Purple Heart (Season 5, Episode 21)
Premise: A radio-car driver with a Purple Heart is shot dead in his cab, and the robbery behind it starts to look like a contract killing.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 21
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- LisaGay Hamilton as Denise Johnson, Michael Beach as Brian Elliot, Mike Starr as Steven Breck, Frank Pellegrino as Mr. Contini, Dominic Chianese as Judge Paul Kaylin, Gabriel Casseus as Dewey Lattimer
- Ripped from the headlines
- Reportedly based on the 1991 killing of Army Specialist Anthony Riggs in Detroit after his return from the Persian Gulf War; his wife, Toni Cato Riggs, was later revealed to be behind the shooting.
- Director
- Arthur W. Forney
- Writers
- Morgan Gendel & William N. Fordes
Summary
The Investigation
“Purple Heart” begins when two bar patrons find Daniel Johnson, a radio-car driver and decorated Desert Storm veteran, shot in the head in his cab around midnight. His wallet and cash box are gone. His wife, Denise, who recently opened a restaurant, says he was picking up extra fares. His dispatcher says the couple fought about money.
Briscoe and Logan learn Johnson was meeting loan shark Steve Breck, to whom he owed $15,000. A homeless man caught using Johnson’s credit card leads them to a bloody jacket in a dumpster, and plumber’s compound in the pocket points to Charles Kovac. Kovac’s freezer holds about $15,000 in bloodstained cash, but Kovac is soon found shot dead with a .22 in his girlfriend’s apartment.
Bank records show Danny took the $15,000 from Denise’s business credit line with a forged check. Phone records show Kovac called Denise three hours before the cab shooting, Kovac once worked as a plumber at Contini’s, the restaurant where she used to be the hostess, and Contini’s .22 turns out to be the gun that killed Kovac. Denise is charged with both murders.
The Trial
Defense lawyer Brian Elliot turns the prosecution witnesses into alternative suspects, pointing at Contini for Kovac and Breck for Johnson. When the People rest, Judge Kaylin dismisses the count for the husband’s murder and bars any mention of Denise’s role in it.
Revisiting an attempted robbery of Johnson two months earlier, Kincaid and the detectives find the gunman, Dewey Lattimer, put a gun to Johnson’s head on a Monday night right after the same regular fare. Lattimer says Denise hired him. McCoy recasts the Kovac killing as revenge, and Denise testifies she felt relieved by her husband’s death, opening the door for Lattimer as a rebuttal witness.
Spoiler, the ending: Rather than face Lattimer’s testimony, Denise accepts a plea to second-degree murder with 15 years to life. As a condition, she describes killing Kovac after he demanded money to leave town.
Why it stands out
- The episode reportedly draws on the 1991 Anthony Riggs case.
- The judge throws out the husband’s murder mid-trial, leaving McCoy to try a hired killer’s death without mentioning the hit.
- A man already serving time for attempted robbery of the victim names the wife as the person who hired him.