pocket by extension. During A Different Kind of War, he sends a veritable army of corrupt cops to try and stop Phelps and Kelso in their tracks.
Karma Houdini: In the end, it is strongly implied that he has struck a deal with the Assistant DA, allowing him to go scot-free from his involvement in the Fund.
What the Hell, Hero?: Also calls out Cole for his affair with Elsa.

Other Major Figures

Jack Kelso

Actor: Gil McKinney

A Marine who served under Cole's command in World War II as a sergeant. Currently works for California Fire & Life as an insurance investigator and later for the DA's office as a special investigator.

Anti-Hero: He's more morally flexible than Cole, having let Courtney and his allies steal the morphine by not reporting them, ambushing gangsters, and shooting people before stomping on their wounds. Despite the actions that Jack takes, he still tries to fight for justice.
And Now for Someone Completely Different: Becomes the playable character in three of the six arson cases.
Badass Bookworm: Kelso uses his powers of research and gunplay both to bring down Leland Monroe.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted, as he wears the scars of being beaten up by mobsters, much like Jake Gittes wears the nose bandage.
Byronic Hero: Jack is a handsome Tall, Dark, and Snarky PI whose Dark and Troubled Past consists of experiencing the horrors of WWII first hand. He is known to be openly rebellious towards higher authority, yet has a charisma that earns people's trust and respect, and tries to be charming towards women. He has a cynical outlook on the world around him, but when given a task he is shown to be quite passionate in completing it.
Cowboy Cop: He is not afraid to mess people up as soon as he gets his hands on that Special Investigator's badge.
*BLAM* "That's my opening negotiating position!"
Determinator: Cole tells Elsa that if Jack sniffs corruption, he won't ever let it go. It's why Leonard Peterson deputizes him to investigate corruption in the LAPD.
Jack: (to Curtis) Your California is not the same as mine.
Deuteragonist: Jack is the most important character in the narrative next to Cole and even replaces him as the Player Character in the last three cases.
A Father to His Men: During the war, in stark contrast to Cole's approach.
Foil: To Cole as best described by Herschel Biggs:
"Cole Phelps and Jack Kelso. For some people, it's as simple as chemistry. Two guys who should have been friends, but their personalities got in the way. Phelps - a good guy, but wound way too tight. And Kelso - a quiet man who could never walk away from a fight."
- He fits the military stereotype of being the book dumb, but street smart NCO to Cole's book smart, but naive officer. Neither of them could lead their men correctly. Cole failed as an officer being unable to connect with his men while Jack was unable to convince them to lead a good life after the war.
Hardboiled Detective: Jack cultivates this persona during his time at California Fire and Life, and Cole even gently mocks him for it.
Hero of Another Story: Jack Kelso actually has more in common with the traditional Film Noir hero than Phelps does. He's rough-edged, noble while still being quite cynical, a private detective, and not afraid to work way outside the law to get some justice if he needs to do so. He also has difficulty reading "dames", and is quiet but fierce when provoked. This is probably why he ends up being the primary protagonist for much of the latter part of the Arson desk.
Knight in Sour Armor: Kelso spends much of his time feeling frustrated and disappointed in just about everyone, but he tries his best to help them anyway.
The Lancer: To Phelps during the war with a shade of Beleaguered Assistant; Phelps even acknowledges that Kelso hated his guts. Badly.
Leitmotif: “Kelso’s Escape.” A slight remix of the chase song, “STOP! LAPD!” Featuring instruments like more detailed drums and cymbals, flutes, a suspenseful piano as well as a trumpet mute. Plays during the climax of, “House Of Sticks,” when Jack frees himself from capture and rushes to Elsa’s apartment.
Private Detective: Technically as an insurance investigator, he is one of these.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Phelps's blue.
The Rival: During his days together with Phelps in Marine Officer Candidate School, until he drops out of OCS after getting frustrated with their numbers approach rather than actually leading. He continues to be this as Phelps's Sergeant, commanding more respect from their men than the officer to whom they ostensibly report.
Quit Your Whining: Gives one of these to Cole when he tries to apologize to Jack about his less-than-stellar leadership during the war.
Jack: I know you, Cole. You're still beating yourself up over that medal on Sugar Loaf. That medal you think you didn't deserve. But you just don't get it. Nobody deserves a medal, it's just the ridiculous situation you find yourself in and how you react to it. You think you failed up on that hill but courage isn't a tap you can turn on or off. Courage isn't permanent. It's a tenuous and fickle thing. Courage and cowardice exist in every man. Get over it.
Semper Fi: A Marine as stated, and certainly "always faithful", considering the characters' assertion of his devotion to his men.
Sergeant Rock: He was an NCO in the Marines, and it's clear from the flashbacks that he was an excellent one. Even Hogeboom speaks well of him while asking for a Mercy Kill.
Supporting Protagonist: While he serves as the player character for much of the second half of the "Arson" Desk, Cole's character arc still winds up being at the center of the game's story.
Verbal Tic: Frequently refers to young women as "princess" when speaking to them.
With Due Respect: Defines the relationship between Jack and Cole.
Would Hit a Girl: Well, if she decided to shoot him in the arm, then yes. Yes, he would.
"I never was very good at reading women..."

