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.
A Sunday night, huh?
If you were off, this what you'd be doing?
I'd be tuning my Harley... or Mary Louise.
( laughs )
Come on.
Break it up.
Just relax. You'll get in.
It's not a problem.
Get the manager out here.
Is there a problem?
You got excessive noise, loitering...
my feet are moving. Not me--
Peter, come on!
I was talking to the policeman. Where are you going?
The car's over there. We got to go home.
At midnight? Come on.
Let's go to Nirvana.
It's time to go home, Peter. It's not time to go home.
Give me a kiss.
I don't want to give you a kiss.
( laughs )
( screams )
Nobody saw her at the club.
invisible out here? What? Was she
Tore the necklace so hard, it took skin with it.
Lois Ryder, 16 East 85.
Off the park. Nice.
Saperstein, 3-6.
Phil Cerreta, Mike Logan.
What's the matter, you don't get enough work in your own turf?
Hit her in the head, maybe a baseball bat?
Took the jewelry, left the credit cards?
Case closed. You got the guy booked?
Last six weeks, two within ten blocks.
I didn't see it on the boroughs sheet. No, no, no.
We don't want the M.O. out. We gagged it downtown.
The guy hits them with a bat, takes the jewelry
leaves the cards.
What do you got?
Hits them with a bat, takes the jewelry
leaves the cards.
We got nothing.
Captionining sponsored by NBC/Universal
CERRETA: a difficult time.
You were in the country all weekend?
I-I had to get the roof fixed.
Who cares if the roof was leaking?
Mr. Ryder?
Do you know what your wife
would have been doing tonight?
I talked to her this morning.
She and I talked,
and she said she might go to the movies,
and I told her not to walk.
The movie,
Mr. Ryder--
would you know which one that would be?
She likes the 69th Street Twin.
Mr. Ryder, do you happen to have
a photo of her that we could borrow?
Daddy...
Daddy, is something wrong?
Where's Mommy?
MAN: Scandinavian film festival?
People committing suicide in the snow.
Not exactly what New Yorkers want to see in the winter.
We sold 86 tickets.
One to her?
I'm so bored I'm working with my eyes closed.
Okay, thanks.
Six more bars, four Korean fruit stands.
Nobody saw her.
What's he got?
Suicide.
In Swedish.
DOCTOR: Massive blunt-force trauma--
matches the other victims-- this guy is batting a thousand.
She ate an hour before she died-- meat, huh?
Maybe she found an art house
that served carpaccio with her cappuccino.
Hey, you find semen in the vagina, you don't call us?
Nobody said it was rape-- there's no sign of rape:
no tearing, no abrasions...
Her husband was out of town.
to know that? I'm supposed
What am I, his travel agent?
What time did she do it? Before midnight last night--
sperm cells were dead this morning.
And after midnight Friday-- I found acid phosphatase, seminal fluid.
Disappears 48 hours after intercourse.
Of course, it's also found in cauliflower juice.
Oh, I think we can rule out a cauliflower.
Your friend Saperstein from the three-six?
Jewelry from one of the other murders
turned up in the diamond district-- not traceable.
Why does she go to a late movie with two little kids at home?
Maybe because she had two little kids at home.
And because she has a housekeeper.
She's not going to tell the housekeeper
where she's going?
She had dinner, she had sex.
Spells boyfriend.
Maybe a lovers' quarrel?
Or the husband wasn't gone for four days.
Well, it would be nice to know who she was sleeping with.
You're gonna have to go see the husband.
Boy, if it wasn't him
this is a lousy time to bring him that kind of news.
My son's under sedation.
This is not a good time.
We really do have to talk to him.
The children, the funeral arrangements...
he's very upset.
Mr. Ryder, sorry to bother you.
If we could just have a minute privately.
The family is in this together.
CERRETA: I really don't think...
No.
We'll talk.
Your wife-- there's medical evidence
that indicates that she had intimate relations
in the 48 hours before she died.
Well, that's impossible. Um...
I went to Southampton on Thursday.
Well, if it wasn't you...
What are you saying?
My wife was having an affair?
I'm sure Lois
was doing no such thing.
If we could track her movements
we might find a witness to her murder.
It can't be.
