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Law and Order SVU "Fault" (S7 E19) - Standoff-Ending
| “ | Benson: Victor, Tell us where Rebecca is and we can end this right now. Gitano: Dead. I used her up and I bled her dry. Do you want to hear how she screamed? How she begged for her mommy? Benson: Stop it! Gitano: She was a slut, that one, a real little whore. Stabler: And you’re a dead man. I'm looking at a dead man! Gitano: ANY CLOSER AND YOU'RE GONNA BE WEARING HIS BRAINS ON YOUR COAT!! |
„ |
| ~ Victor Paul Gitano bragging about killing and raping a little girl while threatening to kill Olivia Benson's partner, Elliot Stabler. This hateful piece of s**t. |
Well, I am already my fifth proposal now, and I have another one from the Law & Order franchise and this one is a really nasty piece of work that was definitely a blast from the past to any Law & Order fans. I apologize if the proposal may be a little graphic for some viewers or if anyone was also a victim of a child molester just read what you can at your own pace and try to vote without bias.
What's the Work[]
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is a crime drama TV series that has been airing since September 1999. As it is stated in the intro:
| “ | In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories. | „ |
| ~ The Opening Narration |
The spinoff series about the show Law & Order deals with a darker side of New York's criminal underworld as the members of the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit (or SVU for short) investigate, arrest, and prosecute rapists, child molesters, human traffickers, and abusers of any/all kinds, that also includes murderers if there's a sex crime involved. As they investigate these crimes, the SVU members also work hard to keep their work from affecting their lives and families.
The candidate that I am discussing originates from the episode Fault. In it, it states: The SVU detectives attempt to track down an extremely dangerous sex offender who was recently released and has kidnapped two children after brutally murdering their mother, stepfather, and older sister.
Who is the candidate?[]
Victor Paul Gitano is the main antagonist in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Fault". He is a sociopathic truck driver who at a young age started sexually assaulting and molesting kids his age while continuing to do so as an adult, which turned him into a registered sex offender. After getting released from prison, he returns to what he does: Hurting kids. After killing an elementary school children's family, He kidnaps two younger children, which kickstarts the entire episode.
What has he done?[]
| “ | Arrested six weeks ago in Pennsylvania for molesting a nine-year-old girl. Subsequently skipped bail. Registered as a sex offender for rape of a child with serious bodily injury. The sex offender status was the result of a 1987 conviction, when he served 18 years for raping a twelve-year boy. He held the boy prisoner for 8 hours, during which time he also tortured him. Burned his body with cigarettes, cut him with a hunting knife, and sodomized him. | „ |
| ~ Captain Don Cragen reading Victor Paul Gitano's criminal record. |
As a teenager, Victor Paul Gitano admitted to sexually assaulting more than a dozen boys and girls because he loved inflicting pain. As Gitano got older, he realized he was sexually excited by violence and desired to continue this behavior on more children because they were easier for him to control.
In 1987, Gitano kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old boy named Jake for eight hours, who was severely injured after being tortured with cigarettes and a hunting knife. Gitano was then arrested and convicted of the rape, where he served 18 years in a maximum security prison and was indefinitely registered as a sex offender. Because of what Gitano did to him, Jake grew up to become psychologically scarred and agoraphobic.
During his time in prison, Gitano attended Dr. Paula Greenfield's therapy sessions, even though he was reluctant because Pennsylvania State wanted to commit him civilly, even after he maxed out his prison sentence. For 3 years, Gitano talked with Dr. Greenfield about his desires and fantasies as a part of his psychotherapy treatment, including what he did to the 12-year-old boy he kidnapped, raped, and tortured. He told her of his plans and the details of what he did to his victims and how it excited him, and it disgusted her. Dr. Greenfield then kicked Gitano out of her program for demonstrating no effort to stop his behavior, only expressing the desire to continue it. Because Dr. Greenfield found insufficient evidence to meet the criteria for civil commitment, Gitano was released from prison, which made Dr. Greenfield resign from her job.
