(male announcer) 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.
Officer. Officer.
Whoa, whoa, street cleaning lady,
I already started writing the ticket.
Look what I found. From a chumosh.
It's a shanda, I tell you. A shanda.
Yeah, I'm sure it is.
And people say it can't happen again.
But look at this. You gotta do something.
Look, lady, why don't you call the precinct
and somebody might--
Hold it, looks like blood on there.
Where'd you get these?
There's one! There's one!
There's some! There's some!
What the hell?
Stop him!
Stop the truck!
Stop. Just for a moment.
Treat them gently! Gently!
Treat them gently. Get them all!
Get all of them!!
(elderly woman) Those pages are from a holy book.
Central, this is Two-Seven Charlie.
Let me get some traffic control
down here at Hester and Eldridge.
Stay right there, ma'am.
Central, 2-7 Charlie again.
Make that a bus and a supervisor forthwith.
I checked his vitals, then I called for a supervisor
and a bus.
Well, was anybody around the building?
Are you kidding?
There was like a mob of people out here
chasing those pages.
What the hell happened to 'em?
They scattered when the RMPs showed up.
Nobody said anything about what happened?
They wouldn't even give me any names.
They were really pissed off, though.
Thanks.
I live right around the corner from the shul.
I walk by here every day.
And when you came by here this morning,
did you notice anything suspicious?
The pages...torn up all over the ground
where everybody can walk.
Did you see anybody fighting around here?
Nobody fighting.
We need more police in this neighborhood.
So things like this never happen anymore.
Yes, Ma'am.
The sergeant's gonna make sure
you get home safe, all right?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Blunt force trauma to the head.
Looks like a fractured skull.
When?
An hour or two.
He's still warm.
Any ID or a wallet?
Nothing in his pockets.
I didn't wanna move him until you had a look.
Okay, let's roll him.
Oh.
It's Hebrew.
Must have been some special book.
Fasten your seat belt.
This is a Polish edition of the Hebrew Torah.
The Old Testament.
Looks like it's 60 or 70 years old.
And all that damage was done recently.
Yeah, the tearing is fresh.
You see, paper is organic, so when it oxidizes--
Beck.
How fresh is the blood on these pages?
Brand spanking new. Matches the victim's.
But the test on the saliva won't be back
for a few days.
Saliva? Somebody spit on it?
Uh-huh. Is that a crime?
Murder is.
Okay, but how do you know if the dead guy
was trying to protect the book
or rip it up?
Your John Doe's in his late 20s.
Fit.
From his tan line, it's probably a good bet
that he works outdoors.
Any prison tats? Aryan Brotherhood stuff?
No, clean as a baby.
According to the Old Testament,
it's blasphemy to mark your body.
Well, somebody marked him with something heavy.
It shattered his temporal bone.
Subdural hematoma killed him.
There's bruises on his shoulder.
He's got half a dozen defensive wounds
on his arms too.
From fending off whoever was wailing on him.
Do you mind if I take a look?
Knock yourself out.
Well, there's one clue.
Our John Doe is not circumcised.
(Rosenburg) My constituents want answers.
Information, anything.
This was blasphemy.
And I'd be happy to work with you, Councilman--
Have you seen what's going on Delancy Street?
Orthodox men are blocking traffic.
Our Hate Crime Task Force and Community Affairs
have already been notified.
You better get some boots on the ground
before there's a riot out there.
You know what, Councilman?
It's also your responsibility to keep the people calm.
Easier done if their concerns were taken seriously
by the police. The F.B.I.
We're not ready to call this terrorism.
What is it, then?
Have you spoken to the Palestinian man
working at the Laundromat on Grand Street?
Fadi Abu Libdeh?
He harasses the congregation walking to that synagogue
on Saturdays.
He says things to the children!
Look, him being rude doesn't tie him
to this desecration.
There was an arson at the Cultural Center
on Forsythe Street last year.
The police called him in for questioning.
Was there an arrest?
No.
These people have lived in peace
on the Lower East Side for 100 years.
The Arabs have opened up businesses.
Now there is graffiti on the temples, insults.
A fire?
We'll talk to them. You better!
