There was one major subplot that was eliminated from the film that was in James Ellroy original script along with Jaime Moss' and David Ayer's draft was that Tom Ludlow's wife has been dead for three years. Some of this is referenced in the scene where Ludlow goes to the morgue to find out about the bullets found in Washington's autopsy. Ludlow immediately recognizes the Medical Examiner, who washed away any physical evidence on her body that would've led to her killer. In the Moss and Ayer draft before Kurt Wimmer's, it was revealed that it was Captain Wander was having an affair with Ludlow's wife and may have been the one who killed her because it would've ruined his control and manipulation of Ludlow continuing to do his dirty work for him hoping to fulfill his plan to become Chief of Police at all costs.

Film

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