I know my wife. It's possible the lab was wrong.
If you would just take a blood test, we'd know it's you,
We don't have to look for someone that doesn't exist.
My daughter-in-law is dead,
my grandchildren don't have a mother,
and you want to drag my son through some cheap scandal.
I don't think so. No.
LOGAN: So, you tell me, what's the big deal
about taking a blood test?
Your wife just died.
Maybe you don't like being asked
to prove that she wasn't sleeping around.
Maybe he didn't want us to know he saw her over the weekend.
Your guy Ryder-- draft bait Vietnam.
Joined the National Guard, Dan Quayle Brigade.
The army found his DD-214.
Blood type "A."
Doesn't match the semen.
So why won't he take the test?
Like I said--
grieving husband, privacy, maybe he just don't like cops.
wouldn't match. Maybe he knew it
Didn't want us to know she had a boyfriend
and that he had a motive.
I'll tell you one person who saw her before she died--
the boyfriend.
Where do you have her last?
The housekeeper says the hospital--
Carnegie Hill, volunteer work.
What are you waiting for?
I need people to hold patients' hands.
Most volunteers, they want to work the resale shop
on Madison-- first dibs on the used Adolfos.
So you didn't know Mrs. Ryder well?
Ryder money built this hospital.
Lois should've been part of that crowd,
but she didn't understand the game.
Worked the pediatric cancer ward.
Did she ever tell you about her life?
LOGAN: We think she had
a boyfriend.
I wouldn't know.
CERRETA: Miss Phillips...
you can either tell us or a grand jury.
He's married.
He has kids.
Leave him out of it.
He's already in it.
What's his name?
Joel Friedman, chief of pediatrics.
Lois Ryder.
Of course I knew her.
She volunteered at the hospital.
Were you with her Sunday night?
I don't know what you're talking about.
We'll make it easy for you.
Sunday night, Lois Ryder,
you, together.
Do you want us to tell you your rights?
Who is it, honey?
Uh, I'll get my coat.
CERRETA: We want a blood test.
And if you're not going to give it to us
we'll get a court order. Relax, gentlemen.
Joel.
I was with her.
We'd been seeing each other
about five months.
Normally, I...
I wouldn't see her at my apartment.
She called.
She wanted to talk.
CERRETA: Her husband says
they were happily married.
Really?
No.
No. There's a picture in the Ryder house.
Lois told me.
His grandmother on a camel, Egypt, 1930.
In 1930, her grandmother was scrubbing floors
in East Orange, New Jersey,
and the Ryders never let her forget that.
I can't be involved in this.
Did her husband know about the affair?
I saw him last month at a hospital fund-raiser.
He smirked at me.
He knew.
Lois didn't understand what she was doing.
I did.
I was there to make him jealous.
He's cooperating.
He didn't kill her.
I know it. You know it.
She's using him.
Maybe he loses his temper.
The elevator man says the doc's wife got home
40 minutes after Lois Ryder left.
He was waiting at the door for her.
That gives him just about enough time.
Fire escape dumps into a locked yard,
there's a tall fence-- so the doc goes out,
climbs the fence, clobbers Lois Ryder,
hauls her body from the west side to the east side
and gets home just in time to kiss his wife hello?
What is he, Houdini? Yeah.
The doc here says that Ryder knew about him
and Ryder said he didn't know.
I knew.
I just didn't see why the rest of the world had to know.
We had to know.
He was one of the last people to see her alive.
My granddaughter--
should she read in the newspaper
about her mother's infidelity?
And especially with someone so foreign.
Yes. He's from the west side.
You know what I mean-- he was not of our element.
No Jewish doctors in your crowd, huh?
LOGAN: Mr. Ryder, let me
ask you something.
Your wife's affair--
you didn't have a problem with it?
Look, this thing with Dr. Friedman--
my wife and I discussed it.
It was ending...
and frankly, i don't think
he was very happy about it.
First, Ryder sends us to the movies
but his wife didn't go to the movies.
Then he points at the doctor. It's all crap,
and it's all coming from Ryder.
So maybe he came into town early and surprised the wife.
Give us six guys, and this time we canvass with Ryder's photograph.
Six guys-- why don't I just hire the Russian army?
