(Jesse L. Martin) in 1999. Character biography Born on January 2, 1940, Lennie Briscoe grows up in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. He has a brother. As a child, he attended P.S. 21, as his father had before him, as well as P.S. 189. He attended college at the City College of New York. A veteran of two failed marriages, Briscoe has two daughters by his first wife, the elder Julia and the younger Cathy (Jennifer Bill), and a nephew, Det. Ken Briscoe (played by Orbach's son, Chris). Cathy is born on June 23, 1971 and is murdered on March 4, 1998. By 2002, he has at least two grandchildren. Prior to working for the NYPD, Briscoe worked at his uncle's liquor store. Briscoe begins working in the NYPD homicide department in 1981. He carries a Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver as his service weapon. He is a recovering alcoholic, admitting he spent "20 years in a bottle.” He often makes references to being a "friend of Bill W.", which is a reference to his having attended Alcoholics Anonymous. In the 1996 episode "Aftershock", after witnessing an execution from a case that he helped investigate, he falls off the wagon with disastrous results; Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) is struck and killed by a drunk driver while driving him home from a bar. He feels responsible for her death, and he remains sober for the rest of his life. His drinking harmed his family; he was often absent from his daughters' lives while they were growing up, and they have distant, fractious relationships with him as adults. Briscoe blames himself, especially when Cathy, a methamphetamine addict, is murdered by a drug dealer named Danny Jones (Johnny Dapolito) after she testifies against him in court. However, he finds closure when Jones dies from a heroin overdose. It is implied that Briscoe considered having Jones killed. One of Briscoe's former snitches had offered to kill Jones if Briscoe could get his charges reduced. Briscoe is later seen talking to the arresting officer about the snitch, but it is never confirmed if Briscoe did him the favor. Briscoe is Jewish on his father's side. While he was raised Catholic, he occasionally attends Jewish services as a gesture to his second ex-wife. His father served in the United States Army during World War II and helped to liberate the Dachau concentration