Or I'm gonna raise hell like you've never seen before.
Wow.
With all due respect, Lieutenant,
what does an Arab have to do
with a dead white guy?
This wasn't some random murder.
It's connected to that book.
Figure out how.
(Fadi) Who's saying these things about me?
Do you yell insults at them or not?
I have no interest in these people.
Arabs, get out of here!
Get out of here!
I can see you're all good friends down here.
This is our store.
I do laundry, that is all.
What about the fire last year?
I was cleared. 100%.
Isn't this the flag of Hamas?
It is a wall calendar.
What does it mean to you?
It tells me what day it is.
And maybe how you feel about Jewish people?
It's just a calendar. [cell phone rings]
So it wouldn't spike your blood pressure
if I threw it in the gutter.
I may have a political disagreement
with the people who illegally invaded my homeland,
whose soldiers slaughtered--
If you have any involvement
with the dead person at the synagogue,
let's get in front of it now.
He's no one I know.
I heard it was a white guy.
Okay, thanks.
His name's Jeffrey Kilgore.
For Jeffrey Kilgore, il-hamdu Allah.
But I have nothing to do with this.
Excuse me.
Jeffrey Kilgore?
Yeah, the prints came back.
His last known was Patchogue in Suffolk County.
He did a bullet a few years back
for commercial burglary.
Let's put a pin in this guy
and see if anyone at synagogue knows Kilgore.
Detectives, this is Father Royce.
And Imam Adjani.
Sir.
Father. Sir.
They came to offer their support
in this terrible time.
We were hoping that we can ask you some questions
privately, Rabbi.
If you need anything, Rabbi.
Let's all pray that cooler heads prevail.
Rabbi, this is the man that was killed
outside your synagogue.
His name is Jeffrey Kilgore.
I've never seen this man in my life.
Why would he come here and defile our shul like this?
Well, our more immediate concern
is why somebody would murder him.
But surely it's no coincidence that he died
holding a book from our sanctuary.
This goes to a much larger issue.
Would you mind if we saw the place
where the book was kept?
After the incident, I found several torn pages
scattered about here.
Exodus, chapter three.
Moses and the burning bush.
Are you a religious man, Detective Green?
I was raised that way.
So what can you tell us about this Bible?
It's a chumosh.
It's a copy of our Torah which we read from
during the services.
It's the lifeblood of our people.
This one belonged to Barry Speicher
who is the president of our congregation.
He kept it on the bemah, right by his chair.
Was this sanctuary in use yesterday morning, Rabbi?
Morning prayers ended about 8:30.
No one else in the building?
There were quite a few people upstairs.
Teachers, children.
The girls in the synagogue office are on two.
But...not down here.
The man easily could have walked in here
without anybody seeing him.
So anybody could just walk through
the front door?
We don't lock up until
after evening service.
We had a guard about five years ago
when that neo-Nazi shot at the
Jewish schoolchildren in California.
Thankfully that's not what this is about.
But it was a man sending a message.
We must always be vigilant.
My father smuggled that chumosh
out of the Warsaw ghetto.
He would have shot on sight if he was caught with it.
He hid it in a hayloft while he was on the run
from the Nazis.
35 years later, he went back to Poland.
He found it right where he left it.
My father passed away eight years ago.
I read from that chumosh almost every day since.
Listen, do you know this man?
His name's Jeffrey Kilgore.
No, is he the one who destroyed my book?
You haven't seen him around the neighborhood at all?
No.
Have you talked to the man who shouts insults?
The Palestinian?
So far, we can't tie him to Kilgore.
How about to everything else
that's happened in this neighborhood recently?
It's enough already.
Our congregation has been on the Lower East Side
since 1928.
Maybe it's time to move on.
Well, we'll let you know
if there's any new developments, all right?
So where's the smart money?
Somebody inside the building who caught Kilgore in the act?
Or somebody in the neighborhood who saw him coming out.
What do you suggest, Detective?
I say due diligence on Jeffrey Kilgore
before we point any more fingers.
(Green) Are you a relative?
Girlfriend.
We're sorry for your loss, Miss...
Kayla Watson.