Elsa Lichtmann

Actress: Erika Heynatz

A German nightclub singer and junkie that Cole forms an attachment with.

Ambiguously Jewish: She fled to the United States with her friend after her parents were killed by Nazis. Given the genocidal policies towards Jewish people in Nazi Germany, it's possible she may be of Jewish heritage.
Broken Bird: A German refugee who has an unhealthy addiction to painkillers in order to cope with the loss to her friends.
The Chanteuse: She's the singer at the Blue Room nightclub, though most of her singing is seen in the background.
Defrosting Ice Queen: She's very standoffish and cold towards Cole Phelps at first since he's a detective working with a corrupt police system and she doesn't trust them. After sleeps with her and he starts helping her personally, she warms up to him.
Femme Fatale: A subversion; she initially comes off as standoffish when Cole interviews her during Manifest Destiny, but in later cases, she ultimately helps him out.
Functional Addict: Is stated to be addicted to painkillers, yet her behavior seems perfectly normal. She eventually manages to recover.
Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her most common outfit color is purple: one of her club dresses and two of her coats.
Simple, yet Opulent: Her singing dresses are subtly fancy, fitting an attraction for such a club.
Supermodel Strut: When she's leaving Jack's office, she does so with a hip-swaying strut worthy of a The Chanteuse. Jack can't help but stare as she walks away and the camera does the same.

Courtney Sheldon

A former Navy Corpsman attached to Cole's unit in Okinawa. He is now a medical student at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Doctor Fontaine.

All for Nothing: After things go south for him while trying to exit the drug dealing business and dumping the stolen morphine, Courtney Sheldon turns to Harlan Fontaine for help. Fontaine offers to take on the remaining morphine supply, claiming it would be used to help patients and G Is. Taking this offer apparently assuaged Courtney's conscience, whose reason to exit the drug business was the growing number of overdoses from the stolen morphine. Over the course of the Vice desk, anecdotal evidence suggests morphine was still showing up and being sold on the streets, despite "The Black Caesar" ending with most of Mickey Cohen's supply being seized by the police, implying Fontaine was selling on the street. A certain file you can read in "A Polite Invitation" not only confirms this, but indicates Fontaine became involved with Mickey Cohen in selling the morphine, rendering Sheldon's efforts to wash his hands of the ordeal pointless.
Beware the Nice Ones: Initially set up as a well-meaning but naive kid who gets in way over his head. The last two flashbacks reveal that he attempted to murder Phelps for the blunder in Okinawa, and was the instigator behind the morphine theft that began the whole spiral of events in the first place.
- For that matter, in the flashbacks he's described as charging through oncoming artillery fire to reach injured soldiers as a field medic... so he can take them out of their misery.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Not just him, but also asks this for the other 6th Marines. They have fought their fair share... but they believed that they weren't going to get their fair share.
Fatal Flaw: His naivety makes it way too easy for Harlan to play him like a fiddle, leading to several deaths in the story, and eventually his own demise.
Gender-Blender Name: Although the name Courtney is unisex, it is more often associated with women, though during the game's setting, it would have been a primarily male-given name.
Good Is Dumb: Sheldon is extremely brave, and wants a fair break for his fellow veterans. He also completely lacks common sense. Among his more suicidal actions are mouthing off to a dangerous mob boss, selling easily traceable morphine, and trusting the Obviously Evil Harlan Fontaine.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Dr. Fontaine kills him with his own stolen morphine. Roy lampshades this when his corpse is found in an alley, considering him a victim of his own product.
Horrible Judge of Character: Trusts Fontaine all the way... and then Fontaine kills him.
Mercy Kill: Does this to a mortally wounded Marine during the war.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He clearly means for the best. It just always turns out for the worst.
The Pawn: Gets completely played by Fontaine without even realizing it.
Token Good Teammate: For the Suburban Redevelopment Fund, albeit unwittingly.
Too Dumb to Live: This becomes glaringly obvious in the 11th newspaper cutscene. Trusting Harlan Fontaine is his undoing, especially since he's been given many chances to break free of the grasp of the Psycho Psychologist before his death.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Courtney's theft of the morphine and his medical career later all have one thing in common: he wants to compensate and alleviate his fellow Marines for all the bad shit they had to go through during the war. He just wants his fellow brothers in arms to have wealth and health he believes they've won twice over. Sadly for him, "the road to hell" and you know the rest.

Harlan Fontaine

Dr. Harlan Fontaine

Actor: Peter Blomquist

A psychotherapist with an unusual method for treating mental disorders.