Coming across a schoolyard, Gitano saw elementary school kids playing, and he tried to talk to them by convincing them to come to the fence, which was where he encountered seven-year-old Rebecca Clifford and then started masturbating to her. The art teacher was informed about him by another kid, who pulled Rebecca away from him, and Gitano ran away. However, this incident deeply upset Rebecca and several other girls that the nurse sent them home. Gitano then tracked down Rebecca to her family’s apartment where he would stalk her and her brother Ryan from their window.
At some point, Gitano returned to his home state Pennsylvania, where he molested a 9-year-old girl. Afterward, he was arrested and subsequently skipped bail to avoid being remanded back to prison.
Fearing he would be sent back to prison for reoffending, Gitano decides to fulfill his fantasy of going on a cross-country road trip with children that he would rape, torture, and kill when he was done, even buying kids high-scope camera, sleeping bags, rope, and a hunting knife. Remembering one of the girls from the elementary school, he decided to track her down to her apartment building, where he proceeded to break into their home, slash both her parents' throats, rape and strangle the older teenage sister, and kidnapped Rebecca Clifford and her brother Ryan. He then has the younger son empty his mother’s bank account so that he has cash for his road trip because his Air Force buddy, Eddie Loomis, wouldn't transfer him any money.
Gitano then takes a traumatized Ryan and Rebecca to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in order to leave the State of New York, but gets spooked when he notices plainclothes officers and the money express worker scared by Gitano. Gitano starts running to find Ryan and Rebecca and gets chased by Detectives Benson and Stabler. In the panic, Gitano cuts Benson's throat with a hunting knife and grabs Rebecca and Ryan. Gitano then kills Ryan Clifford by slitting his throat and leaving him for the police, essentially making his getaway. Afterward, Gitano heads back to his neighborhood to get his stolen car, but it has a flat tire, so he jumps in front of another car and pulls his hunting knife on the driver, carjacking her and driving away with a crying Rebecca.
Benson and Stabler then track Gitano to the J&R Industrial Site in New Jersey, where he attacks them, shooting at Benson and taking Stabler hostage. He threatened to shoot Detective Elliot Stabler in the head with a shotgun if Detective Olivia Benson didn’t drop her gun, while Stabler pleaded with her to shoot him. Throughout the whole situation, Gitano kept lying about where Rebecca was or if she was alive while holding the shotgun to Stabler's back. Stabler assumes that she is still alive but asks Gitano if she is dead because he implies that he likes dead victims, which Gitano confirms, saying "the deader the better. They don't fight as much," implying Gitano might be a necrophiliac. Gitano then starts provoking Benson to shoot him, even blaming her for letting Ryan die and for what he might do to Stabler. Gitano starts getting paranoid believing the police are getting closer and the detectives are stalling, he tries to trick them into ending this peacefully and telling them where Rebecca might be, even though he is still lying. Stabler is ready to accept his fate, and Benson prepares to shoot Gitano until a police sharpshooter surprises them and guns Gitano down.
After Gitano's death, Benson and Stabler hear faint crying and search the warehouse, finding Rebecca Clifford locked in a crate, seemingly unharmed, and they take her to the hospital. They were relieved that Gitano didn’t have time to sexually assault her and that she claims not to remember any of it, but only time will tell if she is still traumatized. Lastly, Gitano was posthumously responsible for the temporary end of Benson and Stabler's partnership, because of the strain it put on their personal and professional relationship. This lasted for two episodes, and Stabler was given new partners in each episode, while Benson was transferred to Computer Crimes before going back to being partners.
