Law & Order (1990) s14e09 Episode Script
Compassion
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.
I'm telling you.
It was like a Russian novel long, hard and forever to finish.
Julie must've been thrilled.
Can you say, "Go, Bronco, go"? I'll stick with Mother Nature's own, thank you.
See that guy over there? What is he? 45, 50? How much you wanna bet that seat's saved for some 25-year-old? Oh, and you can tell that he's popping vitamin "V" just by looking? Everybody is, man.
Look I don't want my good buddy to be the last guy on the train to What, "Go, Bronco, go"? Exactly.
I don't like doctors.
I don't like popping pills.
Oh, my God! Hey, somebody get a doctor! His name was Gideon Blake.
Business card puts his office out in Brooklyn.
So, what, did he have a heart attack? I haven't talked to the M.
E.
All I know is he had a reservation for two at 1:00.
So where's the companion? A no-show.
Welcome to "The Case of the Killer Shellfish.
" One oyster, dropped like that.
Since when do we become the food police? Take a smell.
We know what oysters smell like, Cantor.
I mean of him.
It's like bitter almonds.
Which aren't on the menu.
That's cyanide, right? This dude's been poisoned? Get these to Forensics, but the smell test tells me they're clean.
So he picked a winner on the first try? Either that or the poison's in here.
"Devil's Own Hot Sauce.
" Excuse me.
You use a lot of this? "Devil's Own"? We don't stock it at all.
You know, I gotta tell you a lot of guys bring in their own hot sauce.
It's sorta like women and their water bottles like a status thing.
Please tell me it wasn't the oysters.
Yeah, we'll let you know.
Sorry, Detective, but that dining companion you was asking about she's here.
- She says she's a doctor.
- Tell her she's too late.
No, no.
We were colleagues.
Actually, it was supposed to be a working lunch.
I was interviewing him.
Mr.
Blake was a doctor too? No, Gideon wasn't a physician.
He He practiced an alternative kind of healing.
You mean like acupuncture? No, he made people feel better emotionally especially those who had recently suffered losses.
Oh, oh.
Like a grief counselor? Something like that, yes.
You know what, Dr.
Allison? I don't mean to be rude here, but you're not being very helpful.
No, because I know how you're going to respond to this.
Well, why don't you try us out? Well, he held seminars and seances.
He talked to the dead? Just a guess, but, uh, he didn't do it for nothing, did he? Well, why would he? He helped people who were hurting.
But, you're a real doctor, right? Yes, I am.
I'm an oncologist with a specialty in pediatrics.
And you believe in seances? I'm not so quick tojudge them.
Medical journals are filled with cases of near-death experiences.
And who is to say that there's no truth to them? You didn't go to medical school in Haiti, did you? No.
Cambridge, Mass.
And you can read all about me if you like on the dust covers of any one of my three best sellers.
Forensics says the hot sauce had the cyanide, so we contacted the manufacturer in Red River, Louisiana, asked them to recall the batch.
Yeah, all 12 bottles.
This Dr.
Allison says that she's seen him use the bottle a lot in the past, so whoever spiked it did so recently.
And knew Mr.
Blake's eating habits pretty well.
Blake rips off widows by claiming to contact their dead husbands.
He's a con man.
Con men piss people off.
And pissed-off people like to get even.
Track them down and talk to them.
It's not that weird.
What, you mean Blake getting murdered? I mean talking to the dead or trying to figure out life.
Between the Holy Ghost, Buddha and EST, there's plenty of weird stuff to believe in.
Yeah, but some beliefs are cheaper than others.
We know you gave Gideon Blake almost $10,000 in the last six months.
My money, my choice.
And what trust fund did you grow up in? Someone tells me about a guy who specializes in psychic healing? I mean, who can it hurt? I'll bet you didn't ask your banker that one.
Truth is, Gideon was better than any shrink could have been after Ben my boyfriend took a header off his Harley.
He helped you talk to Ben? I was in a room with 10 other people who were hurting that alone made me feel better.
I don't know negative energy is dispersed or something.
- So why'd you quit going? - Ernie.
Met him at the gym.
I mean, man, the guy's got a six-pack.
One morning, I was making Herb's oatmeal, and he didn't come out of the bathroom.
You can imagine the rest.
Well, just because he was 80, doesn't mean that I was ready for him to die.
So then you went to see Gideon Blake.
You gave him $13,000, and then you suddenly stopped going? Well, that is the curse of joint checking.
She found out my daughter, the know-it-all.
She made you stop.
Well, she said Gideon was some kind of swindler.
Out of the mouths ofbabes.
Well, I didn't believe her, but as it turned out, she was right.
- I hate to admit.
- What convinced you? Mr.
Devine.
Mr.
Devine? Who's that? Well, he's an expert.
My Susie wouldn't make a move without an expert.
So Mr.
Devine is an expert on contacting the dead? He's an investigator like you, only he doesn't have a badge.
Well, what did he find out? That Mr.
Blake.
! He told us that he grew up in Boston, that he went to Dartmouth and that he lectured at Oxford.
Do you know he lied about everything? Good news is no one named Gideon Blake ever had so much as a parking ticket.
And the bad news? No one named Gideon Blake ever had so much as a parking ticket.
Expand to the tristate area.
We already did.
No criminal record anywhere.
A national Internet search, using every variation of the name, also came up empty.
He paid rent, didn't he? He had to have a bank account.
Ed and Lennie are running the financials now.
Van Buren.
No, I'll take it.
Put him through.
Are you kidding? Fax it to me A.
S.
A.
P.
I'm just trying to find out who paid the real estate taxes.
'Cause I'm a cop, that's why.
Just checking.
Uh-huh.
And you didn't need a Social Security number for that? Yeah, but you didn't check it out.
Let me have it.
Thank you too.
Three years? You're kidding.
All right, forget it.
This guy bought this place three years ago, ain't paid a nickel of real estate tax since.
One bank account, checking only, and get this: They never even checked to see if his Social Security number was valid.
Your man still a ghost? If he was still alive, I'd hire him to talk to himself.
Well, this may help.
His prints matched a guy the feds have been looking for for over a year, name of Lee Wayne Mapes.
Oh, yeah, Mapes.
Real estate fraud with a capital "F.
" What did he do? Have you seen that play, The Producers? Not on what the city pays us.
Anyway, it's about these guys that sell a thousand percent of a Broadway show.
They make a killing unless the play's a hit, in which case they've gotta pay back their investors with money they don't have.
That's what Mapes did with the buildings? Buildings, shopping centers, hotels all around the country.
Always targeting doctors.
Go where the money is.
Well, they got it, but don't understand what to do with it.
The only difference between Mapes and the Broadway guys is that his castle crumbled when the real estate market fell.
And boy did it fall.
Like a latke.
But Mapes was gone with the wind.
Well, the good news is we found him.
The bad news is he's dead.
Hey, it's all good news for me.
I get to close the book on him.
We're thinking that one ofhis unhappy investors put him out ofhis misery.
Sure.
I'll get you the files.
It looks like half the A.
M.
A.
Invested.
You'd think a brain surgeon would know better.
I'll see your brain surgeon and raise you two allergists and a pediatrician.
I gotta admit Mapes must have been good.
There's some heavy hitters in here.
An oncologist.
Oh, I've got a couple of those.
You got one named Allison? As in Dr.
Allison who missed her lunch date with Gideon Blake? She invested in a shopping center in Flagstaff, Arizona lost half a million dollars.
Now that could make somebody mad enough to kill.
We're really here to talk to Dr.
Allison.
Then you got what you came for.
Uh, Dr.
Bethany Allison? My wife.
We're a two-doctor household.
It's not that unusual.
When will your wife be home? She won't not soon.
We're separated.
So which one of the two of you invested in the Arizona shopping center that went sour? That would be both of us.
