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| “ | I was a good father. Justin does well in school. He's not on drսgs or in a gang. He's a good kid because of me. | „ |
| ~ Capshaw rationalizing how he turned Justin Lafferty into a serial killer. |
Herman Capshaw is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Sheltered". He is a serial killer who manipulates a boy he kidnapped into helping him murder people.
He was portrayed by Ty Burrell who also played Parker in The Penguins Of Madagascar
Early life[]
Capshaw served in the U.S. Army for years as a marksman and was stationed in the Philippines. After he was discharged, he worked in construction.
In 1993, his wife and son were killed in a car accident, so he decided to "replace" them with a new family. He kidnapped a three-year-old boy named Justin Lafferty and told him that his parents and older sister had died in a house fire. He then took Justin to live with him in an isolated cabin, and the two of them lived for years afterward as if there was no one else in the world. He taught Justin to hate and fear the outside world, and to believe that he was the only one who cared about him. He also taught Justin how to fire a weapon in case "outsiders" ever came onto their property.
Capshaw was frequently abrasive and combative with his coworkers, and had an especially hostile relationship with his boss, Charlie Rodriguez. After he and Rodriguez got into an argument that nearly came to blows, Capshaw believed that Rodriguez was about to fire him. Unable to stand the thought of Rodriguez "winning", Capshaw ordered Justin to stalk Rodriguez at his work and shoot him dead, and to kill as many other people as possible so it would look like a random act of mass murder.
"Sheltered"[]
Capshaw sends Justin to Rodriguez's work site on Mott Street and tells him to open fire; Justin ends up killing Rodriguez and three other people. Justin then writes anonymous letters to the media taking credit for the murders and threatening more to come, once again at Capshaw's direction.
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green investigate the murders and find out that Rodriguez had been about to fire Capshaw. They arrest Capshaw after finding the murder weapon at his cabin, but Justin insists that he committed the murders, which is confirmed after forensic analysis shows that Justin, not Capshaw, wrote the notes. Briscoe and Green arrest Justin, as well.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn discover that Capshaw's wife and only biological son died 10 years earlier, meaning that Justin cannot be Capshaw's child. They track down Justin's mother and sister, who tell them that Justin was kidnapped when he was three years old, a trauma that drove his father to suicide. Justin refuses to acknowledge them, however, and insists that Capshaw is his "real father". Forensic psychiatrist Elizabeth Olivet interviews Justin, and reports to McCoy and Southerlyn that Justin and Capshaw have a codependent relationship; Capshaw refuses to let Justin have a life outside of him, while Justin would do anything Capshaw told him to out of fear of losing him.
McCoy calls Capshaw, who has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and reckless endangerment, as a witness against Justin when the boy pleads insanity. Capshaw claims to have been a good father to Justin, but Justin's lawyer confronts him with his systematic emotional abuse of his "son". The jury finds Justin not guilty by reason of insanity, and he is institutionalized; Capshaw, meanwhile, is sentenced to life in prison.
Trivia[]
- Capshaw is loosely based upon the late serial killer John Allen Muhammad, who committed a series of sniper attacks with his unofficially adopted son Lee Boyd Malvo, killing 10 people.
- Capshaw is the second character in the Law & Order universe to be based on Muhammad, the other being Lloyd Wilkes in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
External links[]
- Herman Capshaw on the Law & Order Wiki