Asshole Victim: Absolutely nobody feels sorry for him when Ira randomly murders him, as it was his own fault he was killed in the first place.
Big Bad Duumvirate: With Leland Monroe.
Chekhov's Gunman: At first, he only appears in the early parts of the game in the newspaper cutscenes. It wasn't until much later in the game, towards the end of the Vice desk, that he was proven to be one of the villains (though given his sinister aura, it probably won't come as too much of a surprise for most players).
Cold Ham: Has a colorful, flowery way with words, and rarely does his demeanor shift beyond "Calm And Collected". It's most noticeable when he, comes up with a solution to Courtney's stolen morphine, announcing it to him in a rather theatrical manner.
The Corruptor: He uses traumatized war veterans as pawns for his morphine smuggling, turning them into his unwitting servants and alienating them from anyone who might be able to save them.
Create Your Own Villain: Fontaine manipulating the sympathetic but mentally unstable Ira Hogeboom for his own ends results in Hogeboom having a complete psychotic break and turning into a Serial Killer. Fontaine becomes one of his last victims.
Deadly Doctor: He both kills people himself (e.g. by injecting Courtney with a lethal dose of morphine) and manipulates his patients into doing some truly horrific things. That's on top of basically being a kingpin in the illicit morphine business and masterminding the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.
Faux Affably Evil: He convinced many important people to partake in illegal activities and has shown a disturbingly casual willingness to kill people. At the same time, he is shown to be rather soft-spoken and polite.
Hate Sink: A complicated but evident example. In the Arson arc, his veneer of politeness slips away, exposing a disturbingly cold man who preys on the innocent, manipulating them into becoming broken shells that he can use and dispose of on a whim. He causes the deaths of countless people for selfish reasons, made even worse as he's in a position where he should be helping people. While the Black Dahlia killer, Marlon Hopgood, and Roy Earle are more unlikable than him, he is still a loathsome character who represents a manipulative sociopath who abuses his power in the worst way possible, while gaslighting and breaking his victims when they're at their weakest. It seems that along with Micah Bell, Peter Blomquist really has a knack at voicing the most unlikable bastards in gaming.
The Heavy: While his partner Leland may have come up with the SDF, it's Harlan that puts Leland's plot into motion by manipulating Ira into burning down the houses on their behalf. He also makes appearances during each of Cole's desks in some capacity, while Leland doesn't make his official debut until the Arson desk (excluding the large billboards with his face on it scattered about L.A.).
Hero Killer: He murders Courtney Sheldon with a morphine injection, though Sheldon was Obliviously Evil by this point.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Was killed by one of his own patients, whom he drove insane.
Karmic Death: Encouraging Ira's path of destruction ends with the insane veteran killing him in a crazed fit.
Lack of Empathy: A particularly noteworthy example is when he's talking with Ira about the innocent families whom the latter accidentally burnt to death. Fontaine casually shrugs it off as an unfortunate circumstance.
Manipulative Bastard: He convinces Ira that setting fires to houses would help him.
- Manipulates Sheldon to offload the stolen morphine supply to him, promising it will only go to patients that need it and away from gangsters and addicts. A certain file found in "A Polite Invitation" all but confirms he turned it right around and started directly selling to addicts, along with joining up with Mickey Cohen at some point.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: When you consider how he persuaded the likes of Ira and Courtney into doing some rather horrific things, it really makes you wonder how someone like Harlan became a doctor in the first place.
Non-Action Big Bad: Well, mostly. He does poison Sheldon, and brains Elsa with a crystal ball. Otherwise, he is essentially the puppetmaster pulling the strings from behind-the-scenes.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For most of his appearances, Fontaine has a calm and collected demeanor, keeping a cool head on his shoulders. The only real time we see his confidence shaken is when he realizes that Ira is now acting out of his control, which would inevitably be traced back to him.
Pragmatic Villainy: The fires he had Hogeboom commit all served a purpose – financial gain. He didn't need anyone dead, just the houses burnt down so they could buy the land. He's less than pleased when Ira snaps and becomes a serial arsonist because they only needed a certain set of houses burnt and it also creates a loose end.
Psycho Psychiatrist: Fontaine is manipulative, detached, and pushes a number of his patients into doing terrible things.
Southern Gentleman: He certainly has a way with words.
The Sociopath: Fontaine is completely incapable of developing emotional attachments to anyone, and his callous disregard for the lives of others is genuinely unsettling.
The Unfought: Phelps only ever encounters Fontaine once, long before his conspiracy is brought to light. By the time Phelps is in a position to bring him in, he's found dead in his own practice.
Walking Spoiler: He's the Big Bad and an incredibly sinister man with a massive role in the story. The fact that the morphine smuggling and the Suburban Redevelopment Fund are linked by Fontaine's involvement raises the stakes of the game tenfold.
Would Hit a Girl: He tried to kill Elsa by striking her head with a crystal ball.

Ira Hogeboom

A former Marine who was once part of another platoon in Cole's battalion on Okinawa.

