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| “ | This is Giuliani New York. I thought you guys won the drug war, eh? | „ |
| ~ Carlo Parisi after Benson and Stabler question him about his drug abuse. |
Carlo Parisi is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "...Or Just Look Like One". He is a sleazy, drug-addicted fashion photographer who sexually abuses his underage models and helps his ex-girlfriend Deborah Latrell cover up the murders of models Jazmin Burgess and Vanessa Wong.
He was portrayed by Ritchie Coster, who also portrayed Mark Bruner in Law & Order, The Chechen in The Dark Knight, Dietrich Banning in The Tuxedo, Arthur Blisterman in CSI: Las Vegas, and Pope in The Walking Dead.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Born Carl Parsley, he started out as a small-time photographer barely making a living shooting department store ads. He started a relationship with the supermodel Deborah Latrell, and they eventually got engaged. He changed his name to Carlo Parisi and became an A-list photographer thanks to Latrell, who wrote it into her modeling agency's contract that he shoot every ad and magazine spread she appeared in. Despite owing her his career, Parisi regularly cheated on Latrell with other models, including her best friends. He also developed addictions to cocaine and methamphetamine.
Parisi broke off the engagement after Latrell was disfigured by serial rapist Ricky Blaine, but helped out her suddenly flagging career by opening a modeling agency with her and well-connected agent Nina Laszlo. He also used his position in the agency to sleep with the models, many of them underage, and exploited them for child pornography.
After Parisi kicked teenage models Jazmin Burgess and Vanessa Wong out of a shoot for "failing" a weigh-in, Jazmin tried to get back in by giving him oral sex, but he refused to include her. When Jazmin and Vanessa got back at him by showing Latrell the child porn pictures, Latrell flew into a violent rage and struck both of them in the face with a hammer, killing Vanessa instantly and putting Jazmin in a coma. She panicked and called Parisi, who came over and sexually assaulted Jazmin with the hammer to make it look like she had been attacked by a rapist. He then put Vanessa's body in a dumpster and left Jazmin in the parking lot of a hospital.
"...Or Just Look Like One"[]
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victim Unit question Parisi about the photo shoot, the last place they had been seen alive, and he claims to have barely noticed them.
When Laszlo is caught selling drugs to her clients, she makes a deal with the District Attorney's office to tell the SVU detectives about Parisi's abuse of the models in return for a lenient prison sentence. Benson and Stabler search Parisi's office and find the child porn photos. They arrest Parisi, who claims that the oral sex was consensual, but they remind him that they found one of her dresses with his semen on it, proving that he used his position to extort sexual favors from a minor.
Benson and Stabler eventually find out that Parisi and Latrell were once engaged, and theorize that she killed the girls after they showed him the pictures. They bring Latrell into the SVU squad room under the pretense of questioning her about Parisi, only to confront her with the evidence against her. She confesses to killing the girls and having Parisi sexually assault Jazmin's corpse. Parisi and Latrell are then both imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Parisi is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional criminals:
- Charles Rathbun, the rapist and murderer of model Linda Sobek.
- Jack Cone, a similar serial rapist photographer of models, including underage models.
- Victor Morgan, the secondary antagonist of the giallo film The Crimes of the Black Cat, who covers for his wife and business partner, Francoise Ballais, when she kills a model Victor has an affair with out of jealousy and kills more people to cover her tracks.
External Links[]
- Carlo Parisi on the Law & Order Wiki
