In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups...
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Hi, darling. I'm in the park, near that memorial thing for Lennon.
Not the Communist. The Beatle.
Yes, the West Side. Slumming.
Of course the caterer will be there. He's devoted to me.
Hold on.
Oh, my God! Let me call you back. I have to call 911.
Fourteen stab wounds. Count 'em.
How many of 'em were fatal? At least three. Maybe four.
Damn. For a watch and a wallet. Mm .
You got time of death, Doc? Mm, given lividity, body temp and rigor...
add an hour or two for the low temps last night... 2:00 a.m., give or take.
Detectives.
Dead guy's sportin' tin. He's not a civilian.
A cop? Assistant District Attorney Daniel Tenofsky. New York County.
I'll call the lieutenant. He's with the Appeals Bureau.
Looks like he lost his last argument.
The N.Y.P.D. is investigating Mr. Tenofsky's brutal murder...
with all the resources at its disposal.
Let me make one thing perfectly clear to the perpetrators of this awful deed.
This city will not permit an officer of the court to be brought down in this manner...
without swift and sure retribution.
We can and we will exact the full measure of punishment under the law...
for the killer or killers of Daniel Tenofsky.
Tenofsky's bureau chief and deputy are gonna pull all of his cases and see if there's a connection.
Twenty years in the office... he had to send a lot of people to prison.
Dan was very well respected, Anita, and a close colleague of McCoy's.
Message received. Tell him that Briscoe and Green are on it 24-7.
We can let you have a dozen investigators from the office. Volunteers... no cost to the P.D.
Well, if we need your help, I'll call.
- Ms. Southerlyn. - Detective.
Counselor. Ed.
McCoy wants to be briefed every morning and evening. Okay
- I hear McCoy's on the Warpath. - Let's say the drums are beating loud and clear.
What did the M.E. have to say?
The M.E. on the scene was a hair off... 16 puncture wounds.
And a .38-caliber bullet.
They shot him too? First.
Close-up to the heart. Tenofsky was dead before he hit the ground.
D.A.'s tend to make a lot of enemies in the real world.
Somebody sure took it personally.
Well, Tenofsky signed out of the Appeals Bureau at 7:45 p.m. sharp, like always.
Told his secretary he was heading home to edit a brief.
- All work and no play. - Home is Garfield Place.
That's Park Slope, Brooklyn. Six hours later, he's killed in Central Park.
So, let's start with his apartment, see if he made it home that night
Cozy.
Well, we know he made it home.
Question is, he orders a little Chinese, he's right in the middle of work, why does he go out again...
and why does he end up in Central Park at 2:00 in the morning?
I'd say we should look through his personal effects, but first he'd have to have some.
Filofax is personal.
Let's see. Landlord, computer tech support, plumber, painter.
Indian chief. No family? No friends?
Appeals Bureau D.A.'s... in order of seniority.
Tenofsky had less of a personal life than my first wife.
"Opera News.”
“Sea-Kayaker Quarterly ”
No letters, no postcards. We should check his e-mails.
What do you wanna bet it's all spam? I'm impressed that you know what that is.
I used to think it was lunch meat. Hey.
You have one new message.
This is Penny from Vidiots.
Just wanted to let you know the director's cut of Repo Man came in.
- We'll hold it till Thursday. - End of final message.
So much for a personal life.
Repo Man? Yeah. It's a classic, man.
No. The Wild Bunch... that's a classic.
The machine says one message, but the handset has two calls that came in last night.
- Yeah, the video store. - That was 7:20, before he got home.
The other one comes in at 11:15, and he answered it. It's four minutes long.
Maybe that's the one that dragged him back out into the cold, cruel world.
Bruno's Pizza? No, man. We'll actually pick up.
Can you tell us where you're located?
No. No Bruno. Just me... Alec.
Bought the place five years ago. Times change.
So, Mr. LeMaine, you're positive you don't recognize this man?
- Should I? - We're not sure.
Did you notice anybody using your phone a little bit after 11:00?
After 11:00? No way. We close at 10:00.
Everybody's gone by 10:30. The place is locked up tight.
We're gonna need a list of all your employees...
with social security and home phone numbers.
What about the list of names from the pizzeria?
