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| “ | She does what I tell her, whenever I tell her! She slept with one of the jurors, that Pinter guy, because I told her to! She does exactly as I say because she admires me! | „ |
| ~ Conway bragging about his control over his fiancee. |
Alex Conway is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Brilliant Disguise". He is a charismatic psychopath who tortures and murders an escort for fun.
He was portrayed by Daniel Eric Gold.
Early life[]
Conway was orphaned at the age of 11. As an adult, he became a graduate student at Chelsea University, majoring in behavioral science. He used his intelligence, good looks, and charisma to climb up the social ladder and win over Carrie Newton, a beautiful young woman from a wealthy family to whom he becomes engaged.
Behind his handsome, charming façade, however, he was a violent sociopath who took sadistic pleasure in dominating those weaker than him, as well as dissecting animals for his experiments. He was also an adrenaline junkie with an all-consuming need to take greater and greater risks, a pathology that led him to become addicted to gambling and to seek out sex with prostitutes. He nevertheless managed to hide his secret life from his fiancée, who worshipped him as the perfect man.
After racking up $20,000 in gambling debt, he started committing armed robberies to pay off his creditors - although his primary motivation was the sheer thrill. During one such robbery, he struck a store owner in the spine with a crowbar, paralyzing him from the waist down. He soon began robbing and assaulting escorts he interviewed for his thesis project on high-risk sexual behavior; his M.O. was to overpower them, bond them with zip ties, and force ball gags into their mouths as he stole their money.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Conway overheard socially awkward lab technician Robby Vickery bragging to another graduate student about going out with an attractive young woman named Justine Stebbins; when Vickery showed off a picture of her, Conway recognized her as an escort working for the same agency from which he trolled for victims, and he decided to attack her next.
"Brilliant Disguise"[]
Conway arranges a meeting with Stebbins at a hotel in Atlantic City, where he binds and gags her and, to heighten his excitement and sense of power, shoots her in the back, paralyzing her. He tortures her with her for a few minutes before finally shooting her in the head, killing her. He then takes her body back to New York City and dumps it in another high-end hotel.
NYPD Homicide Detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard investigate the murder and briefly talk to Conway after connecting Stebbins to Vickery. He subtly maneuvers them toward suspecting Vickery by telling them that he told the entire lab he was dating Stebbins. Eventually, however, they find out that Vickery has an alibi and that Conway was at the same hotel in Atlantic City that Stebbins was working at the time of her death. Newton claims that he was with her during the whole trip, but the detectives eventually find out that he disappeared for a few hours.
Lupo and Bernard set up a sting operation, messaging Conway in an S&M chatroom and setting up a meeting at a hotel. They arrest him en route, but they soon find that the handgun in his coat is filled with BB pellets and realize that he had figured out that they were on to him. Newton's parents post his bail, and the trial judge dismisses the charges against him for lack of evidence.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter and Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa investigate Conway further, however, and eventually connect him to several robberies and assaults. When they show Newton evidence of her fiancée's crimes, she admits that she lied about his alibi. Cutter and Rubirosa have him arrested once again, this time charging him with robbery and assault in addition to murder; Newton's parents, meanwhile, withdraw his bail. Cutter tries to get Conway to accept a plea bargain by telling him that Newton has abandoned him, but he refuses, dismissing Newton as "weak" and boasting that the trial would be "fun".
During Conway's trial, Cutter and Rubirosa find out that Newton had seduced one of the jurors, Jordan Pinter, on Conway's orders. Pinter is dismissed from the trial, but the damage is done; he had already begun to steer his fellow jurors toward an acquittal.
Cutter calls Conway to testify and attacks his ego by saying that Newton left him because he could not control her; he then says that he once ordered Rubirosa to flirt with a witness to win a trial, and that Conway does not command that level of respect and obedience from anyone. Just as Cutter intended, Conway loses his temper and exclaims that Newton does whatever he tells her, including sleeping with Pinter, because she admires him. The jury sees him for who he is and finds him guilty, and the judge sentences him to 25 years to life in prison. As Conway is led out of the courtroom, Newton declares her undying love for him and shows him that she has carved his name into her chest.
External links[]
- Alex Conway on the Law & Order Wiki
