Law & Order (1990) s05e05 Episode Script
White Rabbit
NARRATOR: 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.
ANTONIO: I couldn't find Henry.
Maybe that's because he goes off duty when you come on duty.
He goes off duty after I've signed for the rounds sheet.
Did you look for him in the men's room? Yeah.
Do you know where he goes after work? No.
If you can't find him, I'll call Mr.
Simmons and we'll hire another watchman.
Oh.
My God! Oh.
My God! Henry! Mr.
Wick, over here! What? BRISCOE: How bad is he? We got him stabilized, but his blood pressure's barely 80 over 50.
Pulse is off the charts.
He got that way from a knock on the head? Hell of a knock.
LOGAN: Heart attack? I'll send you a diagnosis with my bill.
This is Mr.
Wick, the manager of the safe deposit company.
People rent these boxes just like at a bank? Everybody needs a secure place for their valuables.
Looks like they'd do better shoving them under the mattress.
Well, this door is two feet thick.
The lock's on a timer.
BRISCOE: You got some pretty big mice.
Hey, you don't reinforce the floor? We don't own the floor.
We rent this space.
But it is six inches of reinforced concrete.
Who has access to the basement? Uh, janitors? No.
The basement door was crowbarred.
It's not on an alarm? It's a basement.
There's nothing down there.
Just a stairway to heaven.
He's in ventricular tachycardia.
He's responding to medication.
Well, this tachycardia, could it have been brought on by being jumped and handcuffed to a wall? I suppose, but if that hadn't done it, something else would have.
Mr.
Maybrook has alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
Is that as bad as it sounds? Worse.
Your victim has killed an awful lot of whiskey.
He'll probably be dead in a year.
HENRY: A man called about midnight, said he was from the alarm company, asked if everything was all right, said they were getting an alarm.
But everything was quiet where you were? Dead quiet, I told him.
He called back five minutes later.
Said they were getting another alarm.
They'd have to come over and fix it.
Well, Henry, this didn't make you a little suspicious? A man came over.
He was wearing a uniform.
He marched me down to the basement and put a mask over me.
You ever see anybody nosing around the basement? I don't know who they have down there.
Basement is not my territory.
When did these burglars put you in the vault? When they were done.
It seemed like forever.
I was feeling bad.
BRISCOE: Did you hear them talking? No, couldn't hear much.
They had some kind of tools.
Noisy.
The tool of choice of today's sophisticated burglars.
Meet the Porto-Jack, gentlemen.
This thing busted through the basement ceiling? They used a slightly larger model to jack up the I.
A.
freeways after the earthquake.
This one can twist a truck frame into shape.
Sit it on the floor, you attach a steel rod here, it'll push through a foot of concrete.
Well, what about the rebars in the ceiling? Tensile strength but no trick to cut through with a reciprocating saw.
Yeah.
Well, when you pump this thing, how does it know to punch through the ceiling, not through the floor? You put a metal plate under it to dissipate the force in that direction.
Was there a plate in your basement? Yeah, but no jack.
We didn't know it was a matched set.
(POLICE RADIO CHATTERING) LOGAN: Well, they knew where to punch that hole.
Or the guy who jumped Henry could've paced it off.
He would have showed up on that video camera above the vault door.
He never got near it.
So they had the plans.
Or they've been here before.
Or it's an inside job.
Well, we start tracing all the maintenance personnel.
Yeah, well, it doesn't look like they got down here much.
Look at this mess.
What have you got? There's broken glass.
LOGAN: Watch out for the rats.
Old Harmony bourbon, about 6 bucks a quart.
You gotta be pretty hard-core to drink this crap.
Is that where you take your siestas, Henry? Your fingerprints are on that bottle.
You told us you never went in the basement.
BRISCOE: You lied to us, Henry.
Oh, what what if I did sneak down now and again, take a nip? I couldn't tell you that.
I was on the job.
You know how it is.
Aren't you a drinking man at all? (SIGHING) You, uh, you needed some refreshment.
I can understand that.
Right, right.
No big deal.
Yeah, so you slip down to the basement, where nobody can see you, and you unwind.
Yeah.
You've been there.
Yeah.
Then you, you get to looking around, and you see that ceiling and you start thinking.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
You start thinking how there's only a few inches between you and all that good stuff in that vault.
No, no, no.
I just took a drink! All right.
Now you listen to me, Henry, very carefully.
We tear your life apart, are we gonna find somebody in it with a hydraulic jack? A what? One of your noisy tools, Henry.
Tell me right now or you finish your recovery in an infirmary at Rikers.
No private rooms there, Henry.
No pretty nurses.
The orderlies there'll slit your throat to steal your I.
V.
Let's go! Come on! My cousin Eddie.
It was his damn idea.
Where's Eddie Maybrook? Where's Eddie Maybrook? (PEOPLE CHATTERING) Hey! Eddie Maybrook, you're under arrest for grand larceny and burglary.
You have the right to remain silent.
I understand you've been to my apartment.
Did you feed the cat? (SIGHING) Eddie, we're gonna find the stuff.
This year? We have his cousin's testimony.
We can match the tool marks from his jack.
We don't need to find the stolen goods to convict your client.
But the owners would like you to.
You invited me down here.
Okay.
He's gonna help you find the property.
It's burglary only, no grand larceny.
He does two years.
Why don't you toss in a free subscription to Playboy magazine while you're at it? This is what the vault company wants and the other victims.
It's always a pleasure to cooperate with the authorities.
(SIGHING) We would have found this stuff anyway.
Well, this way we get to go home early.
Not bad.
At least two carats.
Birth certificates, stamp collection.
"Mickey Mantle Rookie Year '51.
" What's that? Somebody's valuable dirty gym clothes? Well, it's dirty something.
Money, and a lot of it.
So, somebody else is hiding some cash from Uncle Sam.
Colt revolver Hey, Sherlock, this case is supposed to be closed.
With the serial numbers filed off.
Our customers are very grateful to get their property back.
I've written a letter of thanks to the commissioner.
Well, he told us to say, "You're welcome," but, uh, we're still interested in that gym bag.
Everything else was claimed.
Well, who didn't claim their stuff? Well, some people are traveling or said their boxes were empty, or we couldn't reach them.
Well, how many had boxes big enough to hold that bag? That would be our $175 size.
Let me see.
Uh.
Yeah.
Just this one.
"Michael Cavanaugh.
" Yeah.
Rented the box in 1971.
Hasn't been here in 13 years, but he sends his money order for the rental every January 1st, like clockwork.
Mr.
Cavanaugh? We bought the house from him.
And when was that, ma'am? got out of the army.
So do you know where we can find Mr.
Cavanaugh? Find him? Yeah.
He sold the house because he was sick.
He died a few months later.
Thank you, ma'am.
That's my kind of guy.
Dies in 1969, rents a safe deposit box two years later.
Keeps up the payments better than I do.
So somebody with hot money and a gun sees his name in the obituaries and decides to borrow his name.
Yeah, now all we have to do is interview anybody who read a newspaper in 1969.
The gun's not traceable.
Maybe the money is.
"Secretary of the Treasury, C.
Douglas Dillon.
" Yeah, we noticed.
Uh, that would put the bill someplace in the '60s.
We figured maybe the bureau had something on the serial numbers.
(BEEPING) Excuse me.
(SIGHS) Nice office.
You want to be an F.
B.
l.
agent when you grow up? He blanked the screen.
What? Maybe he thinks we're communist spies.
Hi, I'm Agent Tilley.
Charmed.
Hayden told me about your inquiry.
I'm afraid we have nothing that can help you.
Well, it looked like he saw something on the screen.
What? Well, there's another great example of federal and local cooperation.
Yeah, but what are they trying to hide? Whatever it is, we're going to have to break in to find out.
Hey, what was the F.
B.
l.
doing in 1971? Don't know.
Buying feather boas for J.