They're not busy. Don, first we do the doc's neighborhood,
then we do Ryder's neighborhood,
and then we do where she was found.
Just give us Profaci and Li.
One shift.
( car horns honk )
I got a guy saw Ryder driving a newsdelivery truck.
Now, it was either Ryder
or it was a black guy looked exactly like him.
I got a guy saw a U.F.O. Pick up Li.
Go home and say hello to Shirley for me,
all right, Profaci?
I'll see you, Phil. Yeah.
LOGAN: Phil! Phil!
I love New York this time of year.
What, do you got somebody who saw him the night she was hit?
Not quite. Come meet Mr. Lewis.
Nice-looking lady.
For me, a little old, but great cheekbones.
Tell him about the boys.
Couple of weeks ago, two kids, they're renting porn--
Vibrating Vixens. There ought to be a law.
There is a law.
Anyway, they're talking
about the baseball bat guy, the mugger.
she comes in all the time. The lady with the cheekbones,
Art movies.
Mrs. Ryder. The one in the picture.
She gets upset, she turns to the guy with her...
Mr. Ryder.
She's all riled up.
"What's wrong with society?"
"Life is unfair."
"No wonder they mug people."
He says, "Can we finish the speech when we get home?"
Me, I say they ought to get shot.
Ryder knew about the mugger.
Thanks a lot.
Now we know why he didn't want to take the blood test.
He didn't want us to look for the boyfriend.
We find the boyfriend, we find out Ryder knew who he was.
He knows who he is, he knows where to look for his wife.
He waits outside the doc's apartment.
That's Riverside Drive, 11:00, nobody on the street. Cracks her skull.
Brings her over here across town, dumps her in this neighborhood.
Copycatting the mugger. And then figures we drop it right here.
One more mugger victim-- too bad. Case closed.
My ass-- case open.
1:00 A.M., he pulls in.
Yeah, you know, I just come on.
Ryder says he came straight from Southampton-- nothing says he didn't.
"Traffic on a southern state," he said. Like I care.
Not your favorite customer, huh?
I get in, I want to park the car-- he's yakking.
His rent-a-place in the islands--
the roof's broken, the pool's too hot.
In the winter, I'm lucky if I get to Park Avenue South.
Mr. Ryder-- is he always so cordial?
I got to just sit in the cold car and listen.
Cold?
The car was cold?
It was freezing.
Thanks a lot.
What is it to Southampton, two hours?
I go six blocks in my car, and it overheats.
He hit his wife, then he went and sat in some coffee shop
a couple of hours till the shift changed here.
You want to canvass 10,000 coffee shops?
I want to get in that damn car.
Only if we impound the car, Ryder's gonna know we're sniffing around.
I'm gonna dance for the warrant.
They can do it here.
No blood in the car.
Must have bagged her head.
But C.S.U. tweezers picked up fibers
from Mrs. Ryder's sweater.
Yeah, but where's that gonna get us?
Even $800 cashmere sheds.
It's her car.
There's bound to be fibers from her clothes.
In the trunk?
Paul, I can guarantee it.
He waits outside Friedman's apartment.
He hits her, he drags the body across town,
he dumps it, he makes it look like a mugging,
he tells us she was down at the movies.
It's a good story. No evidence.
We can barely convict Ryder of lying. What about the fiber?
It could have been there for months.
The car was cold.
It wasn't bloody.
want us to do? Paul, what do you
Hit every sporting goods store in the five boroughs,
find a clerk who sold a middle-aged man a bat?
Hey, hey, hey, last time I looked
we all got our paychecks from the same place.
He is not the enemy.
Give us something. Like motive. Well, there's the affair,
but the doc says that Ryder didn't even care about it. Ryder?
I guarantee he cared that his wife's lover
was Jewish. Oh, come on,
who cares about the religion of the guy your wife is boffing?
The Ryders.
You heard what she said.
"Not in our element."
An affair-- is that motive?
What was going on in the marriage?
She must have told somebody.
Let's get photostats of her datebook.
K. Drinks, the Algonquin.
Kent, lunch.
K. Meeker.
Dinner.
Lutece.
Kent, lunch.
Le Perigord.
