Everybody's Favorite Bagman (Season 1, Episode 6)
Premise: A city councilman’s death looks like a street mugging until the detectives learn he once carried bribes for powerful people.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 6
- Detectives
- Sgt. Max Greevey (George Dzundza), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Alfred Wentworth (Roy Thinnes)
- Guest stars
- Paul Guilfoyle as Anthony Scalisi, William H. Macy as AUSA John McCormack, Ron Foster as William Jefferson, Dick Latessa as Conti
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by a real New York City parking-bureau corruption scandal; the episode carries a disclaimer that its story is fictional.
- Director
- John Patterson
- Writers
- Dick Wolf
Summary
The Investigation
In “Everybody’s Favorite Bagman,” Councilman Charles Halsey is found with his throat cut after what appears to be a robbery, and two young Black men seen running from the scene become the first suspects. Greevey knows Halsey’s reputation as a former bagman for payoffs, and the detectives start to doubt the simple explanation. The press quickly seizes on the case as another example of a city out of control.
The young men admit taking Halsey’s valuables but say he was already wounded. A trail of physical evidence leads to Anthony Scalisi, a soldier in the Masucci crime family, and the investigation widens from a street crime to a scheme in which a city contract for collecting parking fines was steered to a mob-connected company, with officials sharing the profits. The killing begins to look like a hit carried out to keep Halsey from talking about what he knew.
The Trial
Stone’s case reaches into City Hall and the police department. He clashes with Paul Robinette over Deputy Police Commander William Jefferson, whom Stone believes once shaded his testimony in an earlier case. District Attorney Alfred Wentworth won’t let Stone offer Scalisi immunity, worried about how it would look. Robinette, who admires Jefferson, resists the idea that he could be involved.
Unable to trust the department with the investigation, Stone brings in Assistant U.S. Attorney John McCormack. To reach the officials behind the killing, the prosecutors need Scalisi’s cooperation, and they set up an operation built around him. Stone and Robinette negotiate a deal with Scalisi, trading leniency for the names of the officials who wanted Halsey silenced.
Spoiler, the ending: Borough President Conti, Councilman Van Damme and Jefferson are caught on tape discussing the killing, but Scalisi is shot dead by a Masucci gunman before agents can protect him. The episode closes as Stone opens a conspiracy trial against the city officials.
Why it stands out
- This was the series pilot, produced in 1988 for CBS, and it aired sixth after NBC picked up the show.
- Roy Thinnes plays District Attorney Alfred Wentworth; Steven Hill’s Adam Schiff replaced the character for the series.
- The Masucci crime family introduced here returns in the two-part “The Torrents of Greed.”