Edgar Hoover? Let's go to the library.
"Federal agents arrested four Catholic priests" "for pouring their own blood over draft files.
" Yeah.
They nabbed Dr.
Spock, too.
Every once in a while they actually tangled with a criminal.
Wow! Look at this.
Three days before the safe deposit box was rented, $200,000 was stolen from a payroll.
Nucon Technologies, defense contractor.
I remember that.
They killed a cop.
Yeah.
"Vincent J.
Perella.
" He was a year ahead of me at the Academy.
Walked in on the scene and took a bullet in the back of the head.
.
38 caliber.
Like the one in the bag.
"The killers issued a press release afterwards.
" "They apologized for killing Perella.
" "Said they only took the money" "to slow down the 'immoral war in Vietnam.
'" Antiwar radicals.
The lunatic fringe.
Well, no wonder the F.
B.
l.
kicked us out.
They wanted this one for themselves.
Yeah? So do I.
Did you know the officer that was killed? No, but I went to his funeral.
LOGAN: Four people were involved in that crime.
Susan Forrest, Margaret Pauley, both juniors at Columbia University.
Yeah.
They got active in the antiwar movement and went a little bit overboard.
Yeah, helped along by these two.
Tom Rudisill.
Sam Burdett.
Convicted armed robbers on a study-release program.
You know, that sounds like a wonderfully progressive idea.
It was the '60s, Mike.
You had to be there.
I happened to be at a couple antiwar rallies.
Oh, yeah, to meet girls? Yeah, I heard hippie chicks believed in free love.
So did Rudisill and Burdett.
They majored in sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and they got involved in the antiwar movement, too.
Rudisill was killed in a shoot-out with police two weeks after the robbery.
Okay.
Burdett was arrested as the accomplice.
He's still in Sing Sing.
Good.
Margaret Pauley was underground for 12 years.
They caught her in a parking lot in a New Jersey shopping mall in 1983.
Copped a plea, was paroled two years ago.
That leaves Susan Forrest.
She was pulled in for a line-up the day after the robbery.
She called in her lawyer, stood mum, and the driver couldn't identify her.
She walked away.
When the F.
B.
l.
went back to get her later, she was gone.
She's been gone ever since.
Twenty-three years.
We'll have her by lunch.
No prints on the gun.
You hear from ballistics? Yeah.
It killed Officer Perella.
No usable prints on the money.
But I've got four good sets on this card.
The guy who used the safe deposit box had to sign it every time he came to visit.
Any chance "he" was Susan Forrest in a fake mustache? No.
Three of the sets belong to vault employees.
One set's unknown.
That would be the fake Michael Cavanaugh.
Yes.
But he's not in our files.
All right, dead end.
Yeah.
Let's go see what's left of the old gang.
The only cop I have to talk to is my parole officer.
You don't talk to cops, you shoot them? Tom Rudisill shot him.
I didn't even have a gun.
It wasn't supposed to happen that way.
Oops, your mistake.
Yes.
For getting involved with macho creeps.
Hey, nobody held a gun to your head.
We were trying to save lives.
Do you know how many people were being killed every day in Vietnam? Who you saving now? I mean, do I need a bullet-proof vest? By the way, we found the money.
What money? From your mistake.
It was in a safe deposit box.
I haven't seen that money since 1971.
Well, who was taking care of it? We're thinking maybe it was your pal, Susan Forrest? I haven't seen her since 1971, either.
Did she have any boyfriends back then? Yeah.
Tom Rudisill.
May he rot in hell.
I think when she said "macho creeps," she was talking about you.
Those girls, they were live wires.
Their plan was to give the money to the Black Panthers.
Yeah? What was your plan for it? Different.
How much did you find? More than 100 large.
You can send my cut to the prison store.
Cigarettes for life.
Who do you think was tending it, Sam? (SIGHING) Well, it wasn't me, 'cause I was here, and it wasn't Tom, 'cause he was dead.
Well, you knew the rest of the antiwar crowd at Columbia.
Any of them? Brave young students.
Their idea of living dangerously was to spend a night in the faculty lounge and call it a sit-in.
Tom "proposed our action.
" That's how they talked.
All the big mouths decided that it was time to study for finals.
Susan and Meg were the only ones who had the stones to do it.
"Meg"? We were close.
Didn't she tell you? Margaret Pauley and that scum-sucker? That beats Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie for the Odd Couple Award.
The '60s, Mike.
You had to be there.
Oh, really? What were you doing then? Touring with Strawberry Alarm Clock? I was patrolling the West Side in uniform.
I got called in on some of those student sit-ins, had to carry out kids wearing cashmere sweaters and get called a pig for my trouble.
These kids sitting in, were they arrested? Yeah.
Trespassing, conditional discharges.
They were good little boys and girls for six months and their records got expunged.
Expunged, huh? But not destroyed.
Expunged records, pre-'78, never made it to the main files.
If you find Jimmy Hoffa, let me know.
Wait a minute, Mr.
Dawkins said you're the guy who knows how to find things down here.
Mr.
Dawkins doesn't like to come down here himself.
Uh, we're looking for Columbia University antiwar protesters, like '70 to '71.
That ought to narrow it down a little.
A little.
Hope us taxpayers aren't paying you by the hour.
WILLIAM: I don't understand.
BRISCOE: It's not that hard, Professor Goodwin.
What is it you teach? Comparative literature.
Oh.
Nice.
Well, how's this for comparative literature? We dug up some old arrest records, including yours from a 1970 campus sit-in.
Why? To compare the fingerprints with some prints found on a sign-in card for a safe deposit box holding the money from the Nucon robbery in 1971.
Do you remember that? Yeah.
It was big news.
A policeman was shot.
Yeah.
And the gun that shot him was found in that box, too.
Your box.
LOGAN: Your fingerprints are on the card.
This has to be a mistake.
Maybe we better talk this over down at the station house.
"Faculty dining pass," "campus squash club.
" Boy, you had a real nice life.
I think murder is grounds for revoking your tenure, by the way.
I had nothing whatever to do with that robbery.
You knew Susan Forrest.
The two of you were "co-chairpersons" of the campus S.
D.
S.
A lot of people knew Susan.
Yeah, but you see, you ended up with the money and the gun.
Help us, Professor.
Or I promise you're gonna have a really bad mid-life crisis.
Susan brought me the bag.
She asked me to hold it.
After the robbery? I didn't know anything about the robbery.
Well, what'd she tell you? She won the lottery? She didn't say.
I didn't ask.
BRISCOE: You rented that box in 1971.
Until 1981, you were there at least once a year.
What'd you do, go in and not look at it? Susan called me a week after the robbery.
She asked me to send some money to the policeman's widow.
Oh, well, that's very thoughtful of you.
Everybody felt terrible about that.
Susan and Margaret, they were underground.
They'd call me when they needed money.
I'd get them some.
How'd you deliver it? I parked next to them in a parking lot at a shopping mall in New Jersey.
All right, cut the crap.
Where is Susan Forrest? I don't know! She stopped calling me after a couple of years.
I don't know why! Margaret kept calling until I told her I wouldn't go to that box anymore.
We", Why'd you stop? They installed video cameras at the vault.
I was afraid to get my picture taken.
Some radical hero.
Yeah, his girlfriends take out an armored car.
Here's his contribution to the revolution.
"The Whale is Red: A Neo-Marxist Interpretation of Moby Dick.
" Do you think he knows where Susan Forrest is? I think he'd tell us if he did.
You know, the professor delivered cash to Margaret Pauley at a New Jersey mall.
Two years after he stopped helping her, she was caught in the same place.
She changed paymasters, kept the same M.
Jo.
.
How was she caught? Just one of those things.
Uh, a drunk plowed into a row of parked cars.
Margaret was sitting in one, got knocked unconscious and by the time she woke up in the hospital, the police had figured out who she was.
