Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Deathwatch

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Deathwatch tells the story of authorized and unauthorized killings and suggests that one can be just as detrimental as the other, that is if we are even able to tell which is which.

In the not so distant days of a black and white flashback, we see the final moments of a condemned man. As he begins that last walk towards the gallows, we hear a voice in the background reciting from Psalm 49, "no man may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto God for him, for it costs more to redeem thyself... ." In the present, an elderly man lies in his bed and hands an envelope filled with cash to his priest; in the morning, he is dead.

Boyd is less than thrilled to be called in for an old man dying in bed. The priest defends his decision to call the police by handing Boyd a list of twelve names and telling him that the old man, whose name was Harry Newman, told him that he committed unauthorized killings. Boyd remains skeptical but his interest is piqued when Frankie announces that Newman did not die of natural causes but was murdered.

It is Mel's turn to point out the obvious this week, that if Newman was murdered the night before it is not a cold case. Boyd says that major crimes could have taken the twelve "unauthorized killings" but they were not interested and so they cannot have Newman. I like that they can come up with explanations for why they are not investigating cold cases.

An examination of Newman's dead body yields many clues about his life. He has a very large knife wound, two tatoos and some bullet holes. One tatoo is of his blood group and one looks as if he had tried to cover it. Frankie determines that the repaired tatoo is a crest and five numbers. Most likely, Newman has served in the military. If you have been wounded in the trenches it must be a handy way to let the doctors know what type of blood you should not receive.

A week before his death, Newman met with an author named Graham Barker. Barker professes to be an expert on British gangs and crime families, in particular, the Sutton Murrell clashes. Boyd cringes at the sound of his name, decrying him as a "hack," who seeks only to make a profit by glorifying criminals. Boyd does not want Mel to reveal that she wants to speak with him as part of a police investigation and advises her to trail her coat which he translates to mean to flirt with him. Sometimes Boyd makes obscure references that mean something, I cannot confirm that he did anything other than make up that expression. Mel does as she is told and returns to report that Graham will meet her in a pub called "the Poor Struggler" It was a gang hangout and is now run by the Murrells. Boyd good naturedly assures Mel that this does not mean that her charms did not work on Graham.

Newman's nice priest comes in to speak with Grace and Boyd. He says that he spoke with Newman a lot on varied ethical and theological topics including the Nuremburg defense. Boyd informs us that it is when you say you committed crimes but you were just following orders. Boyd seems impatient with the priest but not quite as irritated as he was with either of the priests in Blind Beggar. He leaves Grace to deal with the priest. He asks the question I have had for some time, "what do you do here Grace?" She says something about profiling and I still ask, yes but what do you do?

Boyd, Mel, Spence and Grace take a field trip to the Poor Struggler, the tavern owned by the Murrell family to meet with Graham Barker. I suppose to fit in, they order a round of drinks. I suppose also that it would be silly to expect them not to drink on duty or while out in public or in the middle of the day. Or perhaps none of it matters because they are patronizing an establishment known to be owned by criminals. Grace gives bartender, Carl Murrell, her credit card to pay for the wine and we are left to speculate whether this donation to mobsters will appear on her monthly expense account. However, had she ordered a round of water, she would not have had to use her credit card and it would have ruined a perfectly good plot device.

Barker says Mel tricked him. He wants no part of Boyd and crew and refuses to disclose any real information about his talk with Newman. Mel says of Newman's lack of cooperation, "that's what you get for turning your coat on the first date." Later the team will find in Newman's possessions a newspaper article written by Barker about the Murrells, gangs and police corruption in London. They surmise that Newman saw the article and contacted Barker.

At the office, Spence announces that Harold Newman died in 1930. Apparently, the old man who died a few days ago had stolen the real Newman's identity. Grace then proceeds to do that thing that she does and makes noise about serial killers and mass murderers. She comes up with a theory that he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder based on his military experience and was discharged from the service on medical grounds. Because... well why not?

