Blood Money

This page is about the Law & Order episode. For the miniseries, see Blood & Money.

"Blood Money"
←	L&O, Episode 10.08	→
Production number: E1111 First aired: 1 December 1999
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←	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries}}}th of 456 released in L&O	→
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Written By Barry Schindel Directed By Matthew Penn

Plot[]

Peter [Pietro] Grimaldi, an elderly retired insurance salesman, is found dead and stabbed in a taxi cab after he arrives at his final destination. The driver only noticed that Grimaldi was helped into the cab when he was picked up near a bank. When the medical examiner investigates, she finds that Grimaldi was not only stabbed, he was also shot.

The detectives learn more about Grimaldi, and find out that he sold life insurance to European Jews during World War II. After the war, he refused to honor the policies of holocaust victims, claiming that there was no documentation for the claims. He then emigrated from Italy to the United States, where he worked for the American parent company, All-Atlantic Insurance, of his Italian firm Federale Insurance.

Grimaldi had kept a handwritten logbook of all the policies he sold in a safe deposit box at the bank. He removed the logbook when he was subpoenaed by the Italian government to testify about a life insurance scheme involving holocaust victims. Years before, he had shown his son Jordan the book, telling him that it might be worth a lot of money one day.

The prosecutors determine two different crimes occurred: when Grimaldi left the bank, he was shot by Jordan, to stop him from selling the book. Afterwards Grimaldi was stabbed by a man hired indirectly by All-Atlantic to steal the book.

The prosecutors charge Roland Dell, the stabber, and his accomplice, Donald Burton with manslaughter and charge Jordan Grimaldi with murder. They charge Hamilton Stewart, the chief executive of All-Atlantic, with over one thousand counts of grand larceny, one count for each of the accounts purported to be in the book. The policies would, in total, be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

At first, the prosecutors have a difficult time making a case, but Alan Bresler, one of Stewart's assistants, fills in details of the case after feeling remorse during earlier testimony, as he witnessed Jordan destroy himself on the stand over what his father did. Bresler has children of his own and he doesn't want the same thing to happen to them. When McCoy suggests that Bresler consult an attorney, the man refuses, saying he is an attorney and knows what he's doing. Bresler tells the prosecutors that Stewart has the book and was the one who created the plan to steal it. In return for the book, Stewart agrees to plead guilty with a prison sentence of four to twelve years and a written waiver of his right to contest extradition to Italy.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

• Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe
• Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green
• S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
• Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy
• Angie Harmon as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael
• Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff

Recurring cast[]

• George Grizzard as Defense Attorney Arthur Gold
• Leslie Hendrix as M.E. Elizabeth Rodgers
• Larry Clarke as Detective Morris LaMotte
• Lynette DuPree as Judge Joyce Randall

Guest cast[]

• Matt Servitto as Jordan Grimaldi
• Phillip Goodwin as Alan Bresler
• Laura Esterman as Eva Walcoff
• Ray Aranha as Judge
• Jacqueline Antaramian as Donna Grimaldi
• Felix Fibich as Mr. Radsenhauer
• Henderson Forsythe as Hamilton Stewart
• Chris McKinney as Reggie Hollis
• Jayson Williams as Roland Dell
• Ronald Guttman as Assistant Italian Consul
• Diane Kagan as Gail Barlett
• Victor Verhaeghe as Gary Howard
• Damian Young as Daniel Catterson
• Edward James Hyland as Donald Burton
• Patrick Garner as Walter Estes
• Jack Davidson as Bank Manager
• Ismail Bashey as Harish Singh
• Kim Yancey as Leslie Sawyer
• Roger Pretto as Martin Garcia
• Gerard O'Brien as Doorman
• Bunny Levine as Irene Drummond
• Wai Ching Ho as Owner
• Marcus Naylor as Eric Lee
• Karl Kenzler as Arraignment Clerk

References[]

• Italy
• Germany
• The Holocaust
• Pietro Grimaldi (victim)
• Philadelphia
• Poland
• Ronald Reagan

Quotes[]

Green: This guy was stabbed AND shot!?

M.E. Rodgers: New York's a tough town.

Briscoe: How'd ESU miss it?

M.E. Rodgers: There was no exit wound and the entrance was hidden under the hair in the armpit. I only found it when I x-rayed the body.

Green: Well could this guy have been shot and made it to the cab?

M.E. Rodgers: Yeah, Reagan never knew he got shot until he got to Bethesda Naval.

Briscoe: So, what killed him, the knife or the gun?

M.E. Rodgers: Take your pick.

Background information and notes[]

• Continuity error: Lynette DuPree is credited as "Judge Rhonda Hall" but her character's nameplate displays her name as "Joyce Randall" in this and all her previous appearances.

Episode scene cards[]