Ax-Crazy: A tragic example. Considering everything he's been through, it's no wonder he lost his mind.
Accidental Murder: He mistakenly burned down a civilian hospital in Japan, under Cole's orders when they thought it was an enemy hideout. The resulting massacre haunts him after the war. Under Fontaine's influence, Ira accidentally kills two families, causing him to have a psychotic break.
The Big Guy: One of the reasons he was selected to tote a flamethrower.
- Meaningful Name: "Hogeboom" is Dutch for "tall tree".
Blue-and-Orange Morality: He has rationalized his killing as sending the victims to a better place and fighting for God. Inconsistently, however, he saved and protected Elsa.
Create Your Own Villain: In the rare example of a villain creating someone even more dangerous - Fontaine uses Ira's pyromania to do his dirty work while fooling him into believing that setting innocent fires would help his psychosis. Ira clearly gets worse as a result, and when Fontaine mistakenly sends Ira to houses that still have people in them, the mix of Ira's guilt - which Fontaine does not help, as he wants to keep his own agenda - and his preexisting instability turns Ira from an unbalanced and remorseful Anti-Villain into a fanatical Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, believing he's the The Scourge of God. The look on Fontaine's face as he realizes this is palpable.
- He may be something of a straight example for Cole, as well. The entire reason he went crazy in the first place was because Cole ordered him to incinerate a cave full of Japanese who turned out to be civilians. His earsplitting scream in the flashback is one of the most haunting moments in the entire game.
Death Seeker: Wants Jack to give him the Mercy Kill to free him of his trauma.
Deus ex Machina: Elsa probably would have ended up dead by Fontaine had Ira not appeared to kill him. He also continues to defend her against the thugs sent by the Suburban Redevelopment Fund to kill her for knowing too much.
Expy: Ira shares a lot of traits with Frankenstein's Monster. He's a big Tragic Monster created by the protagonist that has a complicated relationship with fire.
- One eyewitness even describes him as "a Boris Karloff type".
Face Death with Dignity: He salutes Kelso, his former sergeant, just before the man mercy kills him.
Fall Guy: Though not directly stated, Ira - a mentally unstable pyromaniacal veteran - was clearly intended to be a guy to take the fall for the fires if anything went bad, in a similar way that Courtney was positioned as the fall guy for the morphine trafficking. However, the investigation was done in an unexpected way, making this moot.
Heroic BSoD: After Ira unwittingly roasts a cave full of wounded and civilians at Cole's command, he is shown screaming in fury and charging at Cole. Two other marines have to hold him back, and Ira collapses and sobs.
It Has Been an Honor: His last words before Kelso puts him out of his misery.
Hogeboom: I was proud to serve with you, Jack.
Kill It with Fire: Flamethrower-man during the war, arsonist patsy after it.
Knight Templar: After accidentally killing the Morelli's, Ira has a psychotic break and begins thinking of himself as The Scourge of God. He kills Fontaine, both to save Elsa, and as part of his new outlook.
Mercy Kill: Jack shoots him dead, with Cole regarding it as doing Ira a favour.
Pyromaniac: His psychiatrist actually makes this worse as part of using Ira's acts of arson for the sake of a massive real estate scam.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Flame gunners had some of the worst experiences of the war, due to the weapon's short range requiring them to get within 20 yards or so of the people they burned alive, and Hogeboom had it even worse than most. He went into a cave trying to kill enemy soldiers. It turned out to be a hospital full of civilians, and the horror and guilt immediately broke him.
Still Wearing the Old Colors: In addition to his flamethrower, Hogeboom dons his USMC utilities and helmet for the final confrontation with Monroe's goons.
Tragic Monster: In a psychological sense, Ira has been driven insane with grief and remorse, to the point where he can no longer be reasoned with and must be killed so that his suffering can finally end, and so he won't hurt anyone else.
- Worse? He himself understands this: he welcomes death at Jack's hands.
Unwitting Pawn: Dr. Fontaine deliberately manipulated him to do the SRF's dirty work, burning down their junk houses to cover up the sub-par construction while passing it off as "therapy". It's heavily implied Fontaine and Monroe were either going to offer him up as a scapegoat to the police or simply kill him when he was no longer needed.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Mentally-broken veteran manipulated by Fontaine to become another pawn in the SRF scheme, only to completely lose it when he's sent to burn down a house with people still inside.
Walking Spoiler: Since the last revelations in the game are about him.

Notable Figures in the Patrol Cases

Edgar Kalou

Actor: Michael B. Silver

The temperamental owner of Hartfield's Jewelry Store. Kalou is the first suspect to be both arrested, interrogated and proven positively guilty by Phelps personally (while still being a beat cop, no less).

