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.
Sounds like Desert Storm.
No, it's Con Ed.
They're smarter than Saddam.
Work all night, wake everybody up.
We turn on the lights, the tube...
And they get to bill everybody for 24 hours.
You see what I mean? It's a conspiracy.
I'll start up on two.
Oh, my God. Ferguson, get up here.
This door shouldn't be open.
Call the cops.
Dr. Walsh? Fay?
She's been on the... the faculty 12 years.
Well, some people have their priorities a little bit screwed up.
I knew they were idiots taking cases of rats.
But I never dreamed they were dangerous.
You heard from them before?
Well, one thing about lunatics, they make a lot of noise.
We've had our share of demonstrations.
These lunatics, you know any of their names?
I- I'm the Dean of Students.
You'd have to ask someone in the Biology Department.
Look, if you don't mind, I've been trying to contact her husband.
How's it go?
"No more pencils, no more books?"
Professor here took one in the back.
Large entry wound, large caliber.
Dead no more than a couple of hours.
You'd think with all the students around the campus,
somebody would've noticed.
Con Ed, late shift.
We got here, you couldn't hear Axel Rose.
Hey, Flynn, you know, to catch the bad guys,
we're gonna need some evidence.
Couple of witnesses wouldn't hurt, either.
Well, we got
plenty of witnesses, Lennie.
And with a hunk of cheese, maybe they'll talk.
I should have made her come along.
Cape May, Jersey shore. We have a house there.
But it was always work with Fay.
She hadrt left the lab for six months, except to sleep or eat.
These animal rights people...
They're the animals, Detective.
Were the rats in your wife's experiments killed?
Before you step on the sympathy train, Detective
think about the countless people, real live human beings
who would benefit from her work.
I pleaded with the university to add security.
She got threats recently?
A five-minute spot on Frontline
and Fay became a target for the lunatic fringe.
Picketing, hate mail.
When I got home this morning,
there's this message on the machine.
Do you mind if we listen to it?
It was so profane, I erased it.
I didn't wanna upset Fay.
We got four or five like that a month.
You'd think
people would have better things.
You wouldn't have saved any of that mail?
Yeah.
How'd you like to live there, Detective?
Yeah, well, it's not exactly the Waldorf.
You're being generous.
If the minks survive their own cannibalism,
the ranchers choose between electrocution,
gassing or breaking their necks.
And voila, a fur coat for the wife.
So what are you doing to stop it?
We demonstrate, write letters, organize boycotts.
Anything to draw attention to the cause of non-humans.
What's anything?
Fay Walsh, right?
We figured we'd be on your Top 10 list.
Somebody did sign your name on the wall.
It's not the first time.
I didn't like what Dr. Walsh was doing, Detective,
but I believe in life,
and that includes human life.
Well, maybe some of your members aren't as generous.
You think we could get a list of them?
You have a briefcase?
We have over 10,000 members.
They got 2,000 members in Manattan alone.
I didn't know we had that many animals.
You ought to ride the subways.
Maybe we can narrow it down to a couple of hundred with yellows.
Uh, yeah, maybe I can save you some time.
Last year, Brooklyn, the, uh, research facility
of B & C Pharmaceuticals was firebombed.
Yeah, let me guess, they used animals in their experiments.
Yeah, the parking lot, somebody painted "Innocent Victims" in red.
Did anybody stake a claim?
Yeah, they arrested a Dirk Chesney
founder of some underground organization, "The Animal Rights Crusade."
Boys in the Six-Four did a heck of a workup, but not enough to go to trial.
For an underground organization,
they got a higher profile than Cher.
Hmm, the Animal Rights Crusade has been connected
with three laboratory bombings since '89.
Every time, signed their name in red paint.
Hunting season last year
Chesney led some protestors through the woods in Pennsylvania.
They chased away the deer.
Talk about stupid, Chesney was shot through the calf.
Maybe he should've stayed in school.
Chesney dropped out of Manattan Institute of Technology in 1979.
Hey, wonder if he kept his student ID.
You know, Judge Beame spends his vacations deer hunting.
I bet he thinks we have enough for a warrant.
Yeah, my wife wanted to hold out for a clean-cut type.
I told her, you can't judge a book, you know, by its cover.
Chesney never bothers anyone, never asks for anything, pays rent on time.
Jeez, the lease says no pets.
What's it say about a zoo?