One thing they don't teach you in medical school is what to do with the money you make.
What about losing it say half a million dollars' worth? That they covered.
Lots of Xanax.
For both you and your wife? I'm an "ear, nose and throat" guy.
I remove tonsils, get to reward kids with ice cream.
It's nothing like the kind of medicine Bethany practices.
Meaning what? She spends all of her time and energy with terminally ill kids.
Her work is demanding and draining and relentless.
So how'd she handle losing the money? She could care less.
- What about you? - I freaked.
But eventually I got over it and focused on the positive my practice, my son And getting your wife back? Oh, the money had nothing to do with her leaving.
What did, if you don't mind me asking? Twenty years of watching children die.
She just needed some time to write and recharge alone.
Where can we find your wife now? she's still at the hospital.
All right then.
Thank you.
Sorry to bother you.
Oh.
Annie, I'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine.
This is Detective Briscoe and Detective Green.
Hi.
Hi, Annie.
How you feeling? It's not so bad not like last time.
That's right.
And tomorrow she's gonna have a real breakfast.
She's gonna have cereal and fruit.
Strawberries too? Oh, absolutely.
Ruth, would you come and put Annie to bed for me, please? Sure.
I'd love to.
Good night.
Good night, my sweet girl.
I'll see you in the morning, honey.
Sweet dreams.
That's heartbreaking.
Yup.
Gotta concentrate on the small victories.
Thank you.
So, were you able to find out anything about Gideon? Yes.
Actually, we found out his real name is Lee Wayne Mapes.
What are you talking about? Gideon Blake was a real estate swindler named Mapes.
I don't believe that.
Well, you better start, 'cause he's the one that took a half a million dollars from you and your husband.
Are you kidding me? Look, that whole real estate transaction was done on paper with lawyers and accountants and professionals who do that sort of thing.
I didn't understand one word about it, and my husband and I just signed where they told us to.
On the bottom of the check.
And that was it.
I never met the principals.
I don't even think I ever heard their names.
All I knew was "Flag Two Partners Limited".
Wait a minute.
You think I killed Gideon because he stole money from me in some other persona? Well, you've got to admit that you showing up at Gideon's center right after he ripped you off is quite a coincidence.
No.
I have a friend who works in a hospice, and she told me about a seminar on crossing over.
I didn't even know who Gideon Blake was.
I certainly didn't know he was Lee Mapes.
I was just interested in doing research for my next book.
Of all the gin joints in all the world, huh? That's right.
And if you can't tell already, my life is not about money, and it certainly is not about killing.
So if you don't mind, I really do have some patients I need to see.
Yeah.
Go, go.
Well, hello to you guys.
Hi.
I thought people like her moved to India to help the starving orphans.
You believe that story that she didn't know Mapes was Gideon? Hey, you're talking to a guy who bought the words "till death do us part" twice.
There's two words that should never go together.
Hey, look.
Just for the hell of it.
Hey, man.
Excuse me.
Are you a doctor? You should see my mom smile every time someone asks me that.
Just out of curiosity, you all have cyanide here? You may wanna talk to the lab guys.
Where are they? Well you're really cops, right? You should see my mom smile.
Okay, wait.
I'll get you up there with my elevator card.
Bethany was one lab station over for about 18 months.
Do you know what she was working on? Solid tumor therapies.
Using live animals like you do? What, are you one of those anti-animal testing types? You know, we test for medical purposes, not to make a better mascara.
Uh, could her methods have included the use of cyanide? I can't imagine why.
Well, what about anybody else down here? Nate Fleisch is doing research on cyanide-antidote protocols for E.
M.
S.
And E.
R.
Use.
You know where we can find him? Nate? By now he's either on his third scotch or his second nurse.
Can anybody just walk into Nate's lab? If you can get to this floor, you can get to any lab.
Thanks a lot, Doc.
It's time for a warrant.
Does it really take a platoon to search my small apartment? Well, it won't take long.
I'm telling you.
You're wasting your time.
Oh, I've made a career out of that.
The fig tree has been around for 6,000 years.
The Romans said Bacchus gave mankind the fig.
I'm trying to protect this one from being damaged by an early frost.
The people who lived here before me hardly did anything to take care of it at all.
Yeah, I had a flowerpot out on my fire escape, but the bugs destroyed anything I put in it.
Mm.
Squirrels are the problem here.
Just won't stay away from the figs, especially this time of year.
Nothing a little rat poison wouldn't cure.
No, you have to be very careful.
Pesticides can harm a tree.
Hey, Lennie? It's clean.
I could have saved you the trouble.
Sorry about this, Dr.
Allison.
You have a job to do.
Uh, good luck with the squirrels.
Thank you.
Come on.
Just dump it.
You know, if I called this in on a citizen, it'd be a hundred dollar fine.
Yeah, but then you'd have to go to court, waste a whole day.
Damn.
Even her garbage is organized.
Yeah, unless you're a rodent.
That's nasty.
Stop! Well, from comparative blood tests, chemo-analysis of muscle tissues and urinalysis, both victims died from the same cause.
Which was? Cyanide poisoning.
Potassium cyanide to be precise.
I didn't know there were different flavors.
Oh sure.
There's hydrogen cyanide, sodium cyanide, potassium cyanide Yeah, we get the picture.
The good news is, the end came quickly for both Blake and "Rocky the Squirrel'; How can you tell? The large blood concentration would cause immediate loss of consciousness followed quickly by death.
If you gotta go, it's not a bad way.
She took the cyanide from the lab, spiked Blake's hot sauce, then dumped it into her garden to protect her fig tree from squirrels.
And she knew he was gonna use the hot sauce for lunch? Her LUDS show that on the day of the murder she called Gideon's cell phone, and then she called the restaurant to make a reservation.
Well, if it was all about the money, why did she wait a year to kill him? "Revenge is a meal best served cold"? Yeah, especially if you got the hot sauce to cover up the stink.
Pick her up.
I've got my rounds to do, so this really needs to be quick.
Okay.
Bethany Rose Allison, you're under arrest for the murder of Gideon Blake.
Is that quick enough for you, Doc? You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say could be used against you in a court of law.
Docket number 57492.
People v.
Bethany Rose Allison.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
Didn't I see you on Oprah? Charlie Rose, Your Honor.
Dr.
Allison is a best-selling author as well as a doctor.
No time for law school? Too busy dealing with dying children.
Never mind.
How do you plead? Not guilty.
How are we on bail, Ms.
Southerlyn? As the defendant murdered a man for money If I may, Your Honor, the People have this crazy notion that my client killed a man because he stole a half million dollars from her.
- I have to admit, as far as reasons go - We have the bank records, Your Honor.
And I'm sure the trial judge andjury will love to see them.
Bail is set at $300,000, cash or bond.
Read her books, for God's sakes.
No, don't bother.
Just read the blurbs on the back cover.
"Genius" that was the president of the medical society who said that.
"What a health professional should be: Compassionate, caring and courageous.
" Oh, that one was written by a Nobel Prize winner in medicine.
I'm sure she's very good at her job.
Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with a murder trial.
How many times do I need to say this? I didn't know that Gideon was Mapes.
So it's just a coincidence that you ended up working for the man who stole a half a million dollars from you? - Yes, that's right.
- And the fact that the victim died of cyanide poisoning and that you, against regulations, took cyanide from your lab, that's also a coincidence? And that would be a good question if you were permitted to ask it.
The police had a valid warrant.
To search her house, not her garbage.
My motion to exclude the dead squirrel on the basis of an illegal search.
Curtilage? Did you explain to His Honor that a garbage can on a sidewalk is not curtilage? It was like talking to a wall, Arthur.
He bought Swift's argument even though the house number was stenciled onto the garbage can.
