On October 18th, Law and Order’s SVU [Special Victims Unit] aired what they described as an entirely fictional episode in which an investigation is undertaken on the rape, murder, and mutilation of a member of a women’s empowerment group.
The episode is called “Accredo,” and finds Detective Olivia Benson and her squad investigating a secretive women’s group.
The women’s empowerment group goes by a Latin name, “Accredo” – which means “To Put Faith in” and among the purposes of the secretive group is for women to let their inner-goddess free.
During their investigation, the SVU team learns that Accredo is led by a charismatic and mysterious man, Arlo Beck, who seems to have a stranglehold on the women. He is evidently often helpful in mentoring the women in a supine position.
Beck was hosting an intensive when police arrived. Detective Amanda Rollins is pregnant and Beck – at first sight – told her that she was overflowing with nerves because she had been hurt in the past.
Rollins, in turn, tells Beck that Vicki, one of Accredo’s members – was murdered. Beck shows great surprise and pain.
In time, the SVU team discovers the women of Accredo are branded near their breasts with the initials AHM – with what must have been a cauterizing pen. The women claim the branding was consensual.
Detective Amanda Rollins calls this Vanguard a “conman.”
When Keith Arlo Beck is asked about the branding, he says it was Allison’s Nicki’s idea.
The SVU investigators start to suspect the group’s true purpose is sinister and the new age compassionate, word salad-spouting leader is really a vengeful psychopath.
I shan’t give away the ending, other than to say that the Vanguard of this group is arrested and makes bail and is set to escape the country on a private jet with a certain woman…
Here is the link to the show – you can watch it for free if you don’t mind about a 50-50 mix of story and commercials.
Let’s give this NBC show’s creator, Dick Wolf, and writers, Julie Martin and Brianna Wellen, credit for some pretty imaginative screenwriting.
New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
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So, I found somewhere to get the episode, and finally watched it today.
The first major fictionalisation was the Accredo meeting up opened up with a woman, who actually got a promotion and her career became more successful for having gotten involved. That would never actually happen in ESP.
The word salad was accurately portrayed, though.
The lecture the blonde pregnant cop gave the lawyer at the end was quite good, and it’s quite humorous it’s their own lawyer-member that turned them in at the end. Not that I would ever expect anything quite so honourable from the massive legal crew whose pockets are being lined by Clare (& probably Sara, too, by now).
I hadn’t seen an episode of this show in more than a decade.
I had forgotten how melodramatic the music is.
Not great, but not the worst waste ever of 42 minutes.
In my earlier comment I wrote about how Hollywood scriptwriters let their imaginations run away from them.
Actually truth is often stranger than fiction.
About 22 years ago there was a Chicago crime novelist named Eugene Izzi.
In a short period of time Izzi wrote about 20 novels.
I even met Izzi at a library reception for new computers he purchased for a local public library.
Izzi had risen from poverty and overcome alcoholism and depression to become a promising new crime novelist.
In 1996 Izzi was found hanging from the office window on the 14th floor of his writer’s nook in Chicago’s downtown.
His office door was locked from the inside.
In his pockets were digital discs of his next novel.
The novel’s hero had been hanged out the window of his office by local right wing militia groups and he managed to escape and save himself.
Some people speculate that Izzi was trying out the scenario to see if it was realistic and something went terribly wrong.
Eugene Izzi was a good man who did not deserve such an end.
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The Strange Death of Author Eugene Izzi
Having spent all of his life living in Chicago, it isn’t too surprising to learn that author Eugene Izzi wrote his fiction in the classic hardboiled style made famous by the likes of Mickey Spillaine and Dashielle Hammet. In his life, Izzi never reached the heights of fame that his predecessors for his writing but is arguably more famous for the way that his life ended.
