William Lewis was a serial rapist, serial killer, kidnapper, and sadist, described as one of the most heinous rapists encountered by SVU in recent years. He was the most recurring antagonist to appear on Law and Order: SVU, and had the most direct impact on the Special Victims Unit, particularly Detective Olivia Benson.
Modus operandi
A profligate con man, he maintained over half a dozen aliases. Thus, not even his birth name, given as "Lewis Williams", was entirely certain. Lewis managed to slip through the cracks of the justice system through a series of compound errors which he ruthlessly exploited. Particularly, he took advantage of police mishearing or misspelling his name to move from state to state across the country without his criminal record following him, i.e. records for "William Lewis", "William Lucas", or "Louis Williams" - none of which followed him when he moved.
For lack of a better term, Lewis was not simply a serial rapist but a professional rapist, devoting his entire lifestyle to being a sexual predator. Some serial rapists try to maintain the outward appearance of a normal lifestyle and occupation, but Williams was simply a delinquent with no alternative persona. Lewis carried no personal ID and kept no track of his public records, so it was difficult to track his previous life, and indeed, it may be impossible to discover the full extent of his past criminal activities. Lewis wandered around from state to state, restarting in a new location where he could find new sexual prey. He even went so far as physically burning off his own fingerprints, making it extremely difficult to track him in police databases.
William Lewis was an exceedingly dangerous serial rapist, and while he never typically tried to murder people outright unless backed into a corner, the brutal extent of his crimes shocked even the SVU. Lewis did not apparently intend to kill his victims; therefore, while one died as a result of his rape and torture, that might not have been his direct intent. Lewis's preferred modus operandi was not simply to rape victims quickly, but to kidnap them and hold them prisoner, while horrifically torturing them sexually.
For example, in the first attack for which the SVU arrested him, he held an elderly sixty year old woman prisoner at gunpoint, tied her up, then proceeded to torture her sexually for over eighteen hours: this included raping her vaginally, orally, and anally, as well as heating up metal objects such as keys and coat-hangers on her stove, then using them to brand her breasts and genitals. Lewis was not simply a rapist, but a consummate sadist who never second-guessed his actions and was incapable of feeling any remorse for his crimes, not even if several of the women he tortured ended up dying from the trauma and pain. Lewis's love of pain and disregard for life extended even to himself as he often enjoyed physical pain, as long as he was inflicting it on himself, and would often endanger his own life simply to make a point or to further his desire to torment others.
Lewis viewed all women and girls of all ages as nothing more than potential victims and vessels to become prey for his fantasies of rape and torture, even those of his victims who might have started out as lovers or girlfriends. Lewis, however, was incapable of feeling love or emotion towards any of these women and would always resort to torturing and raping them to achieve his desires. The reason behind this obsession stemmed, from not some childhood abuse or trauma, but the manner in which Lewis had lost his virginity to his babysitter at an extremely young age (implying a more disconnected and distorted view on sex in general as a result), at which point his father, drunk, had beaten and raped her and then taken Lewis out for ice cream. From there, Lewis equated pleasure and sex with rape and violence, and he viewed that particular time from his childhood as one of the best days of his life and when he believed he learned the reason for why he was put on Earth.
Lewis's actions were completely divorced from morality or logic, and he committed his crimes because he knew what he wanted and would do, and did, whatever was necessary to get it; his desires were the only rule or law he ever abided by. Rather than killing his victims, which would lessen his chances of getting convicted, Lewis preferred to leave the women and girls he raped and tortured alive so that they would always remember him. He took extreme pleasure in the knowledge in that whatever dreams or aspirations his victims might have had, they no longer existed as Lewis changed their lives and left them in a state of perpetual fear with constant thoughts focused on him. He then used legal loopholes to run circles around the police to stay out of jail, another act that became a hobby he took extreme pleasure in as it once again gave him a feeling of power and dominance, and made a new alias for himself so that he might begin anew in another state.
