Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) s02e01 Episode Script
Dead
Although inspired in part by a true incident, the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
I don't know what you expect me to say.
I want an explanation.
I'm getting calls from Mr.
Tyler every day.
Obviously, there's been a mix-up.
Obviously.
Mr.
Hagman, the florist is here.
He's got a couple of questions for you.
Thank you, Mr.
Rivera.
You have the weekend to straighten this out.
If I hadn't happened to check.
It's just a mix-up.
What am I gonna tell him come Monday? Part of being a successful businessman is knowing when to worry and when not to.
- He's gonna make trouble, I know it.
- No, he's not.
He doesn't want the publicity.
Appearances count, Russell.
All I'm saying is, this could be a big problem for me.
- I got to catch the ferry back.
- Russell, problems are just solutions in work clothes.
What are you doing in here? You know you're not supposed to be here alone.
Sorry, Mr.
H.
We got Mr.
Knowles on deck.
His chart says he died from cirrhosis of the liver.
That's drinking, right? Scotty, why don't you go home tonight? Mr.
H, I was We'll talk about it next week.
You just go home.
Tell you mother Happy Easter.
Hi.
They all asleep? No, not yet.
I wanna finish up Mr.
Knowles' by today.
The viewing's at noon.
No, don't wait up.
Love you, too.
Hey, Doug.
Long time, no see.
Do I know you? How's my Easter bunny? You got in late last night.
I know.
The traffic was backed up all the way to Melwood.
You work too hard.
Do you know what happens to little boys who work too hard? Look what the Easter bunny brought! Look at all that candy.
Hey, I bet there's more.
Who wants to go on an Easter egg hunt? - Me! Me! - Me! Me! Start looking.
Douglas, are you back here? Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
Law & Order CI Crucifixion pose.
No characteristic mutilation.
No nail holes.
No crown of thorns.
Just these.
His wife said he didn't have a medical condition.
You must've been so much fun in biology class.
Actually, my biology teacher, Mr.
Dixon, didn't think I was much fun at all.
There was no sign of forced entry.
There's only one employee with a key, Mr.
Rivera.
He's been with Hagman for 11 years.
There's something floating in the embalming fluid.
It's a marijuana seed.
Hagman had this kid working for him.
Scotty Calderon.
Yeah, my moms was a cosmetician for Mr.
H.
She got sick, so he lets me work part-time, you know, showing me the ropes.
I'm sure you could show him a few ropes yourself.
Like the many profitable uses for embalming fluid.
I don't know about that, man.
You don't know about fry sticks, clickums, wet daddies? Damn.
Damn is right, Scotty.
Joints soaked in embalming fluid sell for 20 bucks a pop on the street.
Mr.
H found out what you were doing? He didn't know about that, I swear.
I just He knew I was getting high.
That's why he sent me home early last night.
Early? His wife told us you quit work every day at 6:00.
Not the last couple of weeks.
He had me stay late till he locks up.
Why? I don't know, man.
Well, anything unusual happen two weeks ago? Anything that had Mr.
H worried? Well, there was that message on the answering machine.
Some guy was reading from the Bible.
Well, do you remember what he said? Something about eating the bread, going back in the ground, like that.
Okay, Scott.
Just follow the officer out.
So that's what a brain looks like on embalming fluid.
Hagman was getting harassing phone calls.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, "till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken.
" Genesis.
I need to use my most important investigative tool.
My library card.
The ME analyzed the bumps on Hagman.
They were filled with a blend of mineral spirit, propylene glycol, surfactant, lanolin, aloe.
You think that's some kind of soap? The lab's not sure.
The bumps were made post-mortem using a syringe.
The skin was red from being burned with a lighter or a torch.
The Sixth Plague.
Boils were the Sixth Plague sent by God to the Egyptians.
Each plague was meant to discredit a different Egyptian god.
Boils were aimed at Imhotep, the god of medicine.
Hagman was killed by a religious fanatic? Yeah, who opposes embalming.
Well, he's probably not the only undertaker in town who was targeted.
Vaughn's Funeral Home Monday, April 13 Ryan took the call.
The person asked for me by my first name.
Fritz.
Was this someone you knew? I didn't recognize the voice.
He had a whole spiel.
Mostly about embalming being against God's plan.
How every time I insert a trocar into a corpse, I desecrate the body.
What's a trocar? Tool of the trade.
It's inserted near the navel and used to puncture the stomach, bladder, large intestines and lungs.
Then / Let's leave it at tool of the trade.
That was the term the caller used? Trocar? Yes.
Mr.
Vaughn, where did you study for your license? Queens College of Mortuary Sciences.
I was just about to go home.
I just wanted to see how you were.
Did you ever hear from that man, Hagman? - No.
He was - I told you.
Things have a way of working themselves out.
Harry, he got killed over the weekend.
Right in the funeral home.
God has a very peculiar sense of humor.
"Careers in advertising.
" What is all this? I got this idea on how to sell advertising.
You know when you call up a business and they put you on hold? What if instead of playing music they played commercials? See, this is where companies get into trouble.
They squander all their capital by extending themselves into areas where they have no track record, no expertise.
Stop dreaming and start reaping.
I'm going to take a look out back.
Out back? Well, why? Is there a problem? No problem yet, Russell.
I wanted to offer comfort to the grief-stricken.
The mortuary college was teaching us to shake every dime loose from them.
- That's why you dropped out? - Yes.
And why you made threatening phone calls to your classmate Fritz Vaughn and to Doug Hagman? I don't threaten.
I call to open a dialogue.
To rant against what your literature calls, "The ritual desecration of the human body.
" Do you have any idea what embalming actually entails? Do you want your anus stuffed with cotton, your mouth glued shut, all to preserve the illusion that death doesn't change anything? Well, there's always cremation.
No.