I'm gonna call my lawyer.
Whers the last time this guy cleaned the litter box?
Animal Watch.
"No Future For Fur."
He's got some library.
The Anarchist's Guidebook,
Handbook to Civil Disobedience,
Discourses on Dissent.
Just wastes a lot of paper to keep saying the same thing.
What will the Tree People say?
Dirk Chesney?
Hey, come here!
Let me go.
Put your hands up! Put your hands up!
I didn't do anything!
Oh, yeah? What's your hurry, then, huh?
I suppose you didn't do anything with this, huh?
I think Mr. Chesney'd be more comfortable down at the station.
I know I would.
The measure of a society
is the way it cares for its helpless members.
And you're raising human consciousness by murdering scientists?
You have a better way?
Is that a confession?
Yeah, it is.
I confess to being a member of the most murderous race in history.
Savages aren't in the jungles, they're in the laboratories.
Does that include the Manattan Institute?
There are victims, and there are victimizers.
So you're a hero to every rat.
Over the past 10 years, Manattan Institute
has slaughtered shore birds, rabbits, dogs.
They're animals, not specimens to be used and killed.
What comes around goes around.
And what goes around for murder is life in a little cage.
But no one comes to let you out.
I didn't kill that woman.
But don't expect a sympathy card.
Okay, so what picket line were you on Sunday night?
Try Dr. Arnold Chen.
And what animal was he torturing?
Me. Dr. Chen is my acupuncturist.
If you wanna keep him, you better find a different gun.
Fay Walsh was shot with a. 410.
Someone tiptoes through the campus gates
with a shotgun, and nobody notices?
You know, the. 410 is the smallest gauge shotgun made.
Somebody's got a pretty strange sense of humor.
It's the gun of choice for museums.
They use it to collect scientific specimens.
Like bird specimens?
Yeah.
Well, maybe no one took that gun through the campus gates:
Maybe the gun was already there.
Dart gun, 20-gauge, cyanide jars, .410 shotgun.
Nobody's signed it out since '89.
Needed some gulls for a pollution experiment.
I don't think anybody at the Institute had anything to do with it.
There you go...
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I can almost see my face in the shine.
Smells like someone forgot to sign it out last week.
Didrt anyone clue these people in about firearm safety?
It was locked in the closet.
We got some prints on the door.
And the gun?
The only thing in there that's been cleaned
since the Jets won Super Bowl.
Prints don't match Chesney's.
And Dr. Chen confirmed he had 25 needles in his can Sunday night.
So it wasrt the loony bird.
Well, someone wanted the professor dead.
Yeah, someone with access to the equipment locker.
What's the difference between
a Stalin purge and a Walsh midterm?
Stalin tried to re-educate you before he killed you.
Graduate sense of humor.
I don't think Fay won any Professor of the Year awards.
Did any of these Henny Youngmans
have a key to the equipment room?
Sure, we gave them keys so they wouldn't wake up
the professors after midnight.
Lab Hell. It certainly would put me over the edge.
Listen, you get some sleep, you take the C.
You don't kill the teacher.
You take a C, you don't get your graduate degree.
If you're coming from Beijing with your family honor
riding on that piece of paper.
Oh, I think Fay might have ticked some people off.
Really? You got some names?
I think you'd have to look at her grade book.
Still feels strange being inside a teacher's office.
Oh.
Well, this is typical Fay.
She hadrt even looked at the exams,
and the grades are due in next week.
Wort be the same around here without her.
She ever mention any trouble with the students?
She was a scientist.
Teaching was a necessary evil.
She couldn't even tell you the name of a student.
Oh, still, she filled up a classroom.
Yeah, well, with the boom in biotech,
everybody wants a piece of the pie.
There's really that kind of money in patenting genes?
Fay had venture capitalists taking her out to dinner.
So why didn't she hire a stockbroker
instead of Riggs Investigative Services?
Fay Walsh. Smart lady.
Tsk, a shame.
Yeah. Well, your client checks out,
you don't think about callir us?
Ex-client.
After six months of runnir around in circles,
you start to get dizzy.
Closed the account a couple of weeks ago.
What was it, somebody sneakir into her laboratory?
Try her bedroom.
She thought her husband was cheatir?
Hey, infidelity's my specialty.
This guy's good.
Translation, you never caught them.
Never caught 'em in the act.
