A sales manager in contemporary New York City, fatherless for four decades, undergoes questioning as a suspect in the murder of the only other major figure in his life...his highly-manipulative, abusive mother.

SYNOPSIS:

New York City-born KENNY MARTIN is a regional sales manager for a national electronics chain.

He’s also a suspect in the murder of his mother ELLA, a longtime Fun City secretary who retired at age 65 in 2006.

Three months after Ella’s stabbing, Kenny sits in an interrogation room at an NYPD precinct in Queens...where methodical, temperamental detective NANCY BRIGATI seeks to find out just what happened from this generous-yet-bashful suspect.

Nancy finds out that for Kenny, September 11 became a day of tragedy long before it turned into one for Americans in general.

Never mind that the same date marks the day he came into the world.

In 1984, the death of Kenny’s delivery-driver father JOHN due to a murder-robbery by A MAN IN A BASEBALL CAP ruined Kenny’s seventh birthday...and set the stage for, ultimately, four decades of abuse from Ella, the daughter of bus-driver father Thomas and of movie-actor mother Louise (the latter left Los Angeles for New York in the 1950s for stage success after tiring of playing maids in films).

Through flashbacks, Kenny informs Nancy about how Ella turned to him more and more...to the point of taking some of the money from his early jobs to fund her alcohol habit.

Kenny’s got a sister, JENNY...a longtime Macy’s employee who struck out on her own and moved to Manhattan three years before John’s death.

The reason: Ella’s abusiveness toward both Jenny and John.

Kenny tells the detective: “I’m lucky I got the chance to even be a teenager.” He tells her of wanting, albeit unsuccessfully, to move in with Jenny...studio apartment and all. Plus: Kenny talks about how high school was a break from living with Ella...a sword enthusiast who turned Louise’s single cutlass from Hollywood days into a real collection.

By 1995, the constant nagging, constant browbeating, and frequent faultfinding reached a plateau when a drunken Ella berated Kenny in front of Jenny and A CAB DRIVER on his high school graduation day...from Fran Drescher’s alma mater, Hillcrest.

Kenny tells how that experience was the first time he ever thought about killing his mother.

He goes on to tell Nancy about how Ella’s manipulation escalated after his 1999 graduation from St. John’s University...a school five minutes away from Ella’s apartment in Queens.

His enrollment at St. John’s became a source of ridicule for Ella: “We ain’t no Catholics!”

Kenny lets Nancy know that his time at the school was when he actually tried to bump his mom off...by putting a couple of drops of liquid cleanser into her coffee while she was in the bathroom.

Result: Ella chased him down with a sword.

Ella’s next source of discontent: Kenny’s first post-college job...as a sales associate at the RadioShack store in Huntington. From the long commute to the long hours to Kenny’s monthly struggles to keep his first car roadworthy, Kenny complained to store manager JABARI REESE of being on pins and needles at home.

As the interrogation heats up, Nancy wonders why Kenny stayed there with Ella all those years at those Hillside Park Apartments...even with a good-paying job that could’ve had him at least renting elsewhere.

His explanation: “I still had an obligation to Mom.”

Not even romance could end that obligation...as MAYA THOMAS found out in 2003 after shopping at that Huntington RadioShack store, by then in Kenny’s hands. When Ella picked a fight with Maya to the point where Ella chased her son and his lover with a sword, Maya became the latest former girlfriend of Kenny’s.

The detective learns that, by 2011, Ella’s quality of life began to deteriorate...even if her reluctant decision to quit drinking three years later bought her more time. Jenny’s continuing refusal to help look after Ella left Kenny to keep dealing with Mom’s antics...which now included dry drunks.

By 2025, Ella’s swordplay cost her...to where maintenance person (and longtime Martin family neighbor) ALEXANDRIA “ALEX” ALCANTARA found Ella in bed, throat cut open...dead.

On January 12...the anniversary of the New York Jets’ Super Bowl 3 win.

Ella’s son recalls how, over the next three months, he attempted suicide.

He tried everything to 86 himself...including dousing himself with unleaded at a convenience store hours before his interrogation. Before Kenny could set himself on fire, Alex bearhugged him.

Kenny goes on to confess having killed Ella.

His final words: “I just got tired...all I wanted to do was break the cycle.”

MENTAL LOCKDOWN