Miss Watson, what did your boyfriend
do for a living?
He was a mason.
Stone walls,
patios, stuff like that.
This doesn't make any sense.
They said on TV that Jeff tore up a Jewish Bible.
Did he belong to any clubs or political groups?
Political groups?
People who might not think too kindly
of Jewish people.
Jeff didn't have anything against them.
I mean, the ones he worked for
would try to get out of their bills
and say he didn't do the work right.
But not all of them. Just sometimes.
Like the rich ones in the Hamptons.
What was he doing in the city on Tuesday?
I don't know.
Did he have any friends or family there?
No, he hated New York.
He wouldn't even go there to collect from a client.
Some guy owed him money, he sent me to pick it up.
Who did you pick up from?
I don't know his name.
I just met him on a corner and he gave me cash.
$2,500.
What did this guy look like?
Shorter than Jeff.
In his 30s or 40s. A Jewish guy.
How do you know he was Jewish?
I heard him talk.
He was definitely a New York Jew.
So did this man Kilgore belong to some
anti-Semitic organization?
We have no evidence of that.
Rabbi, we're gonna wanna speak to the people
who were here at the time.
Why?
You think somebody saw this and didn't come forward?
The man was killed on your doorstep, Rabbi.
You're saying you think it was someone here.
Actually, we're gonna need the names
and the addresses of all the members
of your congregation.
That's out of the question.
We're not gonna supply the government
with a list of people who worship here.
We're investigating a murder, Rabbi.
What the Rabbi's trying to say is,
we're not authorized to disseminate
personal information like that.
You either help us solve this crime,
or we're gonna bring it to the attention
of the District Attorney's Office.
Go ahead, you're just here looking for a scapegoat.
Michael, I'll call you back.
This was just faxed to me from the mayor's office.
It's a subpoena duces tecum to the Beth Tefiloh Synagogue
for the names and address of any and all
current members of the congregation.
We needed to provide the police
with a finite list of suspects.
It's a demand for a list of Jews, Alexandra.
Sure, but if the murder scene was at a church,
we'd be asking for a list of Christians.
Well, how about exercising a little historical sensitivity?
These aren't storm troopers, Arthur.
They're police officers investigating a homicide.
I'm getting calls from here to Tel Aviv on this case.
I want you to back off, withdraw the subpoena,
and tell the detectives to come up with plan B.
The synagogue's newsletter says that there's
over 100 families in the congregation.
Whose names we have no access to,
thanks to the DA's office.
And they won't get us a search warrant
for the synagogue.
And the Rabbi has decided not to let us
back into the building.
We're hitting brick walls left and right.
Well, are you sure Kilgore was paid to do this?
When are we absolutely sure of anything?
The only political cause Kilgore had
were some posters from NASCAR.
And nobody owed him that kind of money for masonry.
Okay, but why would someone
retain his services for this?
Maybe someone who had something
against the congregation.
Or a particular member.
The book holds sentimental value
for the congregation's president.
So if it's not political, maybe it's personal.
Talk to Barry Speicher again.
(Eric) Barry's downtown
at a Preservation Committee hearing.
I'm his partner, Eric Speicher.
You're his brother?
Cousin.
You guys here about Uncle Daniel's book?
Well, and the murder.
What a thing, huh? Makes me sick.
The whole congregation's up in arms.
Was your partner here on Tuesday morning?
He got in around 10:00. Why?
He seem okay to you?
Yeah. Everything was cool.
Did he having any ongoing problems
with anybody?
Business disputes, tenant-landlord
types of things?
We hire a management firm for that.
Keep it arm's length, so it's pretty low-key here.
Ben-Daniel's a family company,
as you can probably tell from the name.
Ben and Daniel are your fathers.
Yeah, it's a little old-fashioned,
but we'd never change it.
How about Barry's personal life?
Fine, as far as I know.
Barry did have some issues in his first marriage,
but that was years ago.
What kind of issues?
His first wife couldn't have children.
But Rachael's made him very happy.
Five rugrats, unless I missed one.
I lived in Philadelphia when my husband and I first met.
We married nine years ago.
Wow, you have a lot of kids.