What do we got, another boyfriend?
Lois and I?
No. Just friends.
Are you friends with Mr. Ryder?
Prep school. We were on the swimming team, St. Luke's.
I'm almost family.
How about Mrs. Ryder?
Is she almost family, too?
Lois was killed by a mugger, isn't that right?
This time that you spent with Mrs. Ryder...
She came to me because...
Let's say my pedigree was marginally better than hers.
She needed advice-- her marriage.
What's wrong with it?
Lois figured it went bad
when Jonathan's mother left the wedding reception
before the florist did.
My mother doesn't like my wife.
I stopped worrying about that 20 years ago.
You are not Jonathan Ryder.
You know, when we were in prep school
he wasn't doing well.
His mother comes up.
There's a new Ryder building.
Suddenly his grades are fine.
She never let him forget that.
That he was a screw-up?
Takes its toll.
He once booted the cat across the room.
Did he ever boot his wife?
Worse.
Lois told me he offered her three million to leave.
Just handed her a paper.
"Hi, honey. Sign this. Go away."
She loved him.
She wanted a marriage counselor.
Yeah, but he could get a divorce with her or without her.
Her share of joint property--
in the neighborhood
of 20 million.
Unless she just happened to die.
Jonathan?
Doesn't have the giblets.
Mama cut them off years ago.
Maybe you should ask Barbara Ryder where she was that night.
Ryder should have popped his mother
and told her where to get off. You the expert on lousy moms?
As a matter of fact, i am.
Mrs. Ryder's necklace and bracelet
pawned in Chelsea, identified from insurance company photos.
Who pawned them, Jonathan Ryder's mother?
Well, I really don't think she frequents the New Era Pawnshop.
When did that jewelry come in?
Morning after the murder-- pawn shop got our flier yesterday.
Are we making this up?
Was she killed by a mugger?
Why don't you find the guy and ask him?
CLERK: What's with the muscle?
I saw the circular and I called.
I'm going to eat the money I gave that creep.
Since when have you become so law-abiding?
Since I did one-to-three for receiving.
My wife likes me home for the holidays.
Okay, good. Thanks.
Hey. Hey, your Mr. Everett who pawned the jewelry? Bad I.D.
His license was stolen three weeks ago.
The law says get an I.D. I got one.
Oh, yeah? Did you look at the picture on it?
What color was he?
White.
No. The real Mr. Everett is black.
You didn't look too good.
Mikey, this guy laid out $4,000
on a fake I.D.-- what do you think?
I think he's probably got other stolen stuff here.
I think I should open the safe.
He had a wild look. Th... This guy is crazy.
He could kill me.
I don't want trouble.
From him or from us?
Who's it going to be?
Give me the name.
I guess the middle class really is moving out of New York.
Fourteen.
( knocking )
Henry Willard?
New York City Police!
Go to it, big guy.
( man yelling )
No.
Tough guy, huh?
Guess we interrupted his recreation.
MAN: Come on, get out of here.
Henry. Henry.
Your driver's license.
Your I.D. at the pawnshop, Henry?
You mugged a guy to get them.
Not to mention, mugging the lady.
She's in pretty bad shape.
You better hope she can't identify you.
I found that stuff, man.
On Mrs. Ryder.
In a Dumpster, Penn Station somewhere.
Middle of the night, I was high, I don't remember.
You're a real specimen, Henry--
stupid, drugged, and violent.
Thanks.
Okay, Henry.
These are the insurance photos of the jewelry.
Pay attention!
This is the bracelet.
This is the necklace.
This is the pin.
Over here!
Where's this pin?
There was no damn pin.
Henry,
don't you want us to tell the D.A.
that you cooperated? Huh? Huh?
Get me a lawyer.
Mr. Willard's yellow sheets.
B and E, mugging, crack.
He mugs for jewelry, sells it for drugs.
I got a problem.
The guy's a wacko.
He swung a table at us.
I don't see the problem. Book him.
A table, not a baseball bat.
There wasn't a bat in the room.
What's, he gonna buy a new bat every time he mugs someone? Listen to this.
Bracelet, diamonds, made by Harry Winston, 1979.
Appraised 18 grand.
Necklace, diamonds and rubies, 30 G's.
