Blood Is Thicker... (Season 2, Episode 14)
Premise: A society wife’s killing seems to fit a string of muggings, until her husband’s alibi and his mother’s influence start to look suspicious.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 14
- 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
- John Bedford Lloyd as Jonathan Ryder, Nancy Marchand as Mrs. Barbara Ryder, Joel Polis as Dr. Joel Friedman
- Director
- Peter Levin
- Writers
- Story: Robert Nathan; Story & teleplay: Ed Zuckerman
Summary
The Investigation
“Blood Is Thicker...” begins with Lois Ryder, the wife of a wealthy heir, found beaten to death on an East Side street with her necklace torn away. The attack matches a serial mugger who uses a baseball bat. Her husband, Jonathan, says he was at the family house in Southampton and that Lois was going to the movies, but an autopsy shows she had sex shortly before she died, and Jonathan, backed by his formidable mother, Barbara, refuses a blood test.
The detectives find Lois’s lover, Dr. Joel Friedman, a pediatrician at a hospital the Ryders helped build. A family friend says Jonathan had offered Lois millions to leave him; his written offer also required her to give up the children. A video-store clerk heard the couple discussing the bat mugger. A garage attendant says Jonathan’s car was cold when he claimed to have just driven in from Long Island. A mugger is tracked down through Lois’s pawned necklace and bracelet, which he says he found in a dumpster. Missing is a 1931 family heirloom pin, which turns up in Barbara Ryder’s house.
The Trial
Jonathan is charged with murder. His mother and sister give him an alibi, he flees to the family’s Caribbean home and his bail is revoked, and the defense explains away the trunk fibers and the pin, which turns out to be one of four nearly identical copies. A jailhouse informant reports that Jonathan broke down about a bat and his daughter, then recants after the informant’s wife pays him a visit.
Stone learns from Jonathan’s young daughter that her brother’s bat went missing. He then persuades the reluctant Dr. Friedman to testify. Friedman identifies the pin Lois wore by a private mark she had added to it, a detail her mother-in-law never knew.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Jonathan Ryder of second-degree murder. The pin he tried to hide becomes the evidence that ties him to his wife’s death.
Why it stands out
- The Ryder family’s money and loyalty shape every step of the defense, from alibis to a recanted confession.
- The prosecution uses a jailhouse informant and fights to keep the testimony that follows from it.
- A small personal detail in a piece of jewelry decides the case.