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| “ | This isn't about money. This is about the murder of Emma Schuller. | „ |
| ~ Mecacci as he prepares to kill Dan Patten. |
Tony Mecacci is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Reckoner". He is a contract killer who murders criminals at the behest of his client, Boyd Schuller, including the man who killed Schuller's wife.
He is portrayed by Tom Ohmer.
Early life[]
Mecacci started working as a contract killer in 1989, mostly working for various Mafia families in Commack, Long Island, New York. His signature as a killer was to shoot his victims once in the heart and once in the head with a .22 zip gun.
He was arrested and tried for one of these murders, but the prosecution bungled the case, resulting in a mistrial. Mecacci went underground after that so he would never get caught again; he did business with clients in person to avoid leaving a paper trail, and then had them deposit the $50,000 he charged for each hit in a bank account in the Cayman Islands in five installments of $9,999 to evade federal tax reporting laws. He also went by the code name "Bosola", after a character in John Webster's 1612 play The Duchess of Malfi, when communicating with his clients so his real name would be hidden from law enforcement.
In "Reckoner"[]
Mecacci is hired by Boyd Schuller, the judge who had presided over his trial, to kill several people who had been prosecuted in cases he presided over who had been acquitted, but whom he believed to be guilty. Schuller, who is dying of cancer, tells Mecacci that his final victim will be Dan Patton, the drunk driver who killed Schuller's wife, Emma.
Mecacci's first victim is Rita Haslat, a corrupt lawyer who had successfully defended an abusive parent who had starved his child to death; Mecacci kidnaps and tortures her by starving her for four days before finally killing her. He then kills child molester Bill Levington and castrates him post-mortem. He next targets Ben Vanderwaal, who was tried, unsuccessfully, for molesting his stepdaughter. Vanderwaal's wife, Heather, walks in on Mecacci removing her husband's hands postmortem - a reference to his crime of touching his stepdaughter inappropriately - but spares her life; he does so not out of compassion, however, but because Schuller had told him he would not get his money if he harmed innocent people while going after the criminals on his "hit list".
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates Vanderwaal's murder, profiling the killer as a professional assassin who is being paid to kill criminals who fell through the cracks of the justice system. Reasoning that a contract killer would have ties to the mob, Supervisory Agent David Rossi reaches out to crime boss Ray Finnegan, who had grown up with him in Commack, for information. Finnegan identifies the killer as "Bosola", and then arranges a meeting with the hired gun that night so the BAU can arrest him. Mecacci finds out about the plan by tapping Finnegan's phone, however, and kills him and flees before the BAU can arrest him.
The next day, Schuller turns himself in to the BAU as the mastermind of Mecacci's murders, but he refuses to identify the killer. Rossi, who had dated Emma as a young man, tries to rattle Schuller by lying to him that he and Emma had an on-and-off sexual relationship until shortly before her death, and that she had meant nothing to him. As intended, this ruse makes Schuller so angry that he inadvertently reveals that Mecacci is set to kill someone else, while the anger in his voice tells Rossi that this person was also a defendant in Schuller's court, and the main target of his rage. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references defendants who have appeared before Schuller with major events in Schuller's life and finds Patton, who Schuller admits is the last victim.
As the BAU interrogates Schuller, Mecacci kidnaps and murders Patton, and then goes to the rooftop of the police station where Schuller is being held. When Rossi leads Schuller out in handcuffs, Mecacci shoots and mortally wounds the judge, who tells Rossi with his dying breath that he had paid Mecacci to kill him so he would not have to face an agonizing death from cancer. The BAU searches for Schuller's killer, but by then Mecacci is long gone.
Mecacci escapes to Florida, but Finnegan's men manage to track him down. One day, one of Finnegan's enforcers approaches Mecacci on a golf course as the assassin is about to sink a putt. Mecacci recognizes him immediately and tries to talk his way out of danger, to no avail; the enforcer shoots him in the head, killing him instantly.
External links[]
- Tony Mecacci on the Criminal Minds Wiki