Harry Winston, 1985.
Pin, silver. A thousand bucks, Lucien Peller, 1931.
Yeah? Well, suppose Mr. Congeniality in there
is telling us the truth.
He found the expensive necklace and bracelet in the Dumpster
but not the thousand-dollar pin.
Ryder. He threw the new stuff away.
It was only money.
The pin was an heirloom.
You telling me he killed her, then started feeling
a little sentimental, kept the pin?
The city house
the country house, and the mother's house.
This time you dance for the warrant.
Tennis rackets, skis, polo mallets, and...
What is this?
A lacrosse stick.
My son hasn't played in years.
You mind if I use your phone again?
Not at all.
No baseball bats.
You should wait for my attorney.
Yes, ma'am.
The law says we don't have to.
Get me Detective Li, please. Thanks.
Hey. Logan.
You find anything?
Oh. Thanks.
Nothing on the other side of town.
Ryder says they wrinkled his suits.
Yeah?
Well, he may not be wearing them
for a while.
Pin, silver, 1931.
Docket number 5231.
The people v. Jonathan Ryder.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
How does the defendant plead?
Not guilty.
The people seek substantial bail, Your Honor.
The charge is murder.
So I heard, Mr. Robinette.
Mr. Webber?
Your Honor, Mr. Ryder is a well-established...
i know who he is.
500,000.
He can afford it.
Usual travel restrictions.
( gavel bangs )
Paul, Mr. Ryder's mother, his sister--
they were all playing bridge the night of the murder.
Alibi witnesses.
Bridge? Three of them?
I believe a computer made up the fourth hand.
Is the computer going to testify, too?
Well, who do you and Stone have?
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
Anything to avoid it.
I don't want to testify.
A murder trial isn't a matter
of personal convenience.
My daughter comes home at 3:00 in the morning.
My son wants to know why his mother won't talk to me.
They'll turn my life into tabloid headlines.
What do you need me for?
Your affair, Mr. Ryder's awareness of it,
what time Mrs. Ryder left your apartment.
I don't know anything about the murder.
If you cared for Mrs. Ryder...
I loved her.
I wanted to marry her.
My kids...
I couldn't leave my wife.
She wouldn't survive.
I'm on the board of six Jewish charities.
I... I know that sounds stupid, but...
that's my life.
If you don't testify, I'll cite you for contempt.
I can't bring her back.
I want to salvage what's left of my life.
Cite me for contempt.
I'll pay the fine.
My lawyer said you won't put me in jail.
BARBARA: Mr. Robinette,
we thought it would be more convenient for you
if you saw us together.
Your lawyer said you wouldn't see me any other way.
Oh, there must be some misunderstanding.
I hope we can dispose of this situation.
Why don't we sit down.
We left Jonathan's house just after 11:00.
Did you notice the time, too, Mrs. Dickey?
Jane never wears a watch.
I've tried to convince her for years.
You left your brother's house
with your mother.
Jane's staying with me in the country.
We were so sorry to hear about Lois.
BARBARA: May I be frank,
Mr. Robinette?
I'm very worried about my son,
as I'm sure your mother would worry about you.
Jonathan's been accused of a horrible crime.
I spoke with him this morning.
He hasn't left his house in days.
JANE: Now that you have our statement
you'll drop the charges, won't you?
We are certain it was 11:00.
My late husband insisted I be punctual.
I always know the time.
Think they'll hold up on the stand? Paul says
the sister's just like Ryder, under his mama's thumb.
She's convinced her daughter to commit perjury.
She drove her son to kill his wife.
The paper Ryder asked his wife to sign?
You wonder why she didn't take the three million to walk?
Paragraph seven.
He wanted her to give up the kids?
Sure. To them, the mother is disposable.
The children are Ryders.
She went, they stayed. Lovely.
Why didn't Ryder burn this?
we were looking for it. Didn't know
We got it from his corporate lawyer. They let you have it?
It's attorney work product.
Ryder wrote that himself.
They can't claim privilege.
Couldn't have got it from Ryder anyway. Why not?
You're gonna love this.
His mother said he was home.
They went to serve a subpoena on him--
not in the city or Southampton.
The housekeeper gave me the limo service.
