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Murder, She Wrote Season 4 Episodes
Season 4 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 1987 - 1988
Episode 1
A Fashionable Way to Die
Sun, Sep 20, 198747 mins
Promised an original, Jessica travels to Paris for her friend fashion-designer Eva Taylor's first high-profile show. What Eva doesn't tell Jessica is that Maxim Soury extorted a 50-50 deal not to pull the plug on a loan. Later, Maxim is found shot in his hotel room, with indications Eva did it. Jessica and gallant Paris police inspector Panassie soon find Soury was an adulterer, known so by his wife, Claudia, and a dirty pornographic extortionist with a kept mistress, bar singer Valerie Bechet, mother of model Kim. Unlike the police, Jessica believes two maids claiming each to have heard a shot with a 20 minutes interval during the fashion-show, and works out the meaning of the dresses mix-up and missing purse during the otherwise perfect show.
Episode 2
When Thieves Fall Out
Sun, Sep 27, 198747 mins
Andrew Durbin returns to Cabot Cove after serving 20 for a murder he says he did not commit. As a college student 20 years before, he had been hitchhiking on the outskirts of the town when he got a lift from someone driving an expensive sports car. They were forced off the road by an erratic driver coming in the opposite direction and the driver of the sports car was seriously injured. Durbin went off to find help and, when he returned, he found the driver dead and later learns there is $100,000 in bearer bonds missing. He's now returned seeking to find the killer and thief. As for Jessica, she finds herself in the unpleasant situation of having to investigate friends and neighbors.
Episode 3
Witness for the Defense
Sun, Oct 4, 198747 mins
Jessica obeys a Canadian court summons to Quebec to give testimony in wealthy fledgling author friend Jim Harlan's trial concerning the death of his young wife, Patricia, in their country house's fire. Nationally reputed Attorney Oliver Quayle refuses to acknowledge arson as a cover-up for murder. Instead, he fights the evidence claiming it could be an accident, despite convincing indications she was killed by a blow on the head. The couple was heard to fight over a nasty divorce. Jessica can't resist doing her own investigation, even questioning witnesses like the ex-con gardener. Instead of appreciating her help, the haughty lawyer starts discrediting her in court, referring to an allegedly stolen book plot, psychiatric history and even arrested relatives. Yet Jessica keeps sleuthing and unearths how Jim, who hurt his cause by silence, eloped with and blackmail was paid by socialite, overbearing mother, Judith Harlan, and gets help from Quayle's assistant. Barnaby. checking on the identification of the corpse and dealing with P.I. Rudy Planski, and a missing broach.
Episode 4
Old Habits Die Hard
Sun, Oct 11, 198747 mins
Mike Phelps refuses to accept his fiancée, Sarah Martino, leaving him to enter the Immaculate Heart nunnery which runs a girls school, where Jessica takes a retreat, invited by a former sorority sister, now Reverend Mother Claire. After benefactors Mayor Albert Simpson and wife, Marian, learned about Ray Carter trying to find a dying rich man's 15 years ago estranged daughter, convent record keeper Sister Emily is found dead at her desk from, according to a hand-written note, suicide by pills, which Claire refuses to believe although the convent was locked up all night. Although Bishop Patrick Shea is prepared to let the police close the case, Jessica and the Reverend Mother are not convinced it was suicide. After finding out the pills dose wasn't even lethal, the note was a teaching aid, and several secrets, Jessica learns about a secretly reopened old underground railroad route, snoops on and devises a crafty trap.
Episode 5
The Way to Dusty Death
Sun, Oct 25, 198747 mins
As company board member, Jessica is among old chairman Duncan and Lydia Barnett's weekend guests who hear the rumors of a take over by Spruce Osborne or resignation are false. Would-be successor Morgan McCormack's wife, Virginia, decide it's time to hurry nature by doctoring his nightly brand with extra digitalis heart medication. He is found dead in the hot-tub with a TV but it is deemed an accident and the TV was knocked into the tub when he had a heart attack. Jessica refuses rushing to cast the decisive vote for Morgan or Tom Dutton. She works out with Dr. Chatsworth that four digitalis pills are missing, as well as the brandy glass which was full when the corpse was discovered, but the autopsy finds no overdose. She finds out Osborne's much younger girlfriend, Serena, was planted by Duncan, while Osborne had a man on the board, gets a confession for the failed murder attempt and traps the successful killer.
