History Recap / LANoire

* AssholeVictim: Grosvenor may not be the Black Dahlia, but he's definitely a complete scumbag.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The release of incredibly high potency morphine on the market is killing people due to the otherwise experienced users expecting a more typically cut potency.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Kelso's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire with Mickey Cohen failed miserably despite their show of force. Mickey just orders them picked off individually once they go back to their normal lives.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The massive destruction of a six block area of Los Angeles and a mushroom cloud mistaken for an atomic explosion seems like a complete work of fantasy. In fact, on 20 February 1947, a large accidental explosion at the O'Connor Plating Works resulted in sixteen deaths and left a twenty-five foot crater. The chemist involved was later revealed to have faked his credentials.

* NoKillLikeOverkill: Adrian Black slaughtered a pig and left its gore throughout the interior of his car.

* MortonsFork: Most players agree that neither Hugo nor Eli is a likely suspect in the murder but you have to finger one of them for the crime.

* AwfulWeddedLife: The Black marriage is a complete failure with Adrian willing to fake his death to get out of it. {{Subverted}} in the fake that Margaret is extremely nice, if a bit shy, and they are financially solvent.

** Leroy takes an innocent African American girl hostage in the best ending. You can actually prevent it by firing a warning shot.

From there, they head to Tomoko's apartment and discover it has been ransacked. They proceed to check out the Laundry, finding a dead end, before heading to Hughes Aircraft. There, they meet Vernon Mapes, and go through the Spruce Goose. After returning to the laboratory and discovering how the process caused the explosion, they find an address of a Hughes bungalow that they find Mapes burning down and barely escape. Chasing him back to Hughes Aircraft, they fight with the Hughes Security Forces and eventually kill Mapes in a fight.

Cole Phelps and Herschel Biggs are assigned to work together despite the fact the former is disgraced while the latter doesn't want a partner. They are immediately assigned two separate arson investigations. The Steffens House Fire resulted in no casualties but the family losing everything while the Sawyer House Fire killed a family of four. Don Steffens mentions that he escaped the disaster due to being on vacation in the Catalina Islands at the time. Watching the fire was Herbert Chapman, a known pyromaniac. Cole and Biggs also find a faulty regulator valve at the second house. Heading to the Gulliver Travel Agency, they find out more about the contest and learn it was designed to appeal to sales holdouts.

Cole and Biggs investigate a burned down home where a family of four died horribly. Interviewing the next door neighbor, Dudley Forman, they discover they were also supposed to be on vacation. Heading to the Rancho Escondido, they find that the houses are made of inferior construction materials.

* SkewedPriorities:
** Kelso is more interested in calling out Cole Phelps than he is in helping with his case despite being targeted by the mob. Possibly because Jack knows that his fellow Marines face serious criminal charges if he exposes them.
** Arguably, the LAPD in their focus on Cole's adultery rather than the fact he's in the middle of a massive homicide case involving a dozen dead bodies. Only arguably because Elsa Licthmann is a person of interest in the case and even then that doesn't come up.

An abandoned Packard is found nearby the police station with two of its wheels missing. Cole and Bekowsky find a notebook full of young men's numbers and soon deduce they are teenagers. Interrogating the Argenitian diplomat, Juan Fransisco Valdez, they determine he acquired the car to accept a bribe. Also, that he is an ephebophile. After conversing with car dealer, William Dewey, they determine the car thief was Gabriel Del Gado. Interrogating his pregnant girlfriend, Anna Rodriguez, they find he is a car thief of many more vehicles. Cole and Bekowsky then track him down and bring him in.

* CoverUp: Captain Donnelly suppresses evidence that they're dealing with a SerialKiller rather than a series of copycats.

Cole chases Mason through the church's catacombs before finally killing him. Upon meeting up with Donnelly however, Cole and Galloway learn that Mason is a half-brother to a prominent politician, and that the L.A.P.D. subsequently cannot name him as the Black Dahlia Killer. Instead, arrangements are made for the quiet releases of the men arrested for Mason's crimes, and Cole is reassigned to Administrative Vice.
and finally have a chase throughout the catacombs that ends in the death of the suspect.

* CoverUp: Captain Donnelly decides to keep the Black Dahlia Killer's identity secret due to his being half-brother to a prominent political family.

