L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Captain Dudley Smith: [interrogation at the Victory Motel] Reciprocity, Mr. Hudgens, is the key to every relationship.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Jack Vincennes: Oh, lookee here: the great jerkoff case of 1953.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Dick Stensland: I got a hot date.
Bud White: Yeah? Who is she and what did you arrest her for?

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Captain Dudley Smith: I doubt you've ever taken a stupid breath. Don't start now.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[Exley has to perform the interrogation]
Jack Vincennes: Are you sure Golden Boy is up to the task, Cap?
Captain Dudley Smith: Oh, I think you'd be surprised what the lad is capable of.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[to Ray Collins]
Ed Exley: They called you 'Sugar', 'cause you liked to give it out... so sweet.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[when Sid Hudgens is found dead]
Bud White: What happened?
Detective at Hush-Hush Office: Somebody beat him to death and stole a bunch of files. Must've dug up garbage on the wrong guy. Got it narrowed down to a thousand suspects.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[to Lynn]
Bud White: Don't ever try to fucking bribe me or I'll have you and Patchett in shit up to your ears.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[Bud grabs Johnny Stompanato by the testicles to get him to talk]
Bud White: What do I get if I give you your balls back, you wop cocksucker?

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Ed Exley: [as Bud White is beating him up] Think, goddamn you, *think!*

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Ray Pinker: Bud White - what brings *you* to the basement?
Bud White: I got a couple Nite Owl questions.
Ray Pinker: I don't know if you'd read the papers, but that case is closed.
Bud White: Is there anything bothering you about it, Ray?
Ray Pinker: Yeah, the fact that the pack-up boys

haven't carted this shit out of here yet.
[Bud sees all the boxes of case files, and starts to look through the crime scene photos]
Ray Pinker: I got three shotguns, taken from the suspects, that match the strike marks on the shells from the Nite Owl. What more do you want?
Bud White: [suddenly spotting a detail in a photo] There's blood on

the wall here. I thought everybody but the cook got shot in the men's room?
Ray Pinker: That is Stensland's blood.
Bud White: Stensland?
Ray Pinker: He took a blow to the head. Was probably unconscious when they dragged him in the john.
Bud White: Did they hit anybody else?
Ray

Pinker: No. But he was a cop, he probably tried to "do something."
Bud White: [remembering that Stensland said he had a date that night, he studies a photo showing a table with two settings, including a coffee mug smudged with lipstick] Grilled cheese, black coffee... two of the victims were women, right?
Ray Pinker: Yeah - Patti DeLuca, the

night-shift waitress, and a Susan Lefferts.
Bud White: Susan Lefferts...
Ray Pinker: Yeah, what about her?
[Bud runs out of the room]
Ray Pinker: You're welcome!

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Lynn Bracken: There's blood on your shirt. Is that an integral part of your job?
Bud White: Yeah.
Lynn Bracken: Do you enjoy it?
Bud White: When they deserve it.
Lynn Bracken: Did they deserve it?
Bud White: I'm not sure.
Lynn Bracken: But

you did it anyway.
Bud White: Yeah, just like the half-dozen guys you screwed today.
Lynn Bracken: Well, actually, it was only two.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Ed Exley: During our investigation of events surrounding the Nite Owl case, Jack Vincennes, Bud White, and I learned the following.
Ellis Loew: Your golden boy's throwing his whole life away.
Ed Exley: The three Nite Owl suspects, while guilty of kidnapping and rape, were innocent of the multiple homicides at the Nite Owl. The actual

gunmen were most likely Los Angeles Police Department officers Michael Breuning and William Carlisle, and a third man who may or may not have been Captain Dudley Smith. The objective: the elimination of another police officer, Richard Stensland, who, along with former LAPD officer Leland "Buzz" Meeks, also committed multiple homicides on behalf of Captain Smith and then betrayed him over

twenty-five pounds of heroin, the retrieval of which was the ultimate motivation behind the Nite Owl killings. Beginning with the incarceration of Mickey Cohen, Captain Smith has been assuming control of organized crime in the city of Los Angeles. This includes the assassinations of an unknown number of Mickey Cohen lieutenants, the systematic blackmail of city officials, and the murders of Susan

Lefferts, Pierce Patchett, Sid Hudgens, and Sergeant Jack Vincennes. Captain Smith admitted as much to me before I shot him at the Victory Motel.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Sid Hudgens: Get me some narco skinny. I want to do an all-hophead issue. You know, schwartze jazz musicians and movie stars. You like it?

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[Stocking a box with liquor for the police's Christmas party]
Liquor Store Owner: If I ever get held up, you guys better be here.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

[Dick Stensland arrives with liquor for a party]
Officer: What took you, Stensland?
Dick Stensland: My partner stopped to help a damsel in distress. He's got his priorities all screwed up.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Captain Dudley Smith: Our justice must be swift and merciless.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Ray Pinker: Stomach of the week. Unemployed actor had frankfurter, french fries, alcohol, and sperm. Hell of a last supper, don't you think?

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Captain Dudley Smith: You're a bit of a puzzlement to me these days, Wendell. You don't seem to be your old cruel self anymore. And I had such grand plans for your future.

L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential

Jack Vincennes: How's it hanging, Sid?
Sid Hudgens: Down around my ankles.