Uh, do you remember what time your husband left the house
last Tuesday, Mrs. Speicher?
Uh, he was gone by 7:30.
He always goes to morning services.
That takes, what, about an hour?
Except for Tuesdays.
He stays for a Talmud study
with Rabbi Geller.
Now, do you have any ideas who would wanna
destroy this prayer book?
Why would I know about any of this?
Wasn't it somebody off the street?
Has your husband had any difficulties recently?
Maybe with his first wife?
I wouldn't really know.
Barry's a good provider.
Our life was fine until that man mutilated...
Did Barry tell you where that Torah was from?
I don't want my children to know that kind of hatred.
Tell me you guys have something for me.
Barry Speicher's financial records.
So far, the guy's a boy scout.
But we can put him at the temple
at the time of the murder.
His charge accounts look spotless.
There's contributions to a half a dozen
Jewish charities every month.
And flowers to his wife every Friday.
He's either a saint or a sinner.
Hey, check this out.
This is his personal bank account.
$400 withdrawals from the same ATM
every Thursday night like clockwork.
Cash for the weekend.
The Orthodox don't bank on their Sabbath.
No, but the location's not Speicher's normal
stomping ground.
It's 545 West 23rd.
545?
I handled a double homicide in the hotel next door.
It's a "gentlemen's club."
Four Benjis buys a whole lot of lap dances.
Or something even better.
A regular girl.
We're missing a piece on Barry Speicher.
Catch him away from his Rabbi.
We might be able to fill it in.
Is Barry here yet?
Barry who? Barry Speicher.
He asked us to meet him here.
Never heard of him.
Maybe we should take this conversation
out front so everyone can see how much
you're enjoying yourselves.
Barry had to make a shivah call.
This is about his chumosh, isn't it?
Our holy book was defiled.
Someone should be held accountable.
What do you know about it?
Just that it happened.
And the goy responsible is dead.
So why did Barry miss this little celebration?
I'm serious.
He's really making a shivah call.
And he wouldn't skip this obligation
to cry on his girlfriend's shoulder?
There's no girlfriend.
He just comes in to relax, like the rest of us.
The Rebbes say a happy husband makes a happy marriage.
Which Barry has.
His only flaw is being too trusting.
He should learn to put a lock on his building
so things like this don't happen.
His building? The synagogue?
He owns it. Him and his cousin.
It's not a secret.
Our congregation rents this property
from the Speichers' company.
Ben-Daniel Realty?
They've been charging us the same rent
since Daniel and Ben bought this place in 1952.
Which is what?
$800 a month.
For the whole building?
We couldn't afford to operate here
if we had to pay market rent.
The Speichers could get 100 times that.
Evicting your own synagogue must get you
in trouble with the man upstairs.
It's forbidden by the Talmud.
It's quite a mitzvah that Barry is doing for us.
How about Eric?
Eric.
After his Uncle Daniel died,
Eric stopped coming to services.
He doesn't even buy a seat on the High Holy Days.
I tried talking to him about it.
He's not interested.
I already told you everything I know.
Yeah, like you said you were still
a member of the congregation.
I never said that.
You led us to believe that.
Are you accusing my husband of misleading you?
We're accusing him of lying.
I think we should continue this conversation
at the precinct.
Then let's go.
Eric...
Don't worry, baby, this is all
just a big misunderstanding.
Let me go clear it up.
Why did you make it seem like
you gave a damn about that book?
You think I don't care?
My Uncle Daniel and my father
were Holocaust survivors.
This is the holiest book in our religion.
Which you don't even use anymore.
I'm sorry, are you attacking my beliefs now?
Don't get all high and mighty with us.
Sit down.
We know you don't go to synagogue
and we know how you livin'.
You'll like this.
Oh.
You wanna tell us about the home that you own
in Southampton?
Home of the "Muffies" and the "Maxwells"?
That was 20 years ago, okay?
There are plenty of Jews there now.
And I'm sure that all use the same ex-burglar
that you used to build your patio.
We're gonna bring in Kilgore's girlfriend
from Long Island. Maybe you met her before.
I might have, I know people in construction.
Last week at 86th and Columbus?