Phelps and Earle head to meet Freddie Calhoun, a junkie and police informer. Freddie tells them about a massive reefer smuggling ring bringing in fifty pounds a week. Heading to the house, they're almost immediately forced into a shoot out. Investigating the house after killing the suspects, they find clues that lead them to the Parnell Soup Company. Speaking with Howard Parnell, they find out the soup company is being used to smuggle marijuana through the 20th Century Market. After arresting Airto Sanchez, another shoot out at Parnell's Soup Company, they find a puzzle in silver dollars given to each of the drug dealers. This leads them to Masangkay Metals and the boss of the reefer ring, Victor Sanders.

Roy Earle invites Cole Phelps to a boxing match that is meant to be thrown by English boxer, Albert Hammond. Albert beats his opponent instead and causes a massive manhunt for him, including by his manager, Carlo Arquero. Investigating the flop house he's staying at, they find evidence leading to his girlfriend, Candy Edwards. Cole rescues her as she's being beaten by Carlo Arquero. Candy picks up a massive amount of money bet on him and is then killed by Carlo Arquero. Cole and Roy head to the Egyptian theater and have a shootout with Albert before Cole lets Albert go. Much to Roy's disgust.

Roy and Cole investigate a shootout at the 111 Club Crime Scene where they discover one of Cole's former unit has been killed. They discover not only more signs of the missing morphine but machine guns as well as stolen cigarettes. Heading to the Blue Room, Cole interrogates Elsa Lichtmann and gets nothing from her.

Later, he heads back to her place and they have a sexual encounter that is secretly observed by Roy Earle. Interrogating Mickey Cohen next at his club, he is evasive and overconfidant. Dealing with a bus shooting and sniper, Cole quickly deduces someone is attempting to wipe out his old unit over the morphine. Cole proceeds to interrogate Jack Kelso, who gives up nothing. From there, they head to Robert's diner and have a car chase followed by a shoot out.

Here, Cole finds evidence there's a mole in the LAPD ratting out the names of the Marines involved. Then a third at the Hollywood post office where two more Marines have been killed. This provides information on a meeting with Courtney Sheldon and Doctor Fontaine later that evening. Finally, a fourth shoot out at Grauman's Chinese Theater. They arrest Courtney Sheldon, but the interrogation is interrupted by Cole's superiors revealing their awareness of his affair with Elsa. This being the late 1940's, Cole is hit with a career-sinking adultery charge and held in contempt by the media.

Jack Kelso heads to multiple bug spray companies to determine which one employs the arsonist. Getting his address, he heads to the Rancho Rincon ranch house. Meanwhile, Cole Phelps heads to the offices of Doctor Fontaine and finds the Doctor dead as well as Elsa Lichtman kidnapped. Investigating, they discover the final piece of the puzzle for the Suburban Redevelopment Plan's corporate conspiracy, that they are building houses to increase the value of land about to be seized by the highway.

Another letter is sent to the police by the Black Dahlia Killer that sends Cole and Galloway on scavenger hunt throughout the city to find all of the killer's clues related to Percy Shelly. They visit the fountain at Pershing Square, the Hall of Records, the LA Public Library, Westlake Tar Pits, the LA County Art Museum, the Intolerance Set, Christ Crown of Thorns church, and finally have a chase throughout the catacombs that ends in the death of the suspect.

Cole hears a gunshot and finds a dead body outside of a shoe store. A man, Everett Gage, has been murdered by multiple gunshots. After interrogating from saleswoman, Clovis Galletta, he discovers the killer is Jewish jewelry store owner, Edgar Kalou. After confirming his ownership of the murder weapon, Cole chases him down from his place of business then interrogates him back at the station. Edgar Kalou admits to the murder and that it was done to avenge the racism he'd suffered at the victim's hands.

* AwfulWeddedLife: The Black marriage is a complete failure with Bekowsky willing to fake his death to get out of it. {{Subverted}} in the fake that Margaret is extremely nice, if a bit shy, and they are financially solvent.

* AccidentalMisnaming: In "The Driver's Seat," the first Traffic case, when introduced to Stefan Bekowski the watch commander pronounces it '''Berkowski''. Probably an actor oversight; the in-game subtitles provide the correct name.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Juan Fransisco Valdez is treated with disgust and loathing by all of the other characters, even more so for the age of his partners.

** Lorna and Leroy concoct a plan to murder Lester Pattinson for the insurance money. They raise the life insurance right before doing it, hide the knife nearby the murder scene in a dumpster, make no attempt to hide their affair, and are arrogant throughout the interrogation.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Jean Archer mentions James Belasco's first name despite the fact they didn't mention it and is dying he knew him.