Don't you understand? Death and decay are eternal truths of man's existence.
Any interference, any desecration is a stain in God's plan.
Any desecration at all of humans remains? Yes.
He's a true believer.
He wouldn't have desecrated Hagman's body.
- Not even to make a point? - You heard him.
It would put a stain on God's plan.
The fake boils, the crucifixion pose, it was all just to throw us off.
- It's impressive.
- It's demented.
It worked.
Whoever it is killed Hagman, I can't wait to meet them.
Mr.
Hagman didn't mention any problems with other funeral homes.
What about your customers, Mr.
Rivera.
You ever get any complaints from them? No.
People are always grateful.
Mr.
Hagman did good work.
There's a Mr.
Tyler here who doesn't sound very grateful.
He's threatening a lawsuit.
Do you remember him? He brought in his wife and his mother a couple of weeks ago for cremation, but I don't know of any trouble.
"If as you told me the ashes aren't lost, "then where the hell are they? "You have no idea what agony you've put my family through.
"If you don't return the ashes by the end of this week, "you'll get a taste of what we've had to endure.
" It's dated Tuesday, last week.
Did you get him his ashes back? Well, I don't remember any paperwork about it.
You do the cremations here? No, we send the remains to the Fox Hills Crematory on Staten Island.
Right.
Tyler, poor guy lost his wife and mother.
He called here.
I told him I sent the ashes back to Hagman's.
- You got any paperwork on that? - Sure.
"Problems are just solutions in work clothes.
" I like that.
You had the business long? Couple of years, since my dad died.
Family business.
Interesting work? You get used to it.
Burning bodies? Really? You know, I heard they don't burn all the way through.
You have to, you know, roll them over like a log in a fireplace and shove them back in.
It's called repositioning.
And you get used to that? Yeah.
You get used to anything.
Here.
Hagman's signature accepting receipt for the urns containing the Tyler ashes.
Can you think of any reason why Mr.
Hagman didn't return the ashes to Tyler? No.
But, look, I don't mean to sound callous, I mean, the guy just lost his family, but on the phone, he was ranting like some crazy man.
Apartment of Damon Tyler Brooklyn, New York Thursday, April 16 He promised I'd get the ashes back within three days.
- He promised.
- So you threatened him.
I told him I was gonna sue.
To make sure he never did business in this state again.
Your mother lived with you? Yes, she wasn't in good health.
She had a heart problem? She had an arrhythmia.
It was partially controlled by medication.
Partially.
She had a pacemaker? Yes, she did.
Do you know if it was removed at the hospital before they sent her to the funeral home? I have no idea.
What difference does it make? The hospital didn't remove it before sending the body to the funeral home.
Hagman's inventory of everything he removed from Mrs.
Tyler's body doesn't mention the pacemaker.
And this is a big deal because? Pacemakers have to be removed before cremation otherwise, the lithium batteries explode.
Gives off a toxic fume and could damage the cremation chamber.
Yeah, I heard silicon implants had to be removed.
My buddy Martinelli in the 3-7 married a stripper.
Did Mr.
Matthews mention any problems with Mrs.
Tyler? No.
You'd think he'd remember if she exploded in his furnace.
Maybe the pacemaker popped out in the accident or the hospital.
Do we have a list of Hagman's clients who were cremated at Fox Hills? I ironed your grey shirt.
I worry about you driving at night.
Don't.
I'm careful.
I'll call you from the motel as soon as I get there.
/ Okay.
My clients need to see me.
They like the personal contact.
I know you do, too.
Oh, I almost forgot.
Molly made you some cookies for the road.
I found only one family who would let me examine their relative's ashes.
Their Aunt Edith.
She was cremated six months ago at Fox Hills.
I ran the test twice, just to be sure.
These so-called ashes are nothing but debris.
Debris? Cement dust, dried clay, bits of charcoal briquettes, wood chips.
- Nothing human? - Not a spec.
Just an urn filled with three pounds of dirt.
So, where's Aunt Edith? Detectives, I didn't expect to see you back.
Couple of things came up in connection with Damon Tyler.
Did you run into any problems when you cremated his mother? No.
Why? It came to our attention she had a pacemaker.
Oh, well, that would've been removed before we got the remains.
That's the problem.
See, there's no record that it was removed by anybody.
Well, if it hadn't been removed, I would've found out the hard way.
It's a slow day.
Excuse me? There's no smoke coming from the chimney.
Oh, well, we only run the cremation chamber at specific times.
When was the last time? Yesterday.
- Are you sure? - Mmm-hmm.
Because there's birds nesting directly downwind from the chimney.
- Well, I don't know much about birds.
- Yeah.
But you'd think with the smoke they'd keep from nesting there.
Well, like you said, you don't know much about birds, so But I like fresh air.
Doesn't smell so fresh here.
What do you think? It's a little ripe.
Well, Fresh Kills Landfill is not far.
What's back there? It's just some land my dad bought with the crematory.
Hey, you think we could take a walk? You know, I'm real busy, and my insurance won't allow anybody back there without me, so So that's a no on the nature walk? Yeah.
Sorry.
It's This is Goren.
We're at the Fox Hills Crematory.
Right.
The DA's will be faxing you a search warrant.
We got two over by those rocks.
Four, could be five down in that little gully.
Some are buried deep.
Some are just covered with branches.
Some look a few weeks old, some Who knows? Rough count so far is north of 30.
I've never seen anything like this.
You and me both, brother.
Dad left a lot of debt.
Like when he got the furnace fixed.
So you saved on your gas bill by dumping bodies in your backyard? Is that where the $70,000 we found in your bank account came from? It's just a mistake, I swear.
I never wanted this.
You never wanted what? The crematory? Your dad's business? You had other plans for your life? You wanted to be what, an advertising executive? A webpage designer? Oh, and look at this, an alpaca rancher.