Hell, I never even saw them have a cup of coffee together.
But there were other signs.
Letters, lot of telephone hang-ups.
Did you at least get a name?
Susan Boyd.
Redhead, administration.
And not bad-lookir.
How did she sound?
Please, Donald, you promised me.
You know that until we're rid of Fay,
we can't be together completely.
So the sooner the better.
There's no reason to be afraid, sweetheart.
I love you.
I'm with you.
Three weeks ago she left that on his answering machine,
only she didn't know his phone was beir tapped by Riggs.
Any others?
Nothing incriminating.
The way I see it, the professor
finally found his nerve. End of story.
Come on, she was talking to a machine,
and I didn't hear Walsh say anything.
He didn't have to. It's evidence of a step
in furtherance of conspiracy.
A conspiracy to do what? I didn't hear her say anything about murder.
Hey, you don't need a Ph. D. To read between the lines.
He had a key to the building and equipment room,
which means he had access to the gun.
He also had access to a divorce lawyer's phone number.
The wife's patents hit, and she's drivir to work in a new Mercedes.
But if they're divorced, hubby is stuck ridir a bus.
Okay, talk to him.
Susan Boyd?
Sure, I've talked to her. She's in my department.
But anything more than that is ridiculous.
We have a tape that implies you were on intimate terms.
I have no idea of what you're talking about.
Your wife hired an investigator.
Oh, my God.
For someone so brilliant,
Fay could be pretty foolish sometimes.
I loved my wife, Detective.
Every time I looked at her, I could still see the grad student
that walked into my classroom 15 years ago.
And what did you see when you looked at Susan Boyd?
I won't dignify that.
Look, this Boyd woman made it embarrassingly clear
that she was attracted to me.
Did you do anything about it?
I ignored it.
I don't know, eight months ago,
Fay received an unsettling phone call from her.
She confronted me, and I reassured her.
I told her it was an infatuation.
And did you confront Ms. Boyd?
Fay and I discussed that, and we thought that
if we just let it be, it would go away.
But, uh, apparently not.
Takir a trip?
I'm scheduled to lecture in Boston tomorrow.
My friends tell me to get on with my life.
I'm not sure that I can.
Hardly a day in mourning, and he's back on the lecture circuit?
When my Uncle Eddie died,
Aunt Ruthie bought a Great Dane
and started knitting sweaters for it.
There's no rules about grief.
Bobby? Yeah, it's Mike. So what you got?
Yeah.
You're kidding. Okay, thanks a lot.
LUD's from Susan Boyd.
The night of the murder, she talked to Walsh five times
for a total of 26 minutes.
What about after the murder?
The next day she calls the Marymount Hotel in Boston.
Guess who happens to be staying there?
The grieving professor.
The day after Mrs. Walsh was killed, a Mrs. Walsh calls the hotel
says she'll be joining Mr. Walsh for the trip.
Doesrt sound like a schoolgirl crush to me.
That's crazy. He's a married man.
Don't waste your breath and my time.
Fay Walsh hired an investigator.
Then he must have been confused.
Dr. Walsh and I worked together, that's all.
You were under surveillance for six months.
Well, you pay somebody enough money,
they tend to see things that aren't there.
I get paid by the city, Susan.
I heard the tape of your message to him loud and clear.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Let me put it to you this way.
The jury's gonna hear the same tape I heard.
They catch you in a lie, believe me,
they're gonna go the distance on this.
25 years to life.
All right,
Donald and I were seeing each other.
But I swear to you we had nothing to do with killing Fay.
So why the lie?
Isn't it obvious?
We knew you'd draw the wrong conclusions, and we were right.
On the tape you said you wanted to get rid of Fay.
I was talking about divorce, not murder.
We're civilized people.
Ask as many times as you like, Detective, I can only tell you the truth.
I have never and will never have anything to do with Susan Boyd.
I suppose you werert gonna have anything
to do with her in a hotel in Boston?
What the hell are you talking about?
Reservations for two at the Marymount.
I reserved a room for myself, alone.
And Susan Boyd changed it to a room for two.
And I knew nothing about it.
If you don't mind, Detective.
I spent 10 years as a professor of law.
Groupies come in all shapes and sizes.
This situation is hardly unique.
It is when somebody winds up dead.
Donald stopped loving Fay years ago.
But he didn't wanna hurt her.
That's why he put off the divorce.
That must have made you very angry.