LOGAN: A row of cars? Did the cop who wrote up the accident report get the license numbers of the cars parked next to hers? Yes.
One was driven by a tourist from Sweden.
The other a green Mercedes.
BDM 7291.
Stuart Levitan, Larchmont.
The new underground paymaster? Ask him.
Margaret Pauley? I never heard of her.
Well, your car was parked next to hers at the North Jersey mall, April 12, 1983, when it was hit by a drunk.
It was? Would you like to see the police record? You're detectives from New York City, and you're investigating a traffic accident that happened in New Jersey Did you attend Columbia University, Mr.
Levitan? No.
I went to Cornell.
You active in the S.
D.
S.
? S.
D.
S.
? I'm a C.
P.
A.
Who wants pasta for dinner? Stuart? They're detectives, Rita.
I don't understand how I can help you.
I don't even understand what it is you want.
Susan Forrest? This is my wife, Rita Levitan.
Miss Forrest? STUART: Who is Susan Forrest? Cuff her, Mike.
What? LOGAN: You sure? STUART: No.
What is happening here? Honey, go to Daddy.
Rita! BRISCOE: Susan Forrest, you're under arrest for the murder of Officer Vincent Perella.
STUART: What's going on? You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do say can and Rita, what is happening here? Mom! Will be used against you in a court of law.
Just tell them who you are, Rita! Mom! Rita! Susan.
My name is Susan Forrest.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford one, one will be provided (DOOR CLOSING) SUSAN: You can't know what it's like.
For 23 years, if somebody said "Susan," I couldn't turn my head.
My husband and son, they wondered why I'd start crying in the middle of dinner.
You can have an attorney here.
I just want this over.
Every day Every day I thought about turning myself in.
You found me because of Margaret? Because your car was next to hers in the parking lot.
When Billy stopped helping her, I'd give her money.
I was married then.
Your husband didn't know? No.
He didn't know anything.
I'd met him on a bus.
I told him I was an orphan from Wyoming.
But now you admit taking part in the armed robbery of Nucon Technologies? Yes.
I was the lookout.
And you were present when Officer Perella was killed? Well, I was outside.
I was throwing up in the bushes.
I was so scared.
You knew Tom Rudisill and Sam Burdett were armed? Nobody was supposed to get shot.
We were doing this for a good reason.
At least we thought it was a good reason.
I know that that doesn't matter now.
Can I call my family? Your husband's outside.
No.
My parents.
(SNIFFLING) I was their only child, and they don't even know that they have a grandson.
JACK: Get Susan Forrest's lawyer in.
We'll take a plea.
You don't want to let her stew in Rikers for a couple of days? She's confessed.
I don't foresee a problem.
How far do you want to drop this? She killed a policeman.
She was a college kid who was angry about the war.
She was stupid and frightened, and she was duped by a couple of convicts who pretended to love Ho Chi Minh so they could get in her pants.
I've never heard you make excuses for a criminal before.
It's not an excuse.
It's the way things were.
Mr.
McCoy? Yeah? I'm Mary Perella.
I understand you've got one of the people who murdered my husband.
MARY: Vincent called me from the precinct that morning.
Finally got his vacation approved.
We were going to stay with my sister at the Connecticut shore.
I'm sorry.
So was that other prosecutor who let Margaret Pauley off with manslaughter.
I'm sure he thought it was the best sentence he could get.
Eight years and she is out planting tomatoes for poor people? I think there should be a death penalty for her and for this other one.
This is Officer Vincent J.
Perella.
I wanted you to see him before you make any deals.
ADAM: Should have made your deal yesterday.
Susan Forrest just got rid of the Levitan family lawyer.
She's hired William Kunstler.
From the Chicago Seven to the Westchester One.
He'll be onto 10 other causes by the end of the week.
Susan Forrest will be lucky to get five minutes of his time.
Five minutes of Bill Kunstler goes a long way.
When you were learning to walk, he and I were on the same side of the courtroom, protecting protesters from the government.
Nobody protected Officer Perella from Susan Forrest.
Yes, but now she's Den Mother of the Year.
She bakes cookies for the Little League.
She's a prisoner of conscience.
Get a deal.
You have her confession.
And it's all we have.
After 23 years, evidence is lost, witnesses are dead.
That's how Margaret Pauley got off with manslaughter.
CLAIRE: Since when is a confession not enough? If Susan Forrest had robbed that armored car in the 1950s, I don't think I'd be hearing all these reasons not to go after her for murder.
I'm sure you've listened to all The Doors' albums, Claire, but you just don't have any idea what it was like back then.
I can't prosecute Susan Forrest because I wasn't at Woodstock? The whole country was at war.
The President and the Attorney General were breaking the law.
Young people thought they were a force in history.
CLAIRE: Is that how you felt, Jack? How many cops did you kill? (GATE BUZZING) I've reviewed your offer, McCoy.
We'll pass.
JACK: Manslaughter one? It was good enough for the Greenwich Village bombers who you represented.
Yeah, but that prosecutor had a case.
We have a confession.
Not anymore you don't.
My motion to suppress.
"Right to counsel"? I asked her three times if she wanted an attorney.
She said no.
It's on tape.
Yes, my dear, but you weren't allowed to ask that question without me being present.
Why? No one can have a party without you? Miss Forrest was picked up for questioning the day after the robbery in 1971.
I went down to the precinct to represent her.
When you picked her up a month ago, I was still her lawyer in this matter.
She can't be asked to waive her right to an attorney except in my presence, even after 23 years.
I assume that you've read People v.
West? I have a new life now.
I have a son.
You told me you wanted to make amends for what happened, that it was the only way you could feel healed.
I There's nothing else for us to talk about.
Susan? (DOOR BUZZING) Personally, I think she is healed.
You didn't pull the police records from 1971? (SIGHING) I'm sorry.
You should be.
So we drop the charge and sing a duet of We Shall Overcome as she leaves the courtroom? No.
If the only option Kunstler gives us is murder in the first degree, then that's what we'll take.
What have you got? The armored car driver is still alive, but he never saw Susan Forrest.
He'll establish the crime.
Sam Burdett puts her there.
A convicted accomplice? His testimony requires corroboration.
Professor Goodwin links Susan to the gun and the money.
It should be just enough, if we sit the widow Perella where the jury can see her.
I drove the truck in through that door there and backed it in to here.
While we were opening the doors, this Chevy pulls in and blocks us.
That girl was driving.
Let the record show that Mr.
Giggins is pointing to a photograph of Margaret Pauley.
GIGGINS: Right.
Her.
Then these two guys get out with a gun.
They told us to give it up.
That is, to hand over the money? Yup.
The girl in the car got impatient, I guess.
She started honking.
JACK: What happened then? GIGGINS: The policeman walked in.
I guess he saw the Chevy.
I never did find out.
That one.
He shot him.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Giggins, did you see the defendant, Susan Forrest, that day? No.
She didn't shoot Officer Perella, did she? No.
Thank you.
No further questions.
And what was Susan Forrest doing, Mr.
Burdett? She was the lookout.
We dropped her outside before we drove into the garage.
JACK: She was there the whole time? Yes, she was still there when we drove out.
Hopped into the car, on my lap.
And she had participated in the planning sessions for the robbery? Absolutely.
She was all hot to strike a blow against the war machine.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Burdett, when you were arrested after the robbery, didn't you deny any involvement? I believe so.
And in exchange for a deal, didn't you agree to testify that Tom Rudisill did it all on his own? Yes.
And when Margaret Pauley was arrested, didn't you first say she wasn't there but that you might remember it differently if the authorities reduced your sentence? You got me again.
And now comes Susan Forrest.
Tell me, what have you been promised for your testimony here today? Three weeks a year at the Adirondack Prison Camp for my health.
For your health? Mr.
Burdett, if I were to give you this watch, would you testify the judge was present at the robbery? Objection! Sustained.
