Death of a snake oil salesman

My favourite TV programme, "Law & Order", last night had an excellent episode entitled "Compassion". It was from the 14th season in 2003. We get to see many TV series much later in South Africa.

The plot was roughly as follows:

A real estate swindler, turned grief counsellor/psychic medium is murdered. A female paediatric oncologist (Dr. Allisson) is arrested and charged for the murder. She happens to have been both a victim of his real estate fraud, and have also attended his "crossing over" seances.

The question? Did she kill him out of revenge (rationally), or did she kill him to send him ahead into heaven as a compassionate friend for her young cancer patients after death (insanity)?

As the episode unfolds, it turns out that the snake oil salesman (Jack McCoy's term for him) did his job so well that he fooled Dr. Allison (her sanity failing due to the stress of treating terminally ill children) into believing in his ability to communicate with the dead and in his wonderfully compassionate nature. She poisons him and sends him ahead to heaven where he will comfort her little patients after death.

Poetic justice, one might say!

I could find no indication that this was in any way based on any real event. Congratulations, however, for the script writer for the ironic story.

And no, I do not advocate that snake oil salesmen (or should it be salespersons?) and such like, be killed. Let science rather deal with them and humanely put them out of business by educating consumers.