Bavarian Fire Drill: Kalou pulls an inverted Bavarian Fire Drill on Phelps and Dunn as they enter his store for the first time. As the two patrolmen enter, he happens to operate the register at that moment. Therefore, they believe him to be a mere co-worker, and ask him where they could find the real Mr. Kalou. Kalou just plays along and withdraws from the storefront, claiming he wanted to ring Kalou up. Then he starts running...
Hair-Trigger Temper: One of the more noticeable personality flaws of Kalou.
Insanity Defense: Phelps predicts that Kalou would get the gas chamber, unless his crime would be downgraded to "manslaughter". The latter is implied.
Irony: The anti-semetic Mr. Gage was shot by the Jewish Kalou with a Nazi-issue pistol.
The Last Straw: After what's implied to be years of Gage constantly tormenting him due to his anti-Semitism, what finally set Kalou off was Gage walking into his store and trying to talk someone (one of Gage's employees) out of making a purchase. Gage actively trying to ruin his business caused Kalou to snap and shoot him dead.
Man of Wealth and Taste: He is a jewelry store owner, and dresses accordingly. He even wears a gaudy red and green tie with a gold clip to match.
Motive Rant: Goes on one when he loses his temper at the end of his interrogation. According to Kalou, Everett Gage - the man he murdered - was an anti-Jewish, self-serving and deceitful member of the Chamber of Commerce, deliberately blocking all propositions that Kalou put forward. As Kalou's rage wears off at the interrogation's end, he first notices that he confessed everything, complete with a My God, What Have I Done? expression.
My God, What Have I Done?: After revealing his motive, his face turns to shock.
Smug Snake: Openly condescending to Cole. That is when he isn't enraged.
Sympathetic Murderer: Despite his temper, Gage was an anti-Semitic businessman who used his position in the Chamber of Commerce to slander Kalou and ruin his business. Phelps uses this to reduce Kalou's crime to second-degree murder, sparing him from execution.
Unstoppable Rage: In which he shot Everett Gage five times after Gage slashed at one of his own employees when she was viewing Kalou's exhibits,
Warm-Up Boss: His interrogation is the one that teaches you the controls, such as how to tell if he is lying, telling the truth, and how to respond accordingly and use evidence. This is driven home by the fact that, unlike any later interrogations, you can try as many times as needed to get it right.
Yiddish as a Second Language: During his interrogation, once Cole gets him riled up, he starts incorporating Yiddish words in his phrases, most of which are profanity and insults, such as "You goddamn goy putznasher"^note"gentile cocksucker", "that shtup Gage"^note"fuck", and "he's in with those momzers"^note"bastards".

Notable Figures in the Traffic Cases

Adrian Black

The victim (or is he?) of the first case Cole takes after being promoted off of Patrol. His car is found covered in blood, but with Mr. Black's corpse missing.

Business Trip Adultery: His mistress lives in Seattle, so he uses this to cover up his cheating.
Complexity Addiction: Divorcing your wife to be with your mistress will be costly, sure. But surely there has to be a better option than faking your own murder.
Faking the Dead: With the help of his plant foreman, Frank Morgan, Adrian acquired a slaughterhouse pig, killed it, and covered the inside of his car with the blood to fake his death while he hid at Morgan's apartment, waiting for money to come through so he could run to Seattle to be with his mistress.
Improbable Weapon User: Whoever killed Adrian used a water heater pipe. It's the same brand as the water heater Adrian just had installed, another hint as to what's going on here.
Never Found the Body: Adrian's car is found covered in blood, but without a corpse. Because there is none.
Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: There is far more blood in Adrian's car than a human body should hold. It's not human at all, but pig's blood.
Sleeping Single: He and his wife had separate bedrooms by the time of the attack.
Too Dumb to Live: There are easier ways to end an unhappy marriage than faking your own death, even in 1946. Bekowsky points out that this is going to cost Adrian his marriage, job, and freedom all at once.
Walking Spoiler: For the first real story case, this one has a lot of twists, thus all the spoiler tags.

June Ballard

A fading B-Movie actress Cole runs into after she and her niece drive off a cliff and into a billboard.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Initially painted as a poor innocent victim, but is later revealed to be a petty, blackmailing sellout.
Blackmail: It turns out she had Hopgood film Mark Bishop's face during his assault of her niece with the intent to force him to give a role in a new movie to her.
Broken Pedestal: Prior to the case, Bekowsky states how he's a big fan of June and her movies. Once he and Cole discover that June sold her niece out to be raped by Mark Bishop, his admiration quickly turns to disgust.
It's All About Me: She refuses to answer questions, either because she's "the talent" and would rather point the cops to Bishop, or because she'd rather let her mob boss husband Guy McAfee settle things in her stead. She also doesn't give a damn about her niece's safety or innocence, setting her up for the oldest scap in Hollywood to get what she wants.
Evil Matriarch: Took her niece to a film director known for asking for favors from young actresses.
Evil Is Petty: Her whole motivation for trying to blackmail Mark Bishop, even at the cost of Jessica Hamilton's safety? He wouldn't give her a part in his upcoming film. After the attempt on her life, she rings her husband in Vegas to sic mob goons on Bishop. Said phonecall suggests even McAfee finds the idea troublesome.
Karma Houdini: She sells out her niece to be molested, blackmails the molester, then arranges a hit on the guy after he tries to kill her. And receives no comeuppance for any of it whatsoever. While it's true that her attempted murder is what the case is about, the attempted hit, which the police end up dragged into, removes any sympathy she might have had left.
White-Dwarf Starlet: A bit of a subversion since as she seems to know her best years are behind her. Still, part of the case is caused by her sturbbornly refusing to give up a role in an upcoming movie despite being refused several times. Enough to set her niece up as part of a blackmailing gambit.