Despite his often erratic actions, Lewis proved to be highly intelligent, resourceful, and manipulative, having a keen understanding of the legal system and how to stay one step ahead of any police officer, detective, or DA. Even when Lewis served as his own attorney in the trial against Detective Olivia Benson, he shocked the SVU squad and Barba with his keen understanding of the court and judicial system and his ability to fabricate convincing arguments against the holes in Benson's testimony, while also acting as if he had been Benson's victim instead of the other way around. While highly violent and sadistic, Lewis was able to present a perfect facade of a charming man or even a victim whenever he felt the need, often having no trouble attracting other women and compelling them into believing his lies. Most of the women who were attracted to Lewis were often attacked themselves, along with their families, once Lewis had learned enough about them to plan his attack.
The true scope and magnitude of his victims was most likely much larger and extensive than even the police could have imagined, and it will most likely be impossible to know fully, as the cases to which he had been connected were only so because he was suspected, and there might have been countless other instances where he was able to remain even above suspicion. Like most rapists, Lewis loved the feeling of power and control he achieved through dominating his victims on a physical and mental level, often forcing the victim to beg for mercy after continuous torture and beatings. His constant dodging of legal ramifications through the manipulation of his various female attorneys and legal loopholes further fed in this lust and did nothing more than compel him to continue in his crimes, feeling that he was above the law and was incapable of being convicted.
Lewis's obsession with Olivia Benson stemmed from her keen investigation on him and his life, enticing him to believe that she thought she was more powerful and in control of his life than he was when they had him in custody. Ever since Benson humiliated him, beat him within an inch of his life, and finally branded him a criminal for the first time in his life and sentenced him to life in prison based off his own weapons in court, lies, Lewis longed to finally gain his revenge on Benson, ultimately resorting to taking his own life after he failed to rape her again to leave a permanent mark on her mind and life. In the end, Benson was the only victim who fought back and not only succeeded in escaping and nearly beating Lewis to death, but also finally got him convicted and ruined his lifestyle of rape, torture, and murder, to the point that Lewis viewed his only option for finally gaining the last word on their rivalry was by committing suicide. But even this drastic and final measure was left in vain as Olivia finally let go of Lewis's hold over her and left him as nothing more than an unpleasant memory, no longer worth any of her attention.
Psychopathology
While he was never given an official psychological profile, Lewis appears to have been an extreme psychopath and narcissist. Somewhat like famous serial killer Ted Bundy, half the fun for him was not simply in raping and torturing his victims; it was also in running circles around the police and taunting them about it. Even as Lewis was being interrogated, when he phrased his confession as a hypothetical scenario, he could have simply kept his mouth shut, but instead, he openly gloated about it. The real pleasure he derived actually seemed to be from the squirming looks on the SVU officers's faces, knowing that their hands were tied and they could never have legally used a confession he was making even as the words were coming out of his mouth, because he had prefaced it with the hypothetical "if."
Moreover, fitting the common psychological profile of psychopathy, Lewis was cocky, arrogant, and self-centered, while at the same time seeming honestly not to understand why other people were upset with him. Throughout his interrogation and trial, even as a mountain of evidence was presented against him, Lewis would honestly ask why the police were never giving him the benefit of the doubt, or where the sympathy he should have received was. It never became clear whether he honestly believed that himself - given that psychopaths have no sense of shame - or this was simply him taunting the police yet again, pointing out that the burden of proof was on them and he was innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, during the investigation Lewis became obsessed with Detective Benson in particular, convincing himself that she had to be obsessed with him and desire him - even though she was simply a police officer assigned to investigate him.
History
After an extensive search using alternate names, the SVU was able to get a basic picture of William Lewis's past. He was apparently born in Kentucky (under the original name "Lewis Williams," though, as stated above, even that was questionable) and fifteen years before his first encounter with the Special Victims Unit, he had abducted and raped the mother of his girlfriend when she had tried to break them up. He had offered her a ride in the Circle K parking lot, stopped at a hardware store, purchased duct tape, rope and a soldering iron, and finally stopped at a liquor store to pick up some alcohol. After that he had tied her up, had force-fed her alcohol and drugs, and then found an abandoned mobile home in the woods where he had raped her, leaving her there until a hunter found her. However, he had gotten lucky, because the mother had also been a junkie. Thus the DA had been unwilling to put her on the stand to testify, and the charges had been dropped.