Heinous Standards[]
| NOTE: For this section, I had to copy and paste from my Darryl Kern proposal, but since I wrote and created the entire thing, I would think it’s ok. If not, let me know. |
It's definitely no secret that the Law & Order universe is full of criminals that commit mass amounts of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and abuse, so the heinous standards are bound to be high. Each spin-off, sequel, or run-off show of the original has its own unique set of heinousness with equally, if not more heinous characters:
- William Lewis tortured and raped multiple women across three states for the sake of sadism. He flashes two foreign teens, after burning his roommate's hand—rapes and tortures 60-year-old Alice Parker who dies of a heart attack. Kidnaps Sergeant Olivia Benson and psychologically and physically torture her by taking her on his next rape and murder spree. Even after he was imprisoned, he escapes and goes on another rape and murder spree, even kidnapping a 12-year-old Amelia Cole just to lure out Benson. Forces Benson to play two sadistic games that involve raping Amelia or Benson and Russian Roulette.
- Johnny D. ran a sex trafficking empire for decades where he would sometimes rape or order other rapists to break in his female sex slaves, leading to gang rapes. One of those sex slaves was Ellie Porter who he raped, impregnated, and sold to Angel Perez who did the same to her but also killed her. He is also Noah Porter-Benson's biological father who didn’t care much for but as a chance to get acquitted for his crimes, he even tried to take Noah from Benson by getting parental rights for him. He has a pimp killed just to keep him from testifying against him. Realizing that he is going to prison, he shoots up the courtroom; injuring a court officer, Judge Barth, and Detective Nick Amaro, and kidnapping and killing another court officer.
- Darryl Kern kidnaps petite women using chloroform and then tortures, rapes, and kills them. A former soldier in the U.S. Army, Kern uses his military tactics to hunt and kill his targets, even uses a warehouse and bunker to torture, mutilate, and rape his victims for days, one of which survived but has to live on disability because she became agoraphobic. He always escapes police capture because he is always moving between New York City and Walden Falls each time he does, he kills a victim for their ID and money. He can also be considered a personal nemesis to Detective John Munch because he was the detective assigned to his case and takes a sadistic glee in taunting him about his victims or that he could never catch even escapes to Canada thinking that Canadian officials wouldn’t extradite him back to the U.S. so he could laugh at him some more.
- Eugene Hoff conned numerous people out of their money and manipulated church members into believing Jesus Christ was evil and he was good. He started a cult that worshiped him as god and would rape the female followers to bear his children. One of his followers, John Cramer, was shot in the head by him just so he could rape and impregnate his wife and young daughter. He even told them John left them. He orders one of his followers to murder six children (one was his 16-year-old daughter who had a child with Eugene) and then herself. Kidnapped Melanie Cramer, who was carrying his child, from the hospital and forced her to shoot Benson and Officer Zermeño.
- Mark Bruner brutally rapes and murders 17 teenage girls and keeps their bodies at a private location so he can gloat over them. After he gets caught, he confesses to the murders but refuses to admit where they are because he wants to make the families of his victims suffer but admits it to his lawyer because he knows he has to keep quiet about it due to attorney-client privilege, which then makes him an accessory to the murders. His lawyer gets arrested and convicted as an accessory while he laughs it off in prison and is sentenced to death, leaving the families without knowing if the bodies were ever found.
- Larry Moore sexually harassed and assaulted girls he worked with in Central Park. He was implied to have raped his aunt Helen before or after she discovered his true nature. For years, he kidnapped and tortured 24 women before waterboarding them to death and leaving them to die. He even recorded their torture so he could play it for his next victim. He then dumps his 23rd in the woods and leaves his 24th to die just for the satisfaction of having beaten FBI Agent Lauren Cooper. His actions were so heinous that FBI Agents Karl Tillman and Cooper went into an obsession and a depression and eventually took their own lives.
- Charlie Baker manipulates and sexually abuses his brother into helping him kill and rape 11 people in a week (4 were directly killed by him), he later tries to frame him for the crimes and leaves two of the victims he kidnapped to freeze to death until they were saved. He also beats his father for no reason other than rage and hate. He orchestrated a massacre and enforced rape because he was jealous of their wealth and relationship.