Of course it upset me.
But I was willing to wait.
The night of the murder...
We were together, in my apartment.
We often were when Fay worked late.
It was a kind of an anniversary.
Three years.
He gave me this.
Anyone see you?
No, we fell asleep on the couch.
We didn't kill Fay.
Well, if you were together, Susan,
why did you call him at his apartment?
Well, that wasrt me, that was Donald.
He called Fay before she went to the lab.
See, she thought he was calling from out of town.
It's not a story, for crying out loud.
I spent the weekend alone.
Well, then explain this to me, Professor.
If you were at the house at the shore, and your wife was at the lab,
who was in your apartment in Manattan
to answer five phone calls from Susan Boyd?
When I got home, there were obscene phone calls
on my answering machine.
I thought they were from the animal rights people.
Had I known they were from this Boyd woman,
don't you think I would have told you?
Not if you conspired with her to kill your wife.
I loved my wife. I did not kill her!
Wes, help me. You gotta do something here.
Tell me, Detective,
does Fay's investigator have any photos of my client with this woman?
Well, private eye working by himself,
it's pretty tough to cover his apartment
her apartment, and the house at the beach.
Susan Boyd has never been
in my apartment or my beach house
and I certainly haven't set foot inside her apartment.
What a shame. There goes his alibi.
What, she copped to the affair?
She said they spent all night together in her apartment.
He's making a lot of noise to the contrary.
Yeah, maybe too much.
Even if they're sleeping together,
doesn't mean they're murderers.
We're talkir about Bonnie and Clyde.
Ten days ago, a woman bought a box of. 410 slugs
at Frank's Guns 'r Stuff, Cape May.
Jersey requires a driver's license and a signature.
Susan Boyd?
Fay Walsh.
What, she bought the slugs that killed her?
Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
The professor said his wife hadrt been
out of the city in six months.
A C-note says the store owner ID's our Ms. Boyd.
Arrest both of them. Hunting seasors over.
If I ever go back to teaching,
I'll use this in my Trial Practice class, Ben.
Prime example of how to get a dismissal
after the prosecution presents its case.
Unless they rewrite the textbooks, Wesley,
uh, circumstantial evidence can go a long way toward a conviction.
Circumstantial evidence, yes.
A footlocker full of non sequiturs?
I wouldn't hold my breath.
He had access to the murder weapon, motive.
What kind of motive?
I loved Fay.
Only Susan Boyd tells quite a different story.
Either she's lying or she's crazy.
I swear to you, I never even looked at her twice.
You wife didn't think so, sir, and I doubt if a jury will,
after they've heard the message she left on your machine.
I don't know anything about a message...
First of all, it wasrt a conversation, it was a soliloquy.
Second, the jury will never hear it.
Thursday morning,
we can have cappuccino and biscotti in Judge Bertram's chambers.
Your boys didn't have a warrant, Ben?
Uh, we didn't need one, Your Honor. We didn't make the tape.
It was recorded by a private investigator hired my Mrs. Walsh.
And in case anyone is behind in their reading,
federal law prohibits persons who are not party to a conversation
from secretly recording it.
My client, Ms. Boyd, had no idea
the Walsh's phone line was tapped.
And my client wasrt even a party to the conversation.
So who the hell was she talking to?
The Walsh's answering machine.
Wesley, the Federal Act was intended
to protect privacy, not murderers.
Take your complaints to the Supreme Court, Ben.
They just upheld a California decision
excluding a privately made tape,
even though it revealed a conspiracy.
In the Otto case, neither party knew
their conversation was being taped.
I don't think I dozed off, Counselor.
Didrt our learned colleagues just say
their clients were unaware of the phone tap?
Ms. Boyd may not have known that her call was being taped
by the investigator,
but she certainly knew that the answering machine
was recording her conversation.
As such, she had no right to the expectation of privacy.
That's right, Ben.
She expected one other person to hear it: Donald Walsh.
That's major hair-splitting, Wesley.
It's the kind of personal grooming the Supreme Court loves.
Sorry, Ben.
Tape is out.
Judge Bertram, huh?
He just took his name off Judge Renquist's gift list.
One small step for privacy, a giant leap for conspiracy.
Burke's already calling for a sit-down tomorrow.
What are you gonna do?
Most likely, without the tape, we'll get dismissed.
Well, maybe not.
