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Officer Frank Tenpenny is the primary antagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the seventh installment of the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
He is a corrupt senior police officer of the LSPD and the nefarious leader of the C.R.A.S.H. Unit, thus appearing as the superior of his right-hand man Eddie Pulaski. Throughout the course of the game, Tenpenny wants to get more powerful while getting rid of anyone that could reveal his corruption, using CJ to do his dirty work for him. He is also the archenemy of Carl "CJ" Johnson.
He was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
Barely ten minutes after Pendelbury's death, Tenpenny pulls over Carl Johnson - who arrived to Los Santos for his mother's funeral - and accuses him of having drug money. He threatens to frame him for Pendelbury's murder if he doesn't follow Tenpenny's orders, before dropping him off in the territory of his rival gang, the Ballas, aware they could kill him despite him not representing the Grove Street Families for five years. Following this, Tenpenny and Pulaski would regularly appear, such as telling CJ and Ryder a train with weapons would be coming, leaving Big Smoke's house, and ordering CJ to kill a foreigner in a warehouse. Later on, he and Pulaski assist the Ballas run the drug industry in Los Santos.
After Cesar Vialpando alerts CJ to suspicious activities he found, Tenpenny is seen in the garage of the Green Sabre with Big Smoke and Ryder, revealing that he had orchestrated the hit that killed CJ's mother, firmly establishing how corrupt Tenpenny is and revealing the betrayal of Smoke and Ryder. After a gang fight with the Ballas which ended with Sweet being shot, Tenpenny arrests CJ and takes him into the mountains. From that point on, he orders him to murder or arrest anyone who would try to expose his evil deeds or he will have Sweet be put in a Ballas cell block, where he would be raped and killed.
From that point on, Tenpenny and Pulaski occasionally appear to give CJ missions, all while Smoke becomes Los Santos' crack kingpin. Eventually, Tenpenny has CJ meet him and Pulaski in the deserts in Las Venturas, where they order CJ to bury Hernandez's unconscious body due to him betraying them. While Tenpenny is off "getting drunk and getting laid", Pulaski kills Hernandez before being killed by CJ.
Later on, he faces trial wherein he and Pulaski (unless CJ knows otherwise who previously killed Pulaski) were charged with corruption, sexual assault, dealing and using narcotics and racketeering, but the charges are dropped to the murders or disappearances of the people who try to expose him. This triggers massive riots in Los Santos, meant to be a rather obvious nod to the infamous 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Once CJ kills Big Smoke, Tenpenny confronts him in Smoke's hideout, revealing he plans to leave town while having new recruits.
He attempts to kill CJ by shooting him with a shotgun, but CJ tricks Tenpenny by yelling Sweet's name, making him think the man is behind him. The officer then escapes, but not before setting the crack palace on fire. Once CJ fights his way through the remaining Ballas members, he and Sweet proceed to chase Tenpenny throughout Los Santos. He eventually loses control of the firetruck he was driving, causing it to fall off a bridge right into the middle of Grove Street.
Tenpenny rants about how he was the one protecting Los Santos and that he feels no remorse for his actions. CJ tries to finish him off, but Sweet stops him so that his death could be blamed on no one, just a "traffic accident". With Tenpenny having died of his injures, everyone present leaves the scene to get something to eat, with CJ sarcastically telling his corpse "see you around, officer".
It was later revealed that, after the riots were over, Tenpenny's corpse was stripped and mutilated by the homeless.
Trivia[]
- Frank Tenpenny is based off a real-life LAPD officer named Rafael Perez, who was a key figure in the LAPD Rampart Scandal in the late 1990s. That being said, he was seemingly inspired by Alonzo Harris from Training Day.
- Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski, Steve Haines, Andreas Sanchez, Molly Schultz and Sergeant Jerry Martinez are the only antagonists of the GTA series who are corrupt law enforcement officials; Tenpenny and Pulaski are corrupt police officers, Sanchez and Haines are corrupt FIB agents, Schultz is a corrupt Lawyer and Martinez is a corrupt soldier.