Okay. Okay.
I paid Kilgore to go to the synagogue
and mess up the book.
Why?
The synagogue got tagged a few times.
There have been a lot of problems
in the neighborhood with the Arabs.
Barry's been threatening to sell the building
and move the congregation, but he won't get off his ass
and do it.
You used this as a prod to get him to sell it?
You know what we got offered for that building recently?
$15 million.
So you paid somebody to destroy the Bible.
It's a book!
You a book you just said your cousin's father
saved from the Nazis.
Oh please--you know, Barry's religion's
all about him.
He loves to sit up there in that bemah
and feel important.
Every Rosh Hashanah, he'll brag
to anybody who'll listen about how
he's leaving the business
and moving to Israel.
Yeah, well, guess what?
After five years of hearing that crap,
I got tired of waiting.
So you sent Kilgore there
to get his head beaten in.
It wasn't supposed to happen like that.
How did you work this out with Kilgore?
Barry's in a study group on Tuesday mornings.
I called his cell phone to tell him
there was an emergency at work.
So he'd be the one to find the book.
I had no idea anybody would get hurt.
Beside your cousin.
Beside my cousin.
[Rabbi singing]
You're interrupting, Detectives.
We have a warrant, Rabbi.
We need to see Mr. Speicher.
We're in the middle of Marev, can't this wait?
No. What happened?
We had a talk with your cousin.
We found blood on the umbrella stand in the coatroom.
That bastard did this, didn't he?
You're under arrest for the murder
of Jeffrey Kilgore.
Can we please take this outside?
Too much has happened in here already.
Docket number 5-7-5-03.
People v. Barry Speicher.
Charge of Murder in the Second Degree.
How do you plead, Mr. Speicher?
Not guilty.
Co-owner of a real estate firm?
President of his congregation.
He looks like a pretty good
bail risk to me.
But he does have contacts in Israel.
You wanna hold that against him?
Mr. Speicher had an obvious motive
and an exclusive opportunity
to commit this crime.
The police recovered an umbrella stand
from Beth Tefiloh with traces
of the victim's blood.
And the defendant's fingerprints all over it.
(Molloy) Along with God knows who else's.
Let me remind the court that the so-called
victim in this incident
was a burglar who desecrated
the holiest Judaic text.
License to murder him in the street, Mr. Malloy?
Whoever killed Mr. Kilgore was obviously
responding to the severest form of provocation.
Perhaps justifiably so.
Uh, for the record...
my client intends to testify at the grand jury.
I'm sure Ms. Borgia can arrange that.
I won't set a parade for you yet, Mr. Speicher.
Turn over your passport.
I'll set bail at a quarter million dollars.
Barry Speicher made bail right after arraignment.
I booked some time in the grand jury
to present the case.
Your sense is that Speicher's grand jury notice
isn't a bluff.
It sounds like a prelude to some kind of
justification defense.
I was protecting a book.
More like I was protecting our faith.
From his cousin's blasphemy for hire.
You weren't in the courtroom, Jack.
This isn't playing like a family dispute.
Speicher's... some kind of hero.
Speicher's justification defense won't hold water.
Inside the courtroom, maybe.
Have we had any plea discussions with Malloy?
None.
Well, set something up.
What are you looking for?
Man one.
Sentence somewhere near the minimum.
I don't know if that'll do it for me, Arthur.
These cousins have done a lot of damage.
Well, you don't have to tell me.
That's why we need to do some fence mending.
(Malloy) I got my best suit dry-cleaned.
I was expecting to be at the grand jury tomorrow
with my client.
You may still have a chance to wear it, Mr. Malloy,
but I thought we should explore
whether there's any common ground
before we throw down the gauntlet.
The only common ground for my client
is a dismissal.
Do you think you should walk away
scot-free, Mr. Speicher?
I'm not a criminal.
You beat somebody to death.
Are you a religious man, Mr. McCoy?
That's beside the point.
I don't think you can fully wrap your head
around what happened here.
Then talk to me, Mr. Malloy.
Imagine finding someone defiling the place
where you pray.
Mutilating the cornerstone of your faith.