Anything but a guy who repositions half-burnt corpses on the grill.
This is what you buried back there.
Your dreams.
Your frustrated ambitions.
That's why you defrauded these families.
- That's what Hagman found out.
- No, no.
I didn't I didn't defraud anybody.
Come on, Russell, take some pride in your work.
Look at the books that you kept.
Every decimal in its place.
Every penny accounted for.
You covered yourself like a pro.
Where did you learn to do this? Nowhere.
You went to business school? No.
You had someone help you keep the books? No.
No one.
I don't need to do this anymore.
I want a lawyer.
I want a lawyer, now.
I just got the latest tally from the ME.
They broke 100 about an hour ago.
That's 100 counts of larceny.
Not to mention, an innumerable violations of the public health laws.
But I'd trade it all for a single count of murder.
Matthews isn't sophisticated enough to have pulled off Hagman's murder or this scam.
He's a pie-in-the-sky dreamer with no practical experience in business.
But his books and his records would stand up to a tax audit.
Does he have a bookkeeper? None we could find.
And it's not just that.
It's marketing techniques, the ads and the journals.
It speaks to a professionalism that's well beyond his grasp.
This kind of professionalism.
"Problems are just solutions in work clothes" "Enthusiasm is the rocket fuel that propels you up the ladder of success.
" "If you think you can, you can.
" Matthews' silent partner is a motivational speaker? "Don't get what you want.
Want what you get.
" It's M & H Consulting, Queens, New York.
Home of Harry & Susan Rowan Queens, New York Saturday, April 25 Russell is my cousin on my mother's side.
He asked for my advice when he took over Uncle Leon's business.
So I instructed him on the basics, you know, a little bookkeeping, marketing.
He took your lessons to heart.
He runs his business in a very professional manner.
Except in the one respect.
Right.
I don't know what got into him.
Greed, for one thing.
That's probably it.
Well, greed only gets you so far.
It takes a special kind of callousness to do what Russell did.
Russell never struck me as especially callous.
You should see what it looks like behind his crematory.
Half-buried, bloated corpses, crawling with vermin, rotting entrails seeping out, bodies piled one on top of the other, flesh decaying into each other like a Like a putrid soup.
Of course, those people were dead to begin with.
Like I said, I don't know what got into him.
Harry, lunch is ready.
They're detectives.
They're asking about Russell.
Be right there.
That's my wife.
You didn't need her, did you? - No.
- I didn't think so.
This is a terrific little workshop you have here.
It's the one thing I miss about being in the city.
No room for a workshop.
No room to, I don't know, get away from the family.
Well, I don't look to get away from the family.
Oh, jeez.
Do you mind? Well, we'll let you get back to your family.
Thanks for giving us your time, Mr.
Rowan.
You okay? I need to get my hands to the lab.
The lab sent me their analysis of the clean-up goop from your hands.
It has the same chemical composition as the fluid found in the boils on Hagman.
Not a conclusive match but well within the hash marks.
How about that.
Not only does Mr.
Harry Rowan have a green thumb, he has an aptitude for murder.
I think he does it for a living.
His lifestyle, his personality, his obsessive concentration on the task at hand.
It fits the profile.
So why is a professional hitman interested in a crematory? Well, I'd like to say he was cremating his victims, but there's no cremation going on.
You're cataloging the DNA from the crematory? Of course.
Could you start running it through the national database? Albert Lundy.
His remains were found buried behind the crematory and identified through DNA.
He died in October last year.
Which is odd because his DNA matched the DNA found at a murder scene in Brooklyn three months ago, under the fingernails of the victim.
Lyle Curicelli.
He was found strangled in an alley.
Curicelli was in debt to the Masucci family.
His murder was a suspected hit.
The skin samples and the DNA found under his fingernails were thought to belong to his assailant.
- The DNA belonging to Grandpa Lundy? - Right.
Next we have Kenneth Hemmerick.
Mr.
Hemmerick died in June, 1999.
His DNA turned up in a blood sample from Newark, on the body of a bookie James Hurly.
Mr.
Hurly was stabbed to death in January, 2000.
Another suspected Masucci hit.
We found four more bodies behind the crematory whose DNA turned up at Masucci hits.
The DNA from the crematory was harvested from those remains and then planted on these victims to mislead the murder investigators and create reasonable doubt in the event of a trial.
Harvested and planted by Harry Rowan.
That's our theory.
In the past, the Masuccis have used two known hitmen.
Frank Curtis, he's been in federal custody for a year and a half and Eddie Ferguson.
He's been missing for the last six months, presumed to be in hiding or to have fled the jurisdiction.
So Harry picked up the slack.
Well, we don't think he works exclusively for the Masuccis.
There's a lot of blood on his hands.
- Oh, hi, honey.
- Hi.
What are you doing out here? Mommy said we need more ice cream.
Ice cream? What do we got in here? Chocolate! Or there's Rocky Road.
What do you think? Chocolate.
Chocolate it is.
Office of Medical Examiner Staten Island, New York Friday, May 2 We got an anonymous phone call from a concerned jogger.
He said he saw two guys last week arguing on the Roosevelt Boardwalk.
A couple of days ago, he recognized one of them from his picture in the papers.
Russell Matthews.
He said the other guy had a goatee.
So we took a look.
Guess what we found caught between the rocks? Eddie Ferguson.
Fingerprints confirmed it.
Dead of blunt force trauma to the head.
That's not all.
There were hairs caught under his fingernails.
Same coloration as Russell Matthews.
I obtained a hair sample from Mr.
Matthews.
- The hairs matched? - Yes.
Well, he looks well-preserved.
How long's he been dead? Without a full autopsy, it's hard to tell.
I'd say a week or two.
I heard Major Case was looking for a Masucci hitman that was doing business with Russell Matthews.