Father Cameron, is attacked as he walks in on a masked burglar. The burglar knocks him to the ground roughly and escapes into the night. In obvious agony, the frightened priest makes his way to the phone where he tries to call Boyd. Before he is able to speak, he clutches his chest in distress and collapses. Boyd arrives with Frankie in tow. She confirms that the priest died of a heart attack. Boyd insists she examine the scene that night for evidence of the burglar's identity. As Boyd naps, Frankie finds only the burglar wore gloves.

Frankie, who apparently needs no sleep, reports in the morning that Newman was most likely a submariner or naval engineer. She found that he suffered from emphysema, almost asbestosis. The disease in conjunction with the naval tatoo suggest confined spaces, such as a submarine. Surely, there is a chance that she's come to the wrong conclusion but it is always so refreshing to have some logic to analyze.

It is Grace's birthday. Could you find a weirder scene in Waking the Dead? Personally, I prefer the scenes when they are snapping at one another, they make more sense. The gang plays it cool when Grace walks in but then spring presents upon her. Frankie says she will give her her present later. Spence hands her a small box and the look on Grace's face borders disdain. Spence tries to explain his camera but Grace is less than gracious about the gift. It is a good thing that Grace's specialty is not one in which she must empathize with people's feelings. Boyd saunters out of his office still in the playing it cool mode as if he forgot or did not know it was her birthday, but then hands her a small gift bag. It is a large bottle of perfume which they all coo over. Mel gives her a scarf and the women proceed to chatter incomprehensively. Only Boyd's announcement the "nice priest" died the night before restores order.

The squad has to figure out Newman's real identity based on the tidbits of information they have about him. Mel matches the tatoo to a squadron they can research. She and Grace dredge through tons of old dusty secret documents to learn about men who worked in small cramped and possibly secret spaces. They are able to convince the records keeper to let them see confidential records. Grace gives the records keeper some of the criteria she has developed for identifying the man. Somehow building a skyscraper on shifting sand pays off.

The team is also investigating the circumstances of the deaths of the 12 names to find if there is anything that links them to each other or to Newman. They know that at least four of them died a violent death. One victim, Beverly Freeman has a surviving relative, Marcus Freeman, that Spence has been able to track down. Boyd and Spence go to his address to question him. It turns out he is the husband and his wife died 30 years ago. Boyd asks if he remembers the circumstances of her death. Is that something that anyone is likely to forget? If Boyd thinks the man is suffering from dementia why try to get any facts out of him? Anyway, Freeman says that his wife was disturbed and took her own life. At the time, Freeman did not believe it. The coroner concluded that she jumped from a bridge but there were no witnesses.

Boyd then makes a startling breakthrough and asks Freeman if his wife ever served on a jury. Spence looks impressed or perhaps just surprised by his boss' synaptic activity. Freeman tells them that his wife served on the Charles Sutton jury in 1963. Armed with this new angle, the team strive to learn more about the Sutton case.

Spence and Boyd take us on a journey to Miller's Wharf. In 1963, there was a double murder there. Charlie Sutton and his brother Frank were a rival firm (gang) to the Murrell's. Charlie Sutton killed two policemen in a warehouse that used to stand on the lot. He was one of the last men to be hanged in Britain. They believe that Newman killed the jury members who sentenced Charlie Sutton to death.

Mel reports back that Newman's real name was Peter Alan Harper. He joined one of the first commando units. In 1945, his unit liquidated fugitive war criminals. He eliminated Nazis because the Allies thought trials would only keep the Germans from moving into the future. Authorized killings. Grace says that his moral universe was altered which led him to hire himself out as a killer when he left the service.

Knowing that Newman/Harper was a hired killer does not tell them who would have hired him to kill the Sutton jury. Grace says it would take a monumental ego to kill a jury out of revenge. Boyd says that criminals who set up crime families have monumental egos. It could also be that Charlie's brother and partner in crime Frank would do anything for him. All of which leads to another meeting with Barker, without the red wine. Of course, a revenge killing is something you do for yourself, not for the person who is already dead. But criminals probably don't think that way.