Lewis mockingly told SVU that he was from "all over," listing off Texas, Florida, and Delaware before he came to New York, using the thin explanation that he was from a military family. While this was primarily a lie to hide his past while taunting the SVU about his lack of past ID or records, there was apparently a kernel of truth that after his initial sexual assault in Kentucky, he proceeded to travel from state to state committing various acts of rape and sexual torture, then moving again to stay one step ahead of the police.
After Kentucky, Williams next appeared in records from Alabama, where he was the suspect in a kidnap/rape/torture of a pair of roommates. Williams broke into their apartment, put them in the truck of their own car, and drove them to a fishing cabin, where he raped and tortured them for three straight days, then left them there tied up; they did eventually escape. Again, Williams managed to slip through the system, because both victims were too traumatized to testify in open court, so the lawyer got him off. Worse, his name was misspelled on the paperwork as "Louis Williams," so the record failed to follow him. Moreover, this gave Williams the idea of using aliases which were intentionally similar-sounding, to confuse police records which mistook it for simple spelling mistakes.
From facing repeated court appearances for rape charges, Williams became increasingly adept at manipulating points of court procedure - i.e. even while bragging to the SVU about how he raped, branded, and tortured an elderly woman for eighteen hours, he was still clever enough to phrase his entire boast as a hypothetical statement ("if I were to have raped her, I'd have branded her with a coat hanger", etc.), rendering it inadmissible in court as an actual confession.
Indeed, Williams actually seemed to be gloating--not so much about the rape he had committed, but about the fact that he could describe the entire rape but get away with it so long as he used the hypothetical word "if." If Williams spotted a break, he would catch it, and slip around the police and courts. Moreover, Williams managed to get the charges dropped in Alabama because he charmed and ultimately seduced his own female defense attorney, who even went so far as to post his bail and even support him financially (because he was unemployed).
After Alabama, Williams next appeared three years ago in Maryland, where his name was further misspelled as "William Lucas," and he went to trial for the murder/rape of his then-girlfriend - his own former defense attorney from Alabama. She might have been attempting to break off their relationship, which, if that was the case, was why he raped and killed her. He took her to a foreclosed house where he raped her for two days and left her to die. The police had him dead to rights – DNA, witnesses. His new lawyer got them to offer a plea of second-degree murder, which he turned down. As a result, the new attorney did her due diligence, found another boyfriend of the victim, and created reasonable doubt. Lewis walked, and the DNA was expunged again.
Arrival in New York and mistrial
In New York, Lewis Williams began his attacks by flashing women in the park. He managed to slip away from these charges with various lies given that the charge of indecent exposure was only a misdemeanor anyway, only, later, to rape repeatedly, for eighteen hours straight, the 60-year-old woman who had filed the complaint.
Williams was able to worm out of his most recent charges by yet again adeptly manipulating the legal system. First, and more by blind luck, the DNA evidence from his assault in New York was mishandled when it was tested in improperly cleaned equipment, which Williams and his attorney seized upon as reason to deem it unacceptable in court. Next, his attorney pointed out that the elderly woman he raped and tortured was so traumatized that she might not accurately remember the face of her attacker, creating plausible deniability.
Arguably, William's initial flashing incident might have been a calculated, pre-planned tactic. Williams was very capable of manipulating the legal system, particularly points of plausible deniability, and his greatest pleasure was not simply to commit acts of sexual torture, but to get away with them as well. One of the defenses Williams used at his trial was that his rape victim was obsessed with him, and thus was either targeting false charges against him, or was so traumatized that she became honestly confused and mixed up her attacker's face with his own in her memories. This created enough "plausible deniability" that Williams was able to go free - but it never would have worked if he had simply raped a random stranger he had never met.
Thus the full pattern of Williams's attacks was actually pre-planned, well thought out, and ruthlessly calculating; every time he moved to a new state, he harassed women with sexually provocative but relatively minor offenses (indecent exposure of one's self is a misdemeanor at worst), then subsequently kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and tortured them - to such an extent that he could claim that a severely traumatized victim might plausibly blame him simply because she was the target of his "allegedly unrelated" previous harassment.
