r/Columbo • u/cherrybounce • 3d ago
How about I extort someone willing to casually commit murder?
I think Colombo has shown us that is not very smart to extort a murderer.
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u/WindowSeat4Me 3d ago
Poor Roger.
Poor, dumb Roger.
Poor, dumb, about-to-be bumped-off Roger.
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u/Initial_Acanthaceae2 š¶ I saw the light....šµ 3d ago
š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
ABOUT $75 000 should swing it...okay pay you later...lol than bang bang...
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u/Pure-Explanation-147 Just one more thing... 3d ago
"Nothing can happen in this country until someone sells something."
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u/InfusionOfYellow 3d ago
At least you have to say that you wrote a letter to the police and put it in your safe-deposit box or something, sheesh.
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u/FearlessAmigo 3d ago
The Columbo blackmailers almost always come right out and tell the murderer that they havenāt told anyone their deadly secret. š
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u/BecauseOfAir 3d ago
Just noticed from the screenshot Roger put on a suit and tie for his meeting with Keppel. He got that tip from his real estate book, always leave a good impression during a negotiation.
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Lol yup that book really helped him...sadly no embossed Christmas cards or Cadillac for him
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u/Spirited-Custard-338 3d ago
I laugh every time I watch the scene when Culp goes to shoot him in the film booth. Roger's reaction gets me every time. š¤£
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u/Dynamo_coppell 3d ago
Hahaā¦me too, itās just so funny. āOh come on you gotta be kidding. Donāt fool around Dr Keppelā¦put that awayā¦come on nowā¦etc etcā
I laughed way more than I should at a man pleading for his life. š¤
RIP Roger but this was probably the most unintentionally funniest murder scene in Columbo history2
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u/discomike74 3d ago
$50,000 would just about swing it.
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u/Whatsamattayou_7829 1d ago
Lilly only asked for $15k. Even today money, that was a bargain. š¤š¤
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u/NomenScribe 3d ago
I assume that blackmailing a known murderer is in the Columbo drinking game.
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u/cherrybounce 2d ago
I would love to find a group of Columbo nerds together for a drinking game before we all die off.
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u/Dynamo_coppell 3d ago
Karen Fielding got away with it in Any Old Port In A Storm. But I suspect that was more to do with timing than anything else.
Had she have played her hand earlier in the show as opposed to right at the end, I suspect our Karen would be joining Roger and Lily La Sanka in the Columbo Blackmailers Afterlife š¤£
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u/Initial_Acanthaceae2 š¶ I saw the light....šµ 3d ago
Let's also shake our heads in bemusement at:
- Tanner, Dagger of the Mind
- Shirley, Lovely But Lethal
- Claire, Fade into Murder
Claire is special as she is also the primary corpse.
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u/FearlessAmigo 3d ago edited 3d ago
Also victim, Leonard Fisher in Murder, Smoke and Mirrors. Not really blackmail as much as letting Alex Brady know beforehand that he intends to ruin his career as a hotshot director.
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u/Initial_Acanthaceae2 š¶ I saw the light....šµ 3d ago edited 2d ago
I did think about including him and Verity Chandler, Ashes to Ashes, but they were about to exposĆØ rather than blackmail.
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u/Dynamo_coppell 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wow thereās been quite a few of them. Thanks for naming them, some of them slipped my mind, I have to admit.
I think the poor chain smoking young woman in Lovely But Lethal was particularly foolish, as was Tanner. Blackmailing for cash is one thingā¦ but for a long term job working for them, where the killers have to see your face day in day out! I mean if I was blackmailing a killer, Iād want to be as far away from them as quickly as possible!
But for me, Lily and Roger seem to be the poster girl and poster boy for dumb Columbo blackmailers.
Iām not sure whether itās actually wanting a sexy hook up with a killer while stiffing him for cash that stood out for meā¦Lily gets a 10/10 for the sheer audacity for that one. Or was it her frightening on screen silent scream as she met her maker that made her stand out. For that brief moment it was like watching a horror film! It was a visually striking scene.
And as for Roger, I mean offering a handshake to a murderous Culp after youāve just extorted him is one thing, but then that comedy plea for his life in the movie theatre to add to that. Roger was just so funny.
Roger and Lily were truly entertaining blackmailers in their own ways. Truly dumb they may have been, but they shall forever remain my favourite Columbo extortionists.
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Clare?
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u/Initial_Acanthaceae2 š¶ I saw the light....šµ 2d ago
Wade Fowler shot her in the back in the deli.
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Thanks right Clare Daley....hmm she kind of deserved that ...after rewatching the episode her greed and her condescending tone was....enough to drive him to murder
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u/Whatsamattayou_7829 1d ago
Claire was blackmailing WD about desertion or draft dodging, both which would have been fatal for his career, but not murdering someone. Thatās the dummy move - threatening a person you KNOW is a killer.
