Faccia a Faccia (Season 8, Episode 15)
Premise: A Mafia hit man turned federal witness is found shot in Central Park, and the prosecution of the aging boss blamed for it is threatened by a dementia claim and a confession that does not hold up.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 8, Episode 15
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Frank Savino as Alberto Napoli, Michael Rispoli as Johnny DeMayo, Kathrine Narducci as Vicky Grant, Philip Bosco as defense attorney Dobbs, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Martha Mitchell
- Writers
- René Balcer & Eddie Feldmann
Summary
The Investigation
“Faccia a Faccia” starts with a Mafia-style murder in Central Park: a man in cowboy boots is found in a lake, shot six times with a .22, stripped and with his face smashed. Plastic surgery and Montana-bought clothes hint at a hidden past. A peanut vendor leads to an Italian restaurant, where the man dined with a gray-haired stranger and slipped out the back after spotting someone in a car, whose plate leads to Johnny DeMayo, a mob associate with a no-show sales job.
The victim proves to be Nick Lagrassa, a Virgini family hit man who admitted 23 murders and testified for the federal government, then left his relocation site. Federal officials say he was to testify against boss Alberto Napoli. His dinner companion, author Brendan Hall, says Lagrassa wanted a ghostwriter, and a hotel employee admits DeMayo paid him to track Hall.
DeMayo is found shot in his apartment and survives. Threatened with losing police protection, he says Napoli ordered the hit on Lagrassa and confesses to the killing in a deal for witness protection, and Napoli is arrested.
The Trial
Defense attorney Dobbs claims Napoli is incompetent after a stroke. During Dr. Emil Skoda’s exam he talks of singing and an archangel, but when his son starts a scuffle beside him he quickly moves out of the way, and the judge finds him fit. While prepping DeMayo, McCoy invents a bruise; DeMayo agrees he kicked the victim, revealing he did not commit the killing.
A lawsuit by Lagrassa’s victims’ families over his book deal includes Vicky Grant, DeMayo’s girlfriend, whose father Lagrassa killed and stripped years earlier. Pressed, DeMayo admits she shot Lagrassa and he only disposed of the body, and that Napoli never knew she was involved. McCoy keeps the murder case alive with a conspiracy theory that names Grant as the indictment’s unnamed co-conspirator.
Spoiler, the ending: Grant testifies under a deal and reads from Lagrassa’s manuscript, which quotes Napoli recommending a feigned insanity defense. The jury convicts Napoli of murder one in two hours, and when Dobbs offers Napoli as an informant in exchange for a short term, McCoy counters with two years.
Why it stands out
- Napoli’s act slips on camera when he dodges a scuffle during Dr. Emil Skoda’s competency exam.
- McCoy catches his own star witness lying by testing him with an invented injury.
- The decisive evidence is the hit man’s unpublished memoir, which records Napoli advising a fellow mobster to fake insanity.