Don't tell me Dr.
Allison had an expectation of privacy? Even if the squirrel's inadmissible, we can still prove that she had cyanide available to her at the lab.
Let's put our cards on the table.
On the one hand, we have a woman who's devoted to saving lives.
On the other, a man who's devoted to ripping off the public.
And that's exactly why she killed him.
On paper, this woman looks like the next best thing to Mother Teresa.
Except Mother Teresa never hunted down someone to kill them.
Wait a minute, Jack.
Dr.
Allison insists she never knew Mapes and Blake were one and the same.
Everyone who believes that, raise their hand.
Ask me again and I'll have you brought in for a hearing test.
We never met Mapes.
Because if you said you did know Mapes, you realize that that would be strong evidence against your wife.
And you think I'm lying in some misguided attempt to protect her.
Well, getting rid of Gideon Blake may have been a very good start.
But that's not the way she thinks.
Vengeance is not in her vernacular.
$500,000 could change that.
Oh, please.
You didn't think it was odd that your wife, a highly trained medical professional, was spending time with somebody who claimed that they could speak to the dead? Well, research doesn't always take place in a lab.
Archimedes was taking a bath when he discovered the theory of volume and density.
The only difference is he wasn't charging a thousand dollars per bath.
Whoa.
You think Bethany was in cahoots with Mapes? She made skeptics believe.
Not all of them.
What do you mean? A woman called here last week looking for Bethany.
Someone from Blake's group.
She was definitely angry.
At Bethany? No, at Blake.
Do you remember a name? I wrote it down somewhere.
When Charlie died, a girlfriend told me about Gideon Blake's center.
She said it worked wonders for her mother-in-law.
So you figured, "What the hell?" Actually, I figured, "What a crock.
" I mean, come on, talking to the dead? Give me a break.
Charlie was a doctor.
He used to laugh out loud But you tried it anyway.
Listen, her books before I read them, I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping.
She brought me out of the darkness.
Bethany Allison was like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
I'm sorry.
It's been a year.
I should be over it.
One of these days I'll get used to people calling me a widow.
How many of Blake's workshops did you go to? I was there for exactly two minutes.
You're kidding.
No.
All it took was one look at Blake.
I knew who he really was.
He had shaved his beard, but it was him Lee Wayne Mapes, the guy who ripped us off for a quarter of a million dollars.
I remembered him from the closing.
Did you call the police? I was going to, but first I wanted to tell Dr.
Allison.
I mean, I felt I owed it to her.
We actually met right here.
She was shocked, totally stunned.
I mean, she had actually fallen for this guy's act.
And when you told her that he was a con man and that you were gonna press charges? She thanked me.
Then asked me not to do anything just yet.
So Bethany found out Blake was Mapes.
Big deal.
It doesn't prove anything.
Considering he stole all that money from her, a jury might disagree.
Especially when they hear that your client had that revelation just two days before Blake's murder.
Again with the money? Come on.
This is a woman who gives three-quarters of her royalties to charity.
Besides, she and her husband are doctors.
They'll make it back.
- I'm offering man one with a recommendation.
- Have you been listening to me? I just thought you might want to discuss the alternatives with your client.
Sorry.
What are we discussing? You killed a man and I'm offering eight and a third to 25 years.
Well, if you're referring to Gideon, I helped him, and he thanked me for it.
Excuse me? I spoke to Gideon this morning, and he thanked me.
He did what? Gideon.
He sounded very happy.
Jack? - If this is an act - It fooled the hell out of me.
My notice papers will be on your desk before end of business.
See you in court.
Thank you very much.
I've read your books.
Did you lose someone? No.
It was just my own research.
I see private patients as well.
People are so scared.
About what? Dying.
I thought it was really the unknown that they're scared of.
Well, it's my job to assure them that it's not unknown.
How? It's just a natural part of life.
That's true, but that doesn't make it any less unknown.
I'm in a difficult position here, Doctor.
I know that my lawyer thinks I'm insane.
But you don't? I don't want to go to prison.
How do you deal with all the death? Do I have nightmares? Oh, sure, I do.
But honestly, I don't know what's worse, the nightmare or the phone call in the middle of the night telling me that a six-year-old child has died.
Why did you choose pediatric oncology as a specialty? Children shouldn't suffer.
Many people who elect something like that do so because of a loss.
All right, that's very good.
My sister.
She was 13 years old.
Leukemia.
And the medicine they gave her just made her blow up like a beach ball.
And she was so beautiful, and she was in so much pain.
And to my 12-year-old eyes, I thought "This treatment is worse than the disease.
" And when she died, I What? She took a part of me with her.
Where? I'm not going to get into a metaphysical dialogue with you, Dr.
Skoda.
There is a heaven.
Let's just leave it at that.
Okay, then let's talk about trust.
All right.
What about trust? You trusted Gideon Blake.
You believed he was helping his clients.
Then you learned he was a con man.
People change.
Not only was he a con man, he was the con man who conned you.
Dr.
Skoda, I deal with life and death.
Money, real estate, tax shelters they are meaningless to me.
What can I tell you? She's one of the smartest people I've ever examined.
Warm, compassionate.
You are still married, aren't you, Emil? As long as you can say she was legally sane, I don't care how warm she is.
Oh, she was sane at the time of the murder.
But? She pisses me off.
Any rational doctor with her specialty knows the emotional toll it can have.
They take measures to protect themselves.
You mean like therapy? Medical counseling, religious counseling.
And not someJohn Edwards, Dionne Warwick hocus-pocus.
And then to actually use that as an excuse to commit murder unconscionable.
So you're saying this is an act.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, this woman is smart enough and sympathetic enough to just maybe get away with it.
To be sure, pediatric oncology is one of the most devastating specialties in all of medicine.
The practitioner is exposed to repeatedly intense negative experiences.
Children dying.
It's got to be emotionally draining.
There is an ever-present sense ofloss.
A loss which cannot be prevented.
In your opinion, how does Dr.
Allison deal with this loss? She's constructed an emotional shield, if you will, to protect her unconscious from turmoil.
Does this shield protect her from being damaged by all loss in all aspects ofher life? No, that would be impossible.
The psyche is, if anything, vulnerable.
So if she lost a large portion of her life savings, she would be hurt by that? Yes.
And she would react? Actually, she might overreact.
Her professional feelings of loss could be displaced.
And she might kill the person who caused that loss? Yes.
Did Dr.
Allison tell you she communicates with the afterlife? Yes.
She sees dead people, Doctor.
Wouldn't you say a thing like that can affect her behavior? Under the legal definition of insanity in this state Yes or no, Dr.
Skoda? Yes.
Thank you.
You know, you want to believe, even though you know it's crazy.
You've got this little bit of hope.
And that's why you got involved with Gideon Blake in the first place? It took some pushing.
What finally convinced me was when I heard that Dr.
Allison was involved.
- The defendant? - That's right.
Her books were a godsend.
They helped me get over the grief of my husband's death.
Please tell us what occurred when you arrived at Gideon Blake's house.
I knew him right away.
He was the man who swindled us out of a lot of money on a real estate deal.
I knew that a person like Dr.
Allison wouldn't work with him if she knew.
So I I called her and told her.
What? That he was a con artist, a fake.
What did she do? Please answer the question, Mrs.
Padgett.
Dr.
Allison is a good person.
I don't want to What did she say when you told her Mr.
Blake's true identity? She said to give her time to deal with it before I reported him to the police.
And? The next thing I knew, he was dead.
Did Dr.
Allison say she was going to kill Gideon Blake? No.
I just thought she was gonna tell him off, tell him she knew who and what he really was.
Did she tell you that, as Mapes, he had ripped her off too? No.
When you heard that Blake was murdered, did you go to the police? No.
Why not? Because the son of a bitch deserved it.