Here's your guy.
Nice of him to drop out of the sky like that.
What's this? Could be a number of things.
Looks like a freezer burn to me.
The hitman who came in from the cold.
I'm telling you, I've never seen this guy before.
I don't know what my hair is doing on his hands.
Maybe you were in business with Ferguson, maybe you let him take DNA from your backyard, maybe you got in an argument with him.
No, no.
We like this story, Russell.
I mean, unless you have one we like better about your cousin Harry using your backyard as his own petri dish.
I am not saying anything against Harry.
Who do you think put your hair under Eddie Ferguson's fingernails? Let me get this straight.
You think this whole Ferguson thing was set up by Harry Rowan? I don't care.
I'm not going against Harry.
I've seen Harry go after his own kid brother.
Harry'd kill you and wash his hands in your own blood.
We'll never get anything out of this mutt.
Did the autopsy on Mr.
Ferguson prove he'd been frozen then thawed? The autopsy proved when it comes to medical science, you're better off asking the Magic 8 Ball.
Any luck on a search warrant for Rowan's place? Since the hairs connect the late Mr.
Ferguson to Russell Matthews, Judge Whitman feels there's already a viable murder suspect lying in the morgue on Staten Island.
So Rowan's little ruse paid off.
The guy doesn't leave anything to chance.
Well, chance is probably what keeps him up at night.
There's no such thing as a margin of error in his line of work.
Not unless he wants to stay out of jail.
The fear of making a mistake, for him must be overwhelming, Consuming.
Like an itch he can't scratch.
Hi, Ms.
Rowan.
Let me give you a hand.
You're the detectives my husband was talking to? That's right.
We need to ask you about his consulting business.
Well, I'm sure my husband will be happy to answer all of your questions.
Oh, I'm not sure that he'd want to.
Does he ever talk about his business travels, his clients? We have two kids, so we have plenty to talk about besides his business.
You ever met his clients? We have some photos to help you remember.
Eddie Ferguson.
Actually, last time your husband saw him, this is how he looked.
And then there's James Hurly.
This is Mr.
Hurly the last time he had a business meeting with your husband.
And this job, Tommy Dunne.
Shotgun blast to the head while waiting at a stop light.
Why are you showing me this? This is what your husband does for a living.
He kills people.
This is how he paid for this car, for your house, for the Florida condo.
It's not true.
Okay, you ask your husband.
You show him these and then ask him.
That day that we came over, did you notice that he didn't want you around when he was talking to us? You ask him.
If he's got nothing to hide, then why is he afraid to talk to us in front of you? We got your message.
But I bet my partner We came here to return these.
Stop harassing my family.
Do we understand each other? You're not gonna stay and talk, clear the air? What did I tell you, Ms.
Rowan? We can go in there.
You can wait right here and see everything.
After you.
Let's start with a softball.
The Saturday night before Easter, where were you? I was stuck on the Taconic.
Where had you been? Scouting an industrial park in Ossining.
We'll want a list of your clients.
Your consulting clients.
Do you read the Bible, Mr.
Rowan? Not much.
Exodus 9:8.
The Sixth Plague.
This was very It was a very elegant and inspired staging.
I'm looking at this as a professional.
What's most impressive is the attention to detail.
The posing of the body, the reddening of the skin with a torch, the injection of mineral spirit, propylene glycol, lanolin.
It's the same composition as your hand cleaner in your little workshop.
The same careful planning went into these crimes.
The timing, lack of forensic evidence, except of course, for what the perpetrator chose to leave behind.
And this is where I step back in awe.
The planting of the DNA and the harvesting from human remains.
You know, as a pre-emptive measure.
It's a It's a stroke of genius.
I mean, watching the police fumbling around must've been tremendous fun for the perpetrator, don't you think? Speaking as a concerned citizen, I wish the police were half as capable as this fellow seems to be.
Oh, everyone wants us to think that Eddie Ferguson is this fellow, but we think that Eddie was killed by, you know, this fellow.
Killed six months ago and kept in a freezer.
The reality is in this fellow's line of work, you live with the knowledge that the smallest thing can give you away.
Things like this freezer burn right here on Eddie's shoulder.
I mean, that tells us that whatever Eddie was wrapped in got loose or torn.
Just a small mistake to remind us that no one's perfect.
Not that most of us need reminding.
Excuse me.
Why is he talking to my wife? I don't know.
- Porcelain cap? - Yeah.
Like from a tooth.
You don't remember seeing it in the garage? Mr.
Rowan, thank you so much for coming in.
The officers will show you downstairs.
He said a porcelain cap, like for a tooth.
Why would he ask me that, Harry? - What else did he say? - Harry.
What else, Susan? He wanted to know if the kids would be home tomorrow morning.
I told him they'd be at school.
Harry, what is going on? Just get in the car.
One search warrant.
Limited to the garage.
Give me a chance to call home, and I'll go with you.
We're not executing the warrant tonight.
We want to make sure that Harry Rowan gets a good night's rest.
What did you find out? Can we fight it? You are my lawyer, you tell me.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes, I have an idea when they'll be here.
Harry.
It's late.
What're you doing? Go to bed, Susan.
Go to bed! You didn't find it, did you? The porcelain cap.
You told him I asked you about it? Yes, but I don't understand.
The porcelain cap that fell out of Eddie Ferguson's mouth through the tear in the plastic that you wrapped him in before stuffing him into the freezer six months ago right next to the leg of lamb and the Rocky Road ice cream.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, Harry.
What did you do? How long do you think it'll take us to find it, Harry? It's not here.
It can't be here.
I looked.
I didn't make a mistake.
Sounds like an admission of guilt to me.
Harry Rowan, you're under arrest for murder.
A costly mistake.
Harry didn't make a mistake.
