Unconfirmed Reports
Encyclopedia
"Unconfirmed Reports" is the second episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...

. The episode was written by William F. Zorzi
William F. Zorzi
William F. Zorzi is an American journalist and screenwriter. He worked at The Baltimore Sun for almost twenty years and covered politics for the majority of his career. He has also written for the HBO television series The Wire.-Journalism:...

 from a story by David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...

 & William F. Zorzi and was directed by Ernest Dickerson
Ernest Dickerson
Ernest Roscoe Dickerson A.S.C. is an American film and television director and cinematographer. He directed generally urban films sometimes with supernatural stories like Juice, Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight, Bones and Never Die Alone...

. It originally aired on January 13, 2008.

Title reference

The title refers to Scott Templeton
Scott Templeton
M. Scott Templeton is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Thomas McCarthy. The actor joined the starring cast as the series' fifth season began.-Biography:...

's fabricated report, as well as McNulty
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...

's imaginary serial killer and the purported insults to Marlo's
Marlo Stanfield
Marlo "Black" Stanfield is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Jamie Hector. Stanfield is a young, ruthless and ambitious player in the Baltimore drug trade who gains control of West Baltimore and is the head of his own drug crew.-Character background and plot...

 sexuality.

Epigraph

While discussing the situation in Baltimore with Lester and McNulty, Bunk sardonically remarks that Baltimore is not like Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...

, apparently referring to the Natalee Holloway
Natalee Holloway
Natalee Ann Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005, during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, a Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. An American student from Mountain Brook, Alabama, Holloway graduated from Mountain Brook High School on May 24, 2005, shortly before the trip...

 case. Had McNulty's "killer" garnered anywhere near as much media coverage as the Holloway case, the Baltimore P.D. would likely start to receive their much needed funding. This was made in reference to the fact that the death of African-American males in inner cities seem to be handled as less of a concern than that of Whites (see Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome or missing pretty girl syndrome is a term used by some media and social critics to describe the seemingly disproportionate degree of coverage in television, radio, newspaper and magazine reporting of a misfortune, most often a missing person case, involving a young,...

).

Starring cast

Although credited Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...

, Seth Gilliam
Seth Gilliam
Seth Gilliam is an American actor. He is known for his HBO television roles, first as corrections officer-turned-prisoner Clayton Hughes on Oz, and later as Baltimore police detective promoted to sergeant Ellis Carver on The Wire. On both of these series, he co-starred with Lance Reddick and J.D....

, Domenick Lombardozzi
Domenick Lombardozzi
Domenico "Domenick" Lombardozzi is an American actor best known for his role as Thomas "Herc" Hauk on The Wire. Lombardozzi was inspired to act by the film State of Grace.-Filmography:...

, Michael K. Williams
Michael K. Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams is an American actor known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert "Chalky" White on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.-Early life and career:...

, Jermaine Crawford
Jermaine Crawford
Jermaine Crawford is an actor best known for appearing on the HBO original series The Wire as Duquan "Dukie" Weems. He is a cousin to fellow Wire castmember and actor Tristan Wilds....

, and Michael Kostroff
Michael Kostroff
Michael Kostroff is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program The Wire as defense attorney Maurice Levy. Kostroff starred in the fifth season of the series and appeared in all four earlier seasons as a guest star.- Biography :...

 do not appear in this episode.

Guest stars

  • Frankie Faison
    Frankie Faison
    Frankie Russel Faison , often credited as Frankie R. Faison, is an American actor.-Personal life:Faison was born in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Carmena and Edgar Faison. He studied drama at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, where he joined Theta Chi Fraternity...

     as Ervin Burrell
    Ervin Burrell
    Ervin Burrell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Frankie Faison. Burrell was an officer in the Baltimore Police Department who ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show...

  • Wood Harris
    Wood Harris
    Sherwin David "Wood" Harris is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on the HBO television drama The Wire, and as high-school football player Julius Campbell in the 2000 motion picture Remember the Titans.-Life and career:Harris was born in...

     as Avon Barksdale
    Avon Barksdale
    Avon Randolph Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire portrayed by actor Wood Harris. Avon is the dominant drug dealer of Baltimore's West Side, running the Barksdale Organization...

  • Steve Earle
    Steve Earle
    Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

     as Walon
  • Felicia Pearson
    Felicia Pearson
    Felicia Pearson is an American actress, author, and rapper. She is best known for playing a character of the same name, Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, on The Wire. She wrote a memoir titled Grace After Midnight.-Biography:Pearson was born to two incarcerated drug addicts and raised in an East Baltimore...

     as Snoop
  • Delaney Williams
    Delaney Williams
    Delaney Williams is an American actor from Washington, D.C. He appears on the HBO drama The Wire as a recurring guest star playing homicide sergeant Jay Landsman. He also had a small role on HBO's mini-series The Corner which brought him to the attention of the producers, who worked on The prior to...

     as Jay Landsman
    Jay Landsman (The Wire)
    Jay Landsman is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Delaney Williams.-Policing method:Landsman's role in the police department is that of a supervisory detective sergeant who doesn't participate in much investigation work...

