On October 20, 2001, millionaire investment banker Ted Ammon was bludgeoned to death in his East Hampton mansion.

Police learned that Ammon was in the middle of a bitter divorce from his wife of 10 years, Generosa. In the months before the murder, Generosa had been romantically involved with a 38-year old electrician from Long Island named Danny Pelosi. Pelosi, they discovered, had a fairly lengthy arrest record and investigators were immediately suspicious. Their feelings were deepened when they learned that Pelosi was one of the few people who knew the workings of the complex alarm system at the mansion that had been dismantled and removed the night of the murder.