Kyle Risdow

Kyle Risdow was an American con artist and profiteer acting in league with the international terrorist Zapata.

In the 1990s, Risdow ran a grocery store in Florida. In the aftermath of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew, he jacked up prices one hundred percent to profit from the devastation, the first in a series of even more successful schemes. After relocating to Los Angeles, Risdow purchased several luxurious homes damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake for cheap prices, then did meager renovations and sold them "as is." One of these houses, a split-level house in Temescal Canyon overlooking Malibu, he took as his own residence. He first worked with Zapata when he was hired by the terrorist’s middlemen to finance one of his attacks, and later cashed in on Zapata’s sinking of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico.

The morning before Zapata's attempted assassination of Martin Webb, Risdow picked up Zapata from a Starbucks on Larchmont Avenue, agreeing to let him lay low at his home for most of the afternoon. First, Risdow drove him to the Reel Inn in Malibu, where Zapata hired Franko to eliminate MS-13 leader Smiley Lopez and tie up a loose end.

For much of the afternoon, Zapata hid out at Risdow’s house. When he heard from Franko that somebody had stopped him from killing Lopez, he grew cautious, and asked Risdow to get him a map of the Los Angeles freeway system, in order to effect a standstill of traffic to aid his escape after the assassination. Later, Risdow sat drinking with Zapata by the pool, listening disinterestedly as the other man explained how killing Webb would take out the last pillar holding up the American government.

At 3:30, Risdow left the house on an errand, at the same time that Jack Bauer learned of his involvement from Smiley Lopez. Responding to the APB put out by CTU, officers of the Santa Monica Police Department arrested Risdow on Lincoln Boulevard. Jack, arriving at the house, found Zapata, who pretended to be Risdow and lied that Zapata’s attack involved the Pacific Rim Forum. Only after leaving the house did Jack learn that the real Risdow had been taken into custody, and that he had allowed his real target to slip away from him.

Background information and notes

 * While running the name, Jamey Farrell determines that there are five other people by the name “Kyle Risdow” in the Los Angeles area: two were grandfathers, one mentally disabled, and two others incarcerated in Folsom and Chico.