Mr.
Kunstler.
Thank you, Your Honor.
I would have hated to lose it.
Starting in the spring of in the student mobilization against the war.
And that's where you met Susan Forrest? She was an inspirational leader.
And you became friends? We did.
Did she come and see you the day after the Nucon Technologies robbery? I don't remember.
Do you recognize this bag? Let me refresh your recollection, Mr.
Goodwin.
You told two detectives that Susan Forrest gave you this bag.
I don't remember.
Permission to treat as hostile.
Granted.
Do you remember telling Detectives Briscoe and Logan that Susan Forrest gave you this bag containing more than $100,000 in cash and a handgun? What I remember is the United States Government sending half a million troops to fight in a war it had already decided it couldn't win.
JUDGE QUINN: That's enough.
I remember the National Guard killing four college students whose only crime was protesting the illegal invasion of Cambodia.
You are in contempt of this court.
Well, I cite this court with contempt! Officer, remove him.
I'm sorry, Susan.
I should have been with you 25 years ago.
He had to wait until now to impress Susan Forrest.
He gets the time in prison he always dreamed about.
Big man on campus.
ADAM: You have anything else? Claire's been through all the original F.
B.
l.
files.
Down to the agents' dinner receipts.
What about the wiretaps? There weren't any wiretaps.
They're holding back.
In those days, the F.
B.
l.
wiretapped anybody who wore a paisley shirt.
The White House loved the technology.
The Supreme Court was less enthusiastic.
Nixon.
I'll call Washington.
SUSAN: Just got back from Virginia.
TILLEY: That's Susan Forrest.
TOM: How'd it go? That's the ringleader, Tom Rudisill.
Piece of cake.
We used Opie's I.
D.
We don't know who Opie was.
Right on.
You get plenty of salt? Yep.
We're ready for the picnic.
"Salt" means bullets.
I want to be with you tonight to celebrate.
That's the adrenaline talking.
Get your pretty little ass over here.
She was buying guns? Don't get too excited.
These tapes can't be used in court.
You couldn't have gotten a warrant? The President of the United States said we didn't need one.
Now this is the day after the robbery.
The police took me in for questioning.
You'd better split.
Damn! How'd they get onto you? I don't know.
I was scared.
You did like I told you? I got rid of the bag.
I smashed the walkie-talkie and threw it down the sewers.
So did Margaret.
Unfortunately, we didn't transcribe these until two days after the robbery.
We had quite a backlog.
Susan Forrest's role in the crime was a little more than she let on.
She bought the guns.
And she and Margaret Pauley had walkie-talkies.
The driver said Margaret honked her horn.
He thought she was just impatient.
It was right before Officer Perella walked in and got shot.
In the back of the head.
Rudisill was here with the guard.
He would have had to duck back here to surprise the policeman from behind.
He was warned.
Susan warned Margaret over the walkie-talkie.
Margaret honked.
She said she was just throwing up in the bushes.
A bush with a view.
I believed her, too.
After 23 years, she might believe it herself.
How do we prove what she really did? Margaret relayed the message.
Well, Margaret hasn't been very cooperative.
For how many years does she go back to prison if we prove she violated parole? JACK: You told the police you hadn't spoken to Susan Forrest since 1971.
She told us that she gave you money in the early '80s, after she was married.
Six months ago, Rita Levitan wrote a check for $500 to the Women's Community Garden.
We have a lot of contributors.
We're a good cause.
You knew Rita Levitan was Susan Forrest.
All we have to show is that she's talked to you one time since you've been on parole, you go back to jail for six more years.
Billy Goodwin just went to jail to protect Susan.
I spent my first two years underground with her.
We worked as waitresses in rat holes, panicking if we accidentally drove two miles over the speed limit.
You don't think I'd go to jail to protect her, too? Why? So she can go to white-glove garden parties in Westchester? The same day Susan gave you $500, she gave $2,000 to the Republican National Committee.
Republican National Committee? Pretty good cover for a radical on the run, don't you think? JACK: What makes you think it's cover? Her checkbook reads like a who's who of conservative causes.
Stuart Levitan has her involved in his politics now.
Have you ever been a fugitive, Mr.
McCoy? You do what you have to do.
We can revoke her parole, but she's loyal.
Yeah.
Army buddies.
What about Susan Forrest? She's probably chartering a limo to take her home from Rikers.
You know she lied about what happened.
Throw it in her face, see if she flinches.
If she starts to say something useful, Kunstler will stick his handkerchief in her mouth.
No.
He'll be too busy trying to figure out what you know and how you know it.
Bill hates to be the one in the dark.
I trust you won't keep us long.
My client has a date with a plastic tray.
For the next 25 years.
We know what happened at the Nucon robbery, Miss Forrest.
So do I.
The violence launched against the people of Vietnam finally redounded to the home front.
A tragic confluence of events.
No.
You warned Tom Rudisill that Officer Perella was coming.
If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive today.
(STAMMERING) No.
I just You tell a lovely tale there, Mr.
McCoy.
I'm sure if you had someone to tell it in court, we'd hear it there and not here.
You also bought the gun Rudisill used.
Gun sales leave a trace.
I don't care if it's 23 years or 230 years, I'll find that trace and link you to the gun and send you to prison.
Don't waste your time.
Tell them.
He can't be prosecuted.
It was Billy Goodwin.
He bought the guns.
Goodwin? It was legal.
It made him feel important.
Like he was doing something.
He was "Opie"? Kunstler's right about Goodwin.
The most he can be charged with is conspiracy.
And the statute of limitations on that ran out 18 years ago.
Not if we argue that his refusal to testify now is a continuation of the original conspiracy.
Get an arrest warrant for the professor.
You think that argument will hold up? No.
But until we're laughed out of court, it increases the pressure.
On Goodwin? He's already gone to jail to protect Susan.
Which is why Margaret so admires him now.
Margaret practically spit in my face.
That was before she had a chance to think things over.
Have her arrested, too.
JACK: Ms.
Pauley.
I told you I'm not gonna testify.
I told you I'd go back to prison.
We can still pretend this never happened.
Let's go.
CLAIRE: Have you seen tomorrow's paper? Did I make the front page? Susan did.
This is a trick.
Susan wouldn't do that.
If you don't believe it, the officer can take you past Professor Goodwin's cell, on the way to yours.
Why are you doing this to us? The real criminals killed 50,000 American boys and over a million Vietnamese, and they've never been in a courtroom.
Susan Forrest isn't one of you anymore.
Do you really want to go to jail for her? She says Billy bought the guns? If he got within 10 miles of a gun store, it was only because he wanted to be near Susan.
He loved her.
(CRYING) So did I.
JACK: Where was Susan Forrest during the robbery? MARGARET: Susan was stationed outside the gate.
She was there the entire time? Yes.
How do you know that? She and I were on walkie-talkies.
We were in touch the whole time.
Did Tom Rudisill have any warning that Officer Perella was approaching? Yes.
I honked the horn.
How did you know to do that? Susan saw him.
And what did she tell you? She said he was coming.
What were her exact words? "Pig at 3:00.
" (KNOCKING ON DOOR) Kunstler wants to meet as soon as possible.
Yeah.
He wants to accept the plea bargain you offered before the trial.
It's off the table.
Isn't it? How much time in prison does the Den Mother of the Year require to be rehabilitated? The policeman she shot could have been your father.
She didn't shoot anybody.
What she said to Margaret.
We knew she was there when we made the original offer.
How much more guilty does her choice of language make her? It impressed the jury.
UP '10 you.
The offer was manslaughter one.
We'll accept manslaughter two.
Mr.
McCoy I couldn't tell anybody what I did.
I was ashamed.
And all these years I am so sorry.
The offer was man one.
Eight and a third to 25.
Deal.
Deal.
Susan? (DOOR CLOSING) She'll be in jail till 2003.