You know how my husband died? He put a hunting rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
You want to know why? Because Lee Wayne Mapes stole everything he spent his life working for.
Mapes deserved to die.
I just wish it could have been me who killed him.
Thank you.
A grieving widow who's only a widow because of Mapes? The defense couldn't buy better testimony than that.
It's just a detour for the jury.
We'll get them back on the main road tomorrow.
Which is? That the great Dr.
Allison killed Mapes over a pile of money, her hocus-pocus about communing with the afterlife notwithstanding.
Not everything spiritual is hocus-pocus, Jack.
Et tu, Serena? On my last birthday, I got three gift certificates to three different psychics.
Which doesn't say much for your friends.
My point is, is that not everybody dismisses the spiritual.
It's a pacifier.
Like shrinks are for your generation and bartenders for your father's? My old man's bartender could keep a secret.
Have you read the C.
V.
Of Allison's psychiatric expert? Yeah.
I stopped after the M.
D.
From Yale and the second Ph.
D.
From Columbia.
I'm gonna get some sleep.
Hey.
Did you have a birthday? For any doctor, it's difficult to lose a patient.
You wonder.
You question yourself.
You pray.
You mourn.
But when your patients are so young and so many die, that is accompanied by a whole other set of psychoneuroses.
Doctors lose perspective.
By a loss of perspective, you mean seeing dead people? I mean needing to see them.
To believe in a full-blown afterlife is the only way you can continue to treat incurable patients.
And if that belief was shattered? That could have thrown her into a depression from which she might never have returned.
So when Dr.
Allison learned that Gideon Blake was a con man? She had to destroy him.
And if she didn't? Her self-image, her self-worth, her ability to get up in the morning to treat terminally ill children would have been destroyed.
Do you treat what you call "at risk" physicians on a regular basis, Doctor? Yes.
- Any of them pediatric oncologists? - Several.
And they suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome like Dr.
Allison? Yes, but Any of them ever kill anyone? No.
My cousin's kid had pneumonia.
I went and visited her at the children's hospital.
That's the day that I crossed med school off my list.
Bethany Allison may have spent most of her life being a saint.
It's the time she didn't that we have to deal with.
I think what Serena is saying is that banging her head against the futility of dying children every day for years may have knocked a few screws loose.
Then she would have claimed that she was insane right up front.
She didn't.
The first thing she did was claim she wasn't involved.
Believe me, if she learned anything from Blake/Mapes over the past year, it's how to pull off the big con.
This is all an act.
She killed the bum who ripped her off.
Period, end of story.
Well, I don't envy you having to go into court and prove the saint's a sinner.
No, Arthur.
I only have to prove that she's not crazy.
Most of my patients are young children at an age where they would be in kindergarten if they weren't in chemotherapy.
In terms of the larger picture, is there any national data on how many pediatric oncology patients survive? About 75 to 80%.
And in your practice? About 25%.
Does that mean you're not very good at what you do? I specialize in high-risk patients with advance-stage neuroblastomas and rhabdoid tumors of the kidney.
So you've seen hundreds of children die? Occupational hazard when you work with kids with bad cancers.
Much of my day is divided between trying to lessen both their physical pain and their emotional fear.
In other words, you prepare them for death.
Many children anticipate a better life after life.
For example? Henry he was about eight years old.
He was in stage four, and he had the nurse call me very late one night, and I rushed to the hospital, got to his room, sat by him.
And he whispered to me.
He said He said "Dr.
B, "have them take me out in an ambulance with the siren on, so that Isabel will know I'm coming.
" Isabel was Henry's roommate in the hospital, and she had died the week before.
What brought you to Gideon Blake's center in the first place? I heard about his work from a nurse in a hospice.
She said he was involved in grief counseling by contacting loved ones who'd passed away.
You actually believed he could do something like that? Not at first, but I was researching all aspects of death and dying, and if this actually comforted people, I really wanted to see it, to study it, record it.
So this had nothing to do with the money he stole from you? Oh, no.
I had no idea that he was involved in my real estate losses.
I never saw him before.
He never saw me before.
And Mr.
Blake didn't mind you observing what went on in his sessions? On the contrary, he was all for it.
He believed in what he was doing and he thought that my name would lend credibility to the center.
You didn't mind lending your name? I did at first.
- But what changed? - I watched him work.
He was a faith healer.
He was able to do what he claimed he could do.
Talk to the dead? Communicate with the dead.
There's a difference.
He was able to comfort the grieving, and it was a gift.
So why did you poison him? To help him make a peaceful journey and to avoid the coming pain.
What kind of pain? The pain of going to prison and of losing the ability to continue his work.
And this peaceful journey, it was to Heaven.
Thank you, Dr.
Allison.
Didn't he deserve to go to prison for stealing people's hard-earned money? No, he was not that man "Mapes" anymore.
He had redeemed himself through his good works with the bereaved.
Redeemed himself or reinvented himself? I said redeemed.
Yes, you did, but didn't he just trade one con for another? He moved from real estate fraud to this sham about an afterlife? It is real.
I can see the children.
They are safe and happy.
- Isn't that sweet? - Objection! Withdrawn.
You know, I would have thought they'd be upset.
I mean, they got cheated out of a lot of life.
Yes, of course, but when they finally arrive No, no.
Let's just stick with the time before they pass away for the moment.
Do they ever complain I don't know say how unfair it is? Yes, of course.
We had one little girl, Angela, who compared it to the time that her sister took her Pooh Bear and lost it.
Sure, Mom could find her another one, but it would never be the same.
And Angela was mad at her sister? Yes.
Mad enough to hit her? Why, it's human nature.
Of course it is.
When someone steals something from you, you get mad.
No.
I see where you're going.
I see what you're doing.
True or false, Dr.
Allison, Gideon Blake, a.
k.
a.
Lee Mapes, convinced you to invest $500,000 in a real estate deal? He convinced my accountant.
I never met him.
True or false, $500,000 was a good portion of your net worth at that time, and you lost the entire amount of your investment? Yes.
Angela's sister stole her doll and she got mad mad enough to hit.
You said it was human nature.
Did you feel like hitting Gideon Blake when he stole your family's life savings? Gideon is in a wonderful place.
It's a paradise.
I sent him there.
And I did it for the children.
To be with the children.
Why didn't you pack up your best-selling books, your awards, your degrees and hop on over to the other side? I mean, a medical professional with decades of experience has to be better qualified than a snake-oil salesman! Gideon made people feel better.
I did not.
I failed.
They all died because I failed.
I work and work and they still die four-year-olds and six-year-olds and innocent little babies, They all leave this world alone without a mother or a father, without even a friend or a d-doll.
And they were alone for so long, but they're not anymore, because Gideon is with them, and I I can see them.
They are happy and they are safe.
Ask them.
Oh, don't be afraid, Mr.
McCoy.
Ask them.
Henry will tell you.
Isabel will tell you.
Amy will tell you.
Recess, Your Honor? Four minutes.
Always have to play the tough guy, don't you? Tough has nothing to do with this.
You feel for the woman, Jack.
It doesn't make you weak.
Three minutes.
I could win this case, you know? Not when the judge instructs the jury on the definition of legal insanity.
Ten years is a long time.
She killed a man.
A scoundrel.
Ten years or until a panel of three medical professionals certifies she's not a threat to herself or others.
Doctors to be chosen by my office.
But in the private psychiatric facility of her choice.
To be approved of by me and located within my jurisdiction.
One minute.
Done.
I tell the judge.
It's not a bad thing, Jack.
What? Having a heart.
What can I say? Nobody's made of steel, not even someone with a 160 I.
Q.
Turns out neither are you.
What? It's called compassion, Jack.
Don't make it a habit, my friend.
Sometimes the good you do doesn't do you any good.
