Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star story
Rock star Marcy Edwards has been the live-in lover of high-priced murder lawyer Hugh Creighton for several years. He learns that she is having an affair with someone else and throws her out of his house. However, Marcy blackmails Creighton into letting her stay, at least until he comes up with the $5 million she is demanding in exchange for not filing a palimony suit against him or exposing his unconventional practice methods. Creighton's response is to drug the champagne in her beach house and wait until she shows up there with her current lover. Having previously ensured that Marcy cannot drink by lacing her tea with disulfiram, Creighton waits until her new lover is passed out, then strangles her. Her lover awakens and flees the scene. Creighton enlists his associate, Trish Fairbanks, to help him concoct an airtight alibi, but when she finds out what he has done, she blackmails him into a full partnership in the firm, wisely going the extra mile by creating a contingency plan to ensure that killing her is not an option for Creighton. Columbo cracks the case, despite the existence of a speed-camera ticket which appears to exonerate Creighton completely. Final clue/twist: Due to shadow angles in the picture of the speeding ticket, Columbo can prove that Creighton's face was just a flat cut-out mask and that Fairbanks must have been driving Creighton's speeding vehicle, and breaking his alibi. Also, marks on Edwards neck matched the gloves found in the gardener's truck that had been stolen, parked on a particular street where an unusual type of tree grows, and returned. The windshield wiper wells on Fairbanks' car collected the berries and droppings of these trees, proving that Creighton parked her car on that street and also drove the truck there. Directed by: Alan J. Levi. Story by: William Read Woodfield.
19 total · 3 choice · 7 major · 9 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| blackmail | choice | Hugh found himself blackmailed into retaining his lover, Marcy, and murdered her, only to find himself in the same situation again with his assistant blackmailing him over the murder and intent on marriage. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | The celebrated lawyer Hugh Creighton, who had never lost a case, decided to murder his blackmailing lover, the former rock star Marcy Edwards, according to this seemingly foolproof stratagem: He strangled her in their bed with her drugged lover snoozing by her side, to pin it on the lover, and arranged a likely alibi for himself by having his assistant get issued speeding ticket while wearing a mask of his face. |
| murder of a lover | choice | Hugh murdered Marcy, who saw herself as his wife on account of having lived with him for many years, even though they were not actually married. |
| boss and employee | major | Hugh found himself blackmailed by his assistant, Trish. Lt. Columbo was told off by his boss. |
| framing someone for a crime | major | The villain of the story Hugh Creighton went to elaborate lengths to kill his younger girlfriend, and pin the deed on her rock musician lover with a shady past. |
| gold digging | major | Marcy and Trish both revealed themselves as greedy people who wanted a sexual relationship with Hugh for the sake of the wealth and position that would come with it. Marcy tried to blackmail her lover, Hugh, out of a substantial part of his fortune when he abruptly terminated their relationship because of her cheating. Hugh's subordinate, Trish, threatened to out him as the murderer unless he made her a partner at his law firm and also married him. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lt. Columbo was tasked with the following murder mystery: Was the former rock star Marcy Edwards killed by a lover in a drunken rage, or was the lover perhaps being framed by Marcy's much older partner? |
| legal occupation | major | Hugh Creighton was a celebrity lawyer who had never lost a case. He was shown defending a client on a murder charge in a dramatic courtroom setting. |
| romantic infidelity | major | The private eye confronting Hugh with incontrovertible evidence of Marcy's infidelity triggered a series of events that culminating with Hugh taking Marcy's life. |
| romantic relationship | major | Hugh found himself blackmailed into retaining his lover, Marcy, and murdered her, only to find himself in the same situation again with his assistant blackmailing him over the murder and intent on marriage. |