I think the '60s should be over by then.
These are their stories.
ANTONIO: I couldn't find Henry.
Maybe that's because he goes off duty when you come on duty.
He goes off duty after I've signed for the rounds sheet.
Did you look for him in the men's room? Yeah.
Do you know where he goes after work? No.
If you can't find him, I'll call Mr.
Simmons and we'll hire another watchman.
Oh.
My God! Oh.
My God! Henry! Mr.
Wick, over here! What? BRISCOE: How bad is he? We got him stabilized, but his blood pressure's barely 80 over 50.
Pulse is off the charts.
He got that way from a knock on the head? Hell of a knock.
LOGAN: Heart attack? I'll send you a diagnosis with my bill.
This is Mr.
Wick, the manager of the safe deposit company.
People rent these boxes just like at a bank? Everybody needs a secure place for their valuables.
Looks like they'd do better shoving them under the mattress.
Well, this door is two feet thick.
The lock's on a timer.
BRISCOE: You got some pretty big mice.
Hey, you don't reinforce the floor? We don't own the floor.
We rent this space.
But it is six inches of reinforced concrete.
Who has access to the basement? Uh, janitors? No.
The basement door was crowbarred.
It's not on an alarm? It's a basement.
There's nothing down there.
Just a stairway to heaven.
He's in ventricular tachycardia.
He's responding to medication.
Well, this tachycardia, could it have been brought on by being jumped and handcuffed to a wall? I suppose, but if that hadn't done it, something else would have.
Mr.
Maybrook has alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
Is that as bad as it sounds? Worse.
Your victim has killed an awful lot of whiskey.
He'll probably be dead in a year.
HENRY: A man called about midnight, said he was from the alarm company, asked if everything was all right, said they were getting an alarm.
But everything was quiet where you were? Dead quiet, I told him.
He called back five minutes later.
Said they were getting another alarm.
They'd have to come over and fix it.
Well, Henry, this didn't make you a little suspicious? A man came over.
He was wearing a uniform.
He marched me down to the basement and put a mask over me.
You ever see anybody nosing around the basement? I don't know who they have down there.
Basement is not my territory.
When did these burglars put you in the vault? When they were done.
It seemed like forever.
I was feeling bad.
BRISCOE: Did you hear them talking? No, couldn't hear much.
They had some kind of tools.
Noisy.
The tool of choice of today's sophisticated burglars.
Meet the Porto-Jack, gentlemen.
This thing busted through the basement ceiling? They used a slightly larger model to jack up the I.
A.
freeways after the earthquake.
This one can twist a truck frame into shape.
Sit it on the floor, you attach a steel rod here, it'll push through a foot of concrete.
Well, what about the rebars in the ceiling? Tensile strength but no trick to cut through with a reciprocating saw.
Yeah.
Well, when you pump this thing, how does it know to punch through the ceiling, not through the floor? You put a metal plate under it to dissipate the force in that direction.
Was there a plate in your basement? Yeah, but no jack.
We didn't know it was a matched set.
(POLICE RADIO CHATTERING) LOGAN: Well, they knew where to punch that hole.
Or the guy who jumped Henry could've paced it off.
He would have showed up on that video camera above the vault door.
He never got near it.
So they had the plans.
Or they've been here before.
Or it's an inside job.
Well, we start tracing all the maintenance personnel.
Yeah, well, it doesn't look like they got down here much.
Look at this mess.
What have you got? There's broken glass.
LOGAN: Watch out for the rats.
Old Harmony bourbon, about 6 bucks a quart.
You gotta be pretty hard-core to drink this crap.
Is that where you take your siestas, Henry? Your fingerprints are on that bottle.
You told us you never went in the basement.
BRISCOE: You lied to us, Henry.
Oh, what what if I did sneak down now and again, take a nip? I couldn't tell you that.
I was on the job.
You know how it is.
Aren't you a drinking man at all? (SIGHING) You, uh, you needed some refreshment.
I can understand that.
Right, right.
No big deal.
Yeah, so you slip down to the basement, where nobody can see you, and you unwind.
Yeah.
You've been there.
Yeah.
Then you, you get to looking around, and you see that ceiling and you start thinking.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
You start thinking how there's only a few inches between you and all that good stuff in that vault.
No, no, no.
I just took a drink! All right.
Now you listen to me, Henry, very carefully.
We tear your life apart, are we gonna find somebody in it with a hydraulic jack? A what? One of your noisy tools, Henry.
Tell me right now or you finish your recovery in an infirmary at Rikers.
No private rooms there, Henry.
No pretty nurses.
The orderlies there'll slit your throat to steal your I.
V.
Let's go! Come on! My cousin Eddie.
It was his damn idea.
Where's Eddie Maybrook? Where's Eddie Maybrook? (PEOPLE CHATTERING) Hey! Eddie Maybrook, you're under arrest for grand larceny and burglary.
You have the right to remain silent.
I understand you've been to my apartment.
Did you feed the cat? (SIGHING) Eddie, we're gonna find the stuff.
This year? We have his cousin's testimony.
We can match the tool marks from his jack.
We don't need to find the stolen goods to convict your client.
But the owners would like you to.
You invited me down here.
Okay.
He's gonna help you find the property.
It's burglary only, no grand larceny.
He does two years.
Why don't you toss in a free subscription to Playboy magazine while you're at it? This is what the vault company wants and the other victims.
It's always a pleasure to cooperate with the authorities.
(SIGHING) We would have found this stuff anyway.
Well, this way we get to go home early.
Not bad.
At least two carats.
Birth certificates, stamp collection.
"Mickey Mantle Rookie Year '51.
" What's that? Somebody's valuable dirty gym clothes? Well, it's dirty something.
Money, and a lot of it.
So, somebody else is hiding some cash from Uncle Sam.
Colt revolver Hey, Sherlock, this case is supposed to be closed.
With the serial numbers filed off.
Our customers are very grateful to get their property back.
I've written a letter of thanks to the commissioner.
Well, he told us to say, "You're welcome," but, uh, we're still interested in that gym bag.
Everything else was claimed.
Well, who didn't claim their stuff? Well, some people are traveling or said their boxes were empty, or we couldn't reach them.
Well, how many had boxes big enough to hold that bag? That would be our $175 size.
Let me see.
Uh.
Yeah.
Just this one.
"Michael Cavanaugh.
" Yeah.
Rented the box in 1971.
Hasn't been here in 13 years, but he sends his money order for the rental every January 1st, like clockwork.
Mr.
Cavanaugh? We bought the house from him.
And when was that, ma'am? got out of the army.
So do you know where we can find Mr.
Cavanaugh? Find him? Yeah.
He sold the house because he was sick.
He died a few months later.
Thank you, ma'am.
That's my kind of guy.
Dies in 1969, rents a safe deposit box two years later.
Keeps up the payments better than I do.
So somebody with hot money and a gun sees his name in the obituaries and decides to borrow his name.
Yeah, now all we have to do is interview anybody who read a newspaper in 1969.
The gun's not traceable.
Maybe the money is.
"Secretary of the Treasury, C.
Douglas Dillon.
" Yeah, we noticed.
Uh, that would put the bill someplace in the '60s.
We figured maybe the bureau had something on the serial numbers.
(BEEPING) Excuse me.
(SIGHS) Nice office.
You want to be an F.
B.
l.
agent when you grow up? He blanked the screen.
What? Maybe he thinks we're communist spies.
Hi, I'm Agent Tilley.
Charmed.
Hayden told me about your inquiry.
I'm afraid we have nothing that can help you.
Well, it looked like he saw something on the screen.
What? Well, there's another great example of federal and local cooperation.
Yeah, but what are they trying to hide? Whatever it is, we're going to have to break in to find out.
Hey, what was the F.
B.
l.
doing in 1971? Don't know.
Buying feather boas for J.
Edgar Hoover? Let's go to the library.
