Murder in Malibu story
Jess McCurdy fails to convince her sister, best-selling romance novelist Theresa Goren, to cancel her wedding to Wayne Jennings, a playboy/tennis bum half her age and a gold digger. McCurdy impersonates her sister on the phone with Jennings and dumps him. Jennings reacts by killing Goren - twice. He arranges an alibi for the first murder, then returns and shoots her corpse. He allows Columbo to "catch" him for the second murder, which he confesses, but then "learns" that he had only shot a corpse, so is innocent of murder, which he assumes will be blamed on a burglar. Final clue/twist: Columbo untangles the plot with his surprisingly detailed familiarity with the location of the tag on women's panties. He proved that someone else put Goren's underwear onto her corpse, and that this someone could only be a man, because only a man would put the panties on backwards. A murderous burglar wouldn't have bothered to dress the corpse; only Jennings would have a reason to do so, to help his alibi. Directed by: Walter Grauman. Story by: Jackson Gillis.
17 total · 3 choice · 5 major · 9 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| greedy heir | choice | Wayne Jennings shot his fiancée dead as he thought she was leaving him, all in order to collect on a million dollar bequest. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | Wayne Jennings hatched the following scheme to rid himself of his fiancée who he thought was about to dump him, and collect on a bequest: He drove unbelievably fast from where he had an alibi to her place and shot her. After failing to make an escape he cleverly went back and shot her corpse with another gun. He later confessed to the second shooting, which apparently was not a crime, and threw everyone off his scent for a spell. One gathers that he would have gotten away with his crime had it not been for the meddlesome Lt. Columbo. |
| murder of a lover | choice | The villain of the story Wayne Jennings shot his fiancée dead in cold blood to collect on a bequest. |
| engaged couple | major | The story turns on Wayne Jennings shooting his fiancée dead in cold blood to collect on a bequest. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lt. Columbo was tasked with the following murder mystery: Had a rich and successful romance novelist been shot by a burglar, or was her serially unfaithful lover somehow involved? Or was it her elder sister cum literary agent "whodunit"? |
| romantic infidelity | major | Wayne and Theresa feigned to have a monogamous relationship but Wayne was unable to stay faithful and had a never-ending string of lovers behind her back. |
| sister and sister | major | Theresa Goren's elder sister, Jess McCurdy, was also her literary agent. The viewer learns much about their relationship during the course of the investigation into Theresa's murder. |
| the Casanova stereotype | major | Wayne Jennings had a never ending string of lovers, who found him irresistible, and was serially unfaithful to his wealthy fiancee, Theresa Goren. He effortlessly seduced the no-nonsense literary agent, Jess McCurdy, when it became expedient for him to do so. |
| anger | minor | Wayne had a violent temper, and was shown blowing his fuse on several occasions. |
| burglary | minor | Conventional police wisdom had it that Theresa was shot dead in a burglary gone tragically wrong. Lt. Columbo begged to differ. |