New York City rampage
Lewis's vicious attacks would come to a head when he broke into Detective Olivia Benson's apartment, held her at gunpoint when she arrived home, and bound and gagged her. For the next several hours, Lewis would torture and humiliate Benson, forcing her to ingest sleeping pills, whiskey (Jack Daniel's) and vodka while burning her with cigarettes and heated keys.
Lewis then returned to his halfway house, intimidated his old roommate into handing over his car keys, and took his car, picking up his most recent defense attorney to have dinner at the house of her parents, the Mayers, while Benson was still bound and gagged in the trunk. Afterwards, Lewis dropped off his lawyer at the train station and returned to her parents's home, where he viciously attacked her father, bound and gagged him with duct tape and left him to die of a heart attack in cold blood. He then proceeded to rape and torture her mother with Benson being forced to watch, escalating her torture if she ever shut her eyes from the carnage.
Leaving Mrs. Mayer bound in her closet, Lewis stole her credit card and car and drove around the coast with Benson still captive, looking for a suitable house to slowly rape and torture her. While en route, Lewis stopped by a hardware store and, using the Mayers's stolen credit card, bought rope, duct-tape, wire, and a handheld blowtorch for his impending torture of Benson. Killing a police officer who pulled him over for running a blinking red light, Lewis took his gun and badge and stole his patrol car, using it to pull over a young woman and her infant child, pistol-whipping her and locking them both in the trunk of the police vehicle, taking their minivan with Olivia in tow.
Finally finding a seemingly vacant house that Lewis deemed perfect for his sick plans and intentions, he violently threw Benson on the bed and chained her up with her own handcuffs after he had "helped" her go to the bathroom. Ditching the stolen minivan in front of another house to throw off any potential suspicions, Lewis returned and prepared to cut Benson's clothes off until the maid of the family who live in the house arrives with her young daughter.
While initially eager to chase the maid away, Lewis changed his mind when he looked at her five-year-old daughter and instead abducted them, preparing to rape, torture, and murder both as well. While he was preparing to do so, Benson taunted Lewis with how pathetic she was convinced he probably was to prey on old women and children, accusing him to his face of not being "man enough to get it up" for a real woman. As Lewis was enraged at the detective's claims, Benson added insult to injury by telling the sadist that she believed he was afraid of her.
Intent on proving her wrong, Lewis unbuckled his pants, but at that moment, Benson broke a bar off the iron post of the bed to which she had been cuffed, and smashed it into Lewis's face with all her might, breaking his nose and violently pushing him against the wall. Immediately, Lewis attempted to grab his stolen gun from the adjacent night table, but Benson smashed his arm with the post and kicked him in the groin. As Lewis whimpered in pain that he had NOT inflicted on himself, Benson grabbed the gun and held it to his face, using the same threat he had previously given her if he tried to attack her: "One move--lights out." She then used it to knock him out.
Taking the key to the cuffs that had bound her, Benson freed herself and cuffed Lewis to the bed, the tables finally turned on the sadist, and released the maid and her daughter afterwards. Returning to Lewis, who was still seemingly knocked out, Benson voiced her disgust and hatred towards him and her desire to torture and kill him, before she admitted that he might enjoy that too much. She then mentioned her old partner, Elliot Stabler, and how she knew that he (Stabler) would have broken every bone in his body if he had ever found out what Lewis had done to her and so many others.
Revealing himself still be to conscious, Lewis attempted to goad Benson into killing him, picking apart her life and relationship with her old partner. Disturbingly reading Benson's entire life and motivation like an open book, Lewis revealed the reason he raped and tortured. His father would often bring him over to his babysitter's house to watch cartoons while he went into the back and had sex with her. One night, his father had passed out drunk and the babysitter had begun to have intercourse with Lewis, in the middle of which his father had woken up, punched her hard in the face, and violently raped her with Lewis watching.
