The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case story
Bertie Hastings discovers that his friend, Oliver Brandt, a senior partner in an accounting firm, has been embezzling money to support the expensive lifestyle of his beautiful wife, Vivian. Hastings refuses to remain silent, even though he is friends with the volatile and egotistical Brandt. Brandt then plots Hastings's murder at the Sigma Society, the headquarters of a Mensa-type club for geniuses, intending to make it look like a burglary gone bad. Final clue/twist: Columbo uses Brandt's own Mensa-level intelligence and vanity, along with his dislike of the other people in the society, to trap him. After Columbo presents a ridiculous solution to how the murder took place, specifically on how the murderer timed things so the sounds of gunshots were heard coming from upstairs, immediately followed by the sound of a falling body, an outraged and insulted Brandt shows him exactly how it was done. Directed by: Sam Wanamaker. Story by: Robert Malcolm Young.
18 total · 2 choice · 6 major · 10 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| breaking the law to cover up another crime | choice | Oliver murdered Bertie before Bertie could expose him as a thief. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | Oliver hatched the following seemingly bullet-proof scheme to murder Bertie before Bertie could expose him as a thief: Oliver shot Bertie dead with a silencer equipped gun. He then rigged a vinyl record player so that it would trigger firecrackers that sounded like gunshots later on when Oliver was in the lounge. Thus he secured for himself a watertight alibi. One gathers that he would have gotten away with his crime had it not been for the meddlesome Lt. Columbo. |
| attitude of superiority | major | The villain of the story Oliver prided himself on his Mensa-level intelligence and spoke condescendingly to Lt. Columbo. |
| EQ vs. IQ | major | A point of the story was, arguably, to contrast the supremely intelligent but conspicuously awkward members of the Sigma Society with the supremely empathic people-knower, LT. Columbo. |
| false friend | major | Oliver feigned to be a true and dear friend to Bertie, yet tormented Bertie relentlessly and ultimately murdered him. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lt. Columbo was tasked with solving the following murder mystery: Had Bertie really been shot by a trigger happy burglar, or was the vinyl record player a tad more homicidal than it appeared at first blush? |
| pride goes before a fall | major | Oliver was supremely confident in his superior intellect and did not for a moment suspect that Lt. Columbo, a simple homicide detective, would be able to outwit him. |
| theft | major | Oliver was embezzling money from his accounting firm to support the expensive lifestyle of his beautiful trophy wife, Vivian. |
| boss and employee | minor | Oliver put his employee Alvin in his place. |
| burglary | minor | Oliver made Bertie's killing look like a burglary gone wrong. |