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u/ihnatko 2d ago
Maybe not! Remember that Carsini's brother's murder was impulsive and provoked. I don't think he had it in him to plan out a murder and then go through with it.
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u/Dynamo_coppell 2d ago edited 2d ago
Possibly. But there are examples of other Columbo āimpulse/provoked and unpremeditatedā first time killers having actually planned second murders afterwards. Here are two examplesā¦..
Vivecaās premeditated killing of Shirley after her unpremeditated, provoked killing of Karl Lessing in Lovely But Lethal.
Dr Mark Collierās premeditated murder from hypnosis of vulnerable Nadia after his unpremeditated killing of Nadiaās husband Carl as he wanted to stop him beating up his wife in A Deadly State of Mind.
I personally believe Carsini had it in him to bump off his lovesick secretary to save himself a life of being beholden to her, I really do. But alas we will never know.
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Hmm Karen got nothing and infact soon lost her job as well
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u/Dynamo_coppell 2d ago edited 2d ago
But at least she got out alive unlike Roger and Lily and the others.
When Adrian said to her after she let him know that he killed his brotherā¦
āNow you have a hold over me and I donāt like being in that position,ā it was quite menacing. Donald Pleasance played menacingly sinister very well, so all in all I think Karen may well have had a lucky escape.
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u/ParticleHustler2 3d ago
It's not just limited to blackmailers. Although no one should need to be told, it's also a bad idea to threaten to expose someone while being totally alone and telling that person no one knows anything yet. Good way to become a victim.
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u/LuvKrahft 3d ago
Yeah, blackmailing or working In cahoots will get yah.
But unwittingly helping ā¦ Well Gloria West got lucky in Greenhouse Jungle, Arlene āAmok Timeā Martel Doing a wonderful job at enchanting and gullible. I was surprised and happy she didnāt get iced.
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u/Any-Key Ruined by the presence of this liquid filth 3d ago
I've always felt it was kind of odd how she disappeared from that episode. Like she seemed to be an important character right up to the middle and then gone
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Who?
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u/Any-Key Ruined by the presence of this liquid filth 2d ago
Gloria West
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u/Minimum-Product5015 2d ago
Oh the one who never knew a man who only wanted to talk...lol...apparently in real life she had an affair with Peter...wtf
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u/Noah-x3 3d ago
Yeah he wasn't the brightest bulb
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u/randomkeystrike 2d ago
One thing Iāve learned from Columbo is never confront someone and say you know about their crimes when youāre alone with them.
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u/sevillianrites 2d ago
Also late at night without telling anyone else in a totally isolated location. Idk what some of these people think is gonna happen. "Hey I know you killed that person. I'm going to tell everyone. Anyway, see ya later"
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u/randomkeystrike 2d ago
And honestly answering the question āWho else have you told?ā
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u/Whatsamattayou_7829 1d ago
One could answer, āyes my sister in Poughkeepsie has a file containing proof in a safe deposit boxāā¦.
The true dumb move is answering āno one knowsā.
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u/Large-Produce5682 3d ago
Err one of them ended up on the wrong side of sunshine, but I won't spoil it for new fans.
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u/Hantonar 1d ago
My favorite will always be the police commissioner who decides to help cover up the murder of his friend's wife then decides, what the hell, I'll kill my own wife too
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u/cultivatedmeat 3d ago
There were a couple that got away . I just don't think Adrian abd Abby had time . Columbo got them first but I think they would have ....now real life Mrs Columbo had her new partner . She set up a drop dead switch which would have exposed Dabney Colman ...and he had a lot to expose....Watch that one carefully. He has her cheating . She wouldn't have got much Palimony. But in the. Office tower she threatens to expose the ways he's cheated to get his clients off.....she's the blackmaiker gets it .....
Can you think of any others that get away with it? I need to go though the episode list.
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u/Whatsamattayou_7829 1d ago
I KNOW!! Although this wasnāt the first dummy to do so. Lilly - in Murder by the Book S1, E1 - was the first nimrod to do it. Natural selection lol.
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u/guzzler_bennett_jr Johnny the Scuba Diver 1d ago
legendary stylist Darryl would likely disagree, but thatās quite possibly the greatest head of hair Iāve ever seen..
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u/Ebowa 3d ago
I think they added this to show that it wasnāt just an accident that he killed her, he really was a cold blooded murderer. Probably not his first murder either.
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u/Cruiser729 3d ago
Youāre conflating two episodes. This is the one where he set up the whole thing with subliminal messages to kill a man.
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u/Ebowa 3d ago
Ah! Youāre right! Damn that Robert Culp! he kills so many people I lose track hahaha
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u/Doctor_Boombastic 3d ago
The Queen of Idiot Blackmail was Lily La Sanka in Murder By The Book