No pops from Tenofsky's cases.
Maybe it was personal, not professional. Personal how?
I mean, his apartment isn't exactly a gold mine of information.
I didn't even know Dan's middle name until I pulled his personnel file.
And we're gonna want to check with his next of kin. His attorneys still looking.
- So, no next of kin? - Tenofiky was a lifer
joined the office right out of Brooklyn Law School.
Started in Trial Bureau 40 where he was considered a rising star.
The next Jack McCoy. McCoy must have thought so too.
- He tapped Tenofsky to second-chair him on the Hiltbrand trial. - The serial killer.
Ten years ago, Schiff was set to elevate Tenofsky to bureau chief at Trial Bureau 90.
Then out of the blue, he put in for a transfer to Appeals.
From chief to line appeals assistant?
All due respect, but that's a big step down.
What happened? Trial work get to be too much stress?
- Tenofsky said he just wanted to try something new. - - How'd he work out in Appeals?
Dan was a beautiful writer. He was good on his feet.
I made him senior appellate counsel within a year.
So everybody was happy? He didn't have a family
He didn't give a damn about his caseload, holidays.
A man for all seasons. So, who should we talk to?
Dan had an office mate... a junior A.D.A. named Susan Yee.
Twenty years on the job and he's bunkin' with a kid just out of law school?
Tenofsky didn't seem to mind.
Tell you the truth, I think he liked the company.
Brooklyn Law School. Magna cum laude.
Admitted, Southern District.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Mr. Tenofsky was one of the brightest men I have ever met.
How long did you two share an office? Four years.
And you still call him Mr. Tenofsky?
He called me Ms. Yee. I called him Mr. Tenofsky.
He wasn't exactly outgoing.
Four years in the same room. You guys ever go out?
Movies, dinner, anything?
Mr. Tenofsky was a lot older.
And besides, I like conversations with a guy to go past, “Cold enough for you?"
Or “How about those Mats?”
Can you tell us anything else about him?
He took his coffee black and was a stickler for bluebook form.
- That's it? - Sorry.
The more we learn about Tenofsky, the less we know.
We're fresh out of ideas. If you could give us anything.
I heard that he dated an assistant in Frauds,
but that would have been years ago.
We went to the movies a couple of times. He liked sci-fi.
Two or three nice dinners. He took me to the Met to see Aida, the Zeffirelli production.
I missed that one. It was amazing.
So, it sounds like things were going along swimmingly.
So, after the fat lady sang? Nothing.
As in? As in just when it was about to get serious, for me anyway... he never calls again.
But even when we were dating, it was almost like Dan was M.I.A. The nowhere man.
He hardly ever talked about his family, what he was feeling... anything except work.
I got the sense there was plenty going on inside,
but he wasn't sharing it, at least not with me.
From what we hear, he wasn't sharing it with anybody.
Oh, God. How'd his brother take it?
That's the first we've heard he had a brother.
We'll need his name. I'm not sure he mentioned it.
Lives in Arizona, I think. Dan used to meet him out there.
They'd go to a swap meet every spring. Quartzite, Arizona?
I got phone records from 1990... in reverse chronological order.
Only thing I have left from the '90s are a couple of wide ties.
If Tenofsky had a brother, I can't find any sign of him.
You know, he never really made the moves on that A.D.A. Estrada.
Or Susie Yee either. Why, you think he was gay?
Well, I think both ladies are muy caliente.
Straight or gay, my motto is, “Don't know, don't care.” Unless it got him killed.
This guy saved the renewal notices from his magazine subscriptions.
Ticket stub for a flight from Phoenix to Quartzite, Arizona.
Anything about the brother? Uh, hotel receipt, single room.
Oh, here's a brochure for that swap meet.
It's five years ago. Ticket stub's that old too.
Hey, when did you say Tenofsky graduated Brooklyn Law?
Uh, the diploma in his office said 1980.
So that would have meant he would have been in Brooklyn from '77 on.
Yeah. Brooklyn Law School is three years if you go days, four years if you go nights.
I thought about it a while back.
You'd have made a hell of a shyster. Bite your tongue.
So, what's the sudden interest in Tenofsky's domicile 20 years ago?
