| “ | See? You even squeal like a mouse! | „ |
| ~ Alex belittling his son Leon. |
Alex Iliescu is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Securitate". He is a Romanian gangster and former head of the secret police who manipulates his son Leon into helping him kill his own brother, and who is later murdered by Leon after the latter realizes he is using him.
He was portrayed by the late David Margulies.
Early life[]
Alex was from Romania, where he was a member of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's secret police; in this capacity, he tortured and murdered hundreds of people who were deemed "enemies of the state".
He had a son, Leon, but regarded him as a weakling and a nuisance, derisively calling him "Mouse" and sending him to the country to be raised by servants. Leon nevertheless worshipped his father and, as a teenager, begged Alex to take him in; Alex refused, however, and sent him away again, this time to New York City to live with his brother, Leon's uncle Nicholas, and his wife Karen. Nicholas and Karen tried to raise Leon to be honest and law-abiding, but Leon still dreamed of serving at his father's side.
When Ceaușescu's regime fell, Alex fled Romania and settled in New York, working in Nicholas' furniture store. He used the store as a front for an identity theft scam, copying customers' credit card numbers and stealing their identities to withdraw large sums from their bank accounts. Leon volunteered to help with the scam, and Alex allowed him to copy the credit card information for him, but otherwise ignored him.
Eventually, Nicholas found out about the credit card scam and told Karen and Leon that he was going to turn in his brother to the police. Desperate to win his father's love, Leon told Alex what Nicholas had said, and Alex had his right-hand man and fellow former secret policeman, Tommy Zanescu, kill Nicholas by shooting him in the head. He also started treating Leon with respect for the first time in his life, getting the boy's hopes up that Alex will finally see him as a son.
"Securitate"[]
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan investigate Nicholas' murder and arrest two drug addicts who took the dead man's valuables after finding his body. They talk with Alex, whose business card was among the stolen items, but he denies knowing anything about his brother's murder.
Eventually, Briscoe and Logan uncover the credit card scam and arrest Zanescu, who tells them that Alex ordered Nicholas' murder in return for the promise of a reduced prison sentence. Briscoe and Logan arrest Alex, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette charge him with first-degree murder. Alex's lawyer manages to get the case dropped on a technicality, however.
Alex returns to his apartment and gets drunk to celebrate his freedom. Leon shows up at his door, asking his father to let him move in as a reward for his help. Alex no longer needs his son, however, so he laughs at the boy and tells him to get out. In an attempt to impress his father, Leon threatens him with a knife, but Alex laughs his threats aside and calls him a snitch. Enraged, Leon stabs his father to death.
Briscoe and Logan eventually arrest Leon for his father's murder, and his lawyer enters an insanity plea on his behalf, claiming that Leon's mind was warped by the violence his father exposed him to. Leon testifies that his father made him watch as a child as he tortured and murdered people back in Romania, but Stone and Robinette learn the truth from Zanescu and undermine Leon's defense, forcing him to plead guilty to manslaughter in the first degree.