Episode 6
It Runs in the Family
Sun, Nov 1, 198747 mins
His family solicitor and fellow Burma veteran, Humphrey Defoe, hands Jessica's lookalike cousin, London music hall performer Emma MacGill, £1,000 just to visit her terminally ill old acquaintance, Geoffrey Constable, recently the 18th Viscount Blackraven since the 17th, Rupert, died at 87. Geoffrey tells her he's leaving her a country house with income, feels better and takes her on a picnic she packs, but dies from an apparent heart attack. Inspector Frost is right to insist on an autopsy as strychnine poison in the herring he was so fond of was found. The heir, eldest brother Arthur Constable, cuts his spoiled rotten 19-year-old son Derek short, who next gets lightly wounded while hunting with the third brother, Johnny Constable, who could have poisoned Rupert with candy he smuggled in against diet rules. Emma, Humphrey and the inspector ultimately set a trap.
Episode 7
If It's Thursday, It Must Be Beverly
Sun, Nov 8, 198747 mins
Sheriff Amos Tupper's night deputy Jonathan Martin's wife Audrey, an impossible to please nagger, is found dead from a bullet shot with his spare gun. But was it suicide, without a note and rather then using pills she had plenty of? Jessica and Amos work out from the police log not only that Jonathan's alibi, wealthy widow Eve Simpson, called for help with her 'stuck' cat every Tuesday, but he had lonely women for every other day of the week, including travel agent Phyllis Grant, Seth's nurse and Loretta Speigel, owner of Cabot Cove's beauty parlor and gossip HQ, where they all met. However, Jessica attaches particular importance to lottery tickets discussed there and missing mail.
Episode 8
Steal Me a Story
Sun, Nov 15, 198747 mins
Young script writer Gayle Yamada warns Jessica that Hollywood producer Avery Stone insists on stealing the essential plot of one of her mystery books for his TV series starring celebrity Gary Patterson as Dr. Valiant. Shortly after Sid Sharkey, who decided to fire Gary and continue the plagiarist project himself with re-hired director Bert Puzo, dies from a bomb package. In an attempt to sleuth on the spot, LAPD Lieutenant Bradshaw being clueless, Jessica accepts Gary's request to 'ramrod the script'. Sid made lots of professional enemies, including his own assistant, Freida Schmidt, who says some of his files were stolen. Jessica devises a trap.
Episode 9
Trouble in Eden
Sun, Nov 22, 198747 mins
At lunch, Mary Rose Welch tells Jessica about her sister Charlotte Welch dying in her own Garden of Eden Hotel and then being cremated the next day. She shows her an anonymous letter indicating it was murder. While leaving the restaurant, Mary Rose Welch, is hit by a car that was tying to kill her but puts her in the hospital with a broken leg. Jessica decides to go there with family lawyer, Lewis Framm, posing as Mary Rose. The maid, who was absent that day, doubts it was a heart attack, as everyone keeps saying, and shows her that stashed papers are stolen, including a will. About the whole town of Eden, Oregon, including Sheriff Landry, Dr. Lynch and Reverend Willard Manchester, seems hell-bent to get the strangers out without finding out. To stir the ambitious young manager, Lila Benson, Jessica announces she will stay to run the place and find out more, notably about blackmail, while businessman C.J. Dobbs makes her a joint bid from several locals.
Episode 10
Indian Giver
Sun, Nov 29, 198747 mins
Algonquin George Longbow disturbs Mayor Sam Booth's speech in full warrior dress to deliver, by spear, his hereditary claim to the land-rights granted by the British to his ancestor Chief 12 generations ago. A land strip including all Cabot Cove. While history professor Harold Crenshaw, George's girl-friend Donna's father, verifies the document's veracity, people panic and protest. It turns out he is only demanding reasonable rent. The local businessman involved in an impending major development project is found dead with an Algonquin spear in his chest, as everybody eagerly assumes by George, who is soon after found, roughed up and brought to Amos by local hot-head hoodlums. Jessica, however, believes in his innocence and sets out to prove it.
Episode 11
Doom with a View
Sun, Dec 13, 198747 mins
Jessica was looking forward to staying with her nephew, Grady Fletcher, but pest control fumigation drives them out of his New York apartment, however, to a deluxe hotel owned by his frat buddy Garrett Harper's older wife Cornelia Montaigne Harper, an overbearing workaholic. We soon learn Garrett is hiding from her his contacts with computer operator Sandra Clemons, who could never afford the hotel's steep prices. Grady finds Sandra dead, but agrees to keep silent about Garrett being in the room and thus becomes the prime suspect to save his frat buddy's marriage. While dandy NYPD Inspector Donald Matheney sees properly screening the crime scene as an interruption before returning to the ballet, Jessica soon finds mother Nettie Harper knew about a secret, which enabled blackmail.