These are their stories.
I'm telling you.
It was like a Russian novel long, hard and forever to finish.
Julie must've been thrilled.
Can you say, "Go, Bronco, go"? I'll stick with Mother Nature's own, thank you.
See that guy over there? What is he? 45, 50? How much you wanna bet that seat's saved for some 25-year-old? Oh, and you can tell that he's popping vitamin "V" just by looking? Everybody is, man.
Look I don't want my good buddy to be the last guy on the train to What, "Go, Bronco, go"? Exactly.
I don't like doctors.
I don't like popping pills.
Oh, my God! Hey, somebody get a doctor! His name was Gideon Blake.
Business card puts his office out in Brooklyn.
So, what, did he have a heart attack? I haven't talked to the M.
E.
All I know is he had a reservation for two at 1:00.
So where's the companion? A no-show.
Welcome to "The Case of the Killer Shellfish.
" One oyster, dropped like that.
Since when do we become the food police? Take a smell.
We know what oysters smell like, Cantor.
I mean of him.
It's like bitter almonds.
Which aren't on the menu.
That's cyanide, right? This dude's been poisoned? Get these to Forensics, but the smell test tells me they're clean.
So he picked a winner on the first try? Either that or the poison's in here.
"Devil's Own Hot Sauce.
" Excuse me.
You use a lot of this? "Devil's Own"? We don't stock it at all.
You know, I gotta tell you a lot of guys bring in their own hot sauce.
It's sorta like women and their water bottles like a status thing.
Please tell me it wasn't the oysters.
Yeah, we'll let you know.
Sorry, Detective, but that dining companion you was asking about she's here.
- She says she's a doctor.
- Tell her she's too late.
No, no.
We were colleagues.
Actually, it was supposed to be a working lunch.
I was interviewing him.
Mr.
Blake was a doctor too? No, Gideon wasn't a physician.
He He practiced an alternative kind of healing.
You mean like acupuncture? No, he made people feel better emotionally especially those who had recently suffered losses.
Oh, oh.
Like a grief counselor? Something like that, yes.
You know what, Dr.
Allison? I don't mean to be rude here, but you're not being very helpful.
No, because I know how you're going to respond to this.
Well, why don't you try us out? Well, he held seminars and seances.
He talked to the dead? Just a guess, but, uh, he didn't do it for nothing, did he? Well, why would he? He helped people who were hurting.
But, you're a real doctor, right? Yes, I am.
I'm an oncologist with a specialty in pediatrics.
And you believe in seances? I'm not so quick tojudge them.
Medical journals are filled with cases of near-death experiences.
And who is to say that there's no truth to them? You didn't go to medical school in Haiti, did you? No.
Cambridge, Mass.
And you can read all about me if you like on the dust covers of any one of my three best sellers.
Forensics says the hot sauce had the cyanide, so we contacted the manufacturer in Red River, Louisiana, asked them to recall the batch.
Yeah, all 12 bottles.
This Dr.
Allison says that she's seen him use the bottle a lot in the past, so whoever spiked it did so recently.
And knew Mr.
Blake's eating habits pretty well.
Blake rips off widows by claiming to contact their dead husbands.
He's a con man.
Con men piss people off.
And pissed-off people like to get even.
Track them down and talk to them.
It's not that weird.
What, you mean Blake getting murdered? I mean talking to the dead or trying to figure out life.
Between the Holy Ghost, Buddha and EST, there's plenty of weird stuff to believe in.
Yeah, but some beliefs are cheaper than others.
We know you gave Gideon Blake almost $10,000 in the last six months.
My money, my choice.
And what trust fund did you grow up in? Someone tells me about a guy who specializes in psychic healing? I mean, who can it hurt? I'll bet you didn't ask your banker that one.
Truth is, Gideon was better than any shrink could have been after Ben my boyfriend took a header off his Harley.
He helped you talk to Ben? I was in a room with 10 other people who were hurting that alone made me feel better.
I don't know negative energy is dispersed or something.
- So why'd you quit going? - Ernie.
Met him at the gym.
I mean, man, the guy's got a six-pack.
One morning, I was making Herb's oatmeal, and he didn't come out of the bathroom.
You can imagine the rest.
Well, just because he was 80, doesn't mean that I was ready for him to die.
So then you went to see Gideon Blake.
You gave him $13,000, and then you suddenly stopped going? Well, that is the curse of joint checking.
She found out my daughter, the know-it-all.
She made you stop.
Well, she said Gideon was some kind of swindler.
Out of the mouths ofbabes.
Well, I didn't believe her, but as it turned out, she was right.
- I hate to admit.
- What convinced you? Mr.
Devine.
Mr.
Devine? Who's that? Well, he's an expert.
My Susie wouldn't make a move without an expert.
So Mr.
Devine is an expert on contacting the dead? He's an investigator like you, only he doesn't have a badge.
Well, what did he find out? That Mr.
Blake.
! He told us that he grew up in Boston, that he went to Dartmouth and that he lectured at Oxford.
Do you know he lied about everything? Good news is no one named Gideon Blake ever had so much as a parking ticket.
And the bad news? No one named Gideon Blake ever had so much as a parking ticket.
Expand to the tristate area.
We already did.
No criminal record anywhere.
A national Internet search, using every variation of the name, also came up empty.
He paid rent, didn't he? He had to have a bank account.
Ed and Lennie are running the financials now.
Van Buren.
No, I'll take it.
Put him through.
Are you kidding? Fax it to me A.
S.
A.
P.
I'm just trying to find out who paid the real estate taxes.
'Cause I'm a cop, that's why.
Just checking.
Uh-huh.
And you didn't need a Social Security number for that? Yeah, but you didn't check it out.
Let me have it.
Thank you too.
Three years? You're kidding.
All right, forget it.
This guy bought this place three years ago, ain't paid a nickel of real estate tax since.
One bank account, checking only, and get this: They never even checked to see if his Social Security number was valid.
Your man still a ghost? If he was still alive, I'd hire him to talk to himself.
Well, this may help.
His prints matched a guy the feds have been looking for for over a year, name of Lee Wayne Mapes.
Oh, yeah, Mapes.
Real estate fraud with a capital "F.
" What did he do? Have you seen that play, The Producers? Not on what the city pays us.
Anyway, it's about these guys that sell a thousand percent of a Broadway show.
They make a killing unless the play's a hit, in which case they've gotta pay back their investors with money they don't have.
That's what Mapes did with the buildings? Buildings, shopping centers, hotels all around the country.
Always targeting doctors.
Go where the money is.
Well, they got it, but don't understand what to do with it.
The only difference between Mapes and the Broadway guys is that his castle crumbled when the real estate market fell.
And boy did it fall.
Like a latke.
But Mapes was gone with the wind.
Well, the good news is we found him.
The bad news is he's dead.
Hey, it's all good news for me.
I get to close the book on him.
We're thinking that one ofhis unhappy investors put him out ofhis misery.
Sure.
I'll get you the files.
It looks like half the A.
M.
A.
Invested.
You'd think a brain surgeon would know better.
I'll see your brain surgeon and raise you two allergists and a pediatrician.
I gotta admit Mapes must have been good.
There's some heavy hitters in here.
An oncologist.
Oh, I've got a couple of those.
You got one named Allison? As in Dr.
Allison who missed her lunch date with Gideon Blake? She invested in a shopping center in Flagstaff, Arizona lost half a million dollars.
Now that could make somebody mad enough to kill.
We're really here to talk to Dr.
Allison.
Then you got what you came for.
Uh, Dr.
Bethany Allison? My wife.
We're a two-doctor household.
It's not that unusual.
When will your wife be home? She won't not soon.
We're separated.
So which one of the two of you invested in the Arizona shopping center that went sour? That would be both of us.