Barker, still antagonistic, shows up in the interrogation room for an off the record chat. He gives Boyd the background to the Sutton killings. Charlie Sutton was supposed to have shot and killed two police officers. Charlie contended that he was unarmed, unlike the police. He says that the police intended to kill him. He says he was set up. Someone else shot the cops. The jury did not believe him. They believed three police witnesses, a flying squad team, which was supposedly staking out the wharf. The witnesses testified that they saw Charlie shoot first. Charlie said without a gun, he could not have shot anyone. Some unknown person shot them in order to defend Charlie. As for Charlie's brother Frank, Barker tells Boyd that Frank Sutton died in a house fire. It may have been arson but the police were not interested.

Barker says that the story of how the Met was under political orders to prevent the mafia from ever getting a toehold in Britain has never been told. Barker's theory is that the police used the Murrell family to frighten off other firms (crime familes). The problem was that the Suttons would not go along with it and they knew things the police would not want known. Barker attempts to broker a deal with Boyd. In exchange for whatever Boyd's investigation yields, Barker will keep quiet about Newman's murder and put Boyd in touch with people who knew things about the East End crime scene in the '60's. Somehow despite their mutual hatred, they strike a deal. Boyd does manage to get the last word when he says that if Barker withholds any information then he will have him arrested for obstructing a murder inquiry. Boyd adds that yes it is a threat. Not much of a threat since given how often he tosses that threat at people, I cannot think of one person he has actually arrested for the offense.

Mel uncovers the name of this week's grumpy old man who hates Boyd for no particular reason. A retired member of the flying squad, DCI Malcolm Finlay, who arrested Charlie Sutton at Miller's Wharf. She and the boss head off to see him in his lovely home. Finlay greets them somewhat gruffly and announces surprisingly that he knows of Boyd and the Cold Case Squad. He says he cannot believe that the Met has nothing better to do. Finlay, who retired in 1986 says he never arrested Frank. Boyd asks whether Frank was psychotic. Finlay, anxious to put Boyd down, says they did not use such big words in his day. He says that Frank was a murderous career criminal. Still anxious to show his superiority, Finlay pours a drink for himself and points out that he did not offer one to Boyd or Mel. Boyd and Mel are more interested in getting Finlay's opinion on whether Frank Sutton could have been involved with the murder of Charlie's jury. After they add that Frank hired a professional killer, Finlay says it is possible, he says, however that the name Newman or Harper mean nothing to him.

Boyd tells Finlay that Newman/Harper was murdered. The supposition is that a friend of Frank Sutton's killed Newman/Harper. Finlay says that Frank had no friends. Given Finlay's disposition, it is probably something he and Frank had in common. Finlay is able to help the detectives by giving them some copies of files that he kept after he retired.

It is yet another birthday celebration for Grace's birthday. I get the sense that they are trying to tell me something about Grace, her life and her work but I cannot say honestly what that something might be. A lot of champagne is spread around, some speeches made, the party goers disappear one by one and in the end Grace is left alone sitting upon a small orange sofa or futon in her office. Grace returns home, alone. She notes that her house is in disarray. Papers are strewn about. She turns on a light and begins to pick up some of the papers. Just then she must realize her mistake because a masked intruder rushes towards her. The man pins her down to the table. In a full state of panic, Grace struggles and claws at his face. The coward punches Grace and she falls silent. He then grabs one of her case files and escapes into the night.

Frankie is first on the scene. She collects the evidence which Grace has secured under her fingernails and on her birthday present scarf. Grace is battered, bruised and embarassed. The next morning in the office her co-worker friends show support and concern. Oddly, they suggest she take the day off and go home. It might be hard to put the attack out of her mind in the place where it occurred. Grace says she is fine and ready for work. Although the burglar took her file, she has a back up of the Newman/Harper report.

The team pretty much agrees that Frank Sutton hired Newman/Harper to kill the jury which convicted his brother Charlie. They do find it odd that two of the murders took place two years after Frank died. Mel says Newman/Harper had a compulsion to repeat. Boyd interjects that that is a Freudian concept borrowed by Grace who is not always a Freudian. I will leave it for others to speculate on whether or not she is a fraud. Grace jumps into say that Newman/Harper is an assasin because he is conditioned to assasination but that it is not entirely a Freudian concept because it counters the concept of repression. She says she would explain more but they do not have time. I say I would provide links to corroborate or refute the entire discussion but I kept zoning out trying to find the information online.