Eddie Ferguson doesn't wear caps.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
I don't know what you expect me to say.
I want an explanation.
I'm getting calls from Mr.
Tyler every day.
Obviously, there's been a mix-up.
Obviously.
Mr.
Hagman, the florist is here.
He's got a couple of questions for you.
Thank you, Mr.
Rivera.
You have the weekend to straighten this out.
If I hadn't happened to check.
It's just a mix-up.
What am I gonna tell him come Monday? Part of being a successful businessman is knowing when to worry and when not to.
- He's gonna make trouble, I know it.
- No, he's not.
He doesn't want the publicity.
Appearances count, Russell.
All I'm saying is, this could be a big problem for me.
- I got to catch the ferry back.
- Russell, problems are just solutions in work clothes.
What are you doing in here? You know you're not supposed to be here alone.
Sorry, Mr.
H.
We got Mr.
Knowles on deck.
His chart says he died from cirrhosis of the liver.
That's drinking, right? Scotty, why don't you go home tonight? Mr.
H, I was We'll talk about it next week.
You just go home.
Tell you mother Happy Easter.
Hi.
They all asleep? No, not yet.
I wanna finish up Mr.
Knowles' by today.
The viewing's at noon.
No, don't wait up.
Love you, too.
Hey, Doug.
Long time, no see.
Do I know you? How's my Easter bunny? You got in late last night.
I know.
The traffic was backed up all the way to Melwood.
You work too hard.
Do you know what happens to little boys who work too hard? Look what the Easter bunny brought! Look at all that candy.
Hey, I bet there's more.
Who wants to go on an Easter egg hunt? - Me! Me! - Me! Me! Start looking.
Douglas, are you back here? Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
Law & Order CI Crucifixion pose.
No characteristic mutilation.
No nail holes.
No crown of thorns.
Just these.
His wife said he didn't have a medical condition.
You must've been so much fun in biology class.
Actually, my biology teacher, Mr.
Dixon, didn't think I was much fun at all.
There was no sign of forced entry.
There's only one employee with a key, Mr.
Rivera.
He's been with Hagman for 11 years.
There's something floating in the embalming fluid.
It's a marijuana seed.
Hagman had this kid working for him.
Scotty Calderon.
Yeah, my moms was a cosmetician for Mr.
H.
She got sick, so he lets me work part-time, you know, showing me the ropes.
I'm sure you could show him a few ropes yourself.
Like the many profitable uses for embalming fluid.
I don't know about that, man.
You don't know about fry sticks, clickums, wet daddies? Damn.
Damn is right, Scotty.
Joints soaked in embalming fluid sell for 20 bucks a pop on the street.
Mr.
H found out what you were doing? He didn't know about that, I swear.
I just He knew I was getting high.
That's why he sent me home early last night.
Early? His wife told us you quit work every day at 6:00.
Not the last couple of weeks.
He had me stay late till he locks up.
Why? I don't know, man.
Well, anything unusual happen two weeks ago? Anything that had Mr.
H worried? Well, there was that message on the answering machine.
Some guy was reading from the Bible.
Well, do you remember what he said? Something about eating the bread, going back in the ground, like that.
Okay, Scott.
Just follow the officer out.
So that's what a brain looks like on embalming fluid.
Hagman was getting harassing phone calls.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, "till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken.
" Genesis.
I need to use my most important investigative tool.
My library card.
The ME analyzed the bumps on Hagman.
They were filled with a blend of mineral spirit, propylene glycol, surfactant, lanolin, aloe.
You think that's some kind of soap? The lab's not sure.
The bumps were made post-mortem using a syringe.
The skin was red from being burned with a lighter or a torch.
The Sixth Plague.
Boils were the Sixth Plague sent by God to the Egyptians.
Each plague was meant to discredit a different Egyptian god.
Boils were aimed at Imhotep, the god of medicine.
Hagman was killed by a religious fanatic? Yeah, who opposes embalming.
Well, he's probably not the only undertaker in town who was targeted.
Vaughn's Funeral Home Monday, April 13 Ryan took the call.
The person asked for me by my first name.
Fritz.
Was this someone you knew? I didn't recognize the voice.
He had a whole spiel.
Mostly about embalming being against God's plan.
How every time I insert a trocar into a corpse, I desecrate the body.
What's a trocar? Tool of the trade.
It's inserted near the navel and used to puncture the stomach, bladder, large intestines and lungs.
Then / Let's leave it at tool of the trade.
That was the term the caller used? Trocar? Yes.
Mr.
Vaughn, where did you study for your license? Queens College of Mortuary Sciences.
I was just about to go home.
I just wanted to see how you were.
Did you ever hear from that man, Hagman? - No.
He was - I told you.
Things have a way of working themselves out.
Harry, he got killed over the weekend.
Right in the funeral home.
God has a very peculiar sense of humor.
"Careers in advertising.
" What is all this? I got this idea on how to sell advertising.
You know when you call up a business and they put you on hold? What if instead of playing music they played commercials? See, this is where companies get into trouble.
They squander all their capital by extending themselves into areas where they have no track record, no expertise.
Stop dreaming and start reaping.
I'm going to take a look out back.
Out back? Well, why? Is there a problem? No problem yet, Russell.
I wanted to offer comfort to the grief-stricken.
The mortuary college was teaching us to shake every dime loose from them.
- That's why you dropped out? - Yes.
And why you made threatening phone calls to your classmate Fritz Vaughn and to Doug Hagman? I don't threaten.
I call to open a dialogue.
To rant against what your literature calls, "The ritual desecration of the human body.
" Do you have any idea what embalming actually entails? Do you want your anus stuffed with cotton, your mouth glued shut, all to preserve the illusion that death doesn't change anything? Well, there's always cremation.
No.
Don't you understand? Death and decay are eternal truths of man's existence.
