Thomas Faraday was a homeless man living in Los Angeles who had once been a lawyer. Faraday had once represented André Galton in an excessive force lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, but lost the case and witnesses Galton commit suicide next to the statue of Justitia outside the courthouse. Soon after, he quit law and became a homeless panhandler going by the name of Tommy Faraway. In 1993, he approached LAPD detective Harry Bosch outside the federal courthouse on Spring Street. Bosch later learned that Honey Chandler, the attorney suing him, knew the man.