L.A. Noire: The True Story Behind The Black Dahlia

L.A. Noire takes the latter view, eventually revealing that a barman called Garrett Mason was responsible for Short's death, as well as five other murders. Cole and Rusty kill Mason in a shootout, but are asked to bury their discovery by Captain Donnelly, who says that Mason is well connected to a senior US politician. This is all a complete fiction obviously, but it does more than just play off the Dahlia legend; it highlights a very real possibility that corruption within the LAPD was to blame for the case going cold.

Police corruption was endemic in the LAPD during the 1940s, and it's a key pillar of L.A. Noire's story - especially once you get to the Vice and Arson desks. Police incompetence is also pervasive, with both factors having been optioned as causes for why the B.D. case went unsolved.

One suspect in the case, a physician called George Hodel - who was later accused by his own son (now a retired LAPD detective) of being the B.D. killer, among other things - was said to have connections within the department, which may have enabled him to evade justice. Not quite the far-reaching political scandal as told in the game, but still, its inspirations are clear.

Hodel was never formally charged by the LAPD even after also being suspected of killing his secretary, Ruth Spaulding, further raising the possibility that connections to the department got him off the hook, just as Mason's did in L.A. Noire. The character may not be an exact copy of Hodel, but as an analogue to address how police corruption may have impacted the Dahlia case, he works well enough.

In summary, L.A. Noire is itself emblematic of the Dahlia legend. However, it's also possible to view the game as a valuable approximation of the LAPD in 1947, one as beholden to the tropes of film noir as it is conscious of the historical realities of the time. It may differ on some crucial details, but L.A. Noire's handling of the Dahlia murder illustrates a rich understanding of its source material, as well as how genius a title it really was.

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