Guy McAfee

A powerful mobster based in Las Vegas and June Ballard's husband, who gets involved (albeit indirectly) in the later stages of The Fallen Idol.

The Ghost: Never encountered during the game, though his "private army" of goons, as Leary describes them, show up as enemies in The Fallen Idol.
Papa Wolf: Sends his goons to kill Mark Bishop after he learns that he raped McAfee's niece, Jessica Hamilton.

Notable Figures in the Homicide Cases

The Werewolf Killer

The Werewolf Killer/The Black Dahlia Killer/The Quarter Moon Killer/Garrett Mason

Actor: Andrew Lukich

The perpetrator of the Black Dahlia murder, believed to still be targeting women in LA. The killer turns out to be Garrett Mason, a temporary bartender for several bars whom Phelps and Galloway encounter in the first Homicide case.

Arc Villain: Of the Homicide desk, being the inspiration for the copycat murders that comprised every single case in this segment of the game (especially seeing as they ''weren't'' copycat murders - he was actually behind all five of them.
Ax-Crazy: He's a Serial Killer, what did you expect?
Been There, Shaped History: Mason murdered Elizabeth Short, the "Black Dahlia".
Boom, Headshot!: He leads Cole through an extended chase through the catacombs, but he does peek around the corners occasionally to see where Cole is. If you are quick, and have an excellent shot, you can get him with a headshot, ending the sequence before it really even starts. It doesn't matter what you are shooting with, one headshot kills him.
Chekhov's Gunman: First seen as the temporary barman in the first Homicide case.
Early-Bird Cameo: If Cole revisits Ray's Cafe in A Marriage Made in Heaven, Garrett can be seen tending the bar.
Fatal Flaw: Pride. As lampshaded by Cole, Mason could have easily gotten away with his string of murders, leaving innocent men to be punished for his crimes. But he was so self-assured of his intelligence that he couldn't help leaving behind clues leading to his hideout for the sake of taunting the LAPD. This ultimately ends up being his undoing.
Foreshadowing:
- When you first meet Mason, Cole gives a very detailed description of the first case victim, and Mason is quick to reveal her name without any hesitation. Seems pretty suspicious that a barman, and a temp at that, would know such specific details on the fly.
- In The Golden Butterfly case, Carruthers says the rope used to strangle Deidre Moller can be used for bell ropes in churches. This foreshadows the killer's hideout is located in a church.
- In The Silk Stocking Murder, Diego Aguilar mentioned a bar temp working with him on the night when Antonia Maldonado was murdered. While this person of interest is never encountered during the case, it is all but explicitly stated to have been Mason.
- There's an abandoned church that's missing one of the pickets on its fences. Maldonado's room is broken into using a picket.
For the Evulz: There really is no reason for the grisly murders of his victims. He just did it to toy with the police and assert his intelligence of how he would outsmart them.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: Forces Cole to chase him through the catacombs at the abandoned church.
Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Mason's identity is covered up because he's the half-brother of a high-ranking government official. Judging by his surname, it is very likely Mason's half-brother is Lowell Blake Mason, the United States Federal Trade Commissioner during the period the game is set.
Jack the Ripoff: The LAPD believes that the murders are simply copying the Black Dahlia case and different men are charged each time, though Phelps begins to believe that the murders are too coincidental to be copycats. Subverted when it turns out Mason is behind all of the murders and had framed other men for them.
Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. While Phelps ultimately kills him, Captain Donnelly decides to cover up Mason's identity as the Black Dahlia killer as he happens to be related to a government official, while releasing the people Mason framed from custody.
Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Some of the people he's framed weren't very moral people themselves.
Mad Doctor: His possession of various surgical tools in his hideout implies that he has a medical background.
The Nondescript: He's described by eyewitnesses as having a very generic appearance. This works to his advantage, as it makes him the last person anyone (including the player) would expect.
Serial Killer: The five murders Cole investigates were far from his only victims.
The Sociopath: A textbook example. Charismatic and charming, a consummate liar, commits heinous crimes for the thrill of it and is utterly remorseless for the women he's killed and the men he's framed.
They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: What makes Mason so dangerous is that nothing about him stands out, which is why he slipped under the police's radar for so long to. David Brenner, whom Mason sold Moller's ring to, described Mason as "one of those forgettable faces".
Walking Spoiler: His true identity, at least, as well as the fact that he committed all five murders of the Homicide desk, meaning all the other suspects were falsely accused.
Wicked Cultured: He's clearly well-versed in Greek mythology and the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, as demonstrated in the city-wide scavenger hunt he arranges for Phelps and Galloway.
The World Is Not Ready: Donnelly's justification for keeping his identity as The Werewolf under wraps, since it turns out he's the half-brother of one of America's most influential politicians.
Worthy Opponent: Considers Cole to be this, as he managed to deduce the clues that he sent to the LAPD and figure out his identity.