Well, this dude saved everything including rent receipts. Yeah, he was a little obsessive.
Yeah, well, according to these receipts, he lived in Phoenix in '78 and '79...
while attending law school in Brooklyn.
That's a hell of a commute.
"Tenorskie, Daniel ”
Day student, third section, enrolled 1977.
So Tenofsky was in New York.
Well, he had a “y” on the end of his name. This one has an “ie."
First semester grades...
Second semester... class rank 302 of 315?
Talk about your underachiever.
Well, he must have burned a barrel of midnight oil his second and third years, right?
No. Well, how the hell did he graduate with honors?
He didn't... with or without honors.
See for yourself. He withdrew, 1978.
When the going gets tough, the tough drop out.
So, who was the guy behind the desk in the Appeals Bureau?
You got a photo of him in there?
I'd have to go down to the records room for that.
It'll... take a while.
We'll wait.
Yeah, that's me in law school. Boy, look at that hairline.
Uh, got a lot more forehead now.
But him... Him I don't recognize.
Who'd wanna impersonate me anyway? Well, we were hoping you could tell us.
Mike, bring that basket up A.S.A.P. They're waitin' on you.
Well, yeah, I, uh-- I wanted to be a lawyer, but, uh--
Man, Civil Pro... I didn't have a clue.
Things usually work out for the best, huh? I guess.
Well, sorry. I... I can't help you.
Look, around the time that you were in law school,
somebody got ahold of your social security number and your date of birth.
Twenty years go.
Managed a bakery, uh, drove a cab.
- Even did a stint as a C.P.A. - Exciting.
Never had any trouble with my credit or anything like that.
You hear a lot about this identity theft stuff, but...
Do you belong to any professional associations?
Maybe somebody got ahold of your personal information.
I enrolled in a correspondence school for accounting.
I don't even know if it exists anymore.
Um, Southwestern Arizona Academy.
Phoenix, Arizona? You've heard of it.
The Bar Association is trying to figure out how our Daniel Tenofsky got his credentials,
which they're assuming were bogus.
Good guess.
Gotta tell you, Anita, I'm mystified.
I worked with Dan before he went over to Appeals.
We tried a lot of cases together.
He was a first-rate attorney with a first-rate mind.
His social security number is fake too.
Whatever reason, it never triggered any alarms.
So, who did I eulogize last night?
You know who was at the memorial, D.A.'s and ex-D.A.'s and their spouses,
maybe a dozen cops.
I knew every person in that room.
Dan had no other friends there and no family... no one from outside.
Prints came up empty, but the Arizona authorities are confident something will pop.
How did this guy get a job in the D.A.'s office in the first place? We're tryin' to find out.
Tenofsky, or whoever he was, tried dozens of cases...
and argued appeals in every court from here to Albany.
Every one of those cases has to be reviewed,
the parties advised, judges notified.
Any of his cases at risk? Not at all.
Like I said, his work was impeccable.
Thank God, because the chief judge of the appellate division...
has already called Mr. Branch four times this morning.
If I get anything from Arizona...
I'd appreciate it.
Phoenix P.D.just faxed this over.
Tenofsky's real name was Jacob Deiter.
Sedona, Arizona, 1958.
University of Phoenix, prelaw. B.S... Economics, summa cum laude.
Phi Beta Kappa. Took the L.S.A.T.'s-- upper fifth percentile.
- And never applied to law school. - Why, I can't imagine. Dan obviously had the chops.
He worked as a paralegal, then after that, at a software company
After that, it was a series of dead-end jobs.
Wound up at a correspondence college in Phoenix.
Where he crossed paths with the genuine Tenofskie.
When the New York Tenofskie enrolled at the Arizona school,
his life became an open book to anyone with access to its records.
Deiter glommed Tenofskie's social security number, his date of birth.
He changed the “ie" to “y” to escape easy detection and faked the rest.
- Nobody checked his bona fides? - Apparently not.
He was a brilliant attorney, Arthur. There was never any reason to doubt his background.
Have we found anything yet that's relevant to his murder?
Not yet.
Well, in that case, I'd be delighted to ponder...
the psychological enigma that was Jacob Deiter,
but I've gotta double-time it up to the appellate division.
Midonas?