Episode 12
Who Threw the Barbitals in Mrs. Fletcher's Chowder?
Sun, Jan 3, 198847 mins
Sheriff Amos Tupper is just working flat out since a deputy gave notice when his younger sister, Winnie Tupper Banner, arrives, having left her husband. He dumps her on Jessica, who is fighting a deadline. When she takes her to Dr. Seth Hazlitt for ulcer medicine prescription, she is relieved that the old bachelor-gentleman enjoys her company and leave Winnie with him. Amos allows overbearing Marigold Feeney's "you're no bigot, are you?"" routine to railroad him into hiring her as deputy. Later, he finds himself the last in line for sleeping accommodation in his own home after the unannounced arrival of brother-in-law Elmo Banner, manager of a drugstore, his half-brother and business partner, pharmacist Harold Banner, sister Flo Oakes and her husband, Kenny. Winnie refuses to talk to her in-laws, even announces a divorce, Elmo mumbles 'you'd have to kill me', then she runs off to Seth. Next day, Jessica offers to cook a seafood feast for the unappreciative, grumpy Banner bunch, who all doze off at the table, mildly drugged with phenobarbital, as Seth soon finds, but Elmo dies from an overdose of it. It's also the chief ingredient of Winnie's ulcer drug which she claims to have dropped in the bathroom already. Feeney arrests Ed Bellamy, whom Amos earlier saw fighting with Elmo, but it turns out he is a P.I. Elmo hired.
Episode 13
Harbinger of Death
Sun, Jan 24, 198847 mins
Jessica visits her niece, Carrie Palmer, and her husband, Leonard Palmer, who actually forgot his own anniversary date, being an obsessively comets-devoted astronomy researcher at the Astro-Physics Institute where director Russell Armstrong and high-profile, high-maintenance careerist scientist, Dr. Thor Lindquist, who insists they attend the reception they hold to land a Defense contract Leonard disapproves of. That night, Leonard is seen rushing out without signing out or closing up his computer-programmed telescope, which is pointed at a vacation house owned by Armstrong 30 miles-away, focused at the corpse of Drake Eaton. The house was lent to Leonard's wife, Carrie Palmer, who admits she asked Drake to come over. Jessica agrees to ghostwrite a book for investigating police Sergeant Kettler to get access to all the data, while Leonard is fired to avoid image damage. Conflicting statements from Leonard and Carrie make them the obvious suspects, yet Jessica suddenly concentrates on the programming of the telescope.
Episode 14
Curse of the Daanav
Sun, Feb 7, 198847 mins
After meeting their Congressman in Washington D.C., Jessica convinces Seth to accept an invitation to a polo-match in nearby Maryland hosted by his wealthy, estranged brother, Richard Hazlitt. Seth grudgingly accepts provided she joins him. Richard's new wife, considered a threat by his son, Mark Hazlitt, and daughter, actually sent the invitation, but it works, the brothers finally make up in a trip to memory lane with whiskey and cigars at the estate. However, the ruby Richard bought for his wife, seems to work its curse to kill anyone not of pure heart who wears it as she nearly suffocates in the garage. Next, Richard takes the ruby to his study, and is killed while the door is locked from the inside. Jessica works out how both crimes connect with the ruby and refuses to believe Vikram Singh, who has been trying to buy the ruby is guilty, even after the ruby is found on him, as her trap proves.
Episode 15
Mourning Among the Wisterias
Sun, Feb 14, 198847 mins
Jessica accepts an invitation from playwright Eugene McClenden to read his new play at his estate, where potential production people gather. That night, shots are heard and Eugene is found in the room holding a gun while his lawyer, Jonathan Keeler, is dead in his bed. Homicide Captain Walker Thorn, whose family was swindled out of the estate by Jonathan, investigates. But Jessica thinks there may be another crime.
Episode 16
Murder Through the Looking Glass
Sun, Feb 21, 198847 mins
Moments after leaving a hotel where she gave a speech to a booksellers convention, Jessica Fletcher witnesses a car accident. The driver has suffered a heart attack and asks Jessica to find him a priest. He also, in his dying breath, tells her that he had just killed a man by the name of Carl Cosgrove. She reports what he said to the police but Sgt. Cooper doubts her story, especially after checking and learning that Cosgrove is alive and well living in his gated property. When Cosgrove's body is found, however, it looks like Jessica may have been right. The only thing is that Coscrove isn't Cosgrove and Jessica finds herself in the middle of a government security operation.
