LAW & ORDER {LAW AND ORDER}: BLOOD MONEY (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas that deals with the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of criminals. The first half of each episode concerns the police procedure that leads to the arrest of a suspect, while the second half covers the efforts of the district attorney to prosecute the case.
In this episode, Briscoe and Green investigate the murder of retired insurance salesman Peter Grimaldi, who was stabbed after cleaning out his safe deposit box at a bank. Fingerprints lead the cops to one Roland Dell, though Carmichael deems the case against him weak at best. Rodgers then reveals that Grimaldi was also shot right before his death, presumably by a separate assailant, and his kids Jordan and Donna claim ignorance as to the contents of the safe deposit box. At Grimaldi's longtime workplace, All-Atlantic Insurance, the detectives then find evidence that Peter, formerly Pietro, sold life insurance policies to families all over Europe during World War II and then refused to pay the families when their relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, as there were no records of their deaths, thus creating a motive for possibly thousands of killers.
Learning that Grimaldi's now-bankrupt European firm was actually a subsidiary of All-Atlantic, Briscoe and Green again question Hamilton Stewart, the chairman of All-Atlantic, who denies any wrongdoing. The detectives find that Grimaldi was subpoenaed by the Italian government shortly before his death, meaning that his testimony could've destroyed All-Atlantic, and Jordan admits that his father kept a detailed book, presumably in the safe deposit box, of all of his wartime policy sales. Dell eventually admits to being hired by one Donald Burton to steal the book and stabbing Grimaldi in the process, and when the bullet from the shooting is traced back to a 1934 Italian pistol, the cops realize that the shooter was Jordan himself. McCoy decides to tie the murder charges to over a thousand counts of grand larceny, though he desperately needs Grimaldi's book to prove the thefts. Jordan testifies to seeing the book and eventually killing his father out of moral outrage, though defense attorney Arthur Gold suggests a less noble motive for his delayed actions.
Stewart's assistant Alan Bresler, consumed with guilt after hearing Holocaust victims testifying about Grimaldi's devastating tricks, confesses to McCoy and Carmichael that Grimaldi demanded $2 million for the damning book, prompting Stewart to arrange to "obtain" it through other means. McCoy angrily grills Stewart on the stand about Federale's immoral actions during the war, though Stewart protests that many American businesses profited from the war in unseemly ways. Left with no other options, Stewart is forced to turn over the book in exchange for a reduced sentence and extradition to Italy, and McCoy is relieved to know that many surviving families will finally receive a small degree of justice. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: December 1, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:26
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:76366
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Insurance; Holocaust survivors; Murder
- SERIES RUN: NBC- TV series, 1990-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Rene Balcer … Executive Producer
- Ed Sherin … Executive Producer
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer, Created by
- Kathy McCormick … Co-Executive Producer
- Jeffrey Hayes … Co-Executive Producer
- Billy Fox … Supervising Producer
- Richard Sweren … Supervising Producer
- Lewis H. Gould … Producer
- William N. Fordes … Producer
- Lynn Mamet … Producer
- Kati Johnston … Co-Producer
- Barry Schindel … Co-Producer, Writer
- Kathy O'Connell … Associate Producer
- Matthew Penn … Director
- Mike Post … Music by
- Jerry Orbach … Cast, Detective Lenny Briscoe
- Jesse L. Martin … Cast, Detective Ed Green
- S. Epatha Merkerson … Cast, Lieutenant Anita Van Burren
- Sam Waterston … Cast, E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy
- Angie Harmon … Cast, A.D.A. Carmichael
- Steven Hill … Cast, District Attorney Adam Schiff
- George Grizzard … Cast, Arthur Gold
- Matt Servitto … Cast, Jordan Grimaldi
- Philip Goodwin … Cast, Alan Bresler
- Laura Esterman … Cast, Evelyn Walcoff
- Ray Aranha … Cast, Judge
- Jacqueline Antaramian … Cast, Donna Grimaldi
- Felix Fibich … Cast, Mr. Radsenhauer
- Henderson Forsythe … Cast, Hamilton Stewart
- Leslie Hendrix … Cast, Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers
- Larry Clarke … Cast, Detective Morris LaMotte
- Lynette DuPre … Cast, Judge Joyce Randall
- Chris McKinney … Cast, Reggie Hollis
- Jayson Ward Williams … Cast, Roland Dell
- Ronald Guttman … Cast, Assistant Italian Consul
- Diane Kagan … Cast, Gail Barlett
- Victor Verhaeghe … Cast, Gary Howard
- Damian Young … Cast, Daniel Catterson
- Edward James Hyland … Cast, Donald Burton
- Patrick Garner … Cast, Walter Estes
- Jack Davidson … Cast, Bank Manager
- Ismail Bashey … Cast, Hanish Singh
- Kim Yancey Moore … Cast, Leslie Sawyer
- Roger Pretto … Cast, Martin Garcia
- Gerard O'Brien … Cast, Doorman
- Bunny Levine … Cast, Irene Drummond
- Wai Ching Ho … Cast, Owner
- Marcus Naylor … Cast, Eric Lee
- Karl Kenzler … Cast, Arraignment Clerk