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CSIblack
Bang-Bang
William Cutler
Season 6
Number 23
Writer Naren Shankar,
Anthony E. Zuiker
Director Terrence O'Hara
Original Airdate May 11, 2006
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Previous Episode: Time of your Death
Next Episode: Way to Go

Bang-Bang is the twenty-third episode in Season Six of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

A woman is found dead, shot through the mouth in her own home, which shows no signs of forced entry or disturbances. At her husband's office, all of his coworkers were shot dead while he left the bloody scene with only a minor injury.

Plot[]

Victim: Janice Cutler (deceased)

On the case: Entire team

At the Lucky Dragon Casino, a security officer is looking for a person of interest when he sees a fight break out. Upon breaking up the fight, the person of interest grabs the officer's gun and shoots him multiple times in the torso. The man makes his way through the casino and gets in an elevator, taking a hostage with him. SWAT is called in and with the negotiator an hour away, Brass takes charge. They find their suspect holed up in a room on the third floor.


Fifteen hours earlier, Grissom and Warrick are called to a domestic violence scene at the Cutler residence. The body of Janice Cutler is in the living room dead from a gunshot to the mouth. Warrick finds a 9mm shell casing on the floor next to the body. The whereabouts of Janice's husband Willie are unknown, as his car isn't in the garage. Grissom sees that nothing else in the house seems to be disturbed, which he notes as odd.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Grissom that Janice has only been dead for a few hours. There are signs that she had sex prior to death; however, lack of trauma rules out rape or rough sex. Evidence suggests that the muzzle of the gun was put in her mouth and the shot was fired; the bullet then fragmented in her skull. Grissom figures that whoever did this to Janice was emotionally close to her.

Back at the Cutler residence, Sara and Warrick spot blood on the number 1 button on a nearby phone; however, the blood is a smudge, not a usable print. Warrick finds Willie's jacket, which contains flyers for hookers. Sara finds blades of grass in the bedroom closet, but none of the shoes in the closet have grass on their soles. She also bags a loose sock she finds under the bed. Warrick wonders if their culprit is Janice's husband, or perhaps a gardener.

Sara and Brass question Timothy Johnson, the young man who mows the Cutler's grass. When confronted with the grass-stained sock and the blades of grass in the closet, he admits that he was having sex with Janice. Willie came home early and caught them in the act, throwing Timothy out of the house. Timothy tells them that he didn't hear a gunshot and believes Janice was still alive when he left.

Warrick processes the flyers and finds evidence that Willie had his sights set on one particular girl in the flyer named Sally. Nick calls the number listed and pretends to be interested in Sally's services, listing their meeting location as the police station. Sally comes down to the station unhappy with the deception, but put more at ease when told she's not there for prostitution. She recognizes Willie from his photo and says that the two of them dated. He paid her with money that looked like it was recently won and offered her a deal on a vacation, giving her a brochure for Hawaii. A business card on the back of the brochure identifies Willie as a tour representative for Neon City Excursions.

Catherine and Det. Vartann go to Neon City Excursions and are surprised to see that it appears to be closed. However, the front door is unlocked, so they enter. Inside, they find two dead bodies and carefully make their way through the place in case the killer is still there. A thudding noise is heard coming from a nearby office. When they go to investigate, they find Willie hiding under his desk bleeding from a gunshot wound to his side.

Willie is brought to the hospital for treatment and Sara takes his shirt as evidence. After the doctor gives a quick diagnosis and leaves, Willie recounts what happened—he was in his office when he heard multiple gunshots. One of the shots went through his door and clipped him in his side. He went to hide under his desk just before the shooter opened the door to see if anyone was in the room. The shooter left, and he stayed under the desk until the police found him. Willie then says that he needs to call his wife; he's distraught when told that she was killed in their home the night before.

In the travel agency, David Phillips tells Catherine that the owner, Cowboy Dan, was shot once in the forehead; stippling indicates that it was at close range. Catherine guesses that Cowboy Dan was shot first, followed by the second victim trying to run away. The second victim is identified as Roger Banks, who had just received a promotion. Greg finds five 9mm shell casings and snaps a photo of a blood-smeared number 1 button on the phone, similar to the Cutler scene. Catherine seems to question Willie's story, unsure if he could run and hide under a desk so quickly after being shot.

Brass interrogates Willie and has a theory that someone is out to get him, as his wife, boss, and coworker are all dead. Willie says that he doesn't have any enemies and this could be the work of a random nutcase. Brass puts forth another theory—Willie snapped when he found his wife in bed with Timothy. Despite Timothy's story, Willie says he wasn't home when it happened and was unaware it was going on. Willie admits to hiring Sally to celebrate his promotion at work—that is, until he found out he had been passed over. Cowboy Dan promoted Roger instead due to minor infractions on Willie's police record. Brass says that the one in this case with the most motive is Willie, believing his wound to be minor. He then points out that Willie wired $50,000 from his home equity account to a marker at the casino. Willie shoots down the theory that he hired a hitman to commit the murders, saying that he lost the money at the tables. He angrily gets up and ends the interrogation, demanding to see his wife's body. Later, in the hallway, Brass tells Grissom that they didn't have enough evidence to hold Willie, but that an officer is still shadowing him.