Grosvenor McCaffrey

Actor: Chris J. Johnson

A writer and social activist suspected of killing Evelyn Summers.

Asshole Victim: It turns out that he's The Scapegoat of Summers' murder, but given his attitude, you'll wish he stayed in prison.
Berserk Button: His dishonorable discharge for assaulting a woman who tried to pickpocket him is this for McCaffery.
Dirty Coward: After realizing that there's evidence that got planted in his apartment to frame him for a crime he didn't commit, instead of reporting to the police like an honest citizen, he tried to pin the blame on the victim's boyfriend despite knowing that he's innocent to cover up his own ass.
Hate Sink: McCaffrey is a smug, arrogant, woman-beating coward who's willing to ruin other people's lives to save his own skin.
Insufferable Genius: He acts like he's intellectually superior to everyone, but he's way over his head.
Jerkass: He's a heartless douchebag who looks down on everyone and will betray them without a second thought.
Jerkass Has a Point: He points out how someone would have to be a complete idiot to leave evidence of a murder they committed in their apartment.
Not Helping Your Case: Yelling out that the murder victim deserves to die when you're the suspect of said murder is not how you prove your innocence, man!
Phony Veteran: He claims to have seen the horrors of war, but he received a dishonorable discharge before he even finished his training. Cole, an actual veteran, isn't impressed with this idiot at all.
Cole Phelps: We know all about you and your dishonorable discharge - beating some poor woman near to death in Syracuse. You've never been in combat, McCaffrey. Your whole life is a fraud.
Smug Snake: He acts as if he's in control of the situation the entire case, but when Cole touches a nerve he loses his temper and reveals the bitter and cruel monster underneath.
Would Hit a Girl: He got discharged from the Army for beating a woman to near death.
Villainous Breakdown: He IMMEDIATELY loses his cool, and is reduced to a shouting mess, after you reveal his dishonorable discharge. Any trace of his Smug attitude disappears.

Notable Figures in the Ad Vice Cases

Mickey Cohen

Actor: Patrick Fischler

A Real Life Jewish mobster that Cole encounters during his time in Ad Vice.

Arc Villain: He's the closest thing the Vice desk has to one. Cohen is either directly or indirectly responsible for nearly everything bad that happens in almost every Vice case - from his brother-in-law Lenny Finkelstein's dope racket in "The Black Caesar", to the hits put out against Albert Hammond and the former Marines aboard the USS Coolridge in "The Set Up" and "Manifest Destiny", respectively.
Faux Affably Evil: Cohen is charming and charismatic when he needs to be. He's also a ruthless crime lord who will callously order the murder of anyone who so much as looks at him funny.
Foregone Conclusion: The real Mickey Cohen died at home in his sleep in 1976. So, no matter how much you'll want to, you're not going to get to shoot him in the face.
Historical Domain Character: The dope racket is fictional, but he was a famed character in 1940s LA.
Kosher Nostra: Famous Jewish gangster, tosses around the word putz.
Stupid Evil: Selling morphine to junkies that can't handle it wasn't his idea, his solution to cut it with water however isn't gonna help but refuses to back down from it because Courtney disrespected him.
The Unfought: Although Cole does shoot his brother-in-law, Cohen remains a background character for much of the game. The closest he comes to action is when Kelso and Sheldon ambush him and his goons in a cutscene, forcing him to back down, but there's still no violence.

Julia Randall

A fashion model who was found dead of a morphine overdose. She is a person of interest in "The Naked City" DLC case.

Asshole Victim: See Bitch in Sheep's Clothing below.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Behind her beautiful exterior is a thief who's willing to rob her best friend's family to satisfy her greed and vanity.
Control Freak: She laughed at Henry Arnett's face when he wanted out of her burglary ring, which he ordered her death to escape it.
Gold Digger: She uses her beauty to manipulate various men to do whatever she wants, but only paying attention to those with the most money while stringing others along.
Hair-Trigger Temper: According to her maid, she could act nice one moment and scream in your face the other.
Sanity Slippage: Her drug addiction causes her greedy mentality to be continuously unstable, which is the reason why she starts a burglary ring.