Any interference, any desecration is a stain in God's plan.
Any desecration at all of humans remains? Yes.
He's a true believer.
He wouldn't have desecrated Hagman's body.
- Not even to make a point? - You heard him.
It would put a stain on God's plan.
The fake boils, the crucifixion pose, it was all just to throw us off.
- It's impressive.
- It's demented.
It worked.
Whoever it is killed Hagman, I can't wait to meet them.
Mr.
Hagman didn't mention any problems with other funeral homes.
What about your customers, Mr.
Rivera.
You ever get any complaints from them? No.
People are always grateful.
Mr.
Hagman did good work.
There's a Mr.
Tyler here who doesn't sound very grateful.
He's threatening a lawsuit.
Do you remember him? He brought in his wife and his mother a couple of weeks ago for cremation, but I don't know of any trouble.
"If as you told me the ashes aren't lost, "then where the hell are they? "You have no idea what agony you've put my family through.
"If you don't return the ashes by the end of this week, "you'll get a taste of what we've had to endure.
" It's dated Tuesday, last week.
Did you get him his ashes back? Well, I don't remember any paperwork about it.
You do the cremations here? No, we send the remains to the Fox Hills Crematory on Staten Island.
Right.
Tyler, poor guy lost his wife and mother.
He called here.
I told him I sent the ashes back to Hagman's.
- You got any paperwork on that? - Sure.
"Problems are just solutions in work clothes.
" I like that.
You had the business long? Couple of years, since my dad died.
Family business.
Interesting work? You get used to it.
Burning bodies? Really? You know, I heard they don't burn all the way through.
You have to, you know, roll them over like a log in a fireplace and shove them back in.
It's called repositioning.
And you get used to that? Yeah.
You get used to anything.
Here.
Hagman's signature accepting receipt for the urns containing the Tyler ashes.
Can you think of any reason why Mr.
Hagman didn't return the ashes to Tyler? No.
But, look, I don't mean to sound callous, I mean, the guy just lost his family, but on the phone, he was ranting like some crazy man.
Apartment of Damon Tyler Brooklyn, New York Thursday, April 16 He promised I'd get the ashes back within three days.
- He promised.
- So you threatened him.
I told him I was gonna sue.
To make sure he never did business in this state again.
Your mother lived with you? Yes, she wasn't in good health.
She had a heart problem? She had an arrhythmia.
It was partially controlled by medication.
Partially.
She had a pacemaker? Yes, she did.
Do you know if it was removed at the hospital before they sent her to the funeral home? I have no idea.
What difference does it make? The hospital didn't remove it before sending the body to the funeral home.
Hagman's inventory of everything he removed from Mrs.
Tyler's body doesn't mention the pacemaker.
And this is a big deal because? Pacemakers have to be removed before cremation otherwise, the lithium batteries explode.
Gives off a toxic fume and could damage the cremation chamber.
Yeah, I heard silicon implants had to be removed.
My buddy Martinelli in the 3-7 married a stripper.
Did Mr.
Matthews mention any problems with Mrs.
Tyler? No.
You'd think he'd remember if she exploded in his furnace.
Maybe the pacemaker popped out in the accident or the hospital.
Do we have a list of Hagman's clients who were cremated at Fox Hills? I ironed your grey shirt.
I worry about you driving at night.
Don't.
I'm careful.
I'll call you from the motel as soon as I get there.
/ Okay.
My clients need to see me.
They like the personal contact.
I know you do, too.
Oh, I almost forgot.
Molly made you some cookies for the road.
I found only one family who would let me examine their relative's ashes.
Their Aunt Edith.
She was cremated six months ago at Fox Hills.
I ran the test twice, just to be sure.
These so-called ashes are nothing but debris.
Debris? Cement dust, dried clay, bits of charcoal briquettes, wood chips.
- Nothing human? - Not a spec.
Just an urn filled with three pounds of dirt.
So, where's Aunt Edith? Detectives, I didn't expect to see you back.
Couple of things came up in connection with Damon Tyler.
Did you run into any problems when you cremated his mother? No.
Why? It came to our attention she had a pacemaker.
Oh, well, that would've been removed before we got the remains.
That's the problem.
See, there's no record that it was removed by anybody.
Well, if it hadn't been removed, I would've found out the hard way.
It's a slow day.
Excuse me? There's no smoke coming from the chimney.
Oh, well, we only run the cremation chamber at specific times.
When was the last time? Yesterday.
- Are you sure? - Mmm-hmm.
Because there's birds nesting directly downwind from the chimney.
- Well, I don't know much about birds.
- Yeah.
But you'd think with the smoke they'd keep from nesting there.
Well, like you said, you don't know much about birds, so But I like fresh air.
Doesn't smell so fresh here.
What do you think? It's a little ripe.
Well, Fresh Kills Landfill is not far.
What's back there? It's just some land my dad bought with the crematory.
Hey, you think we could take a walk? You know, I'm real busy, and my insurance won't allow anybody back there without me, so So that's a no on the nature walk? Yeah.
Sorry.
It's This is Goren.
We're at the Fox Hills Crematory.
Right.
The DA's will be faxing you a search warrant.
We got two over by those rocks.
Four, could be five down in that little gully.
Some are buried deep.
Some are just covered with branches.
Some look a few weeks old, some Who knows? Rough count so far is north of 30.
I've never seen anything like this.
You and me both, brother.
Dad left a lot of debt.
Like when he got the furnace fixed.
So you saved on your gas bill by dumping bodies in your backyard? Is that where the $70,000 we found in your bank account came from? It's just a mistake, I swear.
I never wanted this.
You never wanted what? The crematory? Your dad's business? You had other plans for your life? You wanted to be what, an advertising executive? A webpage designer? Oh, and look at this, an alpaca rancher.