Greg compares photos from both scenes and finds similarities—both scenes had the same 9mm bullet casings, as well as a bloody number 1 button on a phone. After thinking about it, Greg realizes that the number dialed in both cases was for a cab company (702-111-1111). At the cab company, a cabbie tells Vartann that he picked up a guy not far from the Cutler residence at around the time Janice was killed. He then drove the guy, who called himself Sammy, around all night, finally stopping by the guy's work place. The video feed from the cab shows a guy wearing sunglasses who looks a lot like Willie; there's a gun in his waistband.

It's discovered that Willie has an older brother named Sammy who served time in prison for grand theft auto. Both brothers were arrested for the same crime; however, since Sammy had already had a record, he was sent to prison. Willie, who had no previous record, pled out and was a free man. A fax from the cab company shows that a cab went to pick up a fare from the office park where the shooting took place; however, the fare was a no show. Grissom wonders if this is a revenge story—Sammy, released from prison six months ago, is out trying to get even with his brother for his living the free life.

After Doc Robbins hands Sara the autopsy results for the two victims from the office, he looks over the photos she has laid out from both crime scenes. He notices the wound from Willie's side and says that it looks like a stab wound even though there were no knives used at the office crime scene. The laceration has no defining features; the doc says a gunshot wound is usually accompanied by some abrasions. Upon closer inspection of the wound, they find blue discoloration that looks like ink. Sara picks up an evidence bag containing a pen found in Willie's office; the pen has a bloody tip. Willie's shirt ends up testing negative for lead, meaning his story about being shot is false and that he likely dragged the pen along his ribs to make it look like he was shot.

Grissom finds blood spatter on Willie's shirt sleeve, which is out of place since he didn't get shot at the office. When tested, he finds that the blood type is Janice's, meaning that, at the very least, Willie was in the room when his wife was shot. Brass tells Grissom that Willie has slipped their surveillance, and they figure that Willie and Sammy are back at the Lucky Dragon Casino.


We're back to the episode's origin point, as Willie starts a fight with someone in the casino. He grabs the security officer's gun, shoots him twice, and takes a hostage with him on the elevator.

With SWAT ready in the hallway, Brass calls Willie's room phone and convinces Willie to let him in the room. When Brass mentions Sammy, Willie says that he wants to speak to his brother immediately; however, the surveillance team has yet to locate Sammy in the casino. Willie eventually tells his side of the story—thinking he was getting a promotion, he spent $5,000 on a hooker. When he was passed over for the promotion (a $15,000 raise), he saw himself as being $15,000 in the hole. He wired $50,000 to himself and eventually lost it all playing blackjack before Sammy came and got him out of the casino. At home, Janice berated Willie for losing all of their money, calling him and Sammy losers. Sammy, in a fit of rage, shot Janice in the mouth and made Willie clean up the scene. Willie says that he didn't want to call the cops and turn his brother in, also figuring that he would get blamed for Janice's murder. After driving around looking for Sammy, he went to his office and found Cowboy Dan and Roger dead. Willie guesses that Sammy was giving him a clean slate by killing everyone that had wronged him.

Catherine and Grissom go over the casino surveillance footage and find Willie getting dragged away from the blackjack table by security with at least $10,000 still on the table. However, Sammy is nowhere to be found. Sara later enters Grissom's office and shows him a news article she found online stating that Sammy had died in a car crash in Mexico two months ago.

Back in the hotel room, Grissom calls Brass and fills him in on Sammy, saying that Willie has been playing them. Brass hangs up the phone and tells Willie what both of them now know. He yells out his kill word, "Jim." As he does so, Willie fires two shots into his chest; one of them hits his vest while the other hits the unprotected side of the vest, piercing his body near his armpit. SWAT bursts into the room and shoots Willie several times, killing him. Brass is shown lying on his back struggling to breathe with blood coming out of his mouth.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Notes[]

  • When talking with Willie in the hotel room, Brass mentions that killing someone, even by accident, causes others to look at you differently. In fact, he adds, you can't even look at yourself the same way again. He's likely referencing his accidental shooting of a fellow officer in the episode A Bullet Runs Through It, Part 2.

Trivia[]

  • This episode marks the first appearance of a Spree Killer on CSI.
  • Currie Graham played William Cutler in this episode. He also appeared in the season two episode Caged, playing a different character.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 6
Bodies in MotionRoom ServiceBite MeShooting StarsGum DropsSecrets and FliesA Bullet Runs Through It, Part 1A Bullet Runs Through It, Part 2Dog Eat DogStill LifeWerewolvesDaddy's Little GirlKiss-Kiss, Bye-ByeKillerPirates of the Third ReichUp in SmokeI Like to WatchThe Unusual SuspectSpellboundPoppin' TagsRashomamaTime of your DeathBang-BangWay to Go
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