Old Fashioned Murder story

columbo1971e6x02 · 1976-11-28

The Lytton family owns and operates an antiquities museum. Ruth Lytton has dedicated her life to the museum, never marrying and having no children, although her niece Janie is as close to her as a daughter. Her brother Edward is not nearly as dedicated to the family business as Ruth is; in fact, he plans to close the museum and sell the building, as it's been losing money for years. Ruth and Edward's sister (and Janie's mother) Phyllis Brandt is a checked-out alcoholic who is likely to go along with Edward's decision. Ruth enlists Milton Schaeffer, an ex-con who works as a guard at the museum, and whose brother Tim is having an affair with Janie, in a complex plot where Milton will steal some artifacts from the museum, fake his own death, and then flee the country while Ruth collects the insurance money. But her real goal is revealed when she double-crosses Milton during the robbery, and shoots him dead, then kills Edward when he comes to investigate the gunshot. She then plants guns on both men to make it look like they killed each other. When Ruth realizes Columbo has not fallen for the staged robbery, she tries to frame Janie for involvement in the crimes. Final clue/twist: Ruth plants an ancient belt buckle in Janie's room to frame her, and Janie is arrested for the murders. Columbo takes the buckle to Janie's prison cell. When Janie uses it as an ashtray, Columbo knows she has no idea what it is, so she could not possibly have had a hand in its theft. Columbo comes to believe that, many years before, Ruth killed Janie's father, Peter Brandt, whom she was going to marry until Phyllis snatched him away. To protect Janie, who does not know much about her father’s death and his relationships with the women in his life, Ruth persuades Columbo not to pursue those questions and in return she will confess to the two current murders. Directed by: Robert Douglas. Story by: Lawrence Vail, Peter S. Feibleman.