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| “ | Oh, Chet... thirty years at your Aunt Birdie's side, and you never learned not to cross her. | „ |
| ~ Birdoie after incriminating Chet for murder. |
Bridget "Birdie" Sulloway is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Ballerina". She is a "black widow"-type serial killer who marries and murders wealthy men to inherit their money, aided by her adopted nephew and lover Chet.
She was portrayed by Carol Burnett, who also portrayed Miss Hannigan in Annie and Sour Kangaroo in Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!.
Biography[]
Sulloway is a former dancer who owns the Empire Dance Studio, a front business for her husband Marv's prostitution ring. Marv is her fifth husband, as his predecessors - all wealthy, abusive men who committed crimes ranging from drug trafficking to child molestation - died under suspicious circumstances. Nevertheless, Sulloway always managed to avoid arrest thanks to her wealth and social influence. Her only real companion is her "nephew" Chet, the son of a deceased friend whom she unofficially adopted when he was six, and with whom she has an unhealthily codependent relationship. The two eventually become lovers, increasing Chet's obsessive need to be the man in her life.
"Ballerina"[]
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit meet Birdie and Chet while investigating Marv for the rape and murder of Tisa Flores, one of the dancers at Birdie's club. That night, Marv is found dead in their apartment, an apparent suicide. However, Benson and Stabler eventually discover that he was drugged and murdered. They arrest Birdie and Chet, who point the finger at each other as the killer.
When she shows signs of neurological disorder during an interrogation, prison doctors examine her and discover that she has a number of malignant tumors that have metastasized throughout her body to the point that they are inoperable. She accepts her impending death, saying, "No one ever said life was fair - only eventful."
Benson and Stabler uncover evidence that she murdered all of her late husbands, but Birdie claims that Chet killed them at her instigation. She then manipulates Chet into incriminating himself for the murders in return for immunity from prosecution. She presumably dies of cancer shortly afterward.
Trivia[]
- Birdie is inspired by the late con artist and murderer Sante Kimes.
External Links[]
- Bridget "Birdie" Sulloway on the Law & Order Wiki
