Cry Wolf (Season 15, Episode 8)
Premise: A radio shock jock who once staged attacks on himself for publicity is shot for real, and the hit traces back to a mob boss whose mistress he was secretly seeing.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 15, Episode 8
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Jose Zuniga as Christoff, Arthur Nascarella as Michael Ruffino, Joe Piscopo as Jarret Whitestone, Nicolette Hart as Tina Reese, Alfred Sauchelli Jr. as Angelo Simonetti
- Director
- Don Scardino
- Writers
- Nick Santora & Lorenzo Carcaterra
Summary
The Investigation
“Cry Wolf” opens with radio shock jock Christoff, founder of the Ministers of Justice subway vigilantes, wounded in the side after tumbling from a black Lincoln Town Car. Van Buren recalls that he was suspected of staging muggings on himself years ago, and two former members say those attacks were his idea. Christoff blames mob boss Michael Ruffino, whom he has been attacking on the air, and says his driver had a jagged scar behind the right ear.
Someone canceled his regular car from a payphone near Ruffino’s social club. Then Frank Tourno, a Ruffino soldier with a scar like the one Christoff described, is shot dead in a pizzeria, and a student named Angelo Simonetti is gunned down on the street. Christoff admits a long affair with gallery owner Tina Reese, who is also Ruffino’s mistress, and identifies Tourno as his driver. The student’s family says the killers wanted an older cousin of the same name who works for Ruffino.
A movie photo in the student’s home came from Carlo Tresca, a Ruffino capo whose company produced a flop starring action hero Jarret Whitestone. Whitestone was Christoff’s guest the day of the shooting, and phone records show he called the payphone just before the car was canceled. He admits reporting Christoff’s movements to work off his debt and says the order must have come from Ruffino, who is charged with conspiracy.
The Trial
Ruffino gets bail but must give up both passports, and Whitestone, who has a plea deal, leaves the country. Reese is then found dead in her locked gallery beside a suicide note, but the medical examiner rules it a homicide because her head was slammed into the desk. The detectives find the right Angelo Simonetti hiding in Washington Heights. In exchange for a plea to second-degree assault, he testifies that he shot Christoff on orders passed through Tourno from Ruffino’s son, Michael Jr.
Christoff then backs away from his identifications of both men, and his show is soon picked up by satellite radio. McCoy is barred from suggesting intimidation without proof. Whitestone, located at a monastery and promised immunity, tells the prosecutors that Ruffino said he could make Reese’s death look like a suicide. Ruffino insists he loved her, but her gallery key turns up at his house in the Catskills.
Spoiler, the ending: The People drop the conspiracy case, and Ruffino enters an Alford plea to Reese’s murder, accepting 20 years without parole while declaring only that he loved her. The prosecutors then learn that Michael Jr. was ticketed on the Thruway, heading to his father’s house, the night Reese died; Ruffino accepted the deal to shield his son.
Why it stands out
- Joe Piscopo guest stars as Jarret Whitestone, a martial-arts movie star in debt to the mob after a mob-financed film flopped.
- The hit men sent to tie up loose ends kill the wrong Angelo Simonetti, a student who shares his name with the real gunman.
- Ruffino takes an Alford plea, accepting a murder sentence without admitting guilt, to cover for his son.