Heaven (Season 2, Episode 10)
Premise: A fire at a club for Central American immigrants kills 53 people, and the obvious suspect may not be the real one.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 10
- Detectives
- Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Luis Guzmán as Cesar Pescador, Victor Campos as Domingo Guerra, Tom Tammi as James Collins
- Ripped from the headlines
- Based on the 1990 Happy Land social club fire in the Bronx.
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- Teleplay: Nancy Ann Miller; Story & teleplay: Robert Palm
Summary
The Investigation
“Heaven” opens with a fire tearing through El Cielo, a social club popular with Central American immigrants, leaving 53 dead. Fire investigators quickly confirm arson. The first suspect is a drunk who was thrown out of the club that night after harassing a barmaid, but the man who let him into his apartment confirms he came home and passed out. The fire marshal points the detectives toward a professional: the arsonist carried gasoline in a car’s windshield-washer tank hidden in his trouser leg.
An arson-for-profit theory dies when the building’s owner turns out to be among the victims. Then a hospital reports a man who came in with a burned leg using someone else’s green card. The detectives trace the stolen card through a petty thief to a cook named Cesar Pescador. Over his objections, a judge orders surgery to remove a piece of plastic lodged in his leg, and it matches the device found at the club.
The Trial
Pescador says he was hired by Domingo Guerra, a well-connected Cuban businessman who sold forged green cards. When customers at El Cielo discovered their papers were fake and began talking to lawyers, Guerra wanted to frighten them into silence. Stone runs into Guerra’s influence in the Latino community, including a longtime friend at the immigration service who first defends him.
Facing charges, Guerra tries to trade information. He points to James Collins, an agent at the immigration service who he says was his partner in the scheme and planned the fire. A retired arsonist known as the Professor confirms that Collins asked him how to set it without being noticed, and a mechanic saw Collins remove the washer tank from a fellow agent’s official car.
Spoiler, the ending: Stone prepares a joint indictment of Guerra and Collins on 53 counts of murder along with arson and solicitation charges. The episode closes with the names of the dead being read aloud.
Why it stands out
- The real Happy Land fire was driven by a jealous ex-boyfriend; the episode starts with that suspect, then turns to a corrupt federal immigration agent.
- A court-ordered surgery to recover evidence from a suspect’s body raises a sharp privacy question.
- The final reading of the victims’ names gives the 53 dead a presence the investigation never did.