Chief judge Leonidas Midonas.
I'd sooner fess up to cheatin' on my taxes...
as to hand him a shaggy-dog story like this.
Tenofsky was appointed by Mr. Schiff.
It doesn't matter whose watch it was on. Still reflects badly on this office.
But Dan's work doesn't.
I never met Jacob Deiter.
I only knew Dan Tenofsky, and, I'm telling you,
we lost a good D.A.
Word gets out, every Legal Aid lawyer from here to Harlem...
will be filing appeals for jailbirds we all know are guilty as sin.
Well aware of that.
But for what it's worth, McCoy assures me...
that Tenofsky's convictions are unassailable.
And just how does he know that? He's tried a good number of cases with Tenofsky.
You remember how it is. You get to know a man in the trenches, under fire.
- You get to know what makes him tick. - Mr. McCoy doesn't seem to have known Mr. Tenofsky at all.
I'm not taking any chances.
My clerks will pore over 25 of Tenofsky's appeals.
I thought it was 50 cases he argued before your bench.
Since Mr. McCoy vouches for Mr. Tenofsky's legal acumen
he and Ms. Southerlyn can comb through the other half.
They'll be delighted to help.
I imagine you'll be giving his trial matters the once-over as well.
People v. Littman. Conviction... June 8,1996.
Appealed... October, 1997.
Affirmed per curiam opinion... January, 1998.
I'm not surprised.
All his appeals look rock-solid.
I'm gonna jump back to Tenofsky's trial folders. Okay.
Well, this one looks enticingly light.
People v. Tortomassi et al.
Franco Tortomassi?
Who is he?
He's the underboss of the Masucci crime family.
When did the office indict him?
It didn't.
But it looks like, 10 years ago, Tenofsky came close.
Listen to this. A New York Ledger employee, Robert Parenti, disappeared.
Body was never found.
The mob kidnapped a reporter?
Mm-mmm. Mr. Parenti worked on the Ledger loading dock.
And Tenofsky caught this case how?
It doesn't say.
It started out like gangbusters when he saw it might lead to Franco Tortomassi.
Grand jury impaneled.
Two witnesses testified named Biscotti and Libretti...
a.k.a. Biscuits and Books.
Bill of indictment... never filed.
You never heard about this?
I wouldn't necessarily until the indictment was filed.
And Dan especially... always played his cards very close to his vest.
So, why couldn't Dan make the Parenti case stick?
From where I'm sitting, it looks like a slam dunk.
Two low-level wise guys were initially named in the indictment and then dropped.
Cooperating against Tortomassi.
Well, it must have been something good,
because Tenofsky was getting them into Witness Protection.
Jack, all of the witnesses' statements are missing...
along with a load of other things... transcripts, blue-backs.
It's all fouled up.
Tortomassi got to Tenofsky somehow.
Dropped the case, gutted the file.
- A bribe? - Dan cared less about money than anyone I ever met.
Who was this guy?
Put Briscoe and Green on it.
Biscuits and Books... sounds like something those two would do.
Always were more ambitious than smart.
What are they doing today? Made guys.
Biscuits is muscle. Books does a little this, a little that.
Old guy in the middle there is Tortomassi, their boss.
I guess he never found out that 10 years ago,
those two were ready to testify against him.
Guess he didn't, 'cause they're still here.
Old man's old-school.
Three years ago, a punk in a car flipped him off Do we wanna hear the rest of this?
A month later, a couple of his goons took a knife... Bye-bye, birdie.
Biscuits and Books are never gonna talk, with or without their lawyers present.
You know, maybe we should talk to the widow Parenti.
Maybe she can shed some light on the matter.
Bobby would've never walked out on us.
Me maybe. Not the kids.
So, you believe your husband is dead, Mrs. Parenti?
Ten years ago, I had Father Gallianto say a funeral mass for him. What do you think I think?
Well, ma'am, what is it that your husband knew that got him killed?
I told all this to that D.A. Uh...
Mr. Tenofsky. Yeah, yeah.
I'm sorry, but, if you don't mind, could you go over it again?
Bobby worked for the Ledger, you know, but, uh, he didn't.
- You understand? - A no-show job.
