Napoleon "Neech" Manley was a death row inmate who vowed to be reborn in order to exact his revenge against those who had wronged him.
Manley was convicted of double murder after a 1984 holdup at a Florida liquor store. The actual gunman was killed in the holdup and Manley was the getaway driver. Despite this, Manley is sentenced to death. While in prison, Manley studied world religions and became a strong believer in reincarnation, as well as an extensive writer on philosophy. Manley avoided death twice thanks to last-minute governor appeals, but in 1995, 11 years and 56 days following his incarceration, his third and final execution date was set. Immediately before being executed on the electric chair, Manley swore vengeance against five men who had crossed him.
Three days after his execution, the FBI was alerted after a correctional officer at Eastpoint State Penitentiary was found dead in Manley's cell. Mulder and Scully are dispatched to the prison as despite signs of foul play, no traces of another person could be found at the scene. The agents find that although Warden Leo Brodeur assumes the culprit to be one of the still living inmates, the most guards appear uneasy and genuinely fearful of Manley's threat. The next morning, during a renovation detail, a prisoner opens a bucket of paint to find the severed head of another guard inside. Preliminary pathology results determine that both men died by asphyxiation and it was noted that even though the remains were recovered within a few hours of death, great portions were eaten away by maggot infestations.
Scully finds out from guard Vincent Parmelly that an inmate named Sammon Roque, who was a close associate of Manley, was rumored to be in possession of a list with the five people he had promised to take vengeance on. Roque wants to be transferred to another facility in exchange for the names, but Warden Brodeur is unwilling to accept the deal, saying it would call his authority into question, now firmly convinced that the killings are being organized by the prisoners. Things only escalate as the missing body of the second guard is discovered planted in the warden's office. Following this, Brodeur has Roque brought to him and brutalizes the inmate for answers, believing that his name must be on the list as well. After Roque confirms his suspicions with a sneer, Brodeur has him beaten to death and after dumping the body in the showers, the warden frames Roque's murder as a prison killing and uses it as an excuse to initiate a lockdown. It's revealed that Roque had actually been bitter enemies with Manley and knew nothing of his targets.
Mulder and Scully quickly realize that Roque's death was not like the other victims and questioning of the warden reveals that his guards subjected Manley to a vicious beating for a discplinary infraction in 1994, the same year his writings shifted their focus to exclusively reincarnation. The agents decide to broaden the range of targets out of prison staff and seek out the man who was contracted to undertake Manley's execution, Perry Simon, discovering that he had been dead inside his home for several days, his corpse festered with maggots.
Questioning of one of Manley's prison followers, John Speranza, shows that Manley's former attorney, Danny Charez, had called his former client several times before his death and afterwards continued to visit the prison to speak to Speranza. Charez in turn tells them that he had been petition for a retrial for Manley and later Speranza out of guilt, but had been threatened at gunpoint by the new boyfriend of Manley's wife Danielle when he tried to organize an appeal with her help. Observation of Danielle's house reveal this to be Vincent Parmelly.
Once the agents inform the warden of this revelation, he connects this to the murder of Charez just a few hours ago, and alerts the authorities, concluding that Parmelly carried out the killings as a favor to his new girlfriend. Meanwhile, Danielle momentarily sees her dead husband in the shadows of her house, but finding only Parmelly with her, she comes to believe that Parmelly must be Manley's reincarnation and fatally shoots him in a panic. Upon hearing the news, Warden Brodeur personally beats John Speranza to death to tie up all loose ends, but not before he tells Brodeur that Parmelly's death was not the end, meaning that he was still marked for death as the fifth man.
Officially, Parmelly is named the sole perpetrator in the murders and the case listed as resolved. When Brodeur leaves the prison for the day, however, a fly buzzes around the interior of his car as he drives. Manley then appears in the backseat and strangles the warden while turning the steering wheel into a tree. Moments after the crash, the fly reappears on Brodeur's face and prepares to lay eggs.
Neech's name may be a reference to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, or the pronunciation of the Sanskrit word neecha, meaning debilitated or lowly.
Appearances[]
- "The List"