December 7 1996 was a busy Saturday in the run-up to Christmas. Just before noon, a man that was walking down Michigan Avenue happened to glance upwards and became embroiled in a mystery that has yet to be satisfactorily solved. 14 floors above street-level a man was dangling outside of a window. When the Police arrived several minutes later, they breached the door and discovered a puzzling scene. The victim was identified as Eugene Izzi and the surly man had asphyxiated by the noose around his neck. The other end of the rope was tied to a steel desk. A fully loaded handgun was found on the floor but had not been used. Izzi’s pockets contained several items that really only posed more questions than they answered. $481 in cash, a set of brass knuckles, a can of what was assumed to be Mace and notes regarding a batch of threatening phone calls. Izzi was dressed in a bulletproof vest when discovered.
For about a month after the discovery, detectives hid a certain detail about the scene. In addition to the items found in and around the office, and inside Izzi’s pockets, an 800 page manuscript was also found. It was a draft for a new novel that Izzi was working on. Avon Books, Izzi’s publishers, were not even aware that it was in development. Contained within these pages might have been a premonition, or even an inspiration. One detailed scene in this manuscript outlines how a Chicago based author is thrown out of a 14th floor window attached to a noose. This victim had brass knuckles and Mace on him at the time. The draft reveals that Indiana militiamen are responsible for the act of violence.
All during the Christmas period, much talk was about what precisely happened. Friends, family and fans all wanted to know one thing: how did Izzi’s life end? Opinion was divided. Those that subscribed to murder were happy to accept that the racist militia that Izzi was rumoured to have infiltrated for research staged a murder to look like a suicide. A suicide that almost wanted to be noticed by everyone. If this was a murder, then how come the gun was not used? It would take a very large and determined person to hoist a burly 220lb man through a window.
Another suggestion made was that this was exactly what it looked like – a suicide. Izzi wasn’t an author that openly and consistently promoted himself, but it was known that he had battled drug addiction and alcoholism. Perhaps things got too much to handle and this seemed like his only escape. On January 15, the official answer was delivered. The Cook County Coroner’s Office ruled Izzi’s death to be a suicide. His family accepted this finding, but not all of his friends did. Given his distaste for publicity, committing suicide in a style such as this does seem a contradiction that strikes some of his friends as odd.
Neither of these ideas can conclusively end the debate. Either one is as plausible as the other. A new suggestion was made afterwards. Perhaps this was not a murder or suicide at all. Could Eugene Izzi have been acting out the scene from his manuscript and something went horribly wrong? If this is actually what happened then it would seem to be a little extreme – even for someone that was known to have suffered from serious issues. This would not explain the firearm that was found.
Accident? Suicide? Murder? It isn’t likely that an answer will ever come to light.
https://www.historicmysteries.com/eugene-izzi/
Thanks, Shadow. I was having withdrawal symptoms from a lack of a Chicago story. Now I feel better.
This is common for law and order to base a show on real events. It’s for tv one of my favorite shows as they follow close enough that you know who they are portraying. This should bring some attention to the Nxivm lie.
This storyline was not on late night TV, nor on SNL, nor on a Roseanne-less Roseanne show. It was on a Law and Order :SVU show. I guess even liberal Hollywood realizes it is a story of criminal activity. Good.
A story like this could never happen.
These Hollywood screenwriters let their imaginations run away from them.
Who ever heard of a lesbian sado-masochistic sex cult that brands women run by a misogynistic ,male and funded by a wealthy heiress?
I hope Keith, Clare and Allison don’t demand screen writing credit.
The litigation could last forever.
Once people realize who the episode is based on it should raise awareness. It’s obviously not reality and they clearly state their shows are not based on real events. But after you’ve been stuck in bed rewatching reruns you catch on. Imo
They put in that statement that the show is not based on any real person or event as boilerplate to avoid lawsuits.
Of course everyone in Hollywood knows precisely what the plot is based on.
One of the actresses was on Smallville with Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack.
This “Jane” DOS slave who claims she was brought into NXIVM from Kreuk’s Girls By Design, she has been verified by Frank as who she says she is. Has she been verified too of been in Girls By Design? If so, were there other girls from GBD brought into NXIVM?