Law & Order (1990–2010): Season 5, Episode 5 - White Rabbit - full transcript
Detectives Briscoe and Logan investigate the burglary of safe deposit boxes at a private vault where the thieves broke in through the floor. The case is quickly solved but in the course going through the stolen goods, they find a gym bag with a revolver that has had its serial number filed off and a large amount of cash. It turns out the money was taken by anti-Vietnam war radicals in an armored car robbery in the 1971 where a cop was killed. It leads them to Rita Levitan, real name Susan Forrest, who is now a married to an accountant and living in suburban New Jersey. ADA McCoy is prepared to accept a plea but the dead policeman's wife objects and McCoy finds himself at trial with little evidence to present. His only solution is to get some of her cohorts to testify against her.
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.
9:00 a.m. sharp, Antonio.
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 L.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?
1969, right after my
husband 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.I.
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.I. 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.I. 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.I. 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.
'60s and '70s.
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.
Well, 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.O.
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
11 years ago?
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.
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
1970, I spent most of my time
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.I. 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.I.
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 to 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.
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.
9:00 a.m. sharp, Antonio.
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 L.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?
1969, right after my
husband 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.I.
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.I. 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.I. 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.I. 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.
'60s and '70s.
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.
Well, 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.O.
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
11 years ago?
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.
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
1970, I spent most of my time
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.I. 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.I.
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 to 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.