While Benson was disgusted, as she had initially believed that Lewis had been trying to obtain some sympathy from her, Lewis revealed the contrary--that his father had taken him out for ice cream afterwards, and that it had been one of the best nights of his life; the night where he believed he learned the reason for why he was born. Realizing that Lewis did not have an ounce of remorse, redemption, or humanity within him, Benson pointed the gun at his face, barely resisting the temptation to kill him as Lewis encouraged her to do so.
Refusing to kill even such a sick-minded individual and, thereby, become anything like him, Benson tried to calm herself until Lewis commented, "I knew it. You don't have the balls." Finally reaching her breaking point, Benson took the bed post again firmly in her hands as Lewis looked on, visibly shaken. Benson then struck Lewis over and over again as he screamed in agony, eventually beating him within an inch of his life. She finally called the police and her squad, who arrived and took Lewis away, as Fin revealed to a shocked Benson that the rapist had managed to survive his extensive wounds, although he later revealed in court that he died 4 times in the ambulance.
Over the following months, Detective Benson mentioned that, though she was still shaken and angry, Lewis was locked up and could no longer hurt her.
The trial of William Lewis
Lewis, acting as his own defense, questions Olivia during his trial.
In "Psycho/Therapist," Lewis stood trial for Benson's attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, and assault. However, like before, he attempted to continue his legal winning streak as he feigned innocence and injury from permanent scars on the left side of his face, and claimed partial blindness in his eye and deafness in his ear, as well as limping in the courtroom--though this was likely him faking, as he showed a lot of energy when yelling at Benson. While he was able to force Benson to relive her memories as well as tormenting her throughout the trial, the jury acquitted him on the attempted murder and rape charges, but it convicted him of the charges of kidnapping and assault of a police officer, and he was sentenced to imprisonment for 25 years to life.
Before he left, Lewis gave Benson one final twisted look, believing he got the last laugh by forcing her through the hell in the trial. Once Lewis was gone, Benson took time to herself in the stairwell and finally released all her emotions, crying in relief that it was over. Four months later, he faked a seizure in prison, likely for preferential treatment. It is implied he was in a relationship with his doctor after she held his hand while he was on the stretcher. As he was taken away, he gave a twisted smile, implying a possible return for Lewis.
Beast's Obsession
William Lewis appeared once again in "Beast's Obsession," having escaped from prison after having what appeared to be convulsions and a myocardial infraction. The cause of these afflictions were spiked pastries given to him by the jury forewoman in Lewis's original trial. The forewoman, who had delivered the jury's verdict of not guilty on the charges of murder and rape and guilty for kidnapping and assault of a police officer, had frequented Lewis's prison, believing Lewis to have been wrongly convicted. During one of the visits that she (the juror) made to Lewis, she prepared an assortment of pastries, which, unbeknownst to Lewis, contained anxiety relieving prescription drugs which she used herself to quell her angst during her onstage mandolin performances.
Lewis was later discovered by his cellmate convulsing violently after falling from his bed. He was subsequently rushed to a nearby hospital where Janice Cole, one of the doctors employed there, attempted to stabilize him. However, doctors later pronounced him dead when attempts to resuscitate him failed. Soon after, he spontaneously "auto-resuscitated" in one of the doctors described as "The Lazarus Effect." It was at this time that, amidst the Monday morning mayhem, he managed to change into the attire of a hospital employee. Under the guise of a doctor, he absconded the hospital and began, or rather resumed, his manic killing spree. Also, before departing from the hospital he also raped one of the nurses, and hung her unconscious body in a storage closet. He also murdered a cop by snapping his neck and stealing his gun.
Once he evacuated the hospital, he continued his brutal mindgames with now-Sergeant Olivia Benson by calling her, saying: "I missed you, sunshine" before hanging up. Benson and the SVU, along with other law enforcement personnel, gathered at the police headquarters to discuss a prudent and appropriate course of action. However, their meeting was interrupted by Lieutenant Murphy who forced Benson to (likely temporarily) cede her leadership position, much to her outspoken chagrin, to him for the remainder of the investigation, due to conflict of interest and bias. Lieutenant Murphy believed that due to her previous encounter with Lewis (when he assaulted and attempted to rape her), it would be impossible for her to conduct an impartial investigation. Lieutenant Murphy designates agents Delano and Carlson to Benson as her security and protection personnel.
