Robert Phelps is a filmmaker, who managed to get convicted serial killer Jake Manning paroled in 1989 after Manning wrote a book about his prison experience, The Cell Within, which Phelps planned to turn into a film. When the cop that busted him, Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, disappeared after going to see Manning, OCB looked up Phelps, who at first blamed the police for making him who he was, gave the police a bogus address, then fled off to see Manning, with the police tailing. When Phelps arrived, Manning took him to his prison and Phelps was to see first-hand the execution of Manning's prison psychiatrist, Rhoda King, but instead Manning's assistant, Barry Gay, was the one killed after Tubbs re-rigged the electric chair to kill the executioner.