Dropped him and the kids at J.F.K.
Sun Air terminal.
International.
Ryder has a winter house?
Two. Palm Beach-- where he isn't-- and Barbados.
The bail conditions say he can't leave the country.
He broke bail.
JUDGE: It looks to me like your client
was fleeing this jurisdiction.
Mr. Ryder had no intention of flight, Your Honor.
He wanted to get his children away from the press.
I put people in jail
because they don't have 25¢ for bail.
Mr. Ryder thinks the rules
don't apply to him?
I advised him it was all right.
At worst, a technical violation.
Bad advice, Counselor.
Very bad advice.
I've got a technical solution for your technical violation.
Mr. Ryder likes islands?
I've got one for him-- Rikers.
This is ridiculous.
Your Honor...
Bail is revoked.
Ryder in jail for two months?
His idea of a rough weekend is a picnic with warm champagne.
Do you think he'll start blabbing to his cell mate?
By the trial, he'll be a blithering idiot.
So let's put an informant in the cell.
We'll never survive on appeal.
Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
The Supreme Court is clear-- if the informant
doesn't elicit anything, it's admissible.
Who's available to send in?
An armed robber, a rent-gouging landlord.
Both of those are ripe for deals.
Go with the armed robber.
Ends up in front of a jury
get more sympathy than a landlord.
I know what you want.
I'll get it. You will not "get it."
You will not ask Mr. Ryder any questions.
You will not say "good morning."
And if he tries to confess, I should break out of the cell?
If you mess this up, you'll be very sorry you cut a deal with me.
Ryder mentions his wife, you avert your eyes, say nothing.
You don't trust me, put in a robot with a tape recorder in his head.
If I could, I would.
Cashmere fibers in the trunk
matched fibers from the sweater Mrs. Ryder was wearing,
beyond any doubt.
Was the pattern of the fibers distinctive?
Well, they were spread in a band about three feet long
and pulled out at the base,
as if they'd been wrapped around something heavy
and dragged.
Your witness.
Mr. Medill, your report
notes traces of naphthalene.
What is that?
Dry-cleaning fluid.
This ticket from the Seaview Cleaners in Southampton
itemizes clothes removed from storage
two weeks before Mrs. Ryder died.
Do any of those listed items
match the type of fiber you found
in the trunk?
There's a pink cashmere sweater.
This fiber pattern-- could it have been made
by a bundle of clothes removed from storage
and put in a trunk
with a pink sweater on the bottom?
Dry cleaners wrap their clothes in plastic.
And if the plastic ripped?
I suppose so.
You suppose what, Mr. Medill?
It could be consistent, yes.
Thank you.
And after Mrs. Ryder left the hospital
do you recall whether she was wearing any jewelry or not?
There was a pin on her coat.
She wore it all the time.
I'm showing you people's exhibit #12.
Is this the pin?
That looks like it, yes.
Thank you. No further questions.
Miss Phillips...
does this resemble the pin Lois Ryder was wearing?
It's similar.
And this?
Yes, it does.
And the pin in this photograph?
Your Honor, objection.
Where did he get these?
Gentlemen.
Excellent question, Counsellor.
If you had those things produced to create confusion...
The Ryder family had four nearly identical pins made in 1931.
The insurance agent that identified
the one Lois Ryder was wearing
made a mistake-- he'll testify to that.
It's a very convenient mistake. Well, easy one to make.
How did that pin end up in Barbara Ryder's house?
She took it to wear to her daughter-in-law's funeral.
JUDGE: Mr. Webber,
if you don't back this up, you're looking
at a character committee investigation.
Objection overruled.
Now, Miss Phillips, I ask you again--
are you absolutely certain
which of these pins Mrs. Ryder was wearing?
I think it was the first one.
Really?
Which is the first one?
Hell of a case of reasonable doubt.
You still think Ryder's guilty?
Some of that stuff is bunk--
the cleaners, the ripped plastic bag.
Yeah, well, the pins are not bunk,
and the alibi witnesses are not bunk,
and this is probably the lousiest staff work I've ever seen.
You want me to fire somebody? Would that make you happy?
The man is arrogant, he's stupid-- he's gonna get away with it.