Later on during the investigation, Lewis, having fugitive status, invaded the Cole household, residence of one of the nurses who tried to resuscitate him after he began seizing. While there, he murdered Janice Cole, the mother, by shooting her in the face, molested the eldest daughter Lauren and bound and gagged her in a closet, and abducted the youngest daughter Amelia. The detectives, an unfortunate step behind Lewis's heinous plots, arrived at the scene too late. They arrived and saw that the house had been ravaged, with torn upholstery and upturned furniture everywhere, and upon entering the kitchen, they saw Janice Cole's remains. During the team's further search of the house, they uncovered Janice's daughter, Lauren, in a closet, and rescued her. However, Lauren revealed to the detectives that he (Lewis) had entrusted her with a message meant solely for Benson, and that Lewis had abducted Amelia from the house. She requested to speak to Benson alone, for Lewis had otherwise vowed to murder Amelia Cole.
At the hospital, Lauren was granted her wish of solitude with Benson when she confided, in Benson, the horrid details of her own rape. In addition, she also delivered the message from Lewis to Benson: "Tell the truth, or the girl dies." While this had perplexed Lauren, Benson understood what this meant. When Lieutenant Murphy asked her about the cryptic demand's meaning, she explained that she had perjured herself during his trial. In court, she had testified (under oath) that when she had bludgeoned William Lewis with a steel rod, it had been necessary to restrain him, as he had managed to get free from his handcuffs, and that such battery was necessary for self-defense. However, the bludgeoning had actually occurred while William had still been handcuffed and defenseless, and had therefore not been necessary to subdue him. Lieutenant Murphy adamantly instructed Benson not to make the confession, under the impression that "it will feed the beast" and that he might still kill or molest Amelia. Soon after, at police headquarters, William Lewis called them on the landline, and insisted that he speak to Benson.
On the phone, he again aggressed that she had to make the confession soon or else he would kill Amelia, but he now also added that his previous defense attorney would also be murdered if his demands were not met. Benson ruefully agreed to make the confession on public television under the condition that Amelia and the attorney remain alive. He agreed, but then violently shoved the attorney down a flight of stairs and beat him. His fate was not clarified, but it is likely he survived due to the superficiality of his injuries. Meanwhile, the remainder of the SVU and law enforcement had successfully triangulated the location from where the call had been made. They deduce the location to be Roosevelt island, which had only one exit route, and the detectives believed that by blocking the exits, they can corner him with no route of escape. However, the evil Lewis again proved to have outfoxed them when they evacuated a tram and found that the phone was there, but William Lewis had made off with Amelia, and left her backpack behind. This prompted Benson to make a televised confession where she described her perjury. She declared that she had assaulted William Lewis out of rage, rather than necessity, and stated that her admission had been made without "coercion" and "by her own volition," despite the fact that neither of those statements was true.
Benson was later seen at Magna's bar drinking and wracked with angst about her admission, and accompanied by her two-person security convoy, Delano and Carlson. She confirmed that she felt remorseful, and was dubious about William Lewis's vow to release Amelia as he had said; she woefully expressed this while Delano and Carlson made small talk. Benson requested to go to the bathroom, and Delano escorted her to make sure the bathroom was "safe." Upon deeming it so, she gave Benson her requested privacy, but Benson used that as an opportunity to contact Lewis, who said that she could come rescue the girl. Her security personnel, distracted and taken with the bar's vigor, were unwitting of Benson as she fled the bar unnoticed. Outside, she used her authority as a cop to "borrow" a civilian's car, much to his dismay. She then drove off to Lewis's persumed location.
Lewis kidnaps Olivia again after Olivia voluntarily meets him to save Amelia.
She arrived in what appeared to be a dusky junkyard, and demanded that Lewis confront her. Lewis did so, surprising her from behind at a distance. He quickly drew the gun he had stolen and approached Benson, disarming her, removing her cell phone, and unstrapping her police vest. At gunpoint she was forced into the car as Lewis drove the two of them off to Amelia's location.