Only thing Bobby knew about newspapers was sport section's in the back.
Half the guys workin' on that loadin' dock were no-shows.
So Bobby kicked back part of his salary, and everybody was happy.
Except Bobby.
He said the cut should've been 60-40, with him gettin' 60.
He couldn't stop talkin' about it, felt cheated.
I told him to shut his mouth and count his blessings, but...
Somebody hears, figures he's gonna blow a sweet deal...
and your husband disappears.
One day, he went to pick up a paycheck... never saw him again.
And you told all this to Mr. Tenofsky? I even told him who did it.
Bobby knew.
He said, “Anything happens to me, tell 'em Biscuits and Books done it."
So I told that to Mr. Tenofsky,
but, uh, nothin' ever happened.
Tenofsky had Tortomassi dead to rights on Bobby Parenti's murder.
Mm-hmm, with Biscuits and Books as ammo, finger on the trigger.
And then nothin'. Instead, Tenofsky turns down a promotion,
transfers out of a high-end trial division to Appeals...
and buries himself in work.
But only after “Mr. Never Throw Anything Away“ cleaned out his case file.
All in the middle of an investigation that would've made his reputation. That's just it.
He wasn't who he said he was. He couldn't afford a high profile.
That's one explanation for why he booted the case.
The other is that the wise guys got to him.
Now, I know you don't wanna hear that, but...
All this relates to Tenofsky's murder how exactly?
How, exactly we don't know, but get this.
Biscuits had an uncle who owned a pizza parlor...
the same pizza parlor where Tenofsky's call came from.
The new owner just told us he never got around to changing the locks.
The phone call that lured Tenofsky to his death.
So, what changed in the basic equation?
Something about Parenti's murder itself? New evidence? A witness maybe?
Libretti and Biscotti were afraid the case would resurface.
There's no statute of limitations on murder.
And no judge will give us a warrant for what we have.
We'll get around that. Impanel an investigatory grand jury. It can issue warrants.
You want to leverage the Parenti case to look into the Tenofsky murder.
Detectives, investigate Parenti's disappearance like it happened yesterday.
Why all the interest in one dead paisan 10 years down the road?
Humor us, shop steward. After all, he was one of yours.
Bobby Parenti was a schnorer.
Never did a day's work in his life. Expected time-and-a-half for it.
Man, if you could just answer the question.
Came in every Thursday, pretended like he actually worked here.
I take it Thursday's payday
One payday, he was real quiet, kept lookin' over his shoulder nervous-like.
That's 'cause he knew somebody was after him. Biscuits and Books.
Hey, I never said nothin' about those two mooks.
You saw them? They were here?
And you told Tenofsky. You kidding?
Okay, so Biscuits and Books...
They were waiting for him across the street.
I seen 'em. Parenti seen 'em too. Went white as a ghost.
He left. Biscuits and Books were right behind him.
We gotta get ahold of the detective who caught the Parenti murder.
So Biscuits and Books scoop Parenti up.
Yeah, and he disappears forever.
The thing that bothers me is how Tenofsky figured to make the case without a body.
And without that shop steward's info that Biscuits and Books tailed Parenti.
So, where is this Detective Michel with all the answers? There he is.
Hey, man. What's up? Detective Green. Ted Michel.
Hiya, Ted. Hi, Lennie. How are ya?
So, what happened here? The driver... stupid bastard... forgot it wasn't his money.
You got witnesses? Deaf, dumb and blind. Come on. Let's walk.
Reason I called, you worked with Tenofsky on this Parenti case.
Yeah, we hit it off. That's why I brought him the Parenti thing.
You had no witnesses and nobody. How'd y'all crack the case?
The best way there is... dumb luck.
We had a snitch. He's dead now,
but he heard Biscuits and Books talkin' about it in some gin mill in Far Rockaway.
So the snitch told you Biscuits and Books killed Parenti.
Yeah, but one thing always bugged me.
- Biscuits and Books had an alibi for that day. - You remember what it was?
They worked construction when they weren't busting arms.
Crew swore up and down they were on a concrete pour.
And you don't know how Tenofsky broke their alibi? No idea.
But he told me they sang like the proverbial bird... who, what, when, where.
Why weren't their statements included in the files?
