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| “ | Thank you, Adam. I could use a friend. | „ |
| ~ Corcoran trying to get Adam Schiff to get him out of trouble. |
Dwight Corcoran is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "The Working Stiff". He is a corrupt politician who orders a murder to cover up the money laundering and fraud he has committed.
He was portrayed by the late William Prince.
Early life[]
Corcoran began his political career in the 1950s in New York, eventually becoming Governor with the help of his friend and law school classmate Adam Schiff, who ran his campaign. Corcoran also helped Schiff in his career, eventually supporting him in his successful run for District Attorney of Manhattan County. Corcoran served one term as Governor, after which he was appointed U.S. Secretary of State. He eventually retired from politics to go into banking, eventually becoming the Chairman of the Bank of the Five Boroughs.
In the late 1980s, Corcoran went into business with venture capitalist Marshall McFadden, one of the bank's biggest clients, in a scam to give bad loans to companies acquired by McFadden so they would go bankrupt, McFadden could take the profits. and Corcoran could write off the loans on his taxes. Corcoran laundered the money he and McFadden made from the scam through the Ann McFadden Cancer Foundation, a non-profit McFadden founded and named for his late wife; Corcoran sat on the foundation's board of trustees.
Cororan bankrupted Evans & Black, one of the companies McFadden acquired, by having the president of their union, Eddie Palmieri, roll back the employees' salaries and investing their health care, pension plans and housing developments in junk bonds. When the bonds failed, the company went under, allowing Corcoran and McFadden to liquidate its assets and launder the profits.
Eventually, one of the company's employees, Simon Vilanis, reported Corcoran and McFadden's fraud. The U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into McFadden, planning to indict him for eight counts of bank fraud. Corcoran got advance warning of the indictments from the son of his former law partner. Fearing that McFadden would inform on him in return for a lenient sentence, Corcoran pulled strings to have the lead prosecutor, William Cousins, fired, and bribed Palmieri to have McFadden killed. Palmieri paid his cousin Joey to break into McFadden's brokerage firm and shoot him in the head, killing him.
In "The Working Stiff"[]
NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and Detective Mike Logan investigate McFadden's murder, eventually arresting Vilanis, whose pistol was used to kill McFadden. However, they doubt that Vilanis, who is dying of lung cancer, would have had the strength to stalk McFadden, kill him, and get away before the police arrived. When they question him again, he admits that he did not kill McFadden, and only said that he did because he wants his day in court to reveal what McFadden did to him and his fellow workers.
Cerreta and Logan discover that the gun had been stolen by Joey Palmieri at the behest of his cousin Eddie and arrest both of them for McFadden's murder. Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette discover a check made out to Palmieri by the McFadden Foundation, which alarms Schiff. He meets with Corcoran for a drink and asks him what he knows about the check to Palmieri, but he denies having anything to do with it.
Unsatisfied, Schiff has Stone and Robinette go through Corcoran's finances and those of the foundation, and they find multiple ties between Corcoran and Eddie Palmieri. They also question Cousins, who tells them of Corcoran's interference in the investigation of McFadden, which leads them to Palmieri, who, in return for a lesser sentence, admits that Corcoran paid him to "take care of the problem". Schiff reluctantly charges Corcoran with ordering McFadden's murder.
During Corcoran's trial, Joey Palmieri testifies that his cousin paid him to kill McFadden, and that Eddie had told him that Corcoran ordered the hit. Humiliated by the bad press and terrified of going to prison, Corcoran begs Schiff for help, but Schiff says the only thing he can do for him is to let him leave the court by the back stairs to avoid reporters. Corcoran is then sentenced to life in prison for ordering McFadden's murder.
External links[]
- Dwight Corcoran on the Law & Order Wiki