I would be very upset, but that doesn't--
Spare me the sanctimony.
We all know Mr. Speicher isn't a boy scout.
(Malloy) This isn't just about faith.
This is about family.
Kilgore trashed his father's legacy.
If that's your defense, you're doing
a disservice to your client.
The justification statute doesn't cover a Bible
or a memory.
It's about defending an actual human being.
But I think that we can all agree
that Mr. Speicher acted in the heat of the moment.
He hammered Kilgore with the 10-pound
marble base of an umbrella stand
and left him to bleed to death.
And I admit that, but he had the book.
So what does the Bible you defended
deem appropriate, Mr. Speicher?
A free pass?
Of course not.
Because maybe the book is more precious
than a human life!
So if I'm found guilty, how much time could I do?
On murder two, 25 to life.
I have a wife, I have five children
whose Bar Mitzvahs I'll miss.
Weddings--
A plea to manslaughter would solve
most of those problems.
You'll recommend the minimum?
Five years, straight time.
Today only.
I guess that's fair.
When do you wanna calendar Speicher's sentencing?
Give him a month or two to get his affairs in order.
She insisted on speaking to you, Alexandra.
I'm Barry Speicher's wife.
I know.
What can I do for you, Mrs. Speicher?
My husband told me he's going to jail
for five years?
He agreed to it. It was a plea bargain.
My husband is a good man.
A family man.
I'm sure that he is.
And now, because he can't work,
we have to sell the synagogue.
I'm sorry about that.
What about the congregation?
I don't know what's going to happen.
But his cousin?
Yeah, he got everything he wanted.
First he sent that man into our shul.
Paid him to use our chumosh...
like toilet paper.
That's our religion, Ms. Borgia.
And for doing that
to his own people, you know what Eric gets?
$7 million.
That's all I want to say.
He hired a man to mutilate a book.
That doesn't translate into a homicide.
Kilgore died because Eric Speicher's actions
placed him in peril. It's manslaughter.
He could foresee that his cousin
was gonna fly into a violent rage?
That was his stated purpose.
Without the homicide.
You were out of the fire, now you wanna
jump back into the frying pan.
Kilgore's dead because Eric Speicher
aimed the most powerful gun he could find at him.
Religious fervor.
The nitroglycerine of the 21st century.
That's what makes me so nervous.
The Torah's been desecrated and the only people
who are going to jail are Jewish.
What Eric Speicher did is unconscionable.
If we can't go after the bad guys,
what's the point?
I'm all for going after the bad guys
if we've got a legal theory to hang our hat on.
I'll tell you what.
I'll handle the law if you'll handle
the political fallout.
And we can remind ourselves how noble our motives were
as we're both sitting around
waiting for outplacement counseling.
Manslaughter?
You are pulling this one so far out of your--
It's textbook recklessness.
Your client should have considered the consequences
when he retained Kilgore to burglarize the synagogue
and desecrate a family Bible.
Look, I admit I did a terrible thing.
Never mind that a man was killed.
You nearly started a race riot.
I never thought it would turn out like that.
(Borgia) Have you read the front page
of a newspaper lately, Mr. Speicher?
You used religious paranoia to shake down your cousin.
And the bottom line is, you acted out of greed.
You think it's that simple?
From where I sit, it's about $7 million.
I've been treated like garbage because
I won't buy into what they believe.
My father had to pay my Uncle Daniel
to make me a partner.
My holier-than-thou cousin,
he wouldn't even come to my wedding.
His family won't eat what my wife makes.
They bring their own food and paper plates.
Eric...
Why do--no!
Why do have to live my life by their rules?
You can live any way you want to, Mr. Speicher.
You don't have to savage other peoples' values.
All this self-righteous hand-wringing.
"Oh, my father's sacred book.
He saved it from the Nazis."
Please, okay?
My Uncle Daniel was a hondler.
A businessman.
He survived on his wits.
In the Warsaw Ghetto,
he would have traded that book
for three potatoes.
And desecrating your cousin's Bible
was gonna get you your three potatoes.
I thought maybe they'd get scared and move.
And a part of me just wanted to lash out against Barry.
But...
I never expected...this.
