| Law & Order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Torrents of Greed—Part 1 | |||
| Episode No. | 15-16 | ||
| Airdate | February 12 & 19, 1991 | ||
| Writer(s) | Michael Duggan (story) and Michael S. Chernuchin |
||
| Director | E.W. Swackhamer | ||
| Season 1 September 1990 - June 1991 |
|||
| 001. | Prescription for Death | ||
| 002. | Subterranean Homeboy Blues | ||
| 003. | The Reaper's Helper | ||
| 004. | Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die | ||
| 005. | Happily Ever After | ||
| 006. | Everybody's Favorite Bagman | ||
| 007. | By Hooker, By Crook | ||
| 008. | Poison Ivy | ||
| 009. | Indifference | ||
| 010. | Prisoner of Love | ||
| 011. | Out of the Half-Light | ||
| 012. | Life Choice | ||
| 013. | A Death in the Family | ||
| 014. | The Violence of Summer | ||
| 015. | The Torrents of Greed—Part 1 | ||
| 016. | The Torrents of Greed—Part 2 | ||
| 017. | Mushrooms | ||
| 018. | The Secret Sharers | ||
| 019. | The Serpent's Tooth | ||
| 020. | The Troubles | ||
| 021. | Sonata For a Solo Organ | ||
| 022. | The Blue Wall | ||
"The Torrents of Greed" is a two-part episode of NBC's legal drama Law & Order. It was the first two-part episode of the Law & Order franchise, and aired as the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes of the show's first season. The episode was directed by E.W. Swackhamer and written by Michael Duggan (story) and Michael S. Chernuchin (story and teleplay).
The episode's title is taken from Chapter 28, verse 251 of the Buddhist scripture The Dhammapada: "There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed."
Contents |
Detectives arrest three members of the Masucci crime family involved in an assault, which leads to Stone attempting to use the arrest as a means to take down the entire Masucci crime syndicate via charging Mafia chieftain Frank Masucci. However, the plan backfires when Stone discovers that his chief witness (one of the three charged in the assault) recants his testimony at trial, leading to Masucci's acquittal.
In the wake of Masucci's acquittal, ADAs Stone and Robinette intensify their investigation with the mob boss. Their investigation leads them to bust Masucci's brother-in-law, who the mob boss promptly has murdered. The murder leads to the discovery of the dumping ground for victims of Masucci's crime syndicate. As they re-arrest the mob boss, his grieving sister supports her brother in court by putting up the money for his bail. However, within hours of leaving the courtroom, Frank Masucci is killed by an unknown hitman. Robinette and Stone speculate that Masucci's sister as the one who ordered the hit, but are unable to prove it. The two men, along with Adam Schiff, take comfort in the fact that in spite of their failure to bring Masucci to justice through the legal system, that his death will severely cripple the crime family.