One thing they don't teach you in medical school is what to do with the money you make.
What about losing it say half a million dollars' worth? That they covered.
Lots of Xanax.
For both you and your wife? I'm an "ear, nose and throat" guy.
I remove tonsils, get to reward kids with ice cream.
It's nothing like the kind of medicine Bethany practices.
Meaning what? She spends all of her time and energy with terminally ill kids.
Her work is demanding and draining and relentless.
So how'd she handle losing the money? She could care less.
- What about you? - I freaked.
But eventually I got over it and focused on the positive my practice, my son And getting your wife back? Oh, the money had nothing to do with her leaving.
What did, if you don't mind me asking? Twenty years of watching children die.
She just needed some time to write and recharge alone.
Where can we find your wife now? she's still at the hospital.
All right then.
Thank you.
Sorry to bother you.
Oh.
Annie, I'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine.
This is Detective Briscoe and Detective Green.
Hi.
Hi, Annie.
How you feeling? It's not so bad not like last time.
That's right.
And tomorrow she's gonna have a real breakfast.
She's gonna have cereal and fruit.
Strawberries too? Oh, absolutely.
Ruth, would you come and put Annie to bed for me, please? Sure.
I'd love to.
Good night.
Good night, my sweet girl.
I'll see you in the morning, honey.
Sweet dreams.
That's heartbreaking.
Yup.
Gotta concentrate on the small victories.
Thank you.
So, were you able to find out anything about Gideon? Yes.
Actually, we found out his real name is Lee Wayne Mapes.
What are you talking about? Gideon Blake was a real estate swindler named Mapes.
I don't believe that.
Well, you better start, 'cause he's the one that took a half a million dollars from you and your husband.
Are you kidding me? Look, that whole real estate transaction was done on paper with lawyers and accountants and professionals who do that sort of thing.
I didn't understand one word about it, and my husband and I just signed where they told us to.
On the bottom of the check.
And that was it.
I never met the principals.
I don't even think I ever heard their names.
All I knew was "Flag Two Partners Limited".
Wait a minute.
You think I killed Gideon because he stole money from me in some other persona? Well, you've got to admit that you showing up at Gideon's center right after he ripped you off is quite a coincidence.
No.
I have a friend who works in a hospice, and she told me about a seminar on crossing over.
I didn't even know who Gideon Blake was.
I certainly didn't know he was Lee Mapes.
I was just interested in doing research for my next book.
Of all the gin joints in all the world, huh? That's right.
And if you can't tell already, my life is not about money, and it certainly is not about killing.
So if you don't mind, I really do have some patients I need to see.
Yeah.
Go, go.
Well, hello to you guys.
Hi.
I thought people like her moved to India to help the starving orphans.
You believe that story that she didn't know Mapes was Gideon? Hey, you're talking to a guy who bought the words "till death do us part" twice.
There's two words that should never go together.
Hey, look.
Just for the hell of it.
Hey, man.
Excuse me.
Are you a doctor? You should see my mom smile every time someone asks me that.
Just out of curiosity, you all have cyanide here? You may wanna talk to the lab guys.
Where are they? Well you're really cops, right? You should see my mom smile.
Okay, wait.
I'll get you up there with my elevator card.
Bethany was one lab station over for about 18 months.
Do you know what she was working on? Solid tumor therapies.
Using live animals like you do? What, are you one of those anti-animal testing types? You know, we test for medical purposes, not to make a better mascara.
Uh, could her methods have included the use of cyanide? I can't imagine why.
Well, what about anybody else down here? Nate Fleisch is doing research on cyanide-antidote protocols for E.
M.
S.
And E.
R.
Use.
You know where we can find him? Nate? By now he's either on his third scotch or his second nurse.
Can anybody just walk into Nate's lab? If you can get to this floor, you can get to any lab.
Thanks a lot, Doc.
It's time for a warrant.
Does it really take a platoon to search my small apartment? Well, it won't take long.
I'm telling you.
You're wasting your time.
Oh, I've made a career out of that.
The fig tree has been around for 6,000 years.
The Romans said Bacchus gave mankind the fig.
I'm trying to protect this one from being damaged by an early frost.
The people who lived here before me hardly did anything to take care of it at all.
Yeah, I had a flowerpot out on my fire escape, but the bugs destroyed anything I put in it.
Mm.
Squirrels are the problem here.
Just won't stay away from the figs, especially this time of year.
Nothing a little rat poison wouldn't cure.
No, you have to be very careful.
Pesticides can harm a tree.
Hey, Lennie? It's clean.
I could have saved you the trouble.
Sorry about this, Dr.
Allison.
You have a job to do.
Uh, good luck with the squirrels.
Thank you.
Come on.
Just dump it.
You know, if I called this in on a citizen, it'd be a hundred dollar fine.
Yeah, but then you'd have to go to court, waste a whole day.
Damn.
Even her garbage is organized.
Yeah, unless you're a rodent.
That's nasty.
Stop! Well, from comparative blood tests, chemo-analysis of muscle tissues and urinalysis, both victims died from the same cause.
Which was? Cyanide poisoning.
Potassium cyanide to be precise.
I didn't know there were different flavors.
Oh sure.
There's hydrogen cyanide, sodium cyanide, potassium cyanide Yeah, we get the picture.
The good news is, the end came quickly for both Blake and "Rocky the Squirrel'; How can you tell? The large blood concentration would cause immediate loss of consciousness followed quickly by death.
If you gotta go, it's not a bad way.
She took the cyanide from the lab, spiked Blake's hot sauce, then dumped it into her garden to protect her fig tree from squirrels.
And she knew he was gonna use the hot sauce for lunch? Her LUDS show that on the day of the murder she called Gideon's cell phone, and then she called the restaurant to make a reservation.
Well, if it was all about the money, why did she wait a year to kill him? "Revenge is a meal best served cold"? Yeah, especially if you got the hot sauce to cover up the stink.
Pick her up.
I've got my rounds to do, so this really needs to be quick.
Okay.
Bethany Rose Allison, you're under arrest for the murder of Gideon Blake.
Is that quick enough for you, Doc? You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say could be used against you in a court of law.
Docket number 57492.
People v.
Bethany Rose Allison.
The charge is murder in the second degree.
Didn't I see you on Oprah? Charlie Rose, Your Honor.
Dr.
Allison is a best-selling author as well as a doctor.
No time for law school? Too busy dealing with dying children.
Never mind.
How do you plead? Not guilty.
How are we on bail, Ms.
Southerlyn? As the defendant murdered a man for money If I may, Your Honor, the People have this crazy notion that my client killed a man because he stole a half million dollars from her.
- I have to admit, as far as reasons go - We have the bank records, Your Honor.
And I'm sure the trial judge andjury will love to see them.
Bail is set at $300,000, cash or bond.
Read her books, for God's sakes.
No, don't bother.
Just read the blurbs on the back cover.
"Genius" that was the president of the medical society who said that.
"What a health professional should be: Compassionate, caring and courageous.
" Oh, that one was written by a Nobel Prize winner in medicine.
I'm sure she's very good at her job.
Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with a murder trial.
How many times do I need to say this? I didn't know that Gideon was Mapes.
So it's just a coincidence that you ended up working for the man who stole a half a million dollars from you? - Yes, that's right.
- And the fact that the victim died of cyanide poisoning and that you, against regulations, took cyanide from your lab, that's also a coincidence? And that would be a good question if you were permitted to ask it.
The police had a valid warrant.
To search her house, not her garbage.
My motion to exclude the dead squirrel on the basis of an illegal search.
Curtilage? Did you explain to His Honor that a garbage can on a sidewalk is not curtilage? It was like talking to a wall, Arthur.
He bought Swift's argument even though the house number was stenciled onto the garbage can.