The squad drives over to Newman's funeral. Boyd, Grace and her black eye in one car, the Wonder Twins in another. Boyd explains to Grace that Finlay turned over some documents with intelligence on Frank Sutton. It also includes surveillance photos from Frank Sutton's funeral at the same cementary. When they get there Boyd wanders off and comes across a headtone for Francis Alan Sutton who was born in 1938 and died in 1976. Grace wander up beside him and says again that it is a small world. The world gets even smaller when Graham Barker appears. He passes on no new information.

in Frankie's lab, Boyd says if they bury Peter Harper under the false name Harry Newman, then how can anyone be sure that it is really Frank Sutton in the Francis Sutton grave. Frankie asks if this is "detection by free association." Boyd counters that he came in to the lab "to get away from psychoanalysis." While Grace has some theory that Newman/Harper continued to kill the jurors after his employer died because of some psychological conditioning, Boyd thinks it makes much more sense if it were true that his employer never died. The problem would be finding a confirmed Sutton dna sample to which they can compare the dna in the grave. The best sample would be Charlie Sutton's corpse.

They go to the prison burial ground to dig up Charlie Sutton. In the process, they tour the gallows where he came to his end. The warden tells them that Charlie's hangman, Edgar Truelove is still alive. They cannot pass up the opportunity to question the man who spent the last minute of Charlie's life with him. The hangman says that he had spent a minute with over 100 men and ten women up to that point. Charlie was the last. Boyd explains that Charlie's case is so special because he kept insisting upon his innocence. If he had taken a plea, he could have received a life sentence and avoided the death penalty.

Truelove says the prison chaplain had a way of letting you know if the condemned man had anything he wanted to say. Some men confessed their crimes to the executioner. With Charlie, Truelove let precious seconds go by, against all his training and his instincts. In those seconds, Charlie uttered his last mortal words, "on my eternal soul I am innocent. I've been set up by the police." There was nothing for Truelove to do except put the hood over Charlie's head and execute him.

Truelove's deepest regret is not that he performed the execution, because that was his job. He does not say it but in effect it is an "authorized killing." Grace could have a field day. Poor bedridden guy. I digress. Truelove syas that Charlie's words caused him to lose faith in the police. He could no longer look upon the police as his partners. Truelove says he always gives the same answer, "Who am I to judge?"

Boyd gets very excited when Truelove says that Frank has spoken with him. Since there was 13 years between Charlie's execution and the fire at Frank's house, why wouldn't Boyd just assume he meant during that time? Truelove's daughter is able to give Grace a description of the man claiming to be Frank Sutton. He last visited them 3 days ago. Hence, when Frankie tells Boyd that the men in Charlie Sutton's and Frank Sutton's graves are not brothers he is not surprised.

Who is buried in Frank Sutton's grave? It does not have the same ring to it as who is buried in Grant's Tomb but it is a question they need to answer. One thing they do know is that Frank Sutton was not Grace's attacker.

Grumpy old retired DCI Malcolm Finlay arrives at the station. He says that in his day they did not worry about keeping records of everything, they only had to record enough to convince a jury. Apparently Finlay has a unique way of doing that. Boyd tells him that Laurence Murrell was buried in Frank Sutton's grave. Finlay says that they suspected that Murrell may have left town after killing Frank. Even though the official report was that Frank Sutton had committed suicide, Finlay says he never really cared how he died.

Detective Mel does some detective work. It seems to create something of a stir in the office, hopefully because of the shocking results and not just that Mel has done her job. She started by trying to figure out how Grace's attacker found her home address. She figures that it happened when the credit card she used at The Poor Struggler was processed. She looked into the ownership of the pub and finds that Malcolm Finlay is the true owner. Grace feels it is also an appropriate time to mention that another reason someone might want to eliminate a jury is if that jury had been compromised. Sounds as if she has struck on Finlay's system of convincing a jury.

