‘Love Connection’ caper is fishy

A crime documentary, like the caper on which it is based, must execute its game plan with pace and precision if it is to have any chance of success. In tonight’s Court TV edition of “The System: The Love Connection” (10 p.m.), however, both the criminals and filmmakers come up a little short.

The story certainly showed promise. In 1995, Douglas Daigle, wife Capri and a band of accomplices came up with a ploy to rob a bank without ever setting foot on the premises. They would target a city and pore over the business directory listings until they found a bank with a female manager. They would then follow her home and set up surveillance.

Over days, weeks or even months, they would ascertain who lived in the house and the inhabitants’ relationships and routines. What the crooks were looking for was a love connection -- a bank manager with a close relationship with her husband. The night before the heist, the gang would force its way into the house, strap a bomb device to the husband and spend the hours until morning instructing the wife on getting the money and where to leave it. The chatty Daigle also had a habit of regaling victims with tales of his fishing trips, a detail which would come back to bite him.

The extortion plan, carried out three times, netted more than $1 million before authorities moved in. The documentary falls apart more quickly. The first case mentions a daughter being in the house during the home invasion but only explains what happens to the husband and wife. Then, after Daigle is caught, he gives a taped confession, but the voice heard doesn’t have the distinctive Boston-type accent that the program says was key to his apprehension.

And most crucially, Daigle hangs himself just past the midway point, leaving the dull gathering of evidence against his cohorts to fill the hour.

Crime doesn’t pay, and this doc isn’t too rewarding either.