Unbeknownst to Jack, Sally and Karp were both frequent blackmail co-conspirators who were hired as part of a larger plot against presidential hopeful McRyan. A rival candidate had hired Burke (Lithgow) to hook McRyan with a prostitute, take unflattering pictures of the pair, and publish them so that McRyan would drop out of the race. However, Burke decided to alter the plan by blowing out the tire of McRyan's car with a gunshot, thereby causing the accident. When the authorities arrived to find McRyan with Sally, Karp would be there to film it all. After botching the cover-up of Sally by murdering a look-alike, Burke murders two more women with piano wire and attributes the deaths to a serial killer, "the Liberty Bell Strangler", so that he can cover up the coverup when Sally is successfully murdered.