Anything but a guy who repositions half-burnt corpses on the grill.
This is what you buried back there.
Your dreams.
Your frustrated ambitions.
That's why you defrauded these families.
- That's what Hagman found out.
- No, no.
I didn't I didn't defraud anybody.
Come on, Russell, take some pride in your work.
Look at the books that you kept.
Every decimal in its place.
Every penny accounted for.
You covered yourself like a pro.
Where did you learn to do this? Nowhere.
You went to business school? No.
You had someone help you keep the books? No.
No one.
I don't need to do this anymore.
I want a lawyer.
I want a lawyer, now.
I just got the latest tally from the ME.
They broke 100 about an hour ago.
That's 100 counts of larceny.
Not to mention, an innumerable violations of the public health laws.
But I'd trade it all for a single count of murder.
Matthews isn't sophisticated enough to have pulled off Hagman's murder or this scam.
He's a pie-in-the-sky dreamer with no practical experience in business.
But his books and his records would stand up to a tax audit.
Does he have a bookkeeper? None we could find.
And it's not just that.
It's marketing techniques, the ads and the journals.
It speaks to a professionalism that's well beyond his grasp.
This kind of professionalism.
"Problems are just solutions in work clothes" "Enthusiasm is the rocket fuel that propels you up the ladder of success.
" "If you think you can, you can.
" Matthews' silent partner is a motivational speaker? "Don't get what you want.
Want what you get.
" It's M & H Consulting, Queens, New York.
Home of Harry & Susan Rowan Queens, New York Saturday, April 25 Russell is my cousin on my mother's side.
He asked for my advice when he took over Uncle Leon's business.
So I instructed him on the basics, you know, a little bookkeeping, marketing.
He took your lessons to heart.
He runs his business in a very professional manner.
Except in the one respect.
Right.
I don't know what got into him.
Greed, for one thing.
That's probably it.
Well, greed only gets you so far.
It takes a special kind of callousness to do what Russell did.
Russell never struck me as especially callous.
You should see what it looks like behind his crematory.
Half-buried, bloated corpses, crawling with vermin, rotting entrails seeping out, bodies piled one on top of the other, flesh decaying into each other like a Like a putrid soup.
Of course, those people were dead to begin with.
Like I said, I don't know what got into him.
Harry, lunch is ready.
They're detectives.
They're asking about Russell.
Be right there.
That's my wife.
You didn't need her, did you? - No.
- I didn't think so.
This is a terrific little workshop you have here.
It's the one thing I miss about being in the city.
No room for a workshop.
No room to, I don't know, get away from the family.
Well, I don't look to get away from the family.
Oh, jeez.
Do you mind? Well, we'll let you get back to your family.
Thanks for giving us your time, Mr.
Rowan.
You okay? I need to get my hands to the lab.
The lab sent me their analysis of the clean-up goop from your hands.
It has the same chemical composition as the fluid found in the boils on Hagman.
Not a conclusive match but well within the hash marks.
How about that.
Not only does Mr.
Harry Rowan have a green thumb, he has an aptitude for murder.
I think he does it for a living.
His lifestyle, his personality, his obsessive concentration on the task at hand.
It fits the profile.
So why is a professional hitman interested in a crematory? Well, I'd like to say he was cremating his victims, but there's no cremation going on.
You're cataloging the DNA from the crematory? Of course.
Could you start running it through the national database? Albert Lundy.
His remains were found buried behind the crematory and identified through DNA.
He died in October last year.
Which is odd because his DNA matched the DNA found at a murder scene in Brooklyn three months ago, under the fingernails of the victim.
Lyle Curicelli.
He was found strangled in an alley.
Curicelli was in debt to the Masucci family.
His murder was a suspected hit.
The skin samples and the DNA found under his fingernails were thought to belong to his assailant.
- The DNA belonging to Grandpa Lundy? - Right.
Next we have Kenneth Hemmerick.
Mr.
Hemmerick died in June, 1999.
His DNA turned up in a blood sample from Newark, on the body of a bookie James Hurly.
Mr.
Hurly was stabbed to death in January, 2000.
Another suspected Masucci hit.
We found four more bodies behind the crematory whose DNA turned up at Masucci hits.
The DNA from the crematory was harvested from those remains and then planted on these victims to mislead the murder investigators and create reasonable doubt in the event of a trial.
Harvested and planted by Harry Rowan.
That's our theory.
In the past, the Masuccis have used two known hitmen.
Frank Curtis, he's been in federal custody for a year and a half and Eddie Ferguson.
He's been missing for the last six months, presumed to be in hiding or to have fled the jurisdiction.
So Harry picked up the slack.
Well, we don't think he works exclusively for the Masuccis.
There's a lot of blood on his hands.
- Oh, hi, honey.
- Hi.
What are you doing out here? Mommy said we need more ice cream.
Ice cream? What do we got in here? Chocolate! Or there's Rocky Road.
What do you think? Chocolate.
Chocolate it is.
Office of Medical Examiner Staten Island, New York Friday, May 2 We got an anonymous phone call from a concerned jogger.
He said he saw two guys last week arguing on the Roosevelt Boardwalk.
A couple of days ago, he recognized one of them from his picture in the papers.
Russell Matthews.
He said the other guy had a goatee.
So we took a look.
Guess what we found caught between the rocks? Eddie Ferguson.
Fingerprints confirmed it.
Dead of blunt force trauma to the head.
That's not all.
There were hairs caught under his fingernails.
Same coloration as Russell Matthews.
I obtained a hair sample from Mr.
Matthews.
- The hairs matched? - Yes.
Well, he looks well-preserved.
How long's he been dead? Without a full autopsy, it's hard to tell.
I'd say a week or two.
I heard Major Case was looking for a Masucci hitman that was doing business with Russell Matthews.