If Walsh heard what was on the answering machine,
he can testify as to what Susan said.
We cut a deal.
Hard to have an affair with your girlfriend in prison.
Maybe we can convince Ms. Boyd
that Walsh doesn't love her
as much as she thinks he does.
I'd check my diet, Mr. Stone.
Too much sugar, you lose a little clarity.
Without the tape...
Oh, I have a feeling we're gonna do a lot better than the tape.
Why would Dr. Walsh testify?
Maybe he doesn't like the idea of 25 years in prison.
Wesley Burke's smarter than that.
He's got to know there's no case.
And he's got to know about the unpredictability of a jury.
I don't think he wants his client acting like a deer
caught in the headlights of an 18-wheeler.
Donald would never turn on me.
Ms. Boyd, we are talking about a man
who murdered his wife after 15 years of marriage.
I wouldn't count on his loyalty.
Mr. Burke has already called our office.
We're meeting with him tomorrow.
You could go to prison for something you didn't do.
She testifies, you charge her with nothing.
She conspired to...
And you know Walsh's conviction
depends upon what Susan says on the stand.
Let's hear her story.
He talked about it.
You know, wouldn't it be great if she were dead.
And I told him
there's no way I would consider anything like that.
Yet you continued to see him.
You... you think about it afterwards,
you think it's just some sort of joke.
He's just trying to show me how much he loves me.
If I believed that he could kill Fay,
there's absolutely no way I would be involved with that man.
You bought the shells.
He told me they were for hunting.
She had nothing to do with the murder.
You have to tell Donald that they forced me.
Deal?
Fay found notes on his desk.
Said there were a lot of hang-ups when she answered the phone.
She was convinced her husband was seeing another woman.
Did Mrs. Walsh have any idea
who this other woman in her husband's life was?
An administrator in the Biology Department.
A woman named Susan Boyd.
Thank you.
Mrs. Walsh employed your services for how long, Mr. Riggs?
Six months.
In that time, did you ever see
the defendant and Susan Boyd together?
They worked in the same building.
Sir, can you state beyond a reasonable doubt,
that Susan Boyd and Donald Walsh
were having an affair?
No.
Thank you.
No more questions.
The last 18 years, I have owned Frank's Guns 'r Stuff.
Largest ammunition retailer in a 100-mile radius.
Did you ever sell ammunition to the defendant?
Every hunting season, he'd buy his birdshot for upland game
and goose-shot for waterfowl.
Did he ever purchase .410 slugs?
Not him, but his wife did.
How did you know
that it was Mrs. Walsh, Mr. MacCrae?
State law says we need to see a driver's license.
Is this the woman who claimed to be Fay Walsh, sir?
Yes, sir.
Let the record show that the witness identified a photo of Susan Boyd.
Thank you.
You testified that your store does a very good retail business.
I said we do better than anyone else in the county.
On an average day, how many customers do you see?
25 to 30 during hunting season.
So, excluding Sundays,
that's 180 customers a week, give or take.
Sure.
So, since Fay Walsh came into your store
almost five months ago, you tended over 3,500 customers.
Isn't that right?
Yeah.
So, uh, tell me, sir,
how many times did this woman,
who claimed to be Mrs. Walsh come into your store?
Just that one time.
Thank you. No more questions.
Burke managed to raise reasonable doubt with every witness.
Yeah, that's his trademark.
Takes the clearest picture, jiggles the lens,
everything's out of focus, the jury has to acquit.
Not after they hear Boyd's testimony.
Unless he discredits her the same way.
Prep the girl again.
Adam, we've been over it a dozen times.
With Wesley, 13 is the charm.
I was at Donald's house at the shore for the weekend.
He was going to take me hunting.
We went into town to buy some bullets.
Who purchased the shells, Ms. Boyd?
I did.
He couldn't find his license. We found Fay's in the dresser.
I pretended to be her.
Very good. Paul.
Where were you the night Fay Walsh was killed, Ms. Boyd?
I had dinner at my office,
did a little work, and then I went home.
Uh, Ms. Boyd, we've been over this before.
On cross examination, when the defense asks their questions,
you keep your answers short.
The court only wants to know where you were the night of the murder.
What should I say?
I'll ask the question on direct
and you say you were home alone in your apartment.
All right.
You'll do fine.
Well, he said it many times,
if only he could get rid of Fay, then we could be together.