Episode 17
A Very Good Year for Murder
Sun, Feb 28, 198847 mins
Jessica attends the grand 75th birthday party of Salvatore Gambini, the Italian patriarch and founder of a valuable winery. She soon finds out there are tensions as the old man fears only his son Marco is devoted to the business while the next generation is 'spoiled'. Paul's brighter brother, Tony Gambini, goes back and forth to Tahoe on some business he won't elaborate on. After Tony has an accident in the wine-cellar, Police Chief Thaddius Kyle and Jessica are watchful. However, they fail to prevent the murder of granddaughter Michele Gambini's boyfriend, who, as Kyle finds out, is actually a mob hit-man. Yet Jessica comes to a surprising conclusion, with an unusual end result.
Episode 18
Benedict Arnold Slipped Here
Sun, Mar 13, 198847 mins
When the reclusive Tilly Adams dies, several people have their eyes on her estate. Jessica is the executrix of the estate and she and Seth Hazlitt set about cataloging her extensive personal property which includes many valuable antiques. Local antique dealer Benny Tibbles has wanted to get his hands on Tilly's possessions as does his brother Wilton who will cheat anyone, including Benny, to make a profit. Also interested in the house is Alastair Andrews, an Englishman who much admires Benedict Arnold who once stayed there. He plans to disassemble the house and relocate it to England. When Benny Tibbles is found dead in the house, however, Jessica has another murder to solve. There is no shortage of suspects.
Episode 19
Just Another Fish Story
Sun, Mar 27, 198847 mins
Jessica is in New York to visit her nephew, Grady, and to meet his fiancée, Donna Mayberry. She's also there to see the restaurant she's invested in. She learns very quickly, starting with the cab driver coming in from the airport, just how cut throat the New York restaurant business can be. Jessica is treated rudely by the restaurant Maitre d', Chaz Crewe, but finally manages get a table. When Crewe is found dead in the kitchen the next day, Jessica has a murder to solve. As for Grady and Donna, it's obvious to Jessica that they need to open up to one one another if they're to be happy.
Episode 20
Showdown in Saskatchewan
Sun, Apr 10, 198847 mins
Jessica visits her niece, Jill Morton, as her mother, Louise, suspects her romantic link with Marty Reed while on a rodeo circuit. They witness a crazy bet to stay longest on a mean bull but before they could ride, the bull charged and hurt some of them. Doc Schaeffer, the dodgy circuit healer, treats Boone Talbot's best boy, Luke Purdue, for a leg-wound and grounds Marty with a concussion. Next night Doc is killed by arson but Luke is pulled out of Doc's trailer just in time. RCMP (Mounties) Inspector Roger McCabe, a JB Fletcher mystery fan, officially investigates and confers with Jessica. Doc's widow says he made lots of enemies and, before her marriage, practiced ten years in jail but she won't miss him. Marty is visited by his wife and son, Buster. After Boone gets wounded, heroically saving Marty from a bull's horns, the young father pulls out with a mild arm injury, to Luke's fury, thus ruining their chance at an annual title. A call from prison warden Burns inspires Jessica.
Episode 21
Deadpan
Sun, May 1, 198847 mins
Producer Shayne Grant mounts Walter Knapf's play 'Mainely Murder', a reworking of JB Fletcher's mystery, who was one of his teachers. Only after the pre-premiere Broadway interviews, Walter admits he was railroaded into appalling changes. The critics do a destructive job on the play, worst of all by ever-condescending TV columnist, Elliot Easterbrook. Shortly after, the Chronicle newspaper critic, Danny O'Mara, who gave the only glowing review while also attacking Elliot's, is found murdered after Easterbrook shouted he should be permanently silenced. Jessica and the NYPD work their way through suspects among cast, crew and critical body, starting with Elliot, who was found there holding a gun but has a TV alibi, only to find the killer after examining notes and computer files.
Episode 22
The Body Politic
Sun, May 8, 198847 mins
Jessica flies in for her old friend Kathleen Lane's campaign in the senatorial primaries and accepts to replace her suddenly deserted speech-writer. After a dodgy TV talk-show host makes a sleazy deal with opponent Arthur Drelinger's campaign staff, he gets and publishes pictures suggesting Lane had an affair with her much younger campaign manager, Bud Johnson, who is found dead, apparently suicide by jumping in her bathrobe from her balcony, which Jessica believes to be staged, but by whom and why? Meanwhile, Kathleen's rich and generous, much older husband, Jackson Lane, also suspected of financial faults, speaks up for her innocence, but can that save her candidature?
