L.A. Quartet - L.A. Quartet Summary

L.A. Quartet Summary

The Black Dahlia, the first novel in the series follows a brutal murder in the late 1940s. January 15, 1947, is the date Elizabeth Short's body is discovered in a vacant lot. Officers Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Leland "Lee" Blanchard, partners and local celebrities from their boxing days, aid the investigation.

The next novel, The Big Nowhere, takes place in the early 1950s amidst the Red Scare in Hollywood. Former LAPD detective Buzz Meeks, who now works as an enforcer for Mickey Cohen and a pimp for Howard Hughes, gets caught up in a communist investigation that has ties to a series of homosexual murders that are being investigated by a Sheriff's deputy named Danny Upshaw. The work of Meeks and Upshaw also crosses paths with the investigations of Mal Considine and Dudley Smith, who are working on a communist case of their own.

The third novel, L.A. Confidential spans the length of about eight years- from early 1950 to about April 1958. The story begins on February 21, 1950, with Buzz Meeks being found at an abandoned auto court where he is hiding out. Meeks is killed by Dudley Smith, and the eighteen pounds of heroin Meeks stole from a Jack Dragna-Mickey Cohen truce meeting, is subsequently retrieved by Smith. A year later, 1951, Bloody Christmas occurs: the beating of unarmed suspects by LAPD officers on Christmas Day. Ed Exley, Bud White, and Jack Vincennes are the main officers caught in the scandal. On April 16, 1953, the Nite Owl Massacre becomes the focus of the LAPD. The Massacre was the killing of civilians in an all-night restaurant. Three African-Americans are the suspects. While resisting arrest, they are gunned down by Exley, who is made a hero. Years pass, but new evidence emerges that the African-American youths were innocent of the Nite Owl killings. The Nite Owl case is reopened. Ultimately, between Exley, White, and Vincennes, a giant criminal conspiracy is uncovered. The plot involved Mickey Cohen, the drug rackets, pornography, the stolen heroin from the mob meeting years back, a chemist trying to alter the chemical compound of the heroin to improve it, framing the Negro kids, and at the center of all this: Dudley Smith. However, in the end, Smith escapes prosecution for the plot. The Nite Owl gunmen are killed, as well as other conspirators in Smith's scheme. The three protagonists' lives are the ones that are affected the most. Bud White ends up a cripple, but wins Lynn Bracken's heart. Jack Vincennes is killed in the line of duty while trying to stop prisoners from escaping. Ed Exley, despite becoming a Chief of Detectives, loses his father who commits suicide. While despising each other at first, Exley and White become friends. Exley swears to White he will bring Dudley Smith down.

The fourth and final novel in the L.A. Quartet is White Jazz. Told from corrupt LAPD officer Dave Klein's point of view. Despite being a policeman, Klein has broken the law numerous times, beat suspects, stolen, bribed, worked for the mob, and had people killed, as well as being a murderer himself. In late 1958, Klein, the commander of Administrative Vice, is assigned a burglary of the sanctioned drug dealing family, the Kafesjians. Despite not seeing the case as a priority, the Narcotics Division commander Dan Wilhite and Deputy Chief Ed Exley want the case solved. He takes a sideline job from Howard Hughes who wants Klein to find evidence that would violate an actress's contract. Klein takes the job, but falls in love with his target: Glenda Bledsoe. All while working the Kafesjian burglary, Klein discovers that Exley is still trying to prosecute Dudley Smith. Klein begins working with Exley when he figures it out, who tells him all about Dudley. When Klein meets an undercover officer, Johnny Duhamel, who is working Smith on behalf of Exley, Klein is shot up with drugs. Being coerced, Klein murders Duhamel with his Marines sword. He is also taped committing the murder. Klein is also arrested by the FBI the following day for possession of heroin. Klein becomes a federal witness, but is given 48 hours before he is taken into custody. Klein and Exley discover another Dudley Smith plot. Selling heroin exclusively to the Southside Negro population, keeping crime in that area, "contained," gambling, and voyeuristic pornography tapes. Klein and Exley find the Kafesjians' burglar, Wylie Bullock. When asked by Klein to guard Bullock. Later that night, everything hits Klein: all his crimes and everything that is happening. He decides to meet Smith later that night, who offered Klein a deal earlier. Unbeknown to Smith, Klein brings Wylie Bullock, who has a grudge against Smith. When the two meet, Bullock attacks Smith, ripping out his eye and slashing his face ear to ear. Klein shoots Bullock and runs off. an APB is issued on Klein and he is caught. A custody battle ensues between the FBI and the LAPD for Klein, the FBI win. While in federal custody, Klein writes a full confession of everything he has done, and everything that has happened. Six legal pads, ninety-four pages of confessions. He has copies sent to Hush-Hush, the L. A. Times, and the State Attorney General's Office. However, Klein escapes custody. He hides out with Pete Bondurant (a character who reappears in the Underworld USA Trilogy series' American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand). After his escape, Klein's confessions fall on deaf ears, with only Hush-Hush magazine, willing to print it, but they are silenced by legal action and preventing from printing it. A confession that would've quote, "brought the LAPD to its knees." Howard Hughes feels betrayed by Dave Klein because of the Bledsoe job. He has Bondurant beat him up bad enough to require hospital attention. Exley sends Klein a package in the hospital, which includes a blank passport and a gun. Exley says in his note that Smith is neutralized, but says he will allow Klein to kill Smith if he feels justice has not been absolute regarding Dudley Smith. Instead, Klein murders J. C. Kafesjian, and Tommy Kafesjian. Klein spends one last night with Glenda Bledsoe, takes pictures of her to remember her by, and leaves for the airport. Around late January 1959, Klein leaves the U. S. According to the epilogue, many years later, it is at least 1976. Klein says he plans to return to Los Angeles, with the intentions of making gubernatorial candidate Exley confess to the manipulative deals he made, murder Dick Carlisle and Dudley Smith, and find his lover Glenda Bledsoe.