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| “ | $15 million by midnight or they both die. | „ |
| ~ Dressler threatening John Conlan's wife and daughter. |
Marty Dressler is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Darkness". He is a criminal who masterminds the kidnapping of wealthy, corrupt businessman John Conlan's wife and daughter.
He was portrayed by musician/actor Patrick Stump, who is best known as the lead singer of the rock band Fall Out Boy.
Early life[]
Dressler worked as an IT support technician at Energyne Power, a multimillion-dollar New York City-based utilities provider. One day, he hacked into Energyne's encrypted files for fun, only to find out that the company's CEO, John Conlan, was conspiring with Delph Power, another utility company owned by a hedge fund that Conlan ran, to create citywide blackouts in order to drive up energy prices.
He then decided to kidnap Conlan's family and ransom them for $15 million, rationalizing the crime by telling himself that Dressler deserved it for defrauding his customers. He conspired with his friends Nick Costas and Roy Barkin to kidnap Costas' wife Alana and teenage daughter Katie, while he handled the ransom demand. According to his plan, the kidnapping would occur during the next blackout that Conlan created.
"Darkness"[]
After the entire city loses power, Barkin uses a map of Conlon's house Dressler created using heat sensors to break in. He is surprised by Conlon's housekeeper Isabel Paez, however, and kills her by cutting her throat. When Alana and Katie appear moments later to inspect the commotion, Barkin kidnaps them both at knifepoint and takes them to a warehouse owned by Costas' father, where he holds them prisoner. When Alana makes too much noise, Barkin cuts her throat, as well, killing her.
NYPD Homicide Detectives Ed Green and Cyrus Lupo and their superior officer, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, set up a plan in which Conlon agrees to pay the ransom and meets with the kidnappers, giving the police the opportunity to arrest them. Costas grabs the money out of Conlan's hand and takes off on his bike, with Green and Lupo in pursuit. As he flees, however, Costas ran into a cable, knocking him to the pavement and cracking his head open, killing him instantly. Green and Lupo are able to find and arrest Barkin and rescue Katie, although they are too late to save Alana.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter and Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa charge Barkin with murder, but he refuses to identify the mastermind of the kidnapping. They suspect that an Energyne employee planned the crime, so they investigate the company's finances for irregularities, only to discover Conlon's role in creating the blackouts to gouge his customers. They confront Conlan with what he did and ask him to help them identify the kidnapper, but he refuses, fearful of losing his business and possibly going to prison if his scheme was exposed.
Cutter and Rubirosa investigate further and find out that Costas installed the fish tank in the office and Dressler works there, leading them to believe that Dressler hired Costas to kidnap Alana and Katie. They have Green and Lupo arrest Dressler; they find him hiding in his ex-mother-in-law's garage. They interrogate him, trying to manipulate him into confess by saying that Conlon deserved to suffer for what he did, but Dressler refuses to talk. Meanwhile, there is very little evidence connecting Dressler to the crime, as he had deleted all the emails he exchanged with Costas and Barkin while planning the kidnapping.
Cutter tries to persuade Conlon to testify about causing the blackouts in order prove that Dressler and Barkin used it to kidnap his family, but he refuses, saying that he cannot be the father that Katie needs in prison. At Dressler and Barkin's trial, Cutter drops the charges against them and tells Katie what her father did. Katie begs her father to testify, saying that she does not want to be his daughter unless he tells the truth. Conlon finally does the right thing and admits to causing the blackout, which provides Cutter with the evidence he needs to convict Dressler and Barkin of murder and kidnapping, sending them both to prison for life.
External links[]
- Marty Dressler on the Law & Order Wiki