That fellow you planted in his cell-- what's he getting?
Ryder's teaching him how to play bridge.
How to play br...
This is people's exhibit #12.
Do you recognize it?
It's one of a set of four pins.
My father had it made.
WEBBER: What is the history of these four pins?
BARBARA: My daughter has two.
Lois had two.
She was wearing one when she died.
That one is missing.
I borrowed this one from Jonathan.
Why did you borrow your dead daughter-in-law's pin?
I wanted to wear it to Lois's funeral.
I wanted to have something of hers near me.
Thank you.
Mrs. Ryder, where were you when this photo was taken?
At Lois's funeral.
Would you show me where the pin is?
I can't.
It was high on the left side under the collar.
You can't see it.
STONE: Isn't it true that your son gave you the pin to hide
after the funeral so the police
wouldn't find it in his house?
No, that is not true.
And isn't it true that this is the pin that Lois Ryder
wore when he killed her?
If my son had killed Lois, Mr. Stone,
I would be leading the pack against him.
Lois was a Ryder, too.
Are we winning?
Like we won Pearl Harbor.
We have another rowboat with a pee shooter to add to the fleet.
A club in Bridgehampton.
Mrs. Ryder likes the piano player.
"The Girl From Ipanema." She always requests
Which would annoy him, but she's a good tipper after four drinks.
He's pretty sure she was there the night of the murder.
Pretty sure? That's the good news-- he has no idea
when she walked in-- could have been 10:00,
when she swears she was playing games with Johnny.
Or it could've been 12:00, when Johnny was on his way
not to kill his wife. Great, we put him on the stand
as a rebuttal witness-- if Webber forgets
to cross-examine, we're all set.
But if this plays out, we won't have to.
Everything's going his way, Adam-- we got to shake him up.
By telling Webber you're gonna indict mother Ryder for perjury and accessory
based on the testimony of a piano player.
I offer to reconsider if he pleads to manslaughter.
And this piano player does not remember
when Mrs. Ryder got to the bar.
She knows when she got there.
If it was after midnight, her alibi story holds.
That's the beauty of it-- it only works if she's lying.
All this to get Ryder excited.
And he's not going to like the picture
of his mother in jail.
Suppose I have a witness that puts her elsewhere?
"Suppose"?
Do you or don't you?
Well, don't do the deal, and find out.
Even at her age, she'll do time.
You shouldn't be dealing.
You should be apologizing.
I'll consider manslaughter one for him.
Otherwise, it's accessory and perjury for her.
They could be in neighboring prisons
with a joint card room.
Don't wait by the phone.
Ryder won't crack. 34 Hours.
So, Webber's been in to see Ryder twice.
I know you didn't like it.
If he takes the deal, I'd say yes.
If he takes the deal
I'll start buying lottery tickets.
I got to go home.
Mr. Stone. Yeah?
You've got a call from Rikers. It's Morgan.
What did you guys do?
Put angel dust in his caviar?
What did he say?
First, nothing. A relief.
I had enough bulletins from the society page.
Then he asks me the longest term I'd done upstate.
I said a nickel.
He says he might do eight to 25.
You didn't ask any questions?
I put a magazine in my mouth.
He gets weepy, says mother was right,
he's a total foul-up.
Couldn't kill his own wife
without getting mother sent to jail.
Not bad, huh?
Then he's crying
his brains out.
Starts talking about the bat-- the bat and Alison.
Who's Alison?
His little girl.
Oh. Says maybe it's for the best.
How could he face her anyway?
Then he shuts up.
I take the magazine out of my mouth and call you.
I'm going to set up a hearing with the judge on Monday morning.
You tell him exactly what you told me.
I always tell the truth.
ROBINETTE: It's not good.
Oh, no, please.
Don't tell me Morgan died.
Bad case of memory loss.
He says he made it all up.
There was no confession.
Barbara Ryder got to him.
Morgan's wife--
emergency visit to Rikers yesterday.
You talk to her?
She's done time herself.
She's got a lawyer.
I wonder how much they paid him
to do another two years.
Mistrial?
He gave us Ryder's daughter.
He tampered with a witness!
Put away your slingshot, Stone. I never talked to Morgan.