So what can you do for us, Mr. McCoy?
The same thing we do for a drunk driver
who causes a fatality.
Reckless manslaughter. Six years.
But I didn't kill anybody.
That's why we have trials.
(Borgia) We'll call you to the stand last, Mr. Speicher.
We'll put in all the pieces with our other witnesses
and then you'll tie it all together.
Okay.
You'll have to be totally truthful
about what you did to Jeff Kilgore.
I have no problem with that,
as long as I get to say what Eric did.
We'll get most of that in through the other witnesses.
Your testimony is primarily to establish
Eric's motive.
Can I tell how he hated our religion?
Facts, Mr. Speicher.
That the only reason he ever set foot
in Beth Tefiloh was so my father'd give him
a piece of the business.
We want to focus on your strained relationship.
Can I testify about the time that son of a bitch
threatened to kill me?
Look, Mr. Speicher,
you can't come off like a hothead.
The whole idea here, is that even though
you killed somebody, you've also been victimized
by your cousin's actions.
It wasn't just me.
Can I tell about all the arguments we had
over the synagogue?
Let's go over these things one by one.
Jeff asked me to go into the city
and pick up some money some guy owned him.
(McCoy) Did he say what for?
A job.
He was supposed to get $2,500 up front.
What instructions did Jeff give you
for the meeting?
Just to go to the corner of 86th and Columbus.
The guy would know what I looked like
and he'd give me the cash.
(McCoy) And did you go there?
Yeah.
Do you see the man you met that day
in the courtroom?
Yeah. Him.
The defendant.
(McCoy) Did Mr. Speicher say anything to you
at that time?
To make sure I tell Jeff that the job needs to be done
on Tuesday at 9:30, or else he wouldn't get
the rest of the money.
He set up my boyfriend to be killed.
A group of men from our congregation
meet every Tuesday morning at 8:45
for Talmudic study.
Barry Speicher was one of the group.
How long do these sessions last, Rabbi Geller?
An hour.
So Barry Speicher would leave every Tuesday at 9:45?
Usually, but this morning,
he had a call on his mobile phone at 9:30.
He said it was an emergency,
and he had to leave.
People's D.
Do you recognize this book, Rabbi?
Yes, that was Barry's chumosh.
He kept it in the sanctuary.
Are you aware of the history of this book?
Yes, it belonged to Barry's father Daniel,
who was also a member of the congregation
before he passed away.
(McCoy) And how did his father come by this book?
You traveled with Daniel Speicher
to Poland to retrieve this book, didn't you?
I traveled with Daniel to Poland in 1978, yes.
Could you please elaborate, Rabbi?
We drove to a village near Warsaw
called...Glogowek.
Daniel had passed through there in 1943
as he was running away from the Nazis.
We went to find where he hid
the chumosh.
Daniel had wrapped it in canvas
so he was very sure that it would still be there.
But when we drove down that road,
the farm was gone.
It was a tire factory.
Why didn't you ever mention this before, Rabbi?
I've wrestled with this since the chumosh
was destroyed.
I know how hard it's going to be.
But with everything that's happened,
I think it's finally time for the congregation
to know the truth.
So where did this book come from?
It was purchased in a bookshop in Warsaw
before Daniel and I left Poland.
No one knew about this 'til now.
Not even his own family.
Why did you go along with this deception?
How do I explain this to you, Mr. McCoy?
The Bible is full of stories
that may be apocryphal.
Do we believe that Methuselah lived 900 years?
Or that Moses parted the Red Sea?
Their truth is in the inspiration
that we gather from them.
And this particular book inspired a lot of people.
Even if it isn't the same book,
it's a symbol of our survival.
And I don't see what's wrong with that.
Big surprise in there.
And second thoughts, Jack?
None.
Your client was acting under the assumption
that that book was genuine.
Look what this religious stuff does to people.
Wasn't it enough that my uncle survived?
Why did he have to come home with a fake book?
I don't know, Mr. Speicher,
but none of it justifies what you did.
As I was leaving the synagogue that morning,
I saw the torn pages of a chumosh
on the floor.
Then I heard pages ripping.