Don't tell me Dr.
Allison had an expectation of privacy? Even if the squirrel's inadmissible, we can still prove that she had cyanide available to her at the lab.
Let's put our cards on the table.
On the one hand, we have a woman who's devoted to saving lives.
On the other, a man who's devoted to ripping off the public.
And that's exactly why she killed him.
On paper, this woman looks like the next best thing to Mother Teresa.
Except Mother Teresa never hunted down someone to kill them.
Wait a minute, Jack.
Dr.
Allison insists she never knew Mapes and Blake were one and the same.
Everyone who believes that, raise their hand.
Ask me again and I'll have you brought in for a hearing test.
We never met Mapes.
Because if you said you did know Mapes, you realize that that would be strong evidence against your wife.
And you think I'm lying in some misguided attempt to protect her.
Well, getting rid of Gideon Blake may have been a very good start.
But that's not the way she thinks.
Vengeance is not in her vernacular.
$500,000 could change that.
Oh, please.
You didn't think it was odd that your wife, a highly trained medical professional, was spending time with somebody who claimed that they could speak to the dead? Well, research doesn't always take place in a lab.
Archimedes was taking a bath when he discovered the theory of volume and density.
The only difference is he wasn't charging a thousand dollars per bath.
Whoa.
You think Bethany was in cahoots with Mapes? She made skeptics believe.
Not all of them.
What do you mean? A woman called here last week looking for Bethany.
Someone from Blake's group.
She was definitely angry.
At Bethany? No, at Blake.
Do you remember a name? I wrote it down somewhere.
When Charlie died, a girlfriend told me about Gideon Blake's center.
She said it worked wonders for her mother-in-law.
So you figured, "What the hell?" Actually, I figured, "What a crock.
" I mean, come on, talking to the dead? Give me a break.
Charlie was a doctor.
He used to laugh out loud But you tried it anyway.
Listen, her books before I read them, I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping.
She brought me out of the darkness.
Bethany Allison was like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
I'm sorry.
It's been a year.
I should be over it.
One of these days I'll get used to people calling me a widow.
How many of Blake's workshops did you go to? I was there for exactly two minutes.
You're kidding.
No.
All it took was one look at Blake.
I knew who he really was.
He had shaved his beard, but it was him Lee Wayne Mapes, the guy who ripped us off for a quarter of a million dollars.
I remembered him from the closing.
Did you call the police? I was going to, but first I wanted to tell Dr.
Allison.
I mean, I felt I owed it to her.
We actually met right here.
She was shocked, totally stunned.
I mean, she had actually fallen for this guy's act.
And when you told her that he was a con man and that you were gonna press charges? She thanked me.
Then asked me not to do anything just yet.
So Bethany found out Blake was Mapes.
Big deal.
It doesn't prove anything.
Considering he stole all that money from her, a jury might disagree.
Especially when they hear that your client had that revelation just two days before Blake's murder.
Again with the money? Come on.
This is a woman who gives three-quarters of her royalties to charity.
Besides, she and her husband are doctors.
They'll make it back.
- I'm offering man one with a recommendation.
- Have you been listening to me? I just thought you might want to discuss the alternatives with your client.
Sorry.
What are we discussing? You killed a man and I'm offering eight and a third to 25 years.
Well, if you're referring to Gideon, I helped him, and he thanked me for it.
Excuse me? I spoke to Gideon this morning, and he thanked me.
He did what? Gideon.
He sounded very happy.
Jack? - If this is an act - It fooled the hell out of me.
My notice papers will be on your desk before end of business.
See you in court.
Thank you very much.
I've read your books.
Did you lose someone? No.
It was just my own research.
I see private patients as well.
People are so scared.
About what? Dying.
I thought it was really the unknown that they're scared of.
Well, it's my job to assure them that it's not unknown.
How? It's just a natural part of life.
That's true, but that doesn't make it any less unknown.
I'm in a difficult position here, Doctor.
I know that my lawyer thinks I'm insane.
But you don't? I don't want to go to prison.
How do you deal with all the death? Do I have nightmares? Oh, sure, I do.
But honestly, I don't know what's worse, the nightmare or the phone call in the middle of the night telling me that a six-year-old child has died.
Why did you choose pediatric oncology as a specialty? Children shouldn't suffer.
Many people who elect something like that do so because of a loss.
All right, that's very good.
My sister.
She was 13 years old.
Leukemia.
And the medicine they gave her just made her blow up like a beach ball.
And she was so beautiful, and she was in so much pain.
And to my 12-year-old eyes, I thought "This treatment is worse than the disease.
" And when she died, I What? She took a part of me with her.
Where? I'm not going to get into a metaphysical dialogue with you, Dr.
Skoda.
There is a heaven.
Let's just leave it at that.
Okay, then let's talk about trust.
All right.
What about trust? You trusted Gideon Blake.
You believed he was helping his clients.
Then you learned he was a con man.
People change.
Not only was he a con man, he was the con man who conned you.
Dr.
Skoda, I deal with life and death.
Money, real estate, tax shelters they are meaningless to me.
What can I tell you? She's one of the smartest people I've ever examined.
Warm, compassionate.
You are still married, aren't you, Emil? As long as you can say she was legally sane, I don't care how warm she is.
Oh, she was sane at the time of the murder.
But? She pisses me off.
Any rational doctor with her specialty knows the emotional toll it can have.
They take measures to protect themselves.
You mean like therapy? Medical counseling, religious counseling.
And not someJohn Edwards, Dionne Warwick hocus-pocus.
And then to actually use that as an excuse to commit murder unconscionable.
So you're saying this is an act.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, this woman is smart enough and sympathetic enough to just maybe get away with it.
To be sure, pediatric oncology is one of the most devastating specialties in all of medicine.
The practitioner is exposed to repeatedly intense negative experiences.
Children dying.
It's got to be emotionally draining.
There is an ever-present sense ofloss.
A loss which cannot be prevented.
In your opinion, how does Dr.
Allison deal with this loss? She's constructed an emotional shield, if you will, to protect her unconscious from turmoil.
Does this shield protect her from being damaged by all loss in all aspects ofher life? No, that would be impossible.
The psyche is, if anything, vulnerable.
So if she lost a large portion of her life savings, she would be hurt by that? Yes.
And she would react? Actually, she might overreact.
Her professional feelings of loss could be displaced.
And she might kill the person who caused that loss? Yes.
Did Dr.
Allison tell you she communicates with the afterlife? Yes.
She sees dead people, Doctor.
Wouldn't you say a thing like that can affect her behavior? Under the legal definition of insanity in this state Yes or no, Dr.
Skoda? Yes.
Thank you.
You know, you want to believe, even though you know it's crazy.
You've got this little bit of hope.
And that's why you got involved with Gideon Blake in the first place? It took some pushing.
What finally convinced me was when I heard that Dr.
Allison was involved.
- The defendant? - That's right.
Her books were a godsend.
They helped me get over the grief of my husband's death.
Please tell us what occurred when you arrived at Gideon Blake's house.
I knew him right away.
He was the man who swindled us out of a lot of money on a real estate deal.
I knew that a person like Dr.
Allison wouldn't work with him if she knew.
So I I called her and told her.
What? That he was a con artist, a fake.
What did she do? Please answer the question, Mrs.
Padgett.
Dr.
Allison is a good person.
I don't want to What did she say when you told her Mr.
Blake's true identity? She said to give her time to deal with it before I reported him to the police.
And? The next thing I knew, he was dead.
Did Dr.
Allison say she was going to kill Gideon Blake? No.
I just thought she was gonna tell him off, tell him she knew who and what he really was.
Did she tell you that, as Mapes, he had ripped her off too? No.
When you heard that Blake was murdered, did you go to the police? No.
Why not? Because the son of a bitch deserved it.