- Adam Grafton stalks, paralyzes, tortures, and rapes teenage girls over and over until he gets bored and kills them, doing this to over 44 women out of sheer sadism. He also implied that he would rape their corpses too. He stalked and tormented the sister, Alicia Harding, of one of his victims by sending her bloodstained clothing from her sister's murder. He breaks into Harding's apartment and masturbates in her underwear drawer to send her a message. He brutally kills Assistant District Attorney Sonya Paxton for assisting Harding in taking him down. He finally attempts to kill Harding but takes her hostage instead when the police finally corner him.
- Franklin Barnes (not from Law & Order, but another show, Chicago PD, in the same universe and has had crossovers with in the past) kills young black prostitutes and rapes their corpses, while also taking photos of them to masturbate to later on. He shot and raped a young prostitute named Sienna Brody, which traumatized her and left her barren. He rapes and kills his son's girlfriend and tries to frame him for it. He then tries to frame his son for the rest of his crimes and destroys his photos. He is then connected to around 70 murders but claims to have killed about 100.
- Greg Yates (crossed over with Chicago PD and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) kidnapped, raped, and killed 18 women (one was pregnant) and killed at least seven men for over 21 years, burying their bodies, until he decided to set them on fire to burn away any evidence. He has committed most of his crimes in New York City and Chicago, which got the attention of both police departments. He kidnapped administrative assistant Nadia Decotis and drove her to New York City, where he raped, tortured, and killed her. He then joined his old friend Carl Rudnik in a prison break and then betrayed him, and left him to die. He soon started a murder and rape spree as the police launched a manhunt for him. He tracked down his biological family and proceeded to kidnap his sister and hang his father to death. He even taunted Detective Erin Lindsay about victims, especially Nadia, who Lindsay had a friendship with, and even provoked her into killing him after she hunted him.
Like I was saying, despite the high heinous standards of the franchise, Victor Paul Gitano passes the baseline for his intense sadism, perverted nature, and despicable actions. He has a history of sexually assaulting and torturing boys and girls until they are almost dead because he gets off on pain. Most of his victims are children too, while one of them (Jake the former 12-year-old) grew up to become agoraphobic and psychologically scarred from the pain Gitano inflicted on him. While there are other child molesters in the L&O universe, Bret Jansen and Kevin O'Donnell are good examples, Gitano is absolutely vicious when it comes to children as he inflicts severe trauma on them that Jake explains he didn’t know was possible. Dr. Warner was horrified at what Gitano had done to Ryan Clifford (Dr. Melinda Warner is the medical examiner on the show and she isn’t normally disturbed by murderers or rapists), so Gitano clearly got to them all. He butchered an entire family just to kidnap a little girl whom he nearly molested at a schoolyard and was obsessed with, and also kidnapped her brother. Despite never killing anybody before, he was shown he is not afraid to cross that line when the risk of being sent back to prison for molesting a 9-year-old girl pushed him to fulfill his fantasy of cross-country child rape until he kills them when he is finally caught. He then slits Ryan's throat after already cutting Benson's throat to make off with Rebecca and escape the police. Gitano then carjacks someone by pulling a knife on the driver. He lastly takes Detective Stabler hostage and threatens to kill him with a shotgun before getting killed by a police sharpshooter. Still, even at the moment, it was very heartbreaking because Gitano almost came close to killing Stabler and would've forced Benson to kill them both.