Here's your guy.
Nice of him to drop out of the sky like that.
What's this? Could be a number of things.
Looks like a freezer burn to me.
The hitman who came in from the cold.
I'm telling you, I've never seen this guy before.
I don't know what my hair is doing on his hands.
Maybe you were in business with Ferguson, maybe you let him take DNA from your backyard, maybe you got in an argument with him.
No, no.
We like this story, Russell.
I mean, unless you have one we like better about your cousin Harry using your backyard as his own petri dish.
I am not saying anything against Harry.
Who do you think put your hair under Eddie Ferguson's fingernails? Let me get this straight.
You think this whole Ferguson thing was set up by Harry Rowan? I don't care.
I'm not going against Harry.
I've seen Harry go after his own kid brother.
Harry'd kill you and wash his hands in your own blood.
We'll never get anything out of this mutt.
Did the autopsy on Mr.
Ferguson prove he'd been frozen then thawed? The autopsy proved when it comes to medical science, you're better off asking the Magic 8 Ball.
Any luck on a search warrant for Rowan's place? Since the hairs connect the late Mr.
Ferguson to Russell Matthews, Judge Whitman feels there's already a viable murder suspect lying in the morgue on Staten Island.
So Rowan's little ruse paid off.
The guy doesn't leave anything to chance.
Well, chance is probably what keeps him up at night.
There's no such thing as a margin of error in his line of work.
Not unless he wants to stay out of jail.
The fear of making a mistake, for him must be overwhelming, Consuming.
Like an itch he can't scratch.
Hi, Ms.
Rowan.
Let me give you a hand.
You're the detectives my husband was talking to? That's right.
We need to ask you about his consulting business.
Well, I'm sure my husband will be happy to answer all of your questions.
Oh, I'm not sure that he'd want to.
Does he ever talk about his business travels, his clients? We have two kids, so we have plenty to talk about besides his business.
You ever met his clients? We have some photos to help you remember.
Eddie Ferguson.
Actually, last time your husband saw him, this is how he looked.
And then there's James Hurly.
This is Mr.
Hurly the last time he had a business meeting with your husband.
And this job, Tommy Dunne.
Shotgun blast to the head while waiting at a stop light.
Why are you showing me this? This is what your husband does for a living.
He kills people.
This is how he paid for this car, for your house, for the Florida condo.
It's not true.
Okay, you ask your husband.
You show him these and then ask him.
That day that we came over, did you notice that he didn't want you around when he was talking to us? You ask him.
If he's got nothing to hide, then why is he afraid to talk to us in front of you? We got your message.
But I bet my partner We came here to return these.
Stop harassing my family.
Do we understand each other? You're not gonna stay and talk, clear the air? What did I tell you, Ms.
Rowan? We can go in there.
You can wait right here and see everything.
After you.
Let's start with a softball.
The Saturday night before Easter, where were you? I was stuck on the Taconic.
Where had you been? Scouting an industrial park in Ossining.
We'll want a list of your clients.
Your consulting clients.
Do you read the Bible, Mr.
Rowan? Not much.
Exodus 9:8.
The Sixth Plague.
This was very It was a very elegant and inspired staging.
I'm looking at this as a professional.
What's most impressive is the attention to detail.
The posing of the body, the reddening of the skin with a torch, the injection of mineral spirit, propylene glycol, lanolin.
It's the same composition as your hand cleaner in your little workshop.
The same careful planning went into these crimes.
The timing, lack of forensic evidence, except of course, for what the perpetrator chose to leave behind.
And this is where I step back in awe.
The planting of the DNA and the harvesting from human remains.
You know, as a pre-emptive measure.
It's a It's a stroke of genius.
I mean, watching the police fumbling around must've been tremendous fun for the perpetrator, don't you think? Speaking as a concerned citizen, I wish the police were half as capable as this fellow seems to be.
Oh, everyone wants us to think that Eddie Ferguson is this fellow, but we think that Eddie was killed by, you know, this fellow.
Killed six months ago and kept in a freezer.
The reality is in this fellow's line of work, you live with the knowledge that the smallest thing can give you away.
Things like this freezer burn right here on Eddie's shoulder.
I mean, that tells us that whatever Eddie was wrapped in got loose or torn.
Just a small mistake to remind us that no one's perfect.
Not that most of us need reminding.
Excuse me.
Why is he talking to my wife? I don't know.
- Porcelain cap? - Yeah.
Like from a tooth.
You don't remember seeing it in the garage? Mr.
Rowan, thank you so much for coming in.
The officers will show you downstairs.
He said a porcelain cap, like for a tooth.
Why would he ask me that, Harry? - What else did he say? - Harry.
What else, Susan? He wanted to know if the kids would be home tomorrow morning.
I told him they'd be at school.
Harry, what is going on? Just get in the car.
One search warrant.
Limited to the garage.
Give me a chance to call home, and I'll go with you.
We're not executing the warrant tonight.
We want to make sure that Harry Rowan gets a good night's rest.
What did you find out? Can we fight it? You are my lawyer, you tell me.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes, I have an idea when they'll be here.
Harry.
It's late.
What're you doing? Go to bed, Susan.
Go to bed! You didn't find it, did you? The porcelain cap.
You told him I asked you about it? Yes, but I don't understand.
The porcelain cap that fell out of Eddie Ferguson's mouth through the tear in the plastic that you wrapped him in before stuffing him into the freezer six months ago right next to the leg of lamb and the Rocky Road ice cream.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, Harry.
What did you do? How long do you think it'll take us to find it, Harry? It's not here.
It can't be here.
I looked.
I didn't make a mistake.
Sounds like an admission of guilt to me.
Harry Rowan, you're under arrest for murder.
A costly mistake.
Harry didn't make a mistake.
Eddie Ferguson doesn't wear caps.