Did he ever talk about divorcing her?
I begged him to.
But Fay's research.
See, he said that he was entitled to his share.
He taught her everything.
If she were granted the patents after the divorce,
he might not be able to share in the profits, is that correct?
I don't recall the witness being qualified
as an expert in matrimonial law.
Withdrawn. No further questions.
How often did you and Dr. Walsh see each other?
Several times a week.
And where did these rendezvous take place?
In his office, Cape May on weekends, and my apartment.
All that sneaking around, it must've been frustrating.
We didn't sneak around.
Donald is very proud of our relationship.
Then can you tell me why Mr. Riggs,
a trained professional, never once saw you together?
Well, maybe he's not very good at what he does.
Or you're lying about everything.
Objection!
Withdrawn.
True or false, Ms. Boyd,
you told the police that Donald was with you
the night Fay was murdered?
Yes.
But now you're telling us that you were home alone.
Were you lying then, or are you lying now?
Objection.
Overruled.
You're lying now, aren't you?
No.
I was in my apartment alone.
Tell me, Ms. Boyd,
did Mr. Stone tell you to say that?
Yes.
Your Honor...
And in exchange for this perjured testimony, he dropped all charges
against you, isn't that true?
Yes.
Your Honor, I object to Mr. Burke's depiction of this...
I object, too, Your Honor.
I object to the entirety of this witness's testimony.
Both of you, in my chambers.
She said under oath you told her what to say.
I told her how to say it.
Now who's splitting hairs, Ben?
I want a dismissal.
And then we'll talk about sanctions against Mr. Stone.
Cool it, Wesley.
I thought you'd have taken off your blinders when you left academia.
Your Honor, I did not...
I believe you, Ben.
Only your witness's testimony is tainted.
As such, I'm going to instruct the jury
that they may disregard her testimony in its entirety.
Ms. Foreperson, have you reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
On the sole count of the indictment, murder in the second degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant not guilty.
Congratulations.
Burke dangled the carrot, she bit it off and left you hanging.
She was confused. There was nothing I could do.
You could've gone over her testimony another 100 times.
Ms. Boyd was a bad witness. Nothing could change that.
Or she was a smart witness.
You saying she planned this?
She cuts a deal, promises to give us Walsh,
falls apart on the stand, he walks, they live happily ever after.
Nobody's that smart.
If Paul is right, and that woman was lying, her deal is won'thless.
Yeah, and if I'd bought Microsoft at $10,
I'd have a house in Palm Beach.
In the case against the professor, we had the girl's testimony.
In the case against the girl, we have nothing.
And double jeopardy kills any leverage we would have with Donald.
She said she's been seeing him for two years.
She must have told somebody something.
For how long?
Thanks.
Nobody in the Biology Department ever saw them together.
What about her friends outside the Institute?
Her neighbors never saw her with anyone.
I called her parents in Short Hills,
the housekeeper said they were vacationing in the South of France.
Robinette.
Hold on.
It's a Judge Feldman from Newark.
He wants to talk about Susan Boyd.
It seems she does have a history.
You know, it didn't hit me until the papers published her picture.
I knew her as Susan Daly.
Boyd must be her maiden name.
Please, sit down.
She was married?
Widowed.
Married to the second violin at the Philharmonic.
She came to work for me a few months after he was killed
in a car accident.
You look surprised.
I didn't know she was a lawyer.
Yale Law.
Turned down Wall Street for a carrel in our library.
She gave me first-class work, and on time.
Something my other clerks never heard of.
But even a Cray computer blows a fuse every now and then.
She had a breakdown?
She was deeply disturbed.
One night we were working late.
Ordered in Chinese to my chambers.
Harmless, right?
Susan took it as a marriage proposal.
She started writing me memos, professing her undying love.
She rented a house down the block, just to be close.
For a while, I thought it was flattering,
but when she started calling my wife...
Nothing happened between Susan and me,
and still it almost cost me my marriage.
Yale Law School never heard of Susan Boyd or Susan Daly.
Not only didn't she graduate, she didn't even apply.
You mean she knew enough
to fool a Superior Court judge for over a year?
It gets better.
On her employment application to Manattan Institute,
she claimed to have a Master's from Cornell.
She faked that, too? What about the marriage?
Pure fantasy.
The only Daly at the Philharmonic is alive
and happily married for the last 25 years.
Maybe Walsh was telling the truth.
