Maybe I missed it, but is it explained why Stensland was killed at the Night Owl? It seems that the dirty cops could ha
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SolitaryCZ — 12 years ago(August 03, 2013 03:12 PM)
He and Leland "Buzz" Meeks (bad rep ex-cop) were doing some heroin business on their own so they got killed over it. Stens killed Buzz to be precise, he was hidden under his girlfriend's mom house after all then they got Stens at the Night Owl.
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blade101167 — 12 years ago(June 17, 2013 03:56 PM)
This is another illogical part of the plot that I'd forgotten about. They kill Stensland to make it look like a 'wrong time, wrong place' murder to avoid an in depth investigation. I get that. But hiding a targeted hit inside a massacre so bloody that it wouldn't just attract national but also global media attention was clearly a bit over the top. and to be honest, just a little bit (or a lot) stupid as bloody hell.
Surely they could have just done a Jack type cover up and simply make it look like a street arrest gone wrong or similar?! No-one would have likely even questioned that. It was the sheer outrageousness of the Nite Owl massacre that ultimately lead to its undoing.
I can't remember the exact reason why Stensland was targeted but wasn't it something to do with some missing Heroin (which was already stolen anyway)?
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blade101167 — 12 years ago(June 18, 2013 05:50 AM)
I get that the black people were being framed for the massacre it's just that it was such an over the top, excessively elaborate way to get rid of just one cop when it would have been much simpler to simulate a tragic shooting during a street arrest gone wrong.
Of course we wouldn't have the movie any other way but that's not my point: IMO, it's an absurd author's mechanism to progress the plot rather than actally being anything credible.
I still love the movie though it's just not as tight as a drum as some believe it to be,.
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blade101167 — 12 years ago(June 26, 2013 07:10 AM)
Regarding the 'shot during an arrest gone wrong' - difficult, as (in the film continuity) Stensland fell out with Smith after he was dismissed from the force, and his public image was very much that of a solid, 'one of the lads' copper. His actual nature (alcoholic, corrupt, useless) was carefully covered up.
Sorry Andrew, I'm probably not explaining myself very well. By the arrest shooting I mean they could have set up a scenario where Stensland was shot and killed trying to arrest a mugger, drunk driver, drug dealer etc. The police investigate it, the police solve it with no-one ever caught kinda like the mythical Rollo Tomasi character that Ed later speaks about. And wouldn't that have fitted more in with what you say about Stensland's public image? He'd have died a hero with less chance of the truth ever coming out.
Here of course, we're talking about what if's not what actually happened in the book/movie
By the way, would you say the book is better than the movie? I've not read it myself so am just wondering.
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!!!deleted!!! (41638798) — 12 years ago(September 05, 2013 06:53 AM)
But wasn't Stensland already an ex-cop at the time of the Night Owl shooting?
He'd been ousted for the dust up at the cop shop.
If they'd wanted to off him in the line of duty, that needed to happen while he was still a cop. Not impossible in the narrative, but he'd have to have been excluded from the jail riot in which he beat up the detainees.
Another thing is that maybe having a big multi-death killing dressed up as robbery which back then would have been highly unusual, gave the characters the impetus to really dig deep on the thing.
If Stensland had still been a cop, and killed in the line of duty, while tragic, it would not have crated the intense focus a killing spree in the Night Owl didwhich then caused Dudley's plan to begin to unravel.
The Night Owl killings are such an important jumping off pointit brings the falsely accused young men into the picture. Which then gets connected up with the kidnapping and rape of the girl.the whole thing revolves around the original Night Owl thing. -
mobocracy — 9 years ago(June 23, 2016 09:16 AM)
If Stensland had still been a cop, and killed in the line of duty, while tragic, it would not have crated the intense focus a killing spree in the Night Owl didwhich then caused Dudley's plan to begin to unravel.
Usually a cop killed in the line of duty creates an extremely intense focus of investigation.
They may have structured a patsy who kills Stensland on the streets and "coincidentally" had an inside man on the scene that kills the patsy at the same time, but that would have been awfully public and there would have been a lot of questions asked that would be hard to answer. -
clickbait — 9 years ago(April 24, 2016 11:47 AM)
blade101167 why would they make it look like Stensland was trying to make an arrest? Its a late reply I know but I just rewatched the movie and that wouldnt make any sense since Stensland got fired just a day or two before he was killed.
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jlird808 — 12 years ago(December 11, 2013 09:11 AM)
How the heck u gonna setup a fake "street arrest gone wrong" when Stensland is no longer a cop??!
What were u saying about illogical.and stupid??
edit Ohh..someone already called u out on thathadn't gotten that far. -
Ed in MO — 11 years ago(September 16, 2014 01:50 PM)
Actually it was Nite Owl, not Night Owl.
I think, just like Bloody Christmas and the hookers cut to look like movie stars, James Elroy based the Nite Owl massacre on a true L.A. murder story from the early 1950's. I searched the 'net for it but couldn't find it. Perhaps someone here knows more?
Incidentally, just in case anyone wants to visit the Nite Owl while in Los Angeles, it is really the J&J Sandwich Shop, located at 119 East 6th Street, directly across from Coles Restaurant. According to its owner, Curtis Hanson and crew spent three weeks shooting there in the summer of 1996, only they used cameras and not guns.
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GreenGoblinsOckVenom86 — 11 years ago(September 18, 2014 09:51 PM)
I think the only thing that doesn't make sense is that Captain Dudley Smith would steal purses and then kill Ed Exley's father for trying to stop him from doing that. I mean I'm sure he made plenty of money as a cop so why steal women's purses?
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