What triggered this post is this recent event:
Live Updates: Police Chase New Leads, Including DNA, in Killing of Insurance C.E.O.
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf launching the Law & Order franchise.
I have watched all episodes of this series.
Set and filmed in New York City, the series follows a two-part approach: the first half-hour is the investigation of a crime (usually murder) and apprehension of a suspect by New York City Police Department homicide detectives, the second half is the prosecution of the defendant by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
I have also watched all the episodes of all but one (“True Crime”) of its spin-offs:
Special Victims Unit. Criminal Intent. Trial by Jury. LA. UK. Organized Crime.
Plots are based on real cases that recently made headlines, although the motivation for the crime and the perpetrator may be much different.
The point of this post is to brainstorm different motivations for a future Law & Order episode.
My fictional version on this real event, based on watching so many episodes, relies on the general structure where the initial motivation is a misdirection, and so, it is not about healthcare insurance at all, and Deny and Delay carved on shell casings are part of the misdirection, and perhaps too conspicuously so, and the real reason is something else.
Not: Personal Revenge for Insurance Denial or Delay reasons that personally affected the perpetrator.
What else?
Revenge for something else. What? Given that the murderer appears to be a younger male, it can be (R1) he is a (gay) lover who has been spurned (“Jealousy”) or (R2) is an illegitimate son whose mother and him have been ignored or treated unjustly (”Hitchcockian” or “Greek Tragedy”). Or, (R3) was an ex-employee who was fired or passed over for promotion.
Cover-up for some other crime. Then why do it in such a high-profile setting? Why now? Why in NYC?
The easy answer is Opportunity.
And perhaps, the Ability to Escape, related to knowing the area well, because he is local.
Why stay in a hotel then?
Misdirection.
Weak?
Unless, the person was hired – see more below – by the victim himself to deflect from something that they feel is worth concealing. How else did the assassin know the narrow time window and place to do this?
Money, that is, he is a hired assassin (see the most recent, that is December 3rd, FBI: Most Wanted, for example, and of course, The Day of the Jackal.) Hired by who? And Why? Well, back to Revenge, maybe because of health insurance reasons! Or remove him as a competitor for the CEO job of the larger company in which the Insurance arm is just a subsidiary, or just for the insurance arm so a new CEO can be named, that is for professional advancement, that is money and status. Or, the person hiring him is the wife (or her side of the family) of the murdered because of (R1) or (R2) above. Or, he had a gambling problem, and the NJ mafia (Sopranos!) has decided to make an example out of him.
Or, there is no reason other than for entertainment and wanting to be in the news, or taking a bet that one can get away with murder in NYC, or a misguided activist bringing focus to the healthcare insurance industry (like Climate Activists that damage art and so on).
I could go on.
Send me your fictional variations.