Then I saw a man tearing apart
my father's book.
What did you do?
I screamed at him, "What are you doing?"
He ran toward the door with the book in his hands.
I picked up an umbrella stand
and went after him.
What then, Mr. Speicher?
He got outside, and I started swinging at him.
I hit him several times and he fell to the ground.
(McCoy) Which is where you left him?
(Barry) Lying on the book.
I took the umbrella stand and put it back
in the coatroom and I got in a cab.
(McCoy) Without telling anybody or getting help?
(Barry) I was too angry and scared to think straight.
Did your cousin Eric
know how much this book meant to you?
Mr. Speicher?
I killed Jeffrey Kilgore, not Eric.
I did.
I'm going to prison for it.
This trial shouldn't be happening.
At the time of this incident,
how was your business relationship
with your cousin?
It was fine, really.
Not bad at all.
(McCoy) Weren't you having
a heated dispute about the building
which housed Beth Tefiloh synagogue?
Objection. Leading.
Sustained.
Did Eric ever threaten you because of this?
(Quaid) Objection.
No, he never did.
Could we have a 30-minute recess,
Your Honor?
(Judge Chapman) Take an hour, Mr. McCoy.
I think you're going to need it.
What's going on, Mr. Speicher?
You're committing perjury.
You're trying to put Eric in jail.
I'm the one who did this.
You know perfectly well he set everything in motion.
You've blamed him yourself.
Well, I don't anymore, not now.
Because the book isn't real?
Because my father lied to me.
Your cousin didn't know that
when he hired Kilgore.
He used your religious faith
as a weapon against you.
Well, I'll say one thing about Eric.
He was smart enough to put his faith
into something that he could get his hands on.
You're better than that, Mr. Speicher.
No, I'm not.
I wouldn't sell the building to teach him a lesson.
We're exactly alike.
We ripped each other's throats out over a lie.
I killed a man. For what?
I can't go through with this now.
It isn't your decision, Mr. Speicher.
A man was murdered.
And everyone who was involved
has to be held responsible.
But it's too late.
The people who are really responsible
are all dead.
Can I go now?
Without Barry Speicher's testimony,
you can't prove motive.
What little case you had jumped the paddock fence.
I still have enough to go to a jury.
I'd dismiss the manslaughter count,
salvage a burglary conviction.
And forget that Eric Speicher masterminded the events
which led to a man's death?
It was a reach from the outset.
One supported by the law.
There are other concerns besides the law.
Politics?
Credibility with a jury.
Which reminds me, I intend to file
perjury charges against Barry Speicher.
No, you won't.
We're not gonna prolong this battle royal
with the Speichers.
This isn't a vendetta, Arthur.
We're lucky that the only casualty here
was an accomplice.
Well, sometimes criminals get lucky.
And we don't charge them with what almost happened.
And when the next provocateur
desecrates a mosque--
To make a political statement or insult a family member?
It doesn't matter why you yell fire
in a crowded theater.
In this day and age,
you can't use religion as a provocation.
This is exactly the kind of situation
where you need to send a message.
Not everything fits your little orthodoxy, Jack.
Interesting choice of words.
You're practicing your own form of fundamentalism.
Now, I gave you some lead, it's time to reel it in.
Arthur!
Or do I have to tear up a copy of McKinney's
to make my point?
(McCoy) Your honor, due to the recantation of crucial facts
by this witness, I move to withdraw
his previous testimony and have it stricken
from the record.
Is that true, Mr. Speicher?
Yes.
(Judge Chapman) I take it you won't oppose this, Ms. Quaid.
Of course not.
Motion's granted.
But will proceed to verdict with the burglary charge.
(Judge Chapman) Ladies and gentlemen,
have you reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
Please rise, Mr. Speicher.
On count of burglary in the third degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant Eric Speicher guilty.
One second.
I'm sorry.
With the hate enhancement on his burglary conviction,
Eric Speicher's facing the same time as his cousin.
I suppose there's some rough justice in that.
Very rough.
They're asking the judge to send them
to the same correctional facility.
Talk about family values.
It took a shredded Bible and a homicide
to bring this bunch together.
And a lie.