* AssholeVictim: Mark Bishop is a rapist and man who preys on very young women. Likewise, June Ballard set her niece up to be raped in order to blackmail Mark Bishop.
* {{Blackmail}}: June Ballard films Mark Bishop sleeping with her drugged niece and planned to use it to force him to cast her in one fo his pictures.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Mark Bishop attempted to kill the wife of one of the most powerful mobsters in America.

Cole Phelps has been a Burglary detective for six months when he's promoted to Homicide. His new partner, Rusty Galloway, and he are sent to investigate a murder bearing the signs of the Werewolf killer. The victim, Celine Henry, was at the Bamba Club the night before. Interrogating Dick [=McColl=], they investigate Jacob Henry, her husband, who just moved out. Later, they receive a tip on a man named Alonzo Mendez who was seen with Celine on the night of the murder. Findinga a box with the murder weapon in Alonzo's apartment, they arrest him after a chase.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: You'll receive one of these from Captain Donnoly if you arrest Hugo rather than Eli.

Captain James Donnelly informs Phelps and Galloway of another brutally murdered woman nearby city hall. Investigating the crime scene, they discover the victim's name was Antonio Maldonado. Investigating her boarding house, they meet with Barbara Lapenti who directs her to the El Dorado Bar as well as her husband, Angel Maldonado. After discovering a second note from the Black Dahlia Killer has been sent to the police, they journey to the Just Picked Fruit Market and meet Clem Feeney. Clem has some items implicating him as the killer and he is captured after a car chase.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Divorce was something that Antonio clearly struggled with due to her Catholic faith.
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Clem Feeney's bootlegging business leads to him becoming a suspect in the murder. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}} as most players as well as Cole will have figured out there's a SerialKiller at work.]]

* AssholeVictim: Grosvenor may not be the Black Dahlia murderer but he's a complete scumbag.

* DirtyCommunists: Grosvenor is a communist and a murderer of women [[spoiler: even if he's not guilty here.]]

* ILoveTheDead: John Jamison is a necrophile and gets clubbed by Galloway for his actions.

* DelusionsOfEloquence: Garrett Mason is a fan of Percy Shelly but makes no art of his own, merely plagiarizes others.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: Averted. All of the wrongfully convicted murder suspects will be released on technical issues.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The release of incredibly high potency morphine on the marlet is killing people due to the otherwise experienced users expecting a more typically cut potency.

* KarmaHoudini: Victor Sanders is implied to get off scott free despite the massive amount of bloodshed in the mission from his men.

** Phelps is called out by mutliple individuals for the fact that he had an affair on his wife, one officer refusing to shake his hand and another calling it "Un-American."

Cole and Biggs investigate a burned down mansion where a family of four died horribly. Interviewing the next door neighbor, Dudley Forman, they discover they were also supposed to be on vacation. Heading to the Rancho Escondido, they find that the houses are made of inferior construction materials.

* CorporateConspiracy: The Suburban Development fund is creating houses out of prop lumber and without functioning electricity or plumbing due to the fact that they're going to be demplished anyway.

After confronting Benson, Kelso heads to the Fire and Life building where he discovers the paper trail that names Courtney Sheldon as one of the directors of the Suburban Development Fund. Kelso shoots it out with some of Leland's goons before receiving call from Leland Monroe meet with him. Kelso confronts Courney Sheldon at medical school before assembling a group of his fellow Marines to assault Leland's mansion. Kelso shoots Leland in the knee and walks off with the information necessary to prove his involvement in the fund.

* DirtyOldMan: [[spoiler: He has an affair with a 12-year-old girl. Kelso is understandably enraged by this when he confronts Benson at his apartment.]]

Jack Kelso explores Ira Hogeboom's house and discovers he has a flamethrower and is a former member of Cole's unit. Also, that Ira has been living in the tunnels under Los Angeles. Jack is then made a suspect by the police and the Vice squad chases him down. Cole manages to keep the cars off him as they both go into the sewers under Los Angeles where Ira is hiding out. Killing multiple members of the Vice Squad, Jack Kelso finally confronts Ira and kills him. Cole rescues Elsa but dies in the process and is given a heroes funal but attended by his worst enemies.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Suburban Development Project is finished, several of its members are arrested, Ira is dead, and a good chunk of the corrupt AD Vice squad is killed in the process. However, some of the players get away with it and Cole Phelps dies.]]

