| “ | You damn fool! We would have been acquitted! They've got nothing! You are such a pathetic, limp... you are so damn gutless! | „ |
| ~ Janet cursing Gil Himes for ruining their plan. |
Janet Ralston is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Happily Ever After". She is a socialite who plots with her lawyer to kill her wealthy husband so they can take his money.
She was portrayed by Roxanne Hart.
Early life[]
Janet married wealthy banker Alan Ralston and had two children with him. While his money afforded her a lavish lifestyle of parties and expensive clothes and vacations, however, she wanted his entire estate. She began sleeping with his lawyer and financial advisor, Gil Himes, and together they planned to have Alan killed so she could inherit her husband's money and they could run away together.
At Janet's instigation, Himes forged a life insurance policy for Alan that left her all her husband's money. She then made up a story about being mugged on the street that persuades Alan to buy a gun for protection.
Janet and Alan went to a party one night and drove back home. She then shot him in the head with his own gun, killing him, as she and Himes had planned; Himes then shot Janet twice, non-fatally, and took her purse and his wallet to make Alan's death look like a mugging gone wrong.
"Happily Ever After"[]
After she is taken to a hospital, Janet talks with NYPD Homicide Sergeant Max Greevey and Detective Mike Logan, who are investigating Alan's murder, and she tells them that a Black teenager had shot her and Alan. They arrest Willie Tivnan, a crack addict with a criminal record of mugging who had been in the area at the time of the shooting, but Greevey is troubled that there is no record of Tivnan using the Ralstons' credit cards. He also becomes suspicious when Janet gives him and Logan the same account of the shooting, word for word, days later.
Greevey and Logan investigate further and find out that Himes had been given a ticket the year before for having sex in public with a woman who resembled Janet, although she had given her name as "Brenda Smith". They also discover that someone had shut off the lights in the parking garage just before the shooting and find Himes' prints on one of the light bulbs. They interrogate Janet after catching her in a motel with Himes; she admits to having an affair with Himes, but she claims that he shot her and Alan after she broke up with him.
Himes is arrested for second-degree murder, and Janet tells Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette that Himes had been stalking her since she ended their affair, and "looked crazy" when she shot her and Alan. Stone and Robinette suspect that she and Himes are working together, however, a suspicion confirmed when Tivnan tells them that he heard Alan get shot before Himes arrived. Greevey and Logan then arrest Janet for Alan's murder.
Stone tries several times to get Himes to testify against Janet, but he refuses; Janet, meanwhile, offers to testify against Himes in return for pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges with no prison time. When Himes offers to produce the murder weapon, Stone sets up a meeting with Janet and Himes and their respective lawyers and tells her he will make a deal with whoever confesses first in which they plead guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in return for testifying against the other. Himes caves and agrees to the deal, and Janet curses him for ruining their plan. Himes testifies against her, and she is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
External links[]
- Janet Ralston on the Law & Order Wiki