You'd have to ask Tenofsky.
Ted, you have any idea what happened to derail this thing?
Biscuits and Books hired a mob lawyer. All of a sudden, it was “ Katy, bar the door."
Case closed.
Ms. Southerlyn, I have advised my clients not to speak.
Kindly direct your remarks to me.
They seemed ready to testify against Tortomassi...
in exchange for a grant of immunity 10 years ago.
Without confirming or denying that assertion, circumstances have changed.
Meaning they're no longer willing to turn on their boss.
Meaning only that my clients are now both successful businessmen.
They're wise guys, and either they're going to cooperate or they're going to jail.
- Oh, they've been to jail, counselor. - Parenti's murder's gonna put them away forever.
Ms. Southerlyn, I agreed to see you because I wanted to find out what you had
You've told me enough to make me realize you have nothing.
Biscuits and Books were at the meeting?
If Wachtler's worried enough to circle the wagons, we must be close. Not close enough.
Tell Van Buren to have Biscotti and Libretti arrested.
With what? I'll get Judge Midonas to issue the warrants.
Jack. Just do it.
Hey!
All right! Sit, stay.
My lawyer told me to expect a stunt like this.
Oh, your lawyer's a wise man.
Anthony Biscotti, you're under arrest for the murder of Robert Parenti.
You have the right to remain silent. Good, 'cause I got nothin' to say.
Frederico Libretti.
You're under arrest for the murder of Robert Parenti.
Never heard of him You should. You killed him 10 years ago.
Turn around, man.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
Watch your step. You have the right to an attorney.
People v. Anthony Biscotti and Frederico Libretti.
One count each, murder in the second degree.
- Pleas, gentlemen. - Not guilty.
- Me too. - Would “me too's" attorney care to amend the record?
Mr. Libretti enters a plea of not guilty, Your Honor.
The defendants are persistent, violent felons facing mandatory life upon conviction.
Say no more. Remand for both.
Good day, Mr. Wachtler. Next case, please.
It didn't have to come to this.
Of course it did. Your clients killed Robert Parenti.
They admitted it to Tenofsky 10 years ago.
If you'd had any proof of that, McCoy my little chat with your assistant...
would have had an entirely different tenor.
Just out of curiosity, how did you get Tenofsky to drop the investigation?
My sources tell me you can't find most of his case file.
I don't need his file to make the case against your clients for the Parenti murder.
Only I don't really care about the Parenti murder.
I only care about Daniel Tenofsky.
I'll apprise my clients of your concerns.
Tell them, if I don't find out who killed Tenofsky,
they go to prison for life for Parenti.
As to that, my clients testified in the grand jury.
Under the criminal procedure law, they received automatic transactional immunity.
I'm familiar with C.P.L. 190.40.
Then you know you can't prosecute them for Parenti's murder, no matter what their level of participation.
That statute is subject to interpretation.
You're familiar with this, too, I presume?
Motion to dismiss all charges against Messrs. Libretti and Biscotti.
Any cooperation from my clients will be completely voluntary.
Ironic they're claiming immunity because they talked to the grand jury,
and we can't prove they killed Parenti, because the grand jury minutes are missing.
Yes, but Tenofsky did a thorough job of stripping his file...
grand jury transcripts, witness statements.
So we don't know for sure that Biscotti and Libretti actually testified.
No testimony, no immunity.
I only know what I can prove.
- The grand jury reporter? - Retired. Junked her tapes years ago.
- What about the grand jury warden? - Died in 1995.
So really there's no proof that they ever spilled their guts.
Whereas, if judge Bradley upholds immunity for these two cowboys...
Our leverage on the Tenofsky murder goes out the window.
We take the position that Books and Biscuits never testified,
therefore, weren't properly immunized.
To get them to tell us what they know about the Tenofsky killing.
And round and round she goes.
Mr. McCoy, the Tenofsky debacle does not constitute an excuse for sloppy record keeping.
If our suspicions are correct, sir, Mr. Tenofsky only disposed of the Parenti materials...
at the bidding of the defendants.
The D.A. has “suspicions,” and he wants to hang my guys?
They could use hanging, counselor.
C.P.L. 190 says the defendants are immune from prosecution...
if they testified in the Parenti grand jury.
