Quotes

Dialogue

Briegleb: Mrs. Collins, I have made it my mission in life to bring to light all the things the LAPD wish none of us ever knew about. A department ruled by violence, abuse, murder, corruption and intimidation. When Chief Davis took over the force two years ago, he said... Davis: We will hold court against gunmen in the streets of Los Angeles. I want them brought in dead, not alive, and I will reprimand any officer who shows the least mercy to a criminal. Briegleb: He picked fifty of the most violent cops on the force, gave them machine guns and permission to shoot anyone who got in their way. He called them the Gun Squad. No lawyers, no trials, no questions, no suspensions, no investigations. Just piles of bodies. Bodies in the morgues, bodies in the hospitals, bodies by the side of the road. And not because the LAPD wanted to wipe out crime. No. The LAPD wanted to wipe out the competition. Mayor Cryer and half the force are on the take. Gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, you name it.

Dialogue

Carol: The more you try to act sane, the crazier you start to look. If you smile too much, you're delusional or you're stifling hysteria. And if you don't smile, you're depressed. If you remain neutral, you're emotionally withdrawn, potentially catatonic. Christine: You've given this a lot of thought. Carol: Yeah, I have. Don't you get it? You're a Code Twelve, so am I. We're here for the exact same reasons; We both pissed off the cops.

Dialogue

Clark: Look, you gotta help me, please. I'm so scared. I don't want to go to hell for killing kids! Ybarra: Look. What kids? What... What are you talking about? Clark: I don't know. I never knew their names. Ybarra: Names? How many? How many kids? Clark: All together? About twenty, I guess. Ybarra: No, you're lying. Clark: No! It's true, I swear! Ybarra: You're gonna tell me you killed 20 kids? Clark: Yeah! Thereabouts. I stopped counting after a while. Gordon said maybe one or two may have escaped. But... Ybarra: No. Nobody can just up and kill twenty kids, okay? Clark: We did.

Dialogue

Ybarra: This kid, he's scared half out of his mind. Jones: He picked the Collins kid. We found him, remember? Haven't you been reading the papers? Or maybe you have, is that it?

Dialogue

Dr. Steel: Six days, Mrs. Collins, and no progress. We may have to move on to more strenuous therapies. Unless you're willing to prove that you're doing better by signing this. Christine: [pause] Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Dialogue

Davis: The mayor wants this to go away. I want this to go away. The way you do that is to stop insisting that Walter Collins is not among those boys killed up at that goddamn ranch. Because if the boy you brought back is not Walter Collins, and he's not dead up at that ranch, then where the hell is he? People are gonna want to know why we haven't found him. Why we're not doing our job. But if, on the other hand, he is, or could be, among those poor boys killed up in Wineville, then the inquiries stop. It's a momentary embarrassment you're just gonna have to live with. Better a short inconvenience than a lingering problem, wouldn't you say, Captain? Jones: [defeated] Yes, sir. Davis: The boy's been gone nearly a year. If he was going to be found, it would've happened by now. Whether he was up at that ranch or not, the truth is he probably is dead somewhere. Better his mother accept that now than later, don't you think?

Dialogue

Briegleb: I went to the best attorney in town, a man who's sued this city four times and won. Unfortunately, we can't afford to really hire him. Christine: I see. Hahn: Which is why I'm doing this pro bono. It would be my honor to defend your honor, Mrs. Collins. In my fifteen years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone fight as long or as hard as you have, in what is so clearly in the cause of justice.

Dialogue

Reporter: How did you avoid capture? Northcott: Well, I didn't, did I?

Dialogue

Briegleb: The Lord works in mysterious ways, Mrs. Collins. Collins: Boy, does he ever.

Dialogue

Jones: It was because of her disturbing behavior that I submitted her for observation to the psychopathic ward of Los Angeles County General Hospital. Hahn: Just like that. You snap your fingers and an innocent woman is thrown into the psycho ward! Jones: She wasn't thrown. Hahn: Every family in this state is in grave danger when a police captain can take a woman into his office and five minutes later have her thrown into the psychopathic ward on his own authority! Jones: [against the crowd] She wasn't thrown. She wasn't thrown! She wasn't thrown! Hahn: What was that, Captain? Jones: She wasn't thrown. She was escorted. Hahn: Escorted, thrown, the verb doesn't matter, Captain. What does matter, is that her incarceration was ordered without a warrant. I am holding a carbon copy of the affidavit of insanity that was issued in the case of the State of California v. Christine Collins. Who signed the affidavit? Jones: I did. Hahn: Well, now, let me see if I have this correct, a woman was th

Dialogue

Briegleb: Your son would want you to move on. Christine: Maybe. Maybe he'd want me to keep looking for him. Maybe he's somewhere waiting for me. Briegleb: I believe he is waiting, ma'am. He's waiting in that place where we'll all go someday to be reunited with our loved ones. And on that day, he'll know from front to back, end to end, heart to soul, that you did everything you could, Mrs. Collins. Everything.

Dialogue

Thirteen steps. Thirteen steps. But I didn't touch them all, you bastards. I didn't touch them all. I didn't touch them all.