Richard "Rick" Mason is the host of the talk show Final Confession and a serial proxy murderer.
History[]
Mason's talk show Final Confession covered significant and provocative topics on his show. In order to bolster the ratings of his show, he arranged setups and confrontations as part of the episodes, frequently risking the lives and safety of his guests in the process; some of Mason's guests even died as a result. Debby Courio, a production manager who scouted for guests for the show, eventually became fed up with Mason's methods and quit, with Mason spreading the rumor that she was fired to cover for himself. For his latest episode, he intended to pit released pedophile Dr. Joseph Vinton against one of his victims, Scotty Fisher, under the supervision of Scotty's mother Sarah. Mason was eager to provoke Scotty's father Sid, who had a temper and had infamously assaulted Vinton during the trial. To this end, Mason told Scotty that the show would be held at the ice cream shop where Vinson would reward him for his silence about the sexual trauma, and he had Scotty tell Sid the shop's location from a hotel payphone. Mason consulted his lawyer, Alice Sutton, to prepare for the consequences, then he instructed his alarmed head of security, Barry Talbott, to refrain from having more security at the shop. Every time people spoke up against this, Mason brushed off their complaints and said the show would go on.
Mason started his show by recounting the Vinton case and introducing Vinton and his book. He then led Vinton to the ice cream shop where Scotty and Sarah were waiting, and he asked if Scotty is still angry. As Scotty replied that he is ready to recover, Sid abruptly appeared and shot Vinton twice, killing him. Mason feigned shock and ordered an emergency cut to commercials. When the detectives questioned the cracks that Sid slipped through, they found the payphone call and started an investigation. Knowing Mason was calling the shots from his phone call to Sutton, they found his history from Courio. Because it was not enough to take to trial, the D.A.'s office convinced Scotty to testify that he told Sid the location of the ice cream shop at Mason's instruction. His parents were finally convinced to overcome their grievances after they were threatened with the prospect of Scotty being taken to court on trumped-up complicity charges. During the trial, Mason testified in his own defense and claimed that he never willingly endangered participants. Using the testimony as an opening, the prosecution called Courio to the stand, and she recounted how Mason wanted someone to "die on the air". Though Mason was found not guilty of manslaughter, he was convicted of reckless endangerment and sentenced to slightly over a year in prison, about the same as Sid's sentence in his plea deal.
Known Victims[]
- Numerous unnamed victims (all endangered as a result of his setups)
- James Davis (the leading juror of the Nick Palusi trial; kidnapped by Palusi's mobsters and was never found)
- Cheryl (a Times Square prostitute; assaulted; overdosed on a bad batch of cocaine that he bought for her, but survived)
- The deaths due to the drag queen special:
- Howard Turner (Tommy's father; died of a heart attack as a result of realizing that Tommy was a drag queen)
- Tommy Turner (a drag queen; committed suicide as a result of the trauma of Howard's death)
- Dr. Joseph Vinton (a child therapist and pedophile; shot twice by Sid Fisher)