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| “ | Okay, I admit I still think about it. It's a constant struggle. | „ |
| ~ Ralsey about his compulsions to rape. |
Bennie Edgar Ralsey is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Mother". He is a serial rapist who is suspected of sexually assaulting his therapist, Dr. Greta Heints.
He was portrayed by P.J. Marshall.
Early life[]
In the early 1990s, Ralsey raped at least 30 prostitutes; his nickname in the press was "The Duct Tape Rapist" because he bound his victims with duct tape before assaulting them. He was eventually caught, however, and spent 10 years in prison for his crimes; prosecutors were only able to definitively connect him to seven rapes.
After he served his sentence, he was civilly committed to a psychiatric hospital as a sexually violent offender. In the hospital, he participated in therapy with Dr. Greta Heints, a psychotherapist who believed she could cure rapists of their violent sexual compulsions by "reparenting" them - regressing them to their childhood selves in order to pinpoint the moment that their sexuality went awry and instill them with new, positive beliefs and behaviors. He grew to depend on her as if she was his mother, his own family having disowned him after he was caught, while she considered him her greatest success.
His participation in Heints' therapy program earned him monitored release from the hospital, despite outcry from his victims, their families, and prison authorities. As a condition of his release, he had to register as a sex offender and wear an ankle monitor at all times and was forbidden from leaving his apartment after he got home from work, as he lived in an area known for prostitution. After leaving prison, he found a job as a salesman in an electronics store, and he even started a relationship with a librarian named Amy Carr; he told her that he had been in prison for stealing to finance a gambling addiction.
"Mother"[]
After Heints is found unconscious and sexually assaulted in an alley, the NYPD's Special Victims Unit considers Ralsey their top suspect. Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler question him at work, where he says that he was home at the time Heints was attacked and swears that he would never hurt "the doc", whom he says had "rewired" him to get rid of his violent sexual fantasies. They visit Ralsey's parole officer, who says that it would be impossible for Ralsey to shake his electronic surveillance.
Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola questions Ralsey's brother to find out if Ralsey had been to see him, which would have also violated the conditions of his release. He replied that he had told his brother to leave him and his wife and daughters alone even as Ralsey claimed to have changed because of his relationship with Amy. Benson and Stabler talk to Amy and tell her what Ralsey actually did; horrified, Amy reveals that they had slept together for the first time the night before.
Benson and Stabler stake out Ralsey's apartment while watching his electronic surveillance, only to find that Ralsey has put his ankle monitor on his cat's collar so he could slip out undetected. Deducing that he would have gone to Amy's apartment to hide, they find him there cooking a romantic dinner for the two of them. He takes off running down the fire escape, but the detectives manage to subdue him and take him into custody.
While Benson and Stabler interrogate Ralsey, he laments that he was fired right after they questioned him at work, and he swears that he had only wanted to see Amy so she could comfort him. Benson and Stabler tell him that Amy now knows that he lied to her and confront him with pictures he had taken of her sleeping without her consent, along with a burglary kit that includes duct tape. Ralsey admits that he still fantasizes about raping women, but he still insists that he did not attack Heints.
Benson and Stabler eventually discover that Ralsey is, in fact, innocent; the real assailant was Christina Logan, the mother of another of Heints' patients. Ralsey is nevertheless found guilty of violating the terms of his release and sent back to the psychiatric hospital, presumably for life.
External links[]
- Bennie Edgar Ralsey on the Law & Order Wiki
