See Also: 'Tanglewood' Episode Guide

CSI: New York will reportedly tackle the issue of gang warfare in the upcoming episode "Tanglewood".

The episode opens with the brutal murder of a young man, Paul Montasano, who is beaten to death with a baseball bat at night in the Van Cortland Park, according to CSI Files sources. Nearby impressions in the snow indicate that he was assailed by three, possibly four attackers. The evidence shows that this wasn't just a random beating — Paul's face is covered with high-velocity blood spatter, indicating that he had shot someone the night he was attacked.

While Mac and Stella work the Montasano case, Aiden and Detective Flack are called out to a crime scene at a bodega in Spanish Harlem. The owner, Harish Lev, is distraught at the shooting of his brother, Mihok Lev, during a robbery the night before. When Aiden views the store's surveillance tape, she discovers that the robber is none other than Paul Montasano. Not only that, but Harish Lev is seen chasing him out of the store with a baseball bat.

Case closed? Not so fast. Harish's bat was aluminum, but the one used to kill Paul was definitely a wooden one. And it wasn't any old bat at that, but a real collector's item, signed by New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle himself.

As it turns out, Parlay's Sports Bar is missing a Mickey Mantle bat that used to be proudly displayed on its walls until. The bar was also the site of a brawl between rival suburban gangs from Tanglewood and Pelham Bay the night Paul was murdered. Paul was a Tanglewood wannabe, desperate enough to do anything to gain admittance into their gang. Mac and Stella suspect he was given the task of assaulting a member of the Pelham Bay crowd, an assignment that could have had fatal consequences for him.

The CSIs track down the leader of the Pelham Bay gang, Johnny Lucero, in the New Rochelle Mall, where he and his posse are causing trouble. He's arrogant in the extreme, one of the new breed of rich kids who think nothing can touch them, and even if they do happen to get caught, their rich daddies will pull a few strings and get them off. And he just happens to be sporting stitches from an assault the previous night. The weapon? A baseball bat. The attacker? Paul Montasano.

Please note that this plot information has not been confirmed by CBS or Bruckheimer TV and until such time you should treat it as you would any other rumour from an unofficial source. The details are based on an early draft of the script and aspects of the episode may change before it goes to air.

"Tanglewood" will likely air in early 2005.

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