The most interesting part about what he did is that he caused the temporary end of Detectives Benson and Stabler's partnership. While most of the SVU cases tend to get to them, Gitano's case definitely struck a nerve because it caused tension between the two, and it doubted their ability to do their jobs. The stress was already eating at them to find Rebecca and Ryan until they had Gitano at the bus terminal, and he cut Benson's throat, which Gitano used as a distraction to make Stabler choose between saving Ryan or Benson. Ultimately, Stabler chose Benson, and Gitano killed Ryan after making off with him and Rebecca, filling Stabler with grief. Stabler then blames Benson for not killing Gitano and rescuing Rebecca, causing Ryan's death, which causes Benson to lash out at Stabler, forcing Cragen to reprimand both. Stabler and Benson then go their separate ways to find Gitano. Stabler stops by Dr. Huang's office to discuss his grief over not saving Ryan, even trying to rationalize it by saying Benson made him turn away, showing just how much Gitano has affected Stabler. Gitano then puts them in a stand-off situation where he takes Stabler hostage and provokes Benson into killing them both. Afterward, Benson and Stabler confess to each other that they put their personal relationship ahead of their jobs, and that can't happen again. Benson then puts in a request for a new partner when Stabler says that he can’t live with losing her and believes they shouldn’t be partners anymore. This was the first time their partnership ended, and the first anyone could force that. The only other person to do this was Jenna Fox, the daughter of a rape and murder victim, who killed her mother's killers, before getting gunned down by Stabler, leading him to retire from SVU and devastating Benson, but she doesn’t count as PE due to having tragedy, love for her mother, and failing the heinous standards.
Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors[]
| “ | I'm not even entirely sure what his life was like before incarceration. He was a consummate liar. He was molested by his mother, or his mother was an angel. He moved around because his father was in the military, or he never knew his father. After a while, you realize he's just playing you. Men like Gitano were the reason I left the prisons. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Paula Greenfield's psychoanalysis of Gitano's pathology for lying, especially about his childhood. |
The only thing I would think of that could mitigate him is that he lies constantly about his life and crimes. Victor Gitano self-reported that he sexually assaulted dozens of girls and boys as a teenager, which hasn’t been confirmed and could be considered off-screen villainy if true. However, considering that we actually see several of his victims on screen, one of them was Jake, the former 12-year-old boy who was raped and tortured by Gitano. Jake horrifically described what Gitano did to him, never knowing people could do that to one's body and never knowing someone could be so evil. In a recording, Gitano also described what he did to Jake during a recorded therapy session, saying he cut him until a lot of blood came out of him, which he enjoyed, likely also sodomizing him with the knife. He even recorded 15 more tapes about a different victim and what he did and liked, which disgusted Captain Cragen after watching just one. Even though most of his crimes aren't shown or proven, people in-universe believe he would or did do it, regardless of evidence, and the way he describes his crimes makes it sound like he is speaking from experience and memory. Plus, there are the crimes we did see in the episode: spree murder, kidnapping, theft, torture, rape, and child molestation.
Doctors George Huang and Paula Greenfield even gave their own psychiatric evaluation of Victor Paul Gitano, comparing him to the worst kind of sex offender. According to the doctors, in a combined evaluation, Gitano is a sadistic sociopath who gets sexually excited by violence because sexuality and torture were fused in him at an early age, causing him to lash out at others. Despite committing several sex crimes, Gitano is not a pedophile in the classic sense. He is a sadist who inflicts pain on children because they are easier to control for him. Gitano chooses his victims at random and would take months or years to plan his attack, which was what excited him more. Despite attempts to cure his sexual sadism, Gitano has no desire to end his behavior, but rather to continue it, which makes him a grave risk to the community. In certain situations, Gitano is known to consummately lie, but also to manipulate others into believing that he will help you or you could help him, making it impossible to know if he is telling the truth. Gitano is a cunning destroyer of innocence, not a genius or high-level intellect, but just smart enough to discover the weaknesses in others and exploit them. During his psychotherapy sessions, Gitano learned to imitate normal human behavior and to act on his fantasies, which made him even more dangerous because now he knows to kill his victims. End of evaluation.
Despite a gruesome death at the hands of a police sharpshooter, being cornered, and getting his face shot off, Gitano does not have a sympathetic demise because he deserved it for everything he has done even detectives Stabler and Benson were prepared to kill him, even though they might never find Rebecca Clifford.
Final Verdict[]
God, Yes.