Boyd grills elderly widower Freeman. He want to know if his wife had been under any pressure by the police to reach a certain verdict by providing off the record information about Sutton's criminal background. Freeman confirms that it was Finlay.

Graham Barker apparently was unimpressed with Boyd's repeated threats to arrest him for withholding information. Barker knows that Frank Sutton is alive. He meets with him at Miller's Wharf. Barker is trying to get information out of Frank for his book. Frank wants the story told. They go to see the hangman so Barker can hear first hand what Charlie said to him. Truelove tells them what he told Boyd, except he includes one additional and crucial element. Just before Truelove placed the hood over Charlie's head, Charlie said "Finlay." Charlie knew that Finlay had been the one to orchestrate his demise.

Frank tells Barker that the Suttons were not gangsters. They were the first to stand up to the Murrell's extortion demands. He says that there would have been no point going to the police because everyone knew that the police were helping the Murrells. He says that they arranged for Charlie to come down to Miller's Wharf using the pretense of setting up a a truce between the Suttons and the Murrells. The police assumed Charlie would come armed. The Suttons were told that Charlie was meeting with two of Murrell's gang but they were really cops. The cops were told that Charlie was there to make a cash payment. They drew their weapons and expected him to shoot. If he had been armed, they could have claimed self-defense. Barker figures that the two officers had been set up as well. Frank says that he was standing in the rafters and he was the one who shot the cops to protect his brother.

Charlie convinced Frank to keep quiet about his role. Charlie was convinced that ballistic evidence and the angle of the bullets would clear him. Of course, we only have Frank's word for it that this was Charlie's idea. But since Charlie was the older brother, perhaps he did call the shots. Plus, there was their old mum to consider, they did not want to leave her all alone. What seems interesting is that if the police had actually investigated the shooting, there is every reason to believe they would have nicked Frank for the crime. If he had come forward, he could have argued that he had to shoot in order to save his brother who's life was in imminent danger. Of course, Frank has had almost 40 years to review every aspect of the events before, during and after that fateful night on Miller's Wharf.

Frank shows Barker the gun he used in 1963. He then gets Barker to have Finlay meet him on the Wharf. When Finlay arrives, Frank holds the gun on him and orders Barker to leave them alone. Frank ties Finlay's hands behind his back.

After finding that the dna on Grace's scarf belongs to a Murrell family member, they pull in Poor Struggler barman Carl Murrell. Carl was Laurence's nephew. Carl confirms that he is in business with Finlay. Finlay promised that he could turn the Murrell business legitimate. Finlay told Carl that Newman/Harper held secrets that could not be allowed to come out or Carl would lose everything. Carl went to the nursing home to retrieve evidence of their connection. Carl says that not only did Newman/Harper tell him where to find the scrapbook he wanted, he also asked Carl to kill him. Carl says Newman/Harper told him exactly how to do it so it would look natural.

Carl says Finlay wanted to know what the police knew. That was when they decided to burgle Grace's home. Odd choice. Carl also burgled Father Cameron and brought on his fatal coronary.

On the Wharf, a nervous Barker calls Boyd to tell him Frank was there with Finlay. Spence and Boyd rush over. Frank puts a noose around Finlay's neck. Finlay makes desperate pleas for Frank to reconsider. Frank says what happens does not matter since he has been diagnosed with a terminal case of pancreatic cancer. Finlay will not have to put his fate in the hands of a jury which could be compromised. Even if convicted, the harshest penalty Finlay would receive is a life sentence. Frank does his best to force Finlay to experience those frightening last moments of a condemned person's life. As the final step, he places a hood over the head of the man responsible for the deaths of two police officers, the hanging of an innocent man, the murder of 12 jury members, the death of a priest and a brutal assault upon a police psychologist. Boyd and Spence arrive and Frank peacefully hands over the gun; above them the lifeless body of former Flying Squad DCI Malcolm Finlay swings.