"Federal agents arrested four Catholic priests" "for pouring their own blood over draft files.
" Yeah.
They nabbed Dr.
Spock, too.
Every once in a while they actually tangled with a criminal.
Wow! Look at this.
Three days before the safe deposit box was rented, $200,000 was stolen from a payroll.
Nucon Technologies, defense contractor.
I remember that.
They killed a cop.
Yeah.
"Vincent J.
Perella.
" He was a year ahead of me at the Academy.
Walked in on the scene and took a bullet in the back of the head.
.
38 caliber.
Like the one in the bag.
"The killers issued a press release afterwards.
" "They apologized for killing Perella.
" "Said they only took the money" "to slow down the 'immoral war in Vietnam.
'" Antiwar radicals.
The lunatic fringe.
Well, no wonder the F.
B.
l.
kicked us out.
They wanted this one for themselves.
Yeah? So do I.
Did you know the officer that was killed? No, but I went to his funeral.
LOGAN: Four people were involved in that crime.
Susan Forrest, Margaret Pauley, both juniors at Columbia University.
Yeah.
They got active in the antiwar movement and went a little bit overboard.
Yeah, helped along by these two.
Tom Rudisill.
Sam Burdett.
Convicted armed robbers on a study-release program.
You know, that sounds like a wonderfully progressive idea.
It was the '60s, Mike.
You had to be there.
I happened to be at a couple antiwar rallies.
Oh, yeah, to meet girls? Yeah, I heard hippie chicks believed in free love.
So did Rudisill and Burdett.
They majored in sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and they got involved in the antiwar movement, too.
Rudisill was killed in a shoot-out with police two weeks after the robbery.
Okay.
Burdett was arrested as the accomplice.
He's still in Sing Sing.
Good.
Margaret Pauley was underground for 12 years.
They caught her in a parking lot in a New Jersey shopping mall in 1983.
Copped a plea, was paroled two years ago.
That leaves Susan Forrest.
She was pulled in for a line-up the day after the robbery.
She called in her lawyer, stood mum, and the driver couldn't identify her.
She walked away.
When the F.
B.
l.
went back to get her later, she was gone.
She's been gone ever since.
Twenty-three years.
We'll have her by lunch.
No prints on the gun.
You hear from ballistics? Yeah.
It killed Officer Perella.
No usable prints on the money.
But I've got four good sets on this card.
The guy who used the safe deposit box had to sign it every time he came to visit.
Any chance "he" was Susan Forrest in a fake mustache? No.
Three of the sets belong to vault employees.
One set's unknown.
That would be the fake Michael Cavanaugh.
Yes.
But he's not in our files.
All right, dead end.
Yeah.
Let's go see what's left of the old gang.
The only cop I have to talk to is my parole officer.
You don't talk to cops, you shoot them? Tom Rudisill shot him.
I didn't even have a gun.
It wasn't supposed to happen that way.
Oops, your mistake.
Yes.
For getting involved with macho creeps.
Hey, nobody held a gun to your head.
We were trying to save lives.
Do you know how many people were being killed every day in Vietnam? Who you saving now? I mean, do I need a bullet-proof vest? By the way, we found the money.
What money? From your mistake.
It was in a safe deposit box.
I haven't seen that money since 1971.
Well, who was taking care of it? We're thinking maybe it was your pal, Susan Forrest? I haven't seen her since 1971, either.
Did she have any boyfriends back then? Yeah.
Tom Rudisill.
May he rot in hell.
I think when she said "macho creeps," she was talking about you.
Those girls, they were live wires.
Their plan was to give the money to the Black Panthers.
Yeah? What was your plan for it? Different.
How much did you find? More than 100 large.
You can send my cut to the prison store.
Cigarettes for life.
Who do you think was tending it, Sam? (SIGHING) Well, it wasn't me, 'cause I was here, and it wasn't Tom, 'cause he was dead.
Well, you knew the rest of the antiwar crowd at Columbia.
Any of them? Brave young students.
Their idea of living dangerously was to spend a night in the faculty lounge and call it a sit-in.
Tom "proposed our action.
" That's how they talked.
All the big mouths decided that it was time to study for finals.
Susan and Meg were the only ones who had the stones to do it.
"Meg"? We were close.
Didn't she tell you? Margaret Pauley and that scum-sucker? That beats Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie for the Odd Couple Award.
The '60s, Mike.
You had to be there.
Oh, really? What were you doing then? Touring with Strawberry Alarm Clock? I was patrolling the West Side in uniform.
I got called in on some of those student sit-ins, had to carry out kids wearing cashmere sweaters and get called a pig for my trouble.
These kids sitting in, were they arrested? Yeah.
Trespassing, conditional discharges.
They were good little boys and girls for six months and their records got expunged.
Expunged, huh? But not destroyed.
Expunged records, pre-'78, never made it to the main files.
If you find Jimmy Hoffa, let me know.
Wait a minute, Mr.
Dawkins said you're the guy who knows how to find things down here.
Mr.
Dawkins doesn't like to come down here himself.
Uh, we're looking for Columbia University antiwar protesters, like '70 to '71.
That ought to narrow it down a little.
A little.
Hope us taxpayers aren't paying you by the hour.
WILLIAM: I don't understand.
BRISCOE: It's not that hard, Professor Goodwin.
What is it you teach? Comparative literature.
Oh.
Nice.
Well, how's this for comparative literature? We dug up some old arrest records, including yours from a 1970 campus sit-in.
Why? To compare the fingerprints with some prints found on a sign-in card for a safe deposit box holding the money from the Nucon robbery in 1971.
Do you remember that? Yeah.
It was big news.
A policeman was shot.
Yeah.
And the gun that shot him was found in that box, too.
Your box.
LOGAN: Your fingerprints are on the card.
This has to be a mistake.
Maybe we better talk this over down at the station house.
"Faculty dining pass," "campus squash club.
" Boy, you had a real nice life.
I think murder is grounds for revoking your tenure, by the way.
I had nothing whatever to do with that robbery.
You knew Susan Forrest.
The two of you were "co-chairpersons" of the campus S.
D.
S.
A lot of people knew Susan.
Yeah, but you see, you ended up with the money and the gun.
Help us, Professor.
Or I promise you're gonna have a really bad mid-life crisis.
Susan brought me the bag.
She asked me to hold it.
After the robbery? I didn't know anything about the robbery.
Well, what'd she tell you? She won the lottery? She didn't say.
I didn't ask.
BRISCOE: You rented that box in 1971.
Until 1981, you were there at least once a year.
What'd you do, go in and not look at it? Susan called me a week after the robbery.
She asked me to send some money to the policeman's widow.
Oh, well, that's very thoughtful of you.
Everybody felt terrible about that.
Susan and Margaret, they were underground.
They'd call me when they needed money.
I'd get them some.
How'd you deliver it? I parked next to them in a parking lot at a shopping mall in New Jersey.
All right, cut the crap.
Where is Susan Forrest? I don't know! She stopped calling me after a couple of years.
I don't know why! Margaret kept calling until I told her I wouldn't go to that box anymore.
We", Why'd you stop? They installed video cameras at the vault.
I was afraid to get my picture taken.
Some radical hero.
Yeah, his girlfriends take out an armored car.
Here's his contribution to the revolution.
"The Whale is Red: A Neo-Marxist Interpretation of Moby Dick.
" Do you think he knows where Susan Forrest is? I think he'd tell us if he did.
You know, the professor delivered cash to Margaret Pauley at a New Jersey mall.
Two years after he stopped helping her, she was caught in the same place.
She changed paymasters, kept the same M.
Jo.
.
How was she caught? Just one of those things.
Uh, a drunk plowed into a row of parked cars.
Margaret was sitting in one, got knocked unconscious and by the time she woke up in the hospital, the police had figured out who she was.
LOGAN: A row of cars? Did the cop who wrote up the accident report get the license numbers of the cars parked next to hers? Yes.