Who visited his wife? Larry, if you tampered with a witness
I will personally appear at your disbarment hearing.
Judge, a threat in these circumstances?
Come on, get off of it.
We're off the record.
But I must tell you, Ben,
I don't like jailhouse informants.
They always say they keep their mouths shut.
I wouldn't have admitted it anyway.
In that case, I'd like an order to examine Ryder's daughter, Alison,
as a potential witness.
An eleven-year-old to testify against her father?
It's indecent-- not to mention fruit of the poisonous tree.
If the so-called confession isn't admissible,
neither is anything stemming from it.
Come again, Counselor? He learned about the daughter
from a confession you say doesn't exist.
According to you, there is no poisonous tree.
He had an informant in the cell.
U.S. v. Ceccolini.
Supreme Court allowed a witness
discovered by an illegal search.
They certainly showed greater reluctance
to suppress a live witness than physical evidence.
All right, gentlemen, this court is issuing an order.
The people will get a psychiatric examination
of Mr. Ryder's daughter.
Thank you, Your Honor.
We were going to Barbados.
after Mommy died. It was after...
he wanted his bat. Craigie, my brother,
It wasn't in the toolroom.
Craigie was crying. Daddy...
we lost it at the beach, Daddy said
but I didn't think so.
I saw it after the summer. Daddy said we did, but I...
I think I did.
When Mommy left that day OLIVET:
she was going to the hospital and told you
do you remember what pin she was wearing?
It was mine... when I grew up. ALISON:
the special one. Mommy always wore
How was it special? OLIVET:
I don't know.
She said it was a secret.
She said she'd tell me someday.
I think she knows her father killed her mother.
She can't deal with it.
She's useless as a witness.
She can talk about the bat.
She won't hold up on the stand.
SCHIFF: The jury will love you.
She said there was a secret.
Who did Lois Ryder tell her secrets to?
They bought a witness.
They committed perjury.
I've been following the trial.
Do you know anything
about the jewelry she was wearing?
You know, your lawyer was wrong.
I'll cite you for contempt.
I'll send you to jail.
I'm not sure that's the worst thing
that could happen to me.
Tell that to me after you see Jonathan Ryder
at the next hospital fund-raiser.
( big sigh )
I worked occasionally on Sunday nights.
My wife accepted that. In the course of your affair,
did you ever have any indication
that Mr. Ryder knew of his wife's infidelity?
Lois would... uh, Mrs. Ryder...
she would call her husband.
She would give him excuses.
They were ridiculous.
Two times in a row
she told him she was going to the Monet exhibit
at the Met.
The Monet exhibit was already closed.
Did you ever meet Jonathan Ryder?
I saw him at hospital fund-raising events.
Did he ever indicate
that he knew where you lived?
FRIEDMAN: Once. He told me he didn't understand
why a doctor would live on the west side.
He said, "Riverside Drive...
not very safe over there."
STONE: Now, the last time you saw Mrs. Ryder
do you recall what jewelry she was wearing?
Her wedding ring,
a necklace,
a bracelet, and a pin.
Dr. Friedman, here are three pins.
Do you recognize
any of them?
That's the one that Lois was wearing.
STONE: Let the record indicate
that he identified people's exhibit #12.
Let the record so indicate.
Why did you pick that one?
Mr. Ryder's grandfather had four of them made.
This one was for his daughter, Jonathan's mother.
She told Jonathan
it would be for his wife...
before... he married Lois.
But how did you identify it?
The initial "B" is etched into one of the leaves.
When Lois got married, she asked Jonathan
to have an "L" etched in opposite it--
"L" for Lois.
She waited two years.
She finally had it done herself.
Her mother-in-law never knew about it.
Lois always...
Lois always wanted to add an "A"
for when her daughter would wear it.
STONE: Thank you.
No further questions.
On the sole count of the indictment,
the charge of murder
in the second degree, how does the jury find?
We find the defendant guilty.
( cheering and applause )
Had a call from a lawyer
representing Dr. Friedman's wife.
She filed for divorce.
Wants copies of anything her husband said to us.
Another generation
of Ryders.
God help them.
Captionining sponsored by NBC/Universal
Captioned by access.wgbh.org oup at WGBH