Bible Story (Season 16, Episode 11)
Premise: A burglar is beaten to death outside a Lower East Side synagogue while carrying a desecrated family Chumash, and the investigation uncovers a bitter fight between the two cousins who own the building.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 11
- Detectives
- Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Alexandra Borgia (Annie Parisse), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Zach Grenier as Barry Speicher, Mark Feuerstein as Eric Speicher, Allan Miller as Rabbi Geller, Kevin O’Rourke as defense attorney Stan Malloy, Tina Benko as defense attorney Sharon Quaid
- Director
- Rick Wallace
- Writers
- Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“Bible Story” opens with a murder outside a Lower East Side synagogue, where a woman spots torn, bloodstained pages from a Chumash blowing along the street and police find a man nearby with a fractured skull. A city councilman demands action on the desecration and accuses a Palestinian laundromat worker of harassing worshippers. Fingerprints identify the dead man as Jeffrey Kilgore, a Long Island mason with a burglary record, and nobody at Beth Tefiloh recognizes him.
The ruined book belonged to congregation president Barry Speicher, whose late father, Daniel, is said to have hidden it in a hayloft while fleeing the Nazis and recovered it decades later. Kilgore’s girlfriend, Kayla Watson, says he avoided the city, yet she had collected $2,500 for him from a man she took to be Jewish. When the rabbi refuses to hand over a membership list, Branch orders Borgia to drop her subpoena for it.
Barry’s weekly cash withdrawals lead the detectives to a gentlemen’s club, where fellow congregants explain that Barry and his cousin and business partner, Eric, own the synagogue building and have charged the congregation $800 a month for decades. Eric, who has stopped attending, admits paying Kilgore to wreck the book so Barry would sell the $15 million property; a fake emergency call made sure Barry would be the one to find it. Blood on a coatroom umbrella stand leads to Barry’s arrest during evening prayers.
The Trial
Barry’s lawyer, Stan Malloy, hints at a justification defense, but McCoy answers that the law protects people, not books, and Barry pleads guilty to manslaughter for five years. Over Branch’s political worries, McCoy then goes after Eric for reckless manslaughter, arguing that he used his cousin’s faith as a weapon for money. Eric complains that the family shunned him and claims Daniel would have bartered the book for potatoes, and he turns down six years.
At trial, Kayla identifies Eric, and Rabbi Geller reveals that when he and Daniel went back to Poland in 1978 the farm had become a tire factory, so the book was bought in a Warsaw shop. Shaken, Barry testifies that Eric never threatened him. During a recess he tells McCoy that the cousins tore each other apart over a lie, and Branch refuses to let McCoy charge Barry with perjury.
Spoiler, the ending: Barry’s testimony is struck, and the trial proceeds to a verdict on the burglary count. Eric is found guilty of third-degree burglary, and a hate-crime enhancement puts his potential sentence on par with Barry’s. The cousins ask to serve their terms in one facility.
Why it stands out
- The rabbi’s testimony reveals that the treasured Chumash was bought in a Warsaw bookshop, not the copy Daniel Speicher hid from the Nazis.
- McCoy tries to hold Eric Speicher liable for a killing he did not commit, on the theory that hiring the desecration recklessly set off a deadly rage.
- Branch and McCoy clash throughout the case, from the congregation’s membership list to a perjury charge Branch will not allow.