One was driven by a tourist from Sweden.
The other a green Mercedes.
BDM 7291.
Stuart Levitan, Larchmont.
The new underground paymaster? Ask him.
Margaret Pauley? I never heard of her.
Well, your car was parked next to hers at the North Jersey mall, April 12, 1983, when it was hit by a drunk.
It was? Would you like to see the police record? You're detectives from New York City, and you're investigating a traffic accident that happened in New Jersey Did you attend Columbia University, Mr.
Levitan? No.
I went to Cornell.
You active in the S.
D.
S.
? S.
D.
S.
? I'm a C.
P.
A.
Who wants pasta for dinner? Stuart? They're detectives, Rita.
I don't understand how I can help you.
I don't even understand what it is you want.
Susan Forrest? This is my wife, Rita Levitan.
Miss Forrest? STUART: Who is Susan Forrest? Cuff her, Mike.
What? LOGAN: You sure? STUART: No.
What is happening here? Honey, go to Daddy.
Rita! BRISCOE: Susan Forrest, you're under arrest for the murder of Officer Vincent Perella.
STUART: What's going on? You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do say can and Rita, what is happening here? Mom! Will be used against you in a court of law.
Just tell them who you are, Rita! Mom! Rita! Susan.
My name is Susan Forrest.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford one, one will be provided (DOOR CLOSING) SUSAN: You can't know what it's like.
For 23 years, if somebody said "Susan," I couldn't turn my head.
My husband and son, they wondered why I'd start crying in the middle of dinner.
You can have an attorney here.
I just want this over.
Every day Every day I thought about turning myself in.
You found me because of Margaret? Because your car was next to hers in the parking lot.
When Billy stopped helping her, I'd give her money.
I was married then.
Your husband didn't know? No.
He didn't know anything.
I'd met him on a bus.
I told him I was an orphan from Wyoming.
But now you admit taking part in the armed robbery of Nucon Technologies? Yes.
I was the lookout.
And you were present when Officer Perella was killed? Well, I was outside.
I was throwing up in the bushes.
I was so scared.
You knew Tom Rudisill and Sam Burdett were armed? Nobody was supposed to get shot.
We were doing this for a good reason.
At least we thought it was a good reason.
I know that that doesn't matter now.
Can I call my family? Your husband's outside.
No.
My parents.
(SNIFFLING) I was their only child, and they don't even know that they have a grandson.
JACK: Get Susan Forrest's lawyer in.
We'll take a plea.
You don't want to let her stew in Rikers for a couple of days? She's confessed.
I don't foresee a problem.
How far do you want to drop this? She killed a policeman.
She was a college kid who was angry about the war.
She was stupid and frightened, and she was duped by a couple of convicts who pretended to love Ho Chi Minh so they could get in her pants.
I've never heard you make excuses for a criminal before.
It's not an excuse.
It's the way things were.
Mr.
McCoy? Yeah? I'm Mary Perella.
I understand you've got one of the people who murdered my husband.
MARY: Vincent called me from the precinct that morning.
Finally got his vacation approved.
We were going to stay with my sister at the Connecticut shore.
I'm sorry.
So was that other prosecutor who let Margaret Pauley off with manslaughter.
I'm sure he thought it was the best sentence he could get.
Eight years and she is out planting tomatoes for poor people? I think there should be a death penalty for her and for this other one.
This is Officer Vincent J.
Perella.
I wanted you to see him before you make any deals.
ADAM: Should have made your deal yesterday.
Susan Forrest just got rid of the Levitan family lawyer.
She's hired William Kunstler.
From the Chicago Seven to the Westchester One.
He'll be onto 10 other causes by the end of the week.
Susan Forrest will be lucky to get five minutes of his time.
Five minutes of Bill Kunstler goes a long way.
When you were learning to walk, he and I were on the same side of the courtroom, protecting protesters from the government.
Nobody protected Officer Perella from Susan Forrest.
Yes, but now she's Den Mother of the Year.
She bakes cookies for the Little League.
She's a prisoner of conscience.
Get a deal.
You have her confession.
And it's all we have.
After 23 years, evidence is lost, witnesses are dead.
That's how Margaret Pauley got off with manslaughter.
CLAIRE: Since when is a confession not enough? If Susan Forrest had robbed that armored car in the 1950s, I don't think I'd be hearing all these reasons not to go after her for murder.
I'm sure you've listened to all The Doors' albums, Claire, but you just don't have any idea what it was like back then.
I can't prosecute Susan Forrest because I wasn't at Woodstock? The whole country was at war.
The President and the Attorney General were breaking the law.
Young people thought they were a force in history.
CLAIRE: Is that how you felt, Jack? How many cops did you kill? (GATE BUZZING) I've reviewed your offer, McCoy.
We'll pass.
JACK: Manslaughter one? It was good enough for the Greenwich Village bombers who you represented.
Yeah, but that prosecutor had a case.
We have a confession.
Not anymore you don't.
My motion to suppress.
"Right to counsel"? I asked her three times if she wanted an attorney.
She said no.
It's on tape.
Yes, my dear, but you weren't allowed to ask that question without me being present.
Why? No one can have a party without you? Miss Forrest was picked up for questioning the day after the robbery in 1971.
I went down to the precinct to represent her.
When you picked her up a month ago, I was still her lawyer in this matter.
She can't be asked to waive her right to an attorney except in my presence, even after 23 years.
I assume that you've read People v.
West? I have a new life now.
I have a son.
You told me you wanted to make amends for what happened, that it was the only way you could feel healed.
I There's nothing else for us to talk about.
Susan? (DOOR BUZZING) Personally, I think she is healed.
You didn't pull the police records from 1971? (SIGHING) I'm sorry.
You should be.
So we drop the charge and sing a duet of We Shall Overcome as she leaves the courtroom? No.
If the only option Kunstler gives us is murder in the first degree, then that's what we'll take.
What have you got? The armored car driver is still alive, but he never saw Susan Forrest.
He'll establish the crime.
Sam Burdett puts her there.
A convicted accomplice? His testimony requires corroboration.
Professor Goodwin links Susan to the gun and the money.
It should be just enough, if we sit the widow Perella where the jury can see her.
I drove the truck in through that door there and backed it in to here.
While we were opening the doors, this Chevy pulls in and blocks us.
That girl was driving.
Let the record show that Mr.
Giggins is pointing to a photograph of Margaret Pauley.
GIGGINS: Right.
Her.
Then these two guys get out with a gun.
They told us to give it up.
That is, to hand over the money? Yup.
The girl in the car got impatient, I guess.
She started honking.
JACK: What happened then? GIGGINS: The policeman walked in.
I guess he saw the Chevy.
I never did find out.
That one.
He shot him.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Giggins, did you see the defendant, Susan Forrest, that day? No.
She didn't shoot Officer Perella, did she? No.
Thank you.
No further questions.
And what was Susan Forrest doing, Mr.
Burdett? She was the lookout.
We dropped her outside before we drove into the garage.
JACK: She was there the whole time? Yes, she was still there when we drove out.
Hopped into the car, on my lap.
And she had participated in the planning sessions for the robbery? Absolutely.
She was all hot to strike a blow against the war machine.
Thank you, sir.
Mr.
Burdett, when you were arrested after the robbery, didn't you deny any involvement? I believe so.
And in exchange for a deal, didn't you agree to testify that Tom Rudisill did it all on his own? Yes.
And when Margaret Pauley was arrested, didn't you first say she wasn't there but that you might remember it differently if the authorities reduced your sentence? You got me again.
And now comes Susan Forrest.
Tell me, what have you been promised for your testimony here today? Three weeks a year at the Adirondack Prison Camp for my health.
For your health? Mr.
Burdett, if I were to give you this watch, would you testify the judge was present at the robbery? Objection! Sustained.
Mr.
