Murder by the Book story

columbo1971e1x01 · 1971-09-15

Ken Franklin is one-half of a mystery writing team, but partner Jim Ferris wants to go solo, exposing the fact that Ferris did all the actual writing, and thus leave the high-living Franklin without his cash cow. However, the pair have an insurance policy on which Franklin can collect if Ferris dies during the partnership. Franklin makes it look like Ferris was investigating gangsters. He tricks Ferris into taking a trip to Franklin's remote cabin two hours away. They stop at a general store, where, as Franklin makes a phone call to Ferris's wife to establish an alibi, the owner Lilly La Sanka—obviously smitten with Franklin—peers outside to see whom Franklin brought with him and sees Ferris in the passenger seat of the car. At the cabin, Franklin convinces Ferris to call his wife and tell her he's working late at the office. During the phone call, Franklin shoots Ferris. He drives two hours back to his house with his dead partner in the trunk, dumping the corpse on his own lawn. La Sanka tracks Franklin to Los Angeles when he is out on a date and loudly approaches him, making it clear that she knows Franklin killed Ferris, forcing him to cancel his date. He brings her the $15,000 she wants for her silence, feigning interest in her. The two have an intimate dinner in the back of her store, then he bludgeons her and puts her body in a boat, which he capsizes to make her death appear accidental. Final clue/twist: After hearing that Ferris habitually wrote down ideas for his mystery novels on whatever paper was handy, Columbo searches his office and house and finds a note with the fake phone call/alibi scheme. He confronts Franklin with it, and Franklin confesses. Upon his arrest, Franklin makes a startling comment: the alibi idea was in fact his, the only good one he ever had. Note: In 1997 TV Guide ranked this episode number 16 on its '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list. The Mrs. Melville novel that is frequently seen in the episode is named "Prescription: Murder", the same name as Columbo's first pilot episode. Directed by: Steven Spielberg. Story by: Steven Bochco.