  • Chris Ashworth
    Chris Ashworth
    Christopher Michael Ashworth , better known as simply Chris Ashworth, is an American actor, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Sergei Malatov on The Wire...

     as Sergei Malatov
  • Genevieve Hudson-Price as Dee-Dee
  • Frederick Strother as Odell Watkins
  • Benay Berger as Amanda Reese
  • Doug Olear as Terrence "Fitz" Fitzhugh
  • Joseph Urla as Maryland District US Attorney
  • David Costabile
    David Costabile
    David Costabile is an American actor. Born in Washington, D.C. He is best known for his recurring television roles on The Wire , Flight of the Conchords , Damages , and Breaking Bad...

     as Thomas Klebanow
  • Sam Freed
    Sam Freed
    Sam Freed is an American actor who has performed on Broadway, television and in movies. His first major regular role on television was as Bob Barsky in the last three seasons of Kate & Allie. In the short-lived series Ferris Bueller, he played Bill Bueller, the father of the title character. He...

     as James Whiting
  • Donald Neal as Jay Spry
  • Bobby J. Brown as Bob Brown
  • Anthony Mangano as Kevin Infante
  • Kristie Dale Sanders as Nancy Porter
  • Gregory L. Williams as Michael Crutchfield
  • Bruce Kirkpatrick as Roger Twigg
  • Thomas J. McCarthy as Tim Phelps
  • Kara Quick as Rebecca Corbett
  • Todd Scofield as Jeff Price
  • Darrell Britt-Gibson as O-Dog
  • Kwame Patterson as Monk
  • Scott Shane as Scott Shane
  • Suzanne Wooton as Suzanne Wooton
  • Willa Bickham as Willa Bickham
  • Dan Manning as Assistant Medical Examiner
  • Kate Revelle as Jane
  • Kelley Slagle as Assistant Medical Examiner
  • Brendan Walsh
    Brendan Walsh
    Brendan Walsh is an American chef best known for his endorsement of southwestern cuisine. He was the original chef of Arizona 206 in New York City and won international recognition in the prestigious James Beard “Who’s Who of Cooking in America”.-Early life:Brendan Walsh grew up in the Bronx,...

     as Brendan Walsh
  • Erica Chamblee as Pregnant Mother
  • Lee Everett Cox as Aaron Castor
  • Rachel Lynn Dinenna as unknown
  • Frank McPartland as Angry fan
  • Andrew Roth
    Andrew Roth (actor)
    Andrew Roth is an American film actor.-Early life:Roth was born in Long Island, New York. His father, Mark, is a business owner while his mother Irene, a homemaker, raised him and his brothers.- Filmography :...

     as Tim Packard
  • Tasha R. Rudolph as Abusive mother
  • Andrew Cruttenden as unknown
  • Ayoka Dorsey as Gus' wife
  • Tyson Hall as Marvin
  • Adrienne Meisel as Recovering addict
  • Patricia Penn as Sun staff member
  • Steve Zettler as Prison guard


Uncredited roles

  • Curt Boushell as Andy - Sun copy editor
  • Louis Stancil - Unknown Corner Boy

Bubbles

Bubbles attends a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. He follows a speaker named Dee-Dee who discusses her struggle with her inner addict and her inability to maintain a personal code because of her addiction. Bubbles is engaging and humorous but unable to discuss an emotional memory. Walon tries to convince Bubbles that he has to share the tragedy of Sherrod's death in order to move on. Walon convinces Bubbles to at least occupy his time and he volunteers at a local soup kitchen.

Baltimore Sun

Scott Templeton
Scott Templeton
M. Scott Templeton is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Thomas McCarthy. The actor joined the starring cast as the series' fifth season began.-Biography:...

 plans a color piece about the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

 opening game. He fails to find a suitable subject and returns with an unverifiable story about an orphaned wheelchair user truanting to attend. Gus Haynes
Augustus Haynes
Augustus "Gus" Haynes is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Clark Johnson, who is also a director for the series. Haynes is the dedicated and principled editor for the Baltimore Sun city desk.-Character depiction:...

 is concerned about the piece's lack of corroboration, but is forced to print it after James Whiting gives his approval.

