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| “ | Nothing is the same since they left. Nothing is the same. I want everything to be the same. | „ |
| ~ Stevens' breakdown. |
Wally Stevens is a supporting antagonist in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He is an autistic accountant who creates fraudulent life insurance policies for homeless people and then murders them to collect the money, all in a misguided attempt to make his wife and children come back to him. He later meets with Detective Robert Goren in prison to pass along a message from another serial killer.
He was portrayed by Mark Linn-Baker.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Stevens has a severe case of Asperger's syndrome, and as such cannot relate to another people emotionally or function in social situations; he is unaware of this, however, because the disorder was not an established diagnosis until he was well into adulthood. He has a genius-level IQ, and a savant-like mastery of mathematics, especially in the field of probability. He works as an accountant for an insurance company, specializing in fraud analysis, using his fixation on numbers and patterns to detect inconsistencies in insurance claims. He is also a self-taught pianist, compulsively playing five bars with five notes each.
Despite his social difficulties, Stevens did manage to get married and father two children. His emotional dysfunction and lack of social skills eventually drove his wife to divorce him and take custody of their children, however, leaving Stevens completely and helplessly alone. He repeatedly showed up at her new house with flowers, begging her to take him back, until she finally took out a restraining order against him.
When his ex-wife married a wealthy man, Stevens became obsessed with the idea that she would come back to him if he had money. He therefore went into business with Jack Bernard, a corrupt insurance executive, in a scheme to take out life insurance policies on homeless people, and then kill them in order to collect. Stevens set up the fraudulent policies through his company, manipulating the variables of each crime to avoid detection, while Bernard did the dirty work of killing the victims, usually by beating them to death.
By the time of the episode, Stevens and Bernard have murdered 14 homeless people, collecting $14 million.
"Probability"[]
Bernard murders another victim, heroin addict Leo Gergis, independently of Stevens, and steals the money. Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames of the NYPD's Major Case Squad investigate Gergis' death and connect it to 14 unsolved homicides of homeless people, eventually revealing the insurance scam. Ironically, Stevens' firm sent him to consult with Goren and Eames about the fraud that he himself perpetrated. Stevens compulsively analyzes the data and profiles the criminal as an insurance analyst familiar with the incorporation procedures of several different countries; he then abruptly announces that he cannot help them any further, and leaves.
After talking with the detectives, Stevens realizes that Bernard has double-crossed him, and kills him by flooding his house with gas. After Goren and Eames arrest Jeanne Marie Lofficier, another of Bernard's accomplices, Stevens panics and meets with them, asking about the money. Goren notices Stevens' inability to make eye contact and dependence on rigid structures and routines, and realizes that he has Asperger's. After detecting dozens of small, intricate numerical patterns in the murders, Goren deduces that Stevens is the missing third partner in the scam.
Goren and Eames visit Stevens' office and see that his pictures of his children were taken at a distance from a moving car. They look into his personal life and learn of his divorce, thus revealing his motive for the murders and the fraud. They show up unannounced at Stevens' house and confront him about him taking part in the scam and the murders to get his wife back, as well as his Asperger's. Overwhelmed, Stevens breaks down crying, lamenting that nothing is the same since he lost his family. Goren and Eames arrest him, and he makes a full confession to his crimes. He is then imprisoned for life.
"Endgame"[]
Four years later, Stevens contacts Goren from prison and asks to see him. He tells Goren that another serial killer, Mark Ford Brady, who is awaiting execution in the same prison and who befriended Stevens when he first arrived, wants to talk to him. Goren asks Stevens how he is doing, and Stevens replies that he misses his mother. Goren takes pity on him and says he will talk to the warden about getting him transferred to a prison closer to where she lives so she can visit.
External links[]
- Wally Stevens on the Law & Order Wiki
