Boardwalk Empire: who killed Owen Sleater — and why he came back in a crate

Joe Masseria's men killed him, after Owen walked into a trap while trying to assassinate the New York boss at a Turkish bathhouse. The crate was the message.

The murder in brief

• The victim — Owen Sleater, an IRA operative from Coleraine who became Nucky Thompson's driver, bodyguard, and enforcer in season 2.
• The killers — Joe Masseria's men, waiting at the bathhouse on Chrystie Street.
• The motive — Owen came to kill Masseria on Nucky's behalf. The ambush was ready for him.
• The crate — Masseria's way of returning the failed hitman to sender.

The hit that went wrong

Nucky wanted Masseria dead, and Owen knew the way in: the boss visited the Turkish baths on Chrystie Street every Thursday at 9 p.m., supposedly unguarded. Owen took the job as one last piece of dirty work — he and Margaret were planning to run away together, and she had just told him she was pregnant with his child.

His final on-screen words to her, in front of everyone, were a polite "Mrs. Thompson."

The show never spells out how the plan leaked. But with Gyp Rosetti sheltering under Masseria's protection that season, the alliance against Nucky had eyes everywhere.

Why the crate?

Because Masseria wasn't just disposing of an assassin — he was sending Nucky an answer. In the episode's final scene, a wooden crate arrives at Nucky's suite in the middle of the night. It 's Margaret who looks inside, and her breakdown over the body tells Nucky everything about the affair in a single wordless moment.

Why the death happens off-screen

A fluke. Creator Terence Winter told TVLine in 2012 that the crew was about to film Owen's death when a heavy plaster rosette fell from the set's ceiling, and the shoot was scrapped. Director Tim Van Patten then argued the death might land harder unseen — and after watching a cut of the episode, everyone agreed. The audience opens that crate along with Margaret.

Winter didn't pretend the decision to kill Owen was painless:

"It's one of the challenges of doing a gangster show; people die," he told TVLine in 2012.

For the record: Charlie Cox's next defining role was Matt Murdock in Daredevil. He went from playing a hitman to playing the man who hunts them.