The Working Stiff (Season 2, Episode 22)
Premise: A Wall Street takeover legend is shot in the head at his trading desk before dawn.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 22
- 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
- Eli Wallach as Simon Vilanis, William Prince as Dwight Corcoran, George DiCenzo as Eddie Palmieri, Joseph Siravo as Joey Palmieri
- Director
- Daniel Sackheim
- Writers
- Story: William N. Fordes; Story & teleplay: Robert Palm
Summary
The Investigation
“The Working Stiff” opens with Marshall McFadden, a self-made takeover king, shot dead in his office before dawn with over a thousand dollars in his pocket. The taped .38 found nearby has a filed-off serial number. McFadden bought the company Evans and Black, closed its Brooklyn plant as soon as the union contract ran out, and put 480 people out of work. His files show that union president Eddie Palmieri agreed to wage rollbacks that helped the deal win a bank loan, then received $100,000 from the Ann McFadden Cancer Foundation.
At a union meeting, laid-off worker Simon Vilanis rails against the leaders. McFadden’s takeover cost him his pension, his health coverage and the apartment his long-term lease covered, and he has lung cancer he blames on the plant. He once threw an egg at McFadden. His registered .38 is missing, and the FBI raises enough of the serial number to prove it is the murder weapon.
The Trial
Vilanis insists on representing himself to put McFadden on trial, but the prosecutors learn he was getting heavy chemotherapy that night. A government investigator reveals that a Justice Department unit was about to indict McFadden for bank fraud when it was shut down. The loan came from Bank of the Five Boroughs, whose chairman is Dwight Corcoran, a former governor and longtime friend of Schiff. A former Justice lawyer admits he warned Corcoran about the coming indictment. Schiff refuses to step aside.
The building super admits he let in a man with cowboy boots and a union pin, Eddie Palmieri’s cousin Joey, who stole Vilanis’s gun. The prosecutors then discover that Corcoran is a trustee of the cancer foundation and had to approve its checks. Offered a deal, Joey testifies that Eddie paid him for the killing, and Eddie testifies that Corcoran handed him the $100,000 check at dinner to keep McFadden from naming names.
Spoiler, the ending: Leaving court amid reporters, Corcoran asks Schiff for friendship, and Schiff answers coolly. The episode ends without showing a verdict.
Why it stands out
- The Season 2 finale puts Schiff’s own political history at the center of the case.
- Eli Wallach plays the dying factory worker accused of the murder.
- The episode traces the effects of a 1980s-style takeover from the boardroom to the factory floor.