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Cole Phelps dies in a tidal wave of water.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The Chief of Police, Mayor, and Roy Earle all get away with their crimes.]]

Here, Cole finds evidence there's a mole in the LAPD ratting out the names of the Marines involved. Then a third at the Hollywood post office where two more Marines have been killed. This provides information on a meeting with Courtney Sheldon and Doctor Fontaine later that evening. Finally, a fourth shoot out at Gauman's Chinese Theater. They arrest Courtney Sheldon, but the interrogation is interrupted by Cole's superiors revealing their awareness of his affair with Elsa. This being the late 1940's, Cole is hit with a career-sinking adultery charge and held in contempt by the media.

* KansasCityShuffle: Destroying Cole Phelps' Hero Cop reputation is meant to distract from the investigation into the Surbuban Redevelopment Fund.

After visiting the Suburban Redevelopment Fund and discovering it is an Elysian Housing Development site, they go to Fire Station No. 32 and conduct an experiment to show how the explosion might have occurred. Heading to the [=InstaHeat=] Factory, they talk with Ivan Rasic and find out that he has hired three installers with criminal records: Walter Clemens, Matthew Ryan, and Reginald Varley. Clemens and Ryan have anarchist pamphlets in their lockers while Varley has arson paraphenalia. After clearing Walter Clemens, they arrest both Varley and Ryan after chases. In the end, Cole arrests Varley but Ryan goes up the river for a murder back in Chicago.

* CorporateConspiracy: Elysian Fields is using the Surbuban Development Fund and a series of arson attacks to force locals out of their homes so they can be burned down. They will then buy the land on the cheap.

* EvilMentor: Biggs aludes to Mapes being this for Roy Earle.

* TheGhost: We never see Howard Hughes or Tomoko Okamoto during the case.

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: The destruction of the electroplating plant and cover up is one of the biggest cases in the game, arguably more than the main plot, but interrupts the Surburban Development Fund before being resolved by the end.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Surburban Development Project is finished, several of its members are arrested, Ira is dead, and a good chunk of the corrupt AD Vice squad is killed in the process. However, some of the players get away with it and Cole Phelps dies.]]

A man, Lester Pattinson, is found dead in the street after being hit with a red Lincoln Continental. Interviewing the bartender and a witness, Cole and Bekowsky head to the man's home and find his widow, Lorna Pattinson, shacked up with the bar's owner, Leroy Sabo. After apprehending the driver, William Shelton, they discover that Lester Pattinson died of a stab wound instead of being hit by the car. Going back to the Pattinson residence, Lorna is shot by Leroy before the latter is apprehended by Cole.

* AssholeVictim: Leeroy was an abusive drunk who gambled away all of his family's money.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Leeroy and Lorna did not have a happy marriage. They married just before he went off to fight in [=WW2=] and had only known each other a week.

** Leeroy takes an innocent African American girl hostage in the best ending. You can actually prevent it by firing a warning shot.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: Leeroy and Lorna plan to kill Lester in order to be together.
* SayingTooMuch: Leeroy confesses the entirety of their scheme after overhearing Lorna attempting to throw him under the bus.

** Lorna also attempts to blame the murder on Leeroy ''within earshot'' of the bartender.

Here, Cole finds evidence there's a mole in the LAPD ratting out the names of the Marines involved. Then a third at the Hollywood post office where two more Marines have been killed. This provides information on a meeting with Courtney Sheldon and Doctor Fontaine later that evening. Finally, a fourth shoot out at Gauman's Chinese Theater. They arrest Courtney Sheldon but the interrogation is interrupted by Cole being arrested for adultery.

* DrugsAreBad: A Zig-Zagged Trope as the pot dealers are the most violent aggressive
organization in the entire game. However, generally treats reefer as a harmless pastime that poses no real threat.

* AllCrimesAreEqual: Shoot outs and killing suspects are much more common in street crimes than the main game, whether the subjects are thieves or murderers. {{Subverted}} in that you can theoretically subdue them in order ways if you can get close to them.

* AmbiguousSituation: In the first case, "Upon Reflection", it seems very likely that Detective Rose framed bookmaker Eroll Schroeder for murder to get out of paying his gambling debts. However, we have no proof of this and it is left ambiguous whether or not Eroll did it. Is Eroll Schroeder guilty of innocent? Was he framed by Detective Rose? We never find out what the truth is.

* ThrowIngTheFight: Albert makes a deal with his bookie to throw a fight, only to promptly win it.