Crime Story/Ground Zero

Ground Zero
Season 1, Episode 22
Airdate	March 13, 1987
Teleplay by	Robert Eisele & Frederick Rappaport and Frank Megna & Peter Lance
Story by	Chuck Adamson & Michael Mann
Directed by	Peter Medak
← 1x21 Top of the World	2x01 → The Senator, the Movie Star, and the Mob
Crime Story — Season One

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Ground Zero is the twenty-second episode of the first season of Crime Story.

Starring: Dennis Farina (Lt. Mike Torello), Anthony Denison (Ray Luca), Bill Smitrovich (Sgt. Danny Krychek), Steve Ryan (Det. Nate Grossman), Bill Campbell (Det. Joey Indelli), Paul Butler (Det. Walter Clemmons), John Santucci (Pauli Taglia)

and Starring: Stephen Lang (David Abrams)

with Joseph Wiseman (Manny Weisbord), Johann Carlo (Cory Luca), Ted Levine (Frank Holman), Jay O. Sanders (Steven Kordo)

Guest Stars: James Russo (Nat Martino), John Vickery (Everett Steele), Audrey Matson (Donna), Sandra Beall (), Vincent Gallo (Charlie Riccio), Gerry Bamman (Gerry McNeeley), Reid M. Cruikshanks (Judge Criswell), Elizabeth Savage ()

and Charles McCaughan ()

Featuring in Alphabetical Order: Paul Beecham (First Reporter), Bill Hayden (Bailiff), Mark O'Neill (Third Reporter), Craig Vincent (Marshall), Jim Williams (Second Reporter), Stephan Zema (Board Member)

Plot Overview

Abrams brings Luca to court on murder charges, with Pauli Taglia as the star witness against the mobster. Torello and his men manage to hide Pauli so that none of Luca's men can get to him. Holman gives a quote to reporters about Luca being the new 'crime czar' which makes the front page of the local newspapers. He drops a bunch of papers outside the door of the sequestered jurors, getting the result that Luca wanted...a mistrial! The mobster has no room to celebrate, as he's worried about a rival from L.A. who's arrived to take half of Luca's action, and Weisbord, who's upset with Luca over the attempted murder of Goldman and the raping of Pauli's girlfriend Donna, is fully in support of the L.A. mobster. Luca takes out his rival, Martino, but Torello and his men are there to grab him. Luca gets away, resulting in a foot chase with Torello down the middle of the Strip that results in both men being seriously wounded. A stir-crazy Pauli gets Donna to admit that she led Luca on, and he breaks custody and helps Luca escape. They head to an isolated cabin that Pauli found, "'40 miles from nowhere", but Ray discovers that the cabin they're in is on the Yucca Flats nuclear testing site and tells Pauli to get him out of there. They're driving away when all of a sudden, there's an explosion, followed by a giant mushroom cloud...

Trivia

The Show

Songs featured in this episode: "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head and "Bad Boy" by the Jive Bombers. The latter song plays over the climactic explosion at the end.

Quotes

• Luca (to Martino): "I don't make enemies, I BURY my enemies!"

• Torello: "I just figured out I'm a lousy cop, but I'm a pretty good dispenser of justice".