Does Columbo *know* who the murderer is, upon meeting them? - Columbo (1971) Discussion

[–] d_homen 7 years ago

If you watch it closely you can tell sometimes he hones in very early and by the questions he asks he suspects the perpetrator when meeting them. Other times you can see the gears running in Columbos' mind and can tell he starts out with them being on the list to being sure they are the guilt party as he interacts with the perpetrator.

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[–] lanceus 7 years ago

Yeah, sometimes he has the suspect right off the bat after they explain their alleged alibi and something just doesn't add up. The Johnny Cash episode Is kind of an example of this, but a little different because Columbo investigated the crime scene a bit before meeting Cash/Tommy Brown.

Several cases he mentions interviewing other potential suspects and says why they were cleared or unlikely.

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[–] shlbycindy 7 years ago

I read somewhere that when you hear Colombo whistling "This Old Man", it's because he's just figured out who the murderer is.

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[–] rjstephen 7 years ago

I was watching Make Me A Perfect Murder last night and Columbo quite clearly suspects Kay from their first meeting, when Flanagan gives her Mark's old job while he is in the office with them.

But in Greenhouse jungle i am pretty sure he suspected Kathy and her lover Ken first before he suspected Jarvis.

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[–] painter101 7 years ago

I think he suspects very quickly. Then he has to gather as much evidence as possible against the perpetrator, meanwhile pretending to bumble and stumble along and be great friends with them.

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[–] [email protected] (5495) 7 years ago

Columbo is good at his job! He obviously has a good idea who dunnit after examining a crime scene.

Actually I think he has the same smarts as real homicide detectives. When someone is murdered they first look to the spouse and other family members and work their way out from there. I have watched many true crime shows and the detectives always narrow their focus at first to family. When the victim is a married woman, they look for motives of sex or money from the husband.

In the very first Columbo TV movie, Prescription:Murder, I think Columbo had the husband pegged from the start. The doctor returns home from a vacation alone. Supposedly he and his wife argued on the plane and she left. She went home and was murdered when actually the doctor killed her before he left for the airport.

Columbo was hanging around the apartment supposedly looking for clues. I think he was waiting for the husband's return to hear his reaction upon seeing the broken glass from the "break in" and the police tape on the floor.

Dr. Fleming entered but did not call out to his wife, "Honey I'm back!" He didn't seem the least bit surprised or startled to see that his home had been broken into, well... it was only a matter of time before Columbo had him.

If someone wantsd to murder a spouse, they have to be really clever to fool a homicide detective!

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[–] Master (1494) 7 years ago

In Murder Under The Glass He Kinda did.

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[–] [email protected] (5495) 7 years ago

I just watched 'Murder Under Glass' a few days ago. Yes, Columbo had the killer pegged right away.

He asked Columbo when he suspected him. Columbo said that it was about five minutes. The killer had dinner with someone who presumably died from "food" poisoning and he wasn't in the least bit worried about going to the hospital to have his stomach pumped.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

As in real life, often the first suspects are "knowable."

The spouse, for instance. Dick Van Dyke's wife has been kidnapped and killed, and he's killed the kidnapper. Really?

Or a business partner: Robert Conrad's gym franchisee Gene Stafford has been publically challenging Conrad's business practices as corrupt. And now Stafford has died "accidentally" at the gym in a barbell accident. Really?

Columbo sometimes knows these things BEFORE he meets the killers. Sometimes it takes him awhile to learn these facts(like about Stafford.) But he's also on the lookout for clues right off the bat. And "demeanor": indeed as noted above: a husband not shocked his wife is dead, a guy who didn't rush to the hospital after eating dinner with a guy who got poisoned.

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[–] [email protected] (5495) 7 years ago

I think detectives, especially seasoned homicide detectives, develop a keen radar and a pretty good sense of who the likely killer is. Probably people who are good at "reading" other people gravitate to that line of work too.

In Paul Galesko's case, there were cops swarming the junkyard crime scene where Paul was supposed to "meet the kidnapper."

Columbo was the first one to pose the question, "He killed the kidnapper BEFORE he told him where his wife was?"

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

In Paul Galesko's case, there were cops swarming the junkyard crime scene where Paul was supposed to "meet the kidnapper."

Columbo was the first one to pose the question, "He killed the kidnapper BEFORE he told him where his wife was?"

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Great point. I've been in many a meeting where there was someone else in the room who read the same report or documents and -- knows the question to ask, SAW the question to ask -- before any of the rest of us did.

The fantasy: we like to think we are Columbo.

The reality: we are those other cops. But they have a job to do, too.

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[–] dolemite72 (150) 7 years ago

I only asked (originally on IMDB) because I have mental images of poor Columbo, being on call-out (all day and night) to every accident scene (given his record of solving otherwise open-and-shut cases) :D

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I only asked (originally on IMDB) because I have mental images of poor Columbo, being on call-out (all day and night) to every accident scene (given his record of solving otherwise open-and-shut cases) :D

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Ha. Well the whole thing was a well-honed fantasy, really...entertainment for the mind. All of the killers being rich or well off and "plotters." Columbo indeed being available and on-call for these things. (Perhaps his bosses "saved" him for accidental deaths, suicides, and cases where there were no witnesses -- gang-related murders and so forth were farmed out to someone else.)

Columbo told his prey all sorts of stories about family members that may or may not have existed, but at the core of his stories -- and at the core of his police work -- was something audiences craved: honesty and integrity, good middle class values.

Many a killer indirectly tried to bribe Columbo(Culp seeking to hire him as a security expert at ten times his cop pay), some killers sought his acceptance of their motives at the end (Columbo would answer: "That's for a jury to decide, not me.") But Columbo stayed honest and focused on justice. And he seemed to suss out prey who were not.

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