Notable Figures in the Arson Cases

Vernon Mapes

Actor: Jack Conley

Retired LAPD Officer for the Ad Vice Desk, now Head of Security for the Hughes Aircraft Los Angeles HQ. He is also responsible for the less scrupulous bits of Howard's interests. He is a person of interest in the "Nicholson Electroplating" DLC Case.

Arc Villain: Of Arson Desk case, "Nicholson Electroplating". Outside of the explosion itself that started the case, he's secretly behind most of the happenings that led to it happening in the first place.
Big Bad Friend: Downplayed since Biggs still doesn't mince words when describing him, but they're on friendly enough terms to the point where Mapes lets Cole and Herschel in to ask some questions.
Casting Couch: Herschel mentions how Mapes would run "fuckpads" as an Ad Vice cop.
Cool Car: Makes an entrance by rolling up in a black "Tucker Torpedo".
Dirty Cop: Back when he was still on the force, he made it up to Ad Vice and ran prostitution rings for Hughes' chosen "starlets".
The Dragon: As the HQ's head of security, Mapes is the go-to bagman, pimp, and enforcer for the infamous Howard Hughes. He used to run Hollywood's usual racket for any dame unfortunate enough to be chosen by said boss.
Fiery Cover Up: It turns out he was planning on burning down the home of a Lockheed Martin employee to cover Hughes' connection with the chemical plant.
The Heavy: Everything he's behind is or was under the orders of Hughes and his company. In his attempt to secure the revolutionary aluminum polishing method, he killed employees of rival companies and conducted operations for industrial espionage, until things went wrong and led to the freak accident at Nicholson Electroplating.
He Knows Too Much: As it turns out, he killed McLellan in order to get rid of any competitors for the revolutionary industrial process.
Jerkass: It's saying something when he was seen as an idol for ROY EARLE! when the corruption itself wasn't enough. He flat-out lies in every question and tries to be as uncooperative as possible. Not to mention trying to cover his hide, using the lives of not thugs or crooks, but honest security guards.
Kick the Dog: Cole outright calls Mapes a pimp with a badge and compares him to Roy. To help establish how infamous Vernon is, Biggs clarifies that Mapes was something of a role model for anybody in Ad Vice.
Revealing Cover Up: He tries to sever any and all connections he and Hughes' company have with the chemical plant by burning down McLellan's home, unaware of Cole and Biggs' presence inside.
Pet the Dog: He allows Cole and Biggs to enter the HQ, overriding the MP authorities.
Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Despite being the Arc Villain of the case he appears in, his presence and actions mean little to nothing to the rest of the Arson Desk, much less the rest of the main plot.
Predecessor Villain: His longstanding career as a crooked cop made his peers hang their heads in shame while paving the way for plenty of other creeps in Ad Vice to follow in his footsteps.

Leland Monroe

Actor: John Noble

A rich and influential real estate tycoon, Monroe is the head of Elysian Fields Developments, a land development firm that has become very prominent in Los Angeles.

Big Bad Duumvirate: With Dr. Harlan Fontaine.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Somewhat unlike Fontaine, Monroe doesn't actually do much beyond planning the SRF. He's more of a figurehead for the whole operation, albeit a knowing benefactor who does have much of L.A. under his thumb.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: An archetypal example. Monroe only cares about making money, and he'll willingly ruin people's lives to do it.
Even Evil Has Standards: As shown in the last newspaper cutscene, Monroe is taken aback when Dr. Fontaine confesses to murdering Courtney.
Expy: Of Noah Cross.
Eyes Always Shut: Or at least very squinty. Which can make reading him a little difficult.
Faux Affably Evil: At first he's fairly polite to Cole and Biggs, and even greets Jack when he's storming his mansion. He slowly becomes less and less polite as the game progresses, however.
Money Is Not Power: Leland Monroe receives a wakeup call that dealing with individuals who can't be bribed and aren't afraid of the law results in him being reduced to utter helplessness.
Shame If Something Happened: Monroe gives a thinly disguised threat to Biggs, telling him he's an advisor on the police pension fund.
Smug Smiler: Face it, you've wanted to wipe that grin off all those billboards/waybills at one time or another.
Villainous Breakdown: The moment Jack shot him in the leg.

Curtis Benson

Vice-President of California Fire & Life, the insurance company that Jack Kelso works for.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: His company holds inflated insurance policies on poorly-constructed homes, which are then burned for profit.
Dirty Old Man: He has an affair with a 12-year-old girl. Kelso is understandably enraged by this when he confronts Benson at his apartment.
Ephebophile: Curtis Benson keeps a twelve year old girl in his bed. Kelso is nauseated but doesn't kill him or physically hurt him more.
Early-Bird Cameo: You can find an insurance letter written by him on the victim in the early Traffic case "A Marriage Made In Heaven."

Fletcher Bowron

The mayor.

Historical Domain Character: Loosely inspired by the real-life L.A. mayor of the same name.

Donald Sandler

The D.A.

What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Cole for his affair with Elsa along with Donnelly and Worrell.

Characters / L.A. Noire

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