![]() The Lieutenant is immediately puzzled by why the lights were off. Knowing full well where the bodies are, Ruth rather cruelly sends Janie off on her own and the young woman duly finds the two stiffs – as well as a mother lode of fist-biting trauma! Columbo’s real investigation is about to begin.Ĭolumbo’s dutiful underling, Sergeant Miller, has left the crime scene exactly as it was found. She and Janie head to the museum to continue the inventory so Edward can ‘sleep’. Still, the police have no corpus delicti to prove Schaeffer is dead, so Ruth puts the next phase of her plan into action. The histrionic Phyllis promptly faints dead away on the living room floor. She’s gracious enough to provide the Lieutenant with a cup of chamomile tea to help ease his spring hay fever sniffles before introducing the detective to Janie and Phyllis. Instead he is greeted by Ruth, who tells him that Edward is sleeping after a late night and she won’t wake him. Schaeffer’s brother has uncovered the answer machine message and is in a PANIC, believing his luckless sibling to have been slain! Columbo’s investigations thus takes him to the Lytton house for he has heard Schaeffer was fired from his job by Edward the day before (a lie concocted by Ruth), and he wishes to speak to the fella. She then places the revolver in Schaeffer’s dead hand, puts the other gun in Edward’s hand, flips the phone off the hook and beats her retreat – turning off the room light as she leaves.Ĭolumbo is on the case early next day. He, too, is surprised to see Ruth and uktra-surprised as she pops a cap in his chest with the revolver she’s just taken from Shaeffer’s corpse. “Categorise THAT, Edward!” Ruth sadly didn’t say…Įdward, who is still cataloging items on cassette, comes to investigate. He’s even more surprised when she guns him down in cold blood beside the museum’s payphone booth. Schaeffer is there, stealing the items he was told to take like a good little puppy, and is surprised to see Ruth. ![]() Once sister and niece are abed, Ruth heads to the museum. Janie should be helping Uncle Edward with his all-night inventory of the museum’s stock, but Ruth gave her niece a hall pass so she could put her murderous plan into action with no witnesses. Meanwhile, back at Lytton HQ, sisters Ruth and Phyllis chat to young Janie – Phyllis’s daughter – who has returned home from a date with Schaeffer’s brother at 11pm. He has to appear to be dead to get away clean, so, at Ruth’s behest, he rings his brother at 9pm and leaves an answer machine message in which he pretends to be in danger, and which he ends by firing a gun close to the receiver. Shaeffer, who is being tailed by thugs keen to recoup his gambling debts, agrees to this tomfoolery. All he needs to do is rob the museum at 2am, and meet her afterwards to swap the artifacts for cash and passport. To seal the deal, she also promises to supply Shaeffer with a phony passport so he can split the country and start a new life in in the tropics with his ill-gotten gains. “ Certainly I’ll agree to your far-fetched, hastily revealed plan. If he’ll break into the museum that night and steal some select, highly valuable relics, she’ll pay him $100,000 – ostensibly so she can claim them on insurance to solve the museum’s funding crisis. Instead she plots with down-on-his-luck museum security guard Milton Schaeffer. ![]() ![]() Ruthy won’t take this affront lying down. Sick of it losing money hand over fist, elder brother Edward has vowed to shut it down and sell off its assets so the three old-money Lytton siblings (including shallow, socialite sister Phyllis) can swim in loot for the rest of their days. Middle-age spinstress Ruth Lytton’s decades-long devotion to her family museum is hanging by a thread. Significant locations: Lytton Museum ( Doheny Mansion, 10 Chester Place, LA) Episode synopsis: Columbo Old Fashioned Murder
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