You know how my husband died? He put a hunting rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
You want to know why? Because Lee Wayne Mapes stole everything he spent his life working for.
Mapes deserved to die.
I just wish it could have been me who killed him.
Thank you.
A grieving widow who's only a widow because of Mapes? The defense couldn't buy better testimony than that.
It's just a detour for the jury.
We'll get them back on the main road tomorrow.
Which is? That the great Dr.
Allison killed Mapes over a pile of money, her hocus-pocus about communing with the afterlife notwithstanding.
Not everything spiritual is hocus-pocus, Jack.
Et tu, Serena? On my last birthday, I got three gift certificates to three different psychics.
Which doesn't say much for your friends.
My point is, is that not everybody dismisses the spiritual.
It's a pacifier.
Like shrinks are for your generation and bartenders for your father's? My old man's bartender could keep a secret.
Have you read the C.
V.
Of Allison's psychiatric expert? Yeah.
I stopped after the M.
D.
From Yale and the second Ph.
D.
From Columbia.
I'm gonna get some sleep.
Hey.
Did you have a birthday? For any doctor, it's difficult to lose a patient.
You wonder.
You question yourself.
You pray.
You mourn.
But when your patients are so young and so many die, that is accompanied by a whole other set of psychoneuroses.
Doctors lose perspective.
By a loss of perspective, you mean seeing dead people? I mean needing to see them.
To believe in a full-blown afterlife is the only way you can continue to treat incurable patients.
And if that belief was shattered? That could have thrown her into a depression from which she might never have returned.
So when Dr.
Allison learned that Gideon Blake was a con man? She had to destroy him.
And if she didn't? Her self-image, her self-worth, her ability to get up in the morning to treat terminally ill children would have been destroyed.
Do you treat what you call "at risk" physicians on a regular basis, Doctor? Yes.
- Any of them pediatric oncologists? - Several.
And they suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome like Dr.
Allison? Yes, but Any of them ever kill anyone? No.
My cousin's kid had pneumonia.
I went and visited her at the children's hospital.
That's the day that I crossed med school off my list.
Bethany Allison may have spent most of her life being a saint.
It's the time she didn't that we have to deal with.
I think what Serena is saying is that banging her head against the futility of dying children every day for years may have knocked a few screws loose.
Then she would have claimed that she was insane right up front.
She didn't.
The first thing she did was claim she wasn't involved.
Believe me, if she learned anything from Blake/Mapes over the past year, it's how to pull off the big con.
This is all an act.
She killed the bum who ripped her off.
Period, end of story.
Well, I don't envy you having to go into court and prove the saint's a sinner.
No, Arthur.
I only have to prove that she's not crazy.
Most of my patients are young children at an age where they would be in kindergarten if they weren't in chemotherapy.
In terms of the larger picture, is there any national data on how many pediatric oncology patients survive? About 75 to 80%.
And in your practice? About 25%.
Does that mean you're not very good at what you do? I specialize in high-risk patients with advance-stage neuroblastomas and rhabdoid tumors of the kidney.
So you've seen hundreds of children die? Occupational hazard when you work with kids with bad cancers.
Much of my day is divided between trying to lessen both their physical pain and their emotional fear.
In other words, you prepare them for death.
Many children anticipate a better life after life.
For example? Henry he was about eight years old.
He was in stage four, and he had the nurse call me very late one night, and I rushed to the hospital, got to his room, sat by him.
And he whispered to me.
He said He said "Dr.
B, "have them take me out in an ambulance with the siren on, so that Isabel will know I'm coming.
" Isabel was Henry's roommate in the hospital, and she had died the week before.
What brought you to Gideon Blake's center in the first place? I heard about his work from a nurse in a hospice.
She said he was involved in grief counseling by contacting loved ones who'd passed away.
You actually believed he could do something like that? Not at first, but I was researching all aspects of death and dying, and if this actually comforted people, I really wanted to see it, to study it, record it.
So this had nothing to do with the money he stole from you? Oh, no.
I had no idea that he was involved in my real estate losses.
I never saw him before.
He never saw me before.
And Mr.
Blake didn't mind you observing what went on in his sessions? On the contrary, he was all for it.
He believed in what he was doing and he thought that my name would lend credibility to the center.
You didn't mind lending your name? I did at first.
- But what changed? - I watched him work.
He was a faith healer.
He was able to do what he claimed he could do.
Talk to the dead? Communicate with the dead.
There's a difference.
He was able to comfort the grieving, and it was a gift.
So why did you poison him? To help him make a peaceful journey and to avoid the coming pain.
What kind of pain? The pain of going to prison and of losing the ability to continue his work.
And this peaceful journey, it was to Heaven.
Thank you, Dr.
Allison.
Didn't he deserve to go to prison for stealing people's hard-earned money? No, he was not that man "Mapes" anymore.
He had redeemed himself through his good works with the bereaved.
Redeemed himself or reinvented himself? I said redeemed.
Yes, you did, but didn't he just trade one con for another? He moved from real estate fraud to this sham about an afterlife? It is real.
I can see the children.
They are safe and happy.
- Isn't that sweet? - Objection! Withdrawn.
You know, I would have thought they'd be upset.
I mean, they got cheated out of a lot of life.
Yes, of course, but when they finally arrive No, no.
Let's just stick with the time before they pass away for the moment.
Do they ever complain I don't know say how unfair it is? Yes, of course.
We had one little girl, Angela, who compared it to the time that her sister took her Pooh Bear and lost it.
Sure, Mom could find her another one, but it would never be the same.
And Angela was mad at her sister? Yes.
Mad enough to hit her? Why, it's human nature.
Of course it is.
When someone steals something from you, you get mad.
No.
I see where you're going.
I see what you're doing.
True or false, Dr.
Allison, Gideon Blake, a.
k.
a.
Lee Mapes, convinced you to invest $500,000 in a real estate deal? He convinced my accountant.
I never met him.
True or false, $500,000 was a good portion of your net worth at that time, and you lost the entire amount of your investment? Yes.
Angela's sister stole her doll and she got mad mad enough to hit.
You said it was human nature.
Did you feel like hitting Gideon Blake when he stole your family's life savings? Gideon is in a wonderful place.
It's a paradise.
I sent him there.
And I did it for the children.
To be with the children.
Why didn't you pack up your best-selling books, your awards, your degrees and hop on over to the other side? I mean, a medical professional with decades of experience has to be better qualified than a snake-oil salesman! Gideon made people feel better.
I did not.
I failed.
They all died because I failed.
I work and work and they still die four-year-olds and six-year-olds and innocent little babies, They all leave this world alone without a mother or a father, without even a friend or a d-doll.
And they were alone for so long, but they're not anymore, because Gideon is with them, and I I can see them.
They are happy and they are safe.
Ask them.
Oh, don't be afraid, Mr.
McCoy.
Ask them.
Henry will tell you.
Isabel will tell you.
Amy will tell you.
Recess, Your Honor? Four minutes.
Always have to play the tough guy, don't you? Tough has nothing to do with this.
You feel for the woman, Jack.
It doesn't make you weak.
Three minutes.
I could win this case, you know? Not when the judge instructs the jury on the definition of legal insanity.
Ten years is a long time.
She killed a man.
A scoundrel.
Ten years or until a panel of three medical professionals certifies she's not a threat to herself or others.
Doctors to be chosen by my office.
But in the private psychiatric facility of her choice.
To be approved of by me and located within my jurisdiction.
One minute.
Done.
I tell the judge.
It's not a bad thing, Jack.
What? Having a heart.
What can I say? Nobody's made of steel, not even someone with a 160 I.
Q.
Turns out neither are you.
What? It's called compassion, Jack.
Don't make it a habit, my friend.
Sometimes the good you do doesn't do you any good.