Tenofsky was arranging for the defendants to enter the Witness Protection Program.
He'd hardly have done that if they weren't cooperating.
That evidence suggests only that the defendants may have considered testifying.
There's no proof that they actually did.
The statute is clear.
Immunity doesn't attach until the witness is swam and testifies.
Which I assure you they did. You want me to conclude...
that your clients, in fact, appeared before the grand jury because you say they did?
- What turnip truck do you figure I fell off of, Mr. Wachtler? - Judge.
Your choirboys were prepared to cut a deal once, counselor Why not go two for two?
There being no demonstrable imposition of immunity here,
the People are free to pursue prosecution against these defendants.
How are we gonna prove Biscotti and Libretti killed Parenti...
without a body, the snitch or a motive?
Tenofsky thought he had enough of a case to go after Tortomassi...
with Libretti and Biscotti as witnesses.
Yeah, well, whatever's missing from his files...
would come in handy right about now.
What did the arresting officer say about their alibi?
Working a construction job.
Their alibi was Tenofsky's proof.
Tenofsky was certain that Biscuits and Books killed Parenti...
because Tenofsky knew where they stashed the body.
Got a pair of hands here.
Bobby Parenti.
In the flesh, so to speak.
How the hell did you know where to find him, counselor?
Tenofsky... Dan would never open a grand jury on the say-so of a snitch.
So you figured he had more. And I think he wanted us to find it.
Dan gutted most of the case file but not all of it.
He left a Department of Public Works order form Now you lost me.
Ten years ago, the city was ripping up this same area.
The concrete subcontractor doing the work was Tortomassi Ready Mix.
Biscuits' and Books' alibi... those dumb bastards.
Killed Parenti and buried him in the abutment.
Then when they heard the city was ripping everything up again, they knew the body would be found.
And the only one who could tie it to the Three Amigos was Dan Tenofsky.
Let's call Wachtler,
ask him if his clients are ready now to testify against their boss again.
You got Parenti's body. So what?
We dug him out of a construction site where your clients worked.
Along with a hundred other guys. Again, so what?
We re-covered skin from under Parenti's fingermails.
The M.E. says there's more than enough for a D.N.A. match.
My guys might be willing to reiterate their original statements for the original deal.
Which was? Man two, five years probation.
Dan Tenofsky never would make that deal. Why would I?
Because they can give you the man who ordered Parenti and Tenofsky's murder.
I need you to say his name.
Franco Tortomassi.
Man one, 12 1/2 to 25.
They sign a waiver of immunity before they testify.
it's as good as--
Done.
Tortomassi gave the order on Parenti.
The old man hates a squeaky wheel.
- What about Tenofsky? - He ordered us to hit him too.
How did you get to Tenofsky originally?
Did you threaten him to get him to drop the Parenti case?
What threat? Fifty grand, he made the Parenti thing go away.
Yeah. All it took was a half a yard.
- I don't believe he took a bribe from you. - You believe what you want, pally.
And when the city started to mg up the abutment where Parenti's body was buried
Tortomassi told you to kill Tenofsky.
Old man said, “Make it look like a robbery.“
- But numb-nuts here plunked him in the heart. - He's dead, right?
Franco Tortomassi. You're under arrest for the murders of Robert Parenti and Jacob Deiter,
a.k.a. Daniel Tenofsky.
Tell Mr. McCoy he's making a mistake.
Oh, I don't think he gives a damn. You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.
Mr. Tortomassi had nothing to do with either of these awful events.
Your client was behind the no-show job scam at the Ledger,
which led him to order the murder of Robert Parenti.
He denies that. Which in tum necessitated, 10 years later,
the killing of Daniel Tenofsky.
Your employees have already pled guilty to killing both of them.
On your orders. And you believe them?
Tweedledeedee and Tweedledeedum?
I'm old-school, Mr. McCoy. I wouldn't do that.
No cops, no D.A.'s.
Are you accepting responsibility for Parenti's murder?
You misunderstand.
My client denies any involvement in these events whatsoever.
Let's go, Franco.
My condolences on your loss, Mr. McCoy.
Looks like you get your slam dunk after all, Jack,
plus a little retribution for Dan Tenofsky.
