This episode appears to be based on the 1997 Thomas Koskovich/Jason Vreeland murder case. On April 19, 1997, New Jersey teens Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland ordered a pizza and ambushed two men who delivered it, Georgio Gallara and Jeremy Giordano, before going bowling. Koskovich and Vreeland told police they wanted to experience what it was like to commit murder.
The detective that arrested the murder suspect when he was a teenager said that the kid was part of a gang of kids that were not very smart, so they had the nickname of "The Hole in the Head Gang." Which is a parody of the name of the gang that was led by famous outlaws Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, The Hole in the Wall Gang, their name originated because they stored their stolen loot in a cave. The gang's leaders were famously portrayed by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, respectively, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
This episode uses elements of the May 22,1997 murder of Michael McMorrow. McMorrow was murdered by Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez, a pair of teens that he had met while drinking with them in Central Park earlier that day.
Anne Lange (Headmistress) previously played the role of Evelyn Talbert in episode 5.8, Virtue (1994).
Reed Birney played three different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 2.21 Silence (1992) - Malcolm Barclay.
- Episode 8.1 Thrill (1997) - Defense Attorney for Archdiocese.
- Episode 20.18 Brazil (2010) - Dr. Everett Brown.