This episode appears to be based on several cases/incidents:
- The 1990-1991 George Franklin case. In September 1969, Susan Nason disappeared from her hometown of Foster City, California. Her body, discovered outdoors a few months later, showed signs of a violent death, including a crushed skull and a smashed ring that seemed to indicate she was warding off a blow. A bloodstained rock was found nearby. Police never made an arrest for her murder. Twenty years later, during an hypnosis session in the early 1990s, Eileen Franklin claimed that she remembered repressed memories of being with Susan Nason and her father George on the day of the murder. Eileen said that she had watched her father rape and kill Susan and that he had threatened her, Eileen, too. Franklin was initially convicted of first-degree murder, but the conviction was overturned once the court learned that Eileen was hypnotized prior to recovering this memory and that Eileen's recollections matched erroneous newspaper accounts rather than the true series of events.
- The 1963-1968 Stanley Rice case. Rice was an American serial killer and child rapist who was responsible for sexually abusing numerous underage boys in Canada and the U.S. during the 1960s, of which he killed at least three. Tried and convicted for one murder committed in Florida, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and remained incarcerated until his death in 2007.
- The controversial recovered-memory therapy practice. Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques (such as psychoanalysis, hypnosis, journaling, past life regression, guided imagery, and the use of sodium amytal interviews) to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.
Adam LeFevre has played seven different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 1.4 Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1990) - Bartender.
- Episode 2.7 In Memory Of (1991) - Joseph Kelly.
- Episode 3.6 Helpless (1992) - Dr. Helman.
- Episode 8.16 Divorce (1998) - David Harrigan.
- Episode 10.10 Loco Parentis (2000) - Barry Clayton.
- Episode 15.11 Fixed (2004) - Dr. Evodius Peters.
- Episode 19.9 By Perjury (2009) - Peter Belanger.
Chris Noth (Detective Mike Logan) and Adam LeFevre (Joseph Kelly) also worked together on I Fought the Law (2012) (episode 4.1) as Peter Florrick and Judge Gregory Kakissis, respectively.
According to this story, the boy disappeared in 1962, his skeleton being found with a JFK for president button. Although JFK only ran for president in the years before being elected in November 1960, and prior to his 1963 death, presumably the boy was wearing an old button supporting the man who had become president.