Frank Tenpenny

"We're in the middle of fakhing nowhere. Nice, clean air."

- Tenpenny to Victor after he asks where they are

Officer Franklin Jones Tenpenny is a central character and the main villain in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas along with Grigori Ostrov.

Biography
"*Throws his nightstick down Sergeev's throat* Oooohh! You swallow that sith, Victor."

- Tenpenny

A highly corrupt officer of the Los Angeles Police Department, Tenpenny - along with Ed Pulaski and James Hernandez (as well as with Ralph Pendelbury temporarily) - make up the individual LA C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) unit.

Although both Tenpenny and the C.R.A.S.H. unit "claim" and appear to be ordinary police force, Tenpenny and the others that make up the unit are extremely corrupt individuals who use their knowledge of the gangs they are ordered to stop to coerce them into surrendering some of their profits and supplies to them, and regularly commit acts of extreme police brutality and drug using/dealing, making them almost like a gang themselves but with the power of law enforcement behind them.

Prior to the game's storyline, Officer Pendelbury, was killed in "the Introduction" scene for cooperating with internal affairs. The newest recruit to the CRASH, Officer Hernandez, was goaded into pulling the trigger on Pendelbury, thereby completely initiating Hernandez into their distorted view of things.

Tenpenny has known the game's main protagonist Victor Sergeev at least since his brother's death, and Sergeev recognises Tenpenny and calls him by his name from the very beginning of the game. Tenpenny likes to "step on" and "annoy" Victor on a regular basis to remind him of who's in charge around LA (Tenpenny and his boys). Tenpenny is obviously seen to be a powerful influence on the criminals of Los Angeles, this can be seen when he was warning and threatening Sergeev that "we (CRASH) can sith on you from such a height, you'll think God himself has crapped on you. Probably Gait." He sees Sergeev as a complete puppet or a tool of his. He, Hernandez and Pulaski extort and convince several Olovyanov Family members, including Grigori Ostrov and Dmitri Puchovyk, but Tenpenny appears to be exercising control over Sergeev completely. He officially threatens Sergeev to do his work or he'll frame him for Pendelbury's murder, whom Tenpenny and Hernandez killed merely ten minutes before Victor's return to LA as aforementioned.

Gang Relation
While Tenpenny claims he is pitting the gangs against each other to wipe them all out to Hernandez, he is actually allied with the Malestra Family, who (unlike the Olovyanov's) have no reservations against dealing crack cocaine and meth, making it easier for him to control everything. C.R.A.S.H. lets the Malestras flood the city with drugs, which turns many Olovyanov's into addicts, effectively crushing their gang. Tenpenny also convinced Grigori Ostrov to betray his own family in return for heading up the drug operation and even getting some profits off of the business; in turn, Grigori even convinces Dmitri to defect also. Tenpenny and Pulaski personally oversee the Malestras murder of Olovyanov's father. Tenpenny anticipates that his death will bring the o' underboss back to LA, and accosts him less than a block from his home in Ganton and forces the taxi which Sergeev was passenger in, off with Sergeev's suitcase still in and that is probably the main reason why Victor has only one pair of clothes. The C.R.A.S.H. team also plants evidence on him linking him to Pendelbury's death. He warns Sergeev not to leave town and dumps him out of the patrol car in Malestra territory.

Later, Tenpenny and his boys kidnap Sergeev following a large gang assault beneath the Mulholland Intersection (which ended with don Alexei Olovyanov being shot and incarcerated in a prison hospital upstate). They drive Sergeev miles away to rural Whetstone where Hernandez took a break and was masturbating for hours and Sergeev was dumped in the woods with orders to kill an FBI witness. He also tells Serg, who now knows of Grigori's involvement with C.R.A.S.H., not to kill Grigori, or the imprisoned Don will be put on a Malestra cell block or maybe even executed. Tenpenny and his loyal boys surface every so often to lean on Serg and usually order him to plant evidence on or kill someone who threatens to expose the true colours of Tenpenny's boys.

With Grigori ruling over Los Angeles as the city drug kingpin under C.R.A.S.H.'s allowance, Tenpenny's reach is expanding. Despite this, the FBI is becoming interested in the wave of drugs crippling the city. Sergeev finally outlives his usefulness to Tenpenny and his men, who are becoming less tolerant of loose ends of Sergeev. There they have him acquire an FBI dossier. After this they drive Sergeev out to the desert, where Tenpenny attacks a hippie called The Truth for cooperating with Internal Affairs and orders Victor to dig his own grave. He then leaves Victor and Truth for Pulaski and Hernandez to watch so he can "get drunk and watch anime, also hentai". Nevertheless, Hernandez and Pulaski are killed by Sergeev.

Upon taking back Snoop Dogg's mansion, Sergeev learns that Tenpenny has been charged with racketeering, corruption, possession and use of narcotics and numerous sexual assaults along with brutality. However, as all the prosecution's witnesses have either been killed by Sergeev or otherwise gone missing, Tenpenny is acquitted and free, which ignites a riot called 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Death
"Come on, s-holes. I'll take you all! You're mine! Mine! I run this town! Hey, over here! Hey! Officer down! Come on! HEY! S-holes! You never understood what I did! Fifty of me and this town would be okay! I took the trash out! I DID! ME! And I'd do it all again..."

- Tenpenny's last words

Tenpenny seeks to escape Los Angeles and the ongoing riot by a plane with a suitcase full of drug money. Tenpenny emerges just as Sergeev has killed Grigori and tells him he has new recruits in the force who are ready for him to "open their eyes" to his way of thinking. Tenpenny starts a fire in Ostrov's compound downstairs, hoping to kill Sergeev in the blast, then flees in a firetruck. Olovyanov lawyer, Vitali Kuznetsov, however, hangs on to the fire engine's ladder; Serg catches him in his open-roofed car and continues the chase.

After about a four hour chase, Tenpenny's fire engine runs off an overpass, where it lands right in the heart of Red Street. A badly injured Tenpenny crawls out calling for backup. Upon realising nobody is coming, he curses the police force, claiming that "fifty of me and this town would be okay!", before dying from his injuries. Sergeev and the rest of the Russian mob examine the body to make sure he's finished, but freed Alexei makes sure no one touches him so officials will blame a traffic accident for his death. After everyone leaves, Victor leans over Tenpenny, points his fingers at his lifeless body and smugly says: "See you around, 'officer'." before flipping his dead body off.

Personality and traits
Frank is a corrupt cop, and is depicted as a very violent, sadistic and impulsive man, even more than any other corrupt cop around. He often used Victor Sergeev, a mob underboss, as his "puppet". Tenpenny is also quite ruthless and is easily angered if things doesn't go his way. He also had helped the Malestra Family to weaken the Olovyanov Family in order to gain more power and respect from them instead of preventing them from committing more crimes.

Tenpenny appears to have few qualms in abusing people verbally or physically and seems to be fond of practising police brutality on others. Before the final mission, he realised that Victor has "gone away from him" and decided to eliminate him.

Trivia

 * According to Carmine Varrotto, Tenpenny ranked #35 in his opinion of the top 47 "most diabolical people of all times".
 * Tenpenny could be based on a real life corrupt LAPD Officer Rafael Perez.

Theme song
Tenpenny's theme is actually CRASH's theme, but it fits him the most since he leads the CRASH.