Kunstler.
Thank you, Your Honor.
I would have hated to lose it.
Starting in the spring of in the student mobilization against the war.
And that's where you met Susan Forrest? She was an inspirational leader.
And you became friends? We did.
Did she come and see you the day after the Nucon Technologies robbery? I don't remember.
Do you recognize this bag? Let me refresh your recollection, Mr.
Goodwin.
You told two detectives that Susan Forrest gave you this bag.
I don't remember.
Permission to treat as hostile.
Granted.
Do you remember telling Detectives Briscoe and Logan that Susan Forrest gave you this bag containing more than $100,000 in cash and a handgun? What I remember is the United States Government sending half a million troops to fight in a war it had already decided it couldn't win.
JUDGE QUINN: That's enough.
I remember the National Guard killing four college students whose only crime was protesting the illegal invasion of Cambodia.
You are in contempt of this court.
Well, I cite this court with contempt! Officer, remove him.
I'm sorry, Susan.
I should have been with you 25 years ago.
He had to wait until now to impress Susan Forrest.
He gets the time in prison he always dreamed about.
Big man on campus.
ADAM: You have anything else? Claire's been through all the original F.
B.
l.
files.
Down to the agents' dinner receipts.
What about the wiretaps? There weren't any wiretaps.
They're holding back.
In those days, the F.
B.
l.
wiretapped anybody who wore a paisley shirt.
The White House loved the technology.
The Supreme Court was less enthusiastic.
Nixon.
I'll call Washington.
SUSAN: Just got back from Virginia.
TILLEY: That's Susan Forrest.
TOM: How'd it go? That's the ringleader, Tom Rudisill.
Piece of cake.
We used Opie's I.
D.
We don't know who Opie was.
Right on.
You get plenty of salt? Yep.
We're ready for the picnic.
"Salt" means bullets.
I want to be with you tonight to celebrate.
That's the adrenaline talking.
Get your pretty little ass over here.
She was buying guns? Don't get too excited.
These tapes can't be used in court.
You couldn't have gotten a warrant? The President of the United States said we didn't need one.
Now this is the day after the robbery.
The police took me in for questioning.
You'd better split.
Damn! How'd they get onto you? I don't know.
I was scared.
You did like I told you? I got rid of the bag.
I smashed the walkie-talkie and threw it down the sewers.
So did Margaret.
Unfortunately, we didn't transcribe these until two days after the robbery.
We had quite a backlog.
Susan Forrest's role in the crime was a little more than she let on.
She bought the guns.
And she and Margaret Pauley had walkie-talkies.
The driver said Margaret honked her horn.
He thought she was just impatient.
It was right before Officer Perella walked in and got shot.
In the back of the head.
Rudisill was here with the guard.
He would have had to duck back here to surprise the policeman from behind.
He was warned.
Susan warned Margaret over the walkie-talkie.
Margaret honked.
She said she was just throwing up in the bushes.
A bush with a view.
I believed her, too.
After 23 years, she might believe it herself.
How do we prove what she really did? Margaret relayed the message.
Well, Margaret hasn't been very cooperative.
For how many years does she go back to prison if we prove she violated parole? JACK: You told the police you hadn't spoken to Susan Forrest since 1971.
She told us that she gave you money in the early '80s, after she was married.
Six months ago, Rita Levitan wrote a check for $500 to the Women's Community Garden.
We have a lot of contributors.
We're a good cause.
You knew Rita Levitan was Susan Forrest.
All we have to show is that she's talked to you one time since you've been on parole, you go back to jail for six more years.
Billy Goodwin just went to jail to protect Susan.
I spent my first two years underground with her.
We worked as waitresses in rat holes, panicking if we accidentally drove two miles over the speed limit.
You don't think I'd go to jail to protect her, too? Why? So she can go to white-glove garden parties in Westchester? The same day Susan gave you $500, she gave $2,000 to the Republican National Committee.
Republican National Committee? Pretty good cover for a radical on the run, don't you think? JACK: What makes you think it's cover? Her checkbook reads like a who's who of conservative causes.
Stuart Levitan has her involved in his politics now.
Have you ever been a fugitive, Mr.
McCoy? You do what you have to do.
We can revoke her parole, but she's loyal.
Yeah.
Army buddies.
What about Susan Forrest? She's probably chartering a limo to take her home from Rikers.
You know she lied about what happened.
Throw it in her face, see if she flinches.
If she starts to say something useful, Kunstler will stick his handkerchief in her mouth.
No.
He'll be too busy trying to figure out what you know and how you know it.
Bill hates to be the one in the dark.
I trust you won't keep us long.
My client has a date with a plastic tray.
For the next 25 years.
We know what happened at the Nucon robbery, Miss Forrest.
So do I.
The violence launched against the people of Vietnam finally redounded to the home front.
A tragic confluence of events.
No.
You warned Tom Rudisill that Officer Perella was coming.
If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive today.
(STAMMERING) No.
I just You tell a lovely tale there, Mr.
McCoy.
I'm sure if you had someone to tell it in court, we'd hear it there and not here.
You also bought the gun Rudisill used.
Gun sales leave a trace.
I don't care if it's 23 years or 230 years, I'll find that trace and link you to the gun and send you to prison.
Don't waste your time.
Tell them.
He can't be prosecuted.
It was Billy Goodwin.
He bought the guns.
Goodwin? It was legal.
It made him feel important.
Like he was doing something.
He was "Opie"? Kunstler's right about Goodwin.
The most he can be charged with is conspiracy.
And the statute of limitations on that ran out 18 years ago.
Not if we argue that his refusal to testify now is a continuation of the original conspiracy.
Get an arrest warrant for the professor.
You think that argument will hold up? No.
But until we're laughed out of court, it increases the pressure.
On Goodwin? He's already gone to jail to protect Susan.
Which is why Margaret so admires him now.
Margaret practically spit in my face.
That was before she had a chance to think things over.
Have her arrested, too.
JACK: Ms.
Pauley.
I told you I'm not gonna testify.
I told you I'd go back to prison.
We can still pretend this never happened.
Let's go.
CLAIRE: Have you seen tomorrow's paper? Did I make the front page? Susan did.
This is a trick.
Susan wouldn't do that.
If you don't believe it, the officer can take you past Professor Goodwin's cell, on the way to yours.
Why are you doing this to us? The real criminals killed 50,000 American boys and over a million Vietnamese, and they've never been in a courtroom.
Susan Forrest isn't one of you anymore.
Do you really want to go to jail for her? She says Billy bought the guns? If he got within 10 miles of a gun store, it was only because he wanted to be near Susan.
He loved her.
(CRYING) So did I.
JACK: Where was Susan Forrest during the robbery? MARGARET: Susan was stationed outside the gate.
She was there the entire time? Yes.
How do you know that? She and I were on walkie-talkies.
We were in touch the whole time.
Did Tom Rudisill have any warning that Officer Perella was approaching? Yes.
I honked the horn.
How did you know to do that? Susan saw him.
And what did she tell you? She said he was coming.
What were her exact words? "Pig at 3:00.
" (KNOCKING ON DOOR) Kunstler wants to meet as soon as possible.
Yeah.
He wants to accept the plea bargain you offered before the trial.
It's off the table.
Isn't it? How much time in prison does the Den Mother of the Year require to be rehabilitated? The policeman she shot could have been your father.
She didn't shoot anybody.
What she said to Margaret.
We knew she was there when we made the original offer.
How much more guilty does her choice of language make her? It impressed the jury.
UP '10 you.
The offer was manslaughter one.
We'll accept manslaughter two.
Mr.
McCoy I couldn't tell anybody what I did.
I was ashamed.
And all these years I am so sorry.
The offer was man one.
Eight and a third to 25.
Deal.
Deal.
Susan? (DOOR CLOSING) She'll be in jail till 2003.
I think the '60s should be over by then.