I'm concerned actually. Why wouldn't Tortomassi take a plea?
You come from a long line of worriers.
His henchmen are testifying against him.
We gave him a fair glimpse at the evidence in a strong case.
And he wasn't interested? Not even a nibble.
We weren't paid for killin' Parenti, not like people think.
- But you did kill Mr. Parenti... you and Mr. Biscotti. - Oh, yeah.
The boss told Tony to kill him. We killed him.
"The boss"?
Mr. Tortomassi.
What did you receive for your efforts?
An obbligato... a debt.
Mr. Tortomassi was...
honor bound to us, you know, in the organization.
You killed Parenti, you and Mr. Libretti. Yeah.
- And you killed Jacob Deiter, also known as Daniel Tenofsky. - Yeah.
You shot him in the chest, and then you stabbed him more than a dozen times?
I didn't count, counselor.
- And you did these killings at the behest of Mr. Tortomassi - “ Behest."
You mean, did the boss order the hit?
Yeah, at his behest.
He called Freddy, but we did it together.
And presumably we should believe you now...
- based on your lifelong pattern of lies and perjury... - Objection.
And murder... Objection.
- Deceit... - Counselor. Rephrase or move on, counselor.
Jury's eating it up.
It's been a while since the city had a real mob boss on trial.
Serena.
Libretti said Biscotti got the order to hit Parenti.
So? Biscuits said Books received the go-ahead.
That's a slip of the tongue. Well-prepped witnesses do not slip, not like that.
You can't blame yourself Jack. We prepped them as much as we could.
- Not how we prepped them. How Wachtler did. - Wachtler?
He's been handling those two and us all along.
How and why? I'm not sure yet.
But if he orchestrated this discrepancy, I have to ask,
what else are those two lying about?
Pull Wachtler's LUDS, his C.V... anything you can get on him.
Biscuits and Books are so dumb, they don't remember who told who to kill Parenti and Tenofsky.
They got nervous. Trivial error.
Even Tortomassi's lawyer didn't pick it up.
He may be slipping. I'm not.
Jack. Tenofsky loved what he did.
He loved the D.A.'s office, loved trial work.
He even loved the Appeals Bureau.
The only thing that could've stopped him from going after your clients was the fear of losing all of that.
Back in 1978, you were a night student at Brooklyn Law,
but you took one day class.
- Corporations with Professor Hoffman. - I barely remember it.
You had a classmate... the real Daniel Tenofskie, the one who dropped out.
You sat across the aisle from him for six months.
So, when Libretti and Biscotti and you...
had your first sit-down with our Dan Tenofsky...
whose real name was Jacob Deiter... you knew he was a fake.
- You'll never prove that. - Your clients did not bribe Tenofsky.
They blackmailed him...
with your help.
They threatened to expose him, threatened to take away his identity,
take away the life he'd built for himself.
You want me to testify against these guys.
Libretti, Biscotti and Tortomassi.
- I'll need to go into Witness Protection - You'll testify and go to jail.
And if I'm in a good mood,
I'll consider arranging segregation from the general population.
- You can cut Tortomassi loose. - He was telling the truth? He wasn't involved?
For once.
Biscuits and Books did the whole thing.
The old man never knew about any of it.
The union scam, Parenti's hit, Tenofsky... none of it.
They were always afraid Tortomassi would find out...
what they'd been doing behind his back all these years.
Why did they kill Dan?
When Tenofsky heard they were about to find the body,
he started talking about coming forward
confessing to what he'd done in the Parenti case.
The sentencing of the three defendants in this matter...
to terms which assure they will never return to the streets of New York...
concludes a sad chapter in our city's history.
Dan left just enough in the file to make a case against Books, Biscuits and Wachtler.
Tenofsky could've tossed the whole thing.
We caught a break. His obsessive side won out.
It wasn't that.
He just couldn't strip the file. He couldn't strip himself of that last shred of honesty.
Arizona P.D. couldn't find a brother.
I was never sure if he was real or... or just another creation.
He has no family, Jack, no next of kin.
What do you want me to do with his personal effects?
What personal effects? Those were more like props.
So, who was he really... Deiter or Tenofsky?
Who knows?