If she was smart enough to con Judge Feldman,
my guess is that the whole cross-examination
at the Walsh trial was staged.
They werert having an affair,
but she lies on the stand to protect him?
Yeah, well, one thing both Walsh and the judge agreed on,
is that lady's crazy.
Crazy enough to kill?
The pattern seems to be there.
Disappointing youth, inappropriate phone calls, letters, visits.
It's a psychotic disorder called erotomania.
English, Liz.
She's delusional. My guess:
Susan honestly believes she's having an affair with Walsh.
So in her mind, she was telling the truth when she testified.
She may act and look normal, but talk to her about the affair,
and you'll probably learn that she's getting coded messages
from the pattern of his ties.
Things as unrelated as his expense report or a song on the radio.
Do the symptoms include violence?
Not usually, but there are cases of the subject
attacking the buffer,
the obstacle to completing their romance.
I.e., Fay Walsh.
Unfortunately, we don't have enough physical evidence to go to trial.
Judge Feldman told me Susan rented a house near his.
Exactly.
Proximity feeds the delusion that she's having a life with him.
Liz, Walsh said that he spent weeks at a time at the Cape May house.
Could Susan stand being away from him that long?
I doubt it. Some erotomaniacs camp outside their object's house,
steal garbage, anything personal, as mementos.
Susan Boyd, 518 Ocean Avenue, Cape May.
Good. Call Briscoe and Logan.
I'll call Judge Scott for a warrant.
Looks like my first place.
Looks like my place now.
The New York Public Library isn't this well stocked.
Law, medicine...
Smart and crazy. That's a helluva pair.
Lennie.
Donald Walsh, this is your life.
You got baby pictures, his high school yearbook.
His socks?
And the shells that killed his wife, .410.
New York State Driver's License, Fay Walsh.
Only, Susars picture's on it.
Pick her up.
Susan Boyd, you're under arrest for the murder of Fay Walsh.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
Do you understand that?
You have the right to an attorney.
She already admitted she purchased the shells.
She said Donald used them for hunting.
So she kept a souvenir of a wonderful weekend at the shore.
A wonderful weekend alone.
Are you gonna start this again, Mr. Stone?
Yes, I am, Ms. Boyd.
Well, you're wasting your time.
What Donald and I have is real.
What about Judge Feldman?
That was a mistake.
He took advantage of me.
He says you're disturbed.
What, he's moonlighting as a shrink?
Dr. Walsh agrees with him.
Donald would never deny our love.
Please send in Dr. Walsh.
Tell them, Donald.
Tell them what we mean to each other.
I have never and will never have anything to do with you.
I understand what's going on.
They put you up to this, didn't they?
Nobody put me up to anything.
Very good, Mr. Stone.
You've certainly had your fun.
Now, Donald, the game's over.
Tell them the truth.
You're a lunatic.
I understand.
You don't have to worry about anything, sweetheart.
I forgive you.
He gave me this bracelet.
Now, why would he do that if he didn't love me?
He sent me letters
telling me how much he loves me.
Telling me that if only Fay were dead, then he could be with me.
"To Security. Dr. Fay Walsh will be working late
"in the lab this coming weekend. Because of the recent threats
"by animal activist groups
"please post extra security.
"I will be out of town.
Signed, Donald Walsh."
Thank you, Doctor.
It's obvious she's incompetent.
But she's not legally insane.
Ms. Boyd,
you knew what you were doing when you committed the murder.
I will give you manslaughter one,
provided you get psychiatric treatment.
That's absurd.
There's absolutely no way that I will agree to a plea of insanity.
Do you think for one instant
that Dr. Donald Walsh would love somebody who's insane?
Susan, it's not insanity, it's diminished capacity.
I'm fully aware of the penal law, Mr. Keith.
The implication is that I'm not of my right mind.
Susan, it is the difference between eight years and 25 years in jail.
That's meaningless to me.
This is a conspiracy to keep me from Donald.
Susan, you need help.
You're fired.
Prepare yourself, Mr. Stone.
I'm taking charge of my own case.
Susan Boyd's going for a record.
This is her sixteenth motion.
I doubt we'll ever get to trial.
She uses an out-of-date prison library
and her work is better than anything
I've seen from a Wall Street law firm.
"The truth is ugly, so we put our prophets in prison."
Oscar Wilde?
Charles Manson.