James Donnell

"Phelps! You failed me, lad."

- James when Cole fails him

James Henry Donnell is a supporting character in L.A. Noire. He is Captain of the Homicide department of the LAPD.

Biography
James Donnell was born on 7 May, 1929, to a Catholic Irish family. In 1948, he joined the LAPD at the age of 19, and eventually became Captain. As Captain, he presides over handling the affairs of the Homicide department and assigns detectives to various murder cases, occasionally providing background information if it is available or if he feels like it. Otherwise, the detectives have to figure all the sith out themselves.

Events of L.A. Noire
Cole Phelps first met Cpt. Donnell after his arrest of Eddgar Karon. Surprised that a simple patrol officer had beaten his homicide detectives at the murder investigation, Donnell allowed Phelps to conduct the interrogation of Karon. But after unsuccessfully extracting no confession from Karon, Donnell yelled at Phelps, acknowledging none of his efforts during the war and showed off in his face. Soon after, Phelps was promoted to traffic.

Partnering Phelps with Dusty Galloway and replacing retired Detective Floyd Rose, Donnell sent the two to investigate Celine Henry's murder. Subsequent cases included the murders of Deidre Muller, Antonia Maldonado, Theresa Tardlson and Evelyn Summers. Although the cases were successfully closed, Galloway and Phelps began to see similarities between the murders, and how they were all linking to each other and to the unresolved Mr. Nasty murder, though Donnell and his men dismissed the similarities as acts of "copycats" and "conspiracy that fallen on deaf ears". Impressed with their strong convictions, however, Donnell praised Phelps and Galloway as his "finest crusaders".

After receiving a series of anonymous letters and retrieving Deidre Muller's rings, Galloway and Phelps realised that they were being mocked by Mr. Nasty, who was ultimately responsible for all murders. This meant that the department had arrested five innocent men, with four impending execution sentences. Donnell warned Phelps and Galloway that their careers would be over and would have to take the blame for their wrongful convictions unless they caught the real culprit - a hypocritical statement, given that Donnell had once pressured them for quick convictions and dismissed Nasty killer as a suspect.

Using the letters as clues, Phelps and Galloway set out to find the real killer, during which they found substantial evidence from the previous murders. The trail ultimately led them to the Christ Crown of Thorns where they found Mr. Nasty but he escaped after a showdown, still not knowing his identity. Donnell arrived and revealed that Nasty is still on the loose and that Phelps and Galloway failed him, but also said that even to the present day, Nasty's identity still remained a mystery. Hence Nasty's name and acts were kept out of public knowledge and out of official records. However, Donnell promised that he and the District Attorney would ensure that the previous suspects would be quietly released. With the truth quietly buried, Phelps was promoted to drug.

Later, as Phelps was trying to close the stolen morphine case, he questioned Courtney Shelton and Dr. Harlan Fontaine about it. Donnell and William Worrell appeared and interrupted Phelps' interview, summoning him to Worrell's office where they revealed the adultery charges against him for his affair with Elsa Lichtmann. Donnell harshly chastised and insulted Phelps, expressing disgust and disappointment and even going so far to comment that Phelps broke his heart and questioning how he could do such a thing to his wife and children before firing him for good.

These days
Today Donnell is retired in a larger house in New Haven, Connecticut.

Personality and traits
"It's hard being a cop when I'm stealing money, so it's no wonder, ya'll lads hate me."

- James admits he steals cash

Captain Donnell is the feared but hated "officer-in-charge" of the Homicide desk. The tough and no-nonsense Captain has been known to push a bareknuckle enforcer's demand for confessions and convictions, and is less concerned with playing by the book if it means getting the results he demands and desperately wants. To this end, he often relies on interrogation to extract confessions rather than evidence. This proves to be his downfall, as he approves convictions for five innocent suspects, and sheepishly passes the blame to his detectives.

Donnell professes to be a deeply religious man, and speaks frequently in poetic biblical language. What is clear is that he uses his beliefs to cloak his strict and sadistic nature under a pretence of righteousness, and as a result, he demonises and brutalises suspects and convicted felons with religion, going even as far to throw bibles in their face. Careers are made and broken on Captain Donnell's word, nothing gets past him. Cole Phelps was eventually, and before him Stefan Buttowski, promoted to homicide through the brutal recommendation of Donnell.

Trivia

 * Donnell has shown he is not against breaking the law, as in "The Silk Stocking Murder". After Donnell congratulates Phelps on finishing the case, he steals a crate of liquor from the Just Picked Fruit market along with all the money from the cash register.
 * Despite being his superior officer, Donnell is younger than Dusty Galloway.
 * Donnell smokes a lot of Newport's, he sits a lot on the porch and he stole a sexy-s Porsche from his neighbour's drive-way. Drugs? Yeah, he sold 'em along with rocks, weed, meth, heroin, chronic nugs of homegrown K.B.