Stanfield Organization

Marlo Stanfield
Marlo Stanfield
Marlo "Black" Stanfield is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Jamie Hector. Stanfield is a young, ruthless and ambitious player in the Baltimore drug trade who gains control of West Baltimore and is the head of his own drug crew.-Character background and plot...

 meets with Chris Partlow
Chris Partlow
Chris Partlow is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Gbenga Akinnagbe. Partlow is Marlo Stanfield's best friend, bodyguard, and second-in-command in his drug dealing operation. Despite his quiet demeanor, Partlow commits more on- and off-screen murders than any other...

 and Snoop about the withdrawal of the year-long police investigation. Stanfield decides to reassert his authority and orders several murders and the luring of Omar Little
Omar Little
Omar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game"....

 out of retirement. Accompanied by Partlow and one of the young proteges they have been training, Snoop carries out the murder of a rival drug dealer. Afterwards, Snoop, Partlow and Michael Lee
Michael Lee (The Wire)
Michael Lee is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Tristan Wilds. He is a middle school pupil and is friends with Namond Brice, Randy Wagstaff and Duquan "Dukie" Weems. He is more soft-spoken than his friends, and appears to have a leadership role among his peers...

 watch the house of one of Stanfield's targets named June Bug. Michael questions the necessity of the murder and is admonished by Snoop. Michael is instructed to wait in the back alley and to shoot anyone who runs out of the back door. Snoop and Partlow disable the street's security cameras, stage a home invasion, and kill the three adults inside. Two children escape - one hides undetected in a closet and another flees via the back door. Michael does not shoot the child and appears to be even more disgusted at the entire operation.

Stanfield visits MCI Jessup to see Sergei Malatov, but finds Avon Barksdale
Avon Barksdale
Avon Randolph Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire portrayed by actor Wood Harris. Avon is the dominant drug dealer of Baltimore's West Side, running the Barksdale Organization...

 waiting in his place. Barksdale tells Stanfield that in order for him to talk to Malatov, Stanfield has to give his sister $100,000. Stanfield agrees and later talks to a defiant Malatov. Stanfield convinces Malatov, with encouragement from Avon, to give him a line to Vondas
Spiros Vondas
Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire played by actor Paul Ben-Victor.-Biography:...

.

Politics

Commissioner Burrell
Ervin Burrell
Ervin Burrell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Frankie Faison. Burrell was an officer in the Baltimore Police Department who ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show...

 struggles to deliver clean statistics and accommodate the mayor's crime reduction target while implementing budget cutbacks. Burrell alienates Clay Davis
Clay Davis
State Senator R. Clayton "Clay" Davis is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Isiah Whitlock, Jr. Davis is a corrupt Maryland State Senator with a reputation for pocketing bribes...

 by refusing to interfere in his corruption case. Mayor Carcetti
Tommy Carcetti
Thomas J. "Tommy" Carcetti is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Irish actor Aidan Gillen. Carcetti is an ambitious Baltimore politician who rises from a seat on the city council to the office of the Mayor of Baltimore, and to the office of the Governor of Maryland by the...

 plans a run for governor despite the city's fiscal difficulties; Odell Watkins expresses disappointment in the mayor's priorities.

Major Crimes Unit

Detectives Freamon
Lester Freamon
Lester Freamon is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Clarke Peters. Freamon is a detective in the Baltimore Police Department's Major Crimes Unit...

 and Sydnor
Leander Sydnor
Leander Sydnor is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Corey Parker Robinson. Sydnor is a young, married Baltimore Police detective who was a member of the Barksdale detail and later worked in the Major Crimes Unit.-Season 1:...

 are still preparing the Davis case for court. Freamon believes this type of sprawling and interconnected case is career-defining but also spends his own time surveilling known Stanfield meeting places. Jimmy McNulty
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...

 desperately wants to return to the Stanfield case and is increasingly frustrated in the homicide unit.

Freamon and McNulty meet with FBI agent Terrence Fitzhugh seeking support for their investigation. Fitz arranges a meeting between the local and federal authories, but the proposal is shot down by the Republican federal prosecutor with whom (Democrat) Mayor Carcetti previously argued about the case. Freamon and McNulty bitterly drown their sorrows with Bunk afterward.

Homicide

McNulty is assigned a natural death and learns at the morgue that postmortem pressure on the neck is indistinguishable from deliberate strangulation. Later, Detective Greggs
Kima Greggs
Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actress Sonja Sohn. Greggs is a police detective in the Baltimore Police Department who is a dedicated officer and capable detective with some off-the-job issues. Openly lesbian, she has had problems...

 is assigned to June Bug's homicide and finds a child hiding in the closet, showing a rare moment of unveiled compassion by embracing the child and evacuating the building, creating the evocative image used in the title sequence.

McNulty and Bunk Moreland
Bunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...

 are assigned a probable overdose. McNulty goes to his car and drinks some whiskey he had in the trunk. He goes back to the crime scene and chokes the deceased and stages the scene to suggest a strangulation. McNulty tells Bunk that he plans to create the illusion of a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

; Bunk leaves the scene in disgust.

Deceased

June Bug + 2 others - murdered by Chris and Snoop on orders by Marlo Stanfield.

Unknown Corner Boy - shot and killed by Snoop Pearson.
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