Back at the station, Lt. Murphy was livid when he discovered that Delano's and Carlson's laxity at the bar had afforded Benson an opportunity to escape, and dismissed the two of them after a caustic spiel. He then asked Nick Amaro, Benson's partner, about what Benson was most likely doing. Amaro responded by saying she had gone to confront Lewis. When the scene again switched, it was to show Lewis directing Benson aggressively towards a deserted and decrepit factory, which was also the site he was using to hold Amelia hostage.
As they traveled to the top, Lewis taunted her cruelly as they approached the uppermost floor. Lewis forced her to choose between letting herself be raped or having Amelia, who was bound by her wrists, be raped. Nobly, Benson volunteered, and Lewis began to fondle and caress her, causing her great repulsion. When Benson repeatedly and understandingly refused to submit to his sexual desires, he forced her to partake in a savage game of "Russian Roulette" with her. He loaded a six-chambered revolver, pressed the muzzle to his head, and fired, only to reveal a blank. He slid the gun to Olivia, forcing her to fire the gun at her head(five chambers remained), with the threat that he would shoot her if she did not do it. Reluctantly, with an 80% chance of survival, she held the gun and fired it, fortunately revealing another blank. Lewis, becoming excited, pressed the gun to his own head, now with a 75% chance of survival as four chambers remained, and fired, firing yet another blank.
Right before Benson took her turn, however, Lewis heard helicopters and realized that the police had located him, Amelia, and Benson. Remaining composed, he taunted the detectives, who were floors below them, through the walkie-talkie he had stolen, informed the SVU of their "game," and told them that he and Benson were half-way finished, with three chambers left. Benson uneasily took the revolver once more (with a 66.6666% chance of not being killed) and fired, as another blank was used. Lewis then informed the authorities that two chambers remained and remarked, "You know how lucky I am." Without hesitation, and with a 50% chance of killing himself, he essentially tossed a coin by again squeezing the trigger. Seeing that it was a blank, Benson appeared devastated. Both having realized that the only chamber remaining was the loaded one, Lewis told Benson, "Game over." Suddenly, after intimidating and psychologically tormenting her with the prospect of her death, he raised the gun to his head and shot it, as Amelia and Benson watched and were powerless and horrified. The story closed by showing Benson splattered with Lewis's blood, his last act having been one of evil and of his having imparted one final terror upon her.
Known Victims
- Possibly raped numerous unnamed women and children without being suspected by the authorities
- 1998, Lexington, Kentucky: May Stu (abducted and raped only)
- 2003, Montgomery, Alabama: Unnamed pair of roommates (abducted, raped, and tortured only)
- 2010, Maryland: Unnamed Alabama lawyer (his girlfriend; raped and killed)
- 2013, New York City, New York:
- Jose Silva (burned his hand on a burner only)
- Astrid and Tilde (both flashed only)
- Alice Parker (raped and tortured at gunpoint; died of a heart attack due to the trauma)
- Olivia Benson (abducted, tortured, branded, burned, and attempted to rape; she escaped)
- Herb and Liz Mayer:
- Herb Mayer (bound and gagged; died of a heart attack due to the trauma)
- Liz Mayer (raped and tortured only)
- Officer Jimmy Hamilton (shot once in the head)
- Viva Nunez and her daughter Luisa (abducted and intended to rape, torture, and kill; both were rescued)
- 2014, New York City, New York:
- Officer Foster (snapped his neck and stole his firearm)
- Unnamed nurse (raped and mutilated only)
- The Cole family:
- Janice Cole (mother; shot once in the head)
- Lauren Cole (eldest daughter; raped, molested, tortured, bound, and gagged only)
- Amelia Cole (youngest daughter; abducted, forced to drink alcohol, and bound; was rescued)
- Unnamed store clerk (bound, gagged, and pistol-whipped)
- Danny Weston (killed)
- Martha Marron (attempted)
- Unnamed clerk (bound, gagged, and shot)
- The factory standoff:
- Olivia Benson (held hostage, groped, assaulted, tortured, and forced to partake in Russian Roulette; was rescued)
- Himself (partook in Russian Roulette; died at his own suicidal hands)