Columbo Cracks the Case with a Shoe 👞 | Columbo 

In the same bag with a filthy shoe 😂

Such a Columbo line! 😂

Columbo needs to start eating better, but he does like a good bowl of chili.

Columbo has his lunch in the same brown paper bag as the evidence. lol!

@@paulpavlicsek1452 Chili and crackers, haha

Yeah I’d never thought about that. But it’s true. All hail Colombo

They even give you a chance to figure that out by showing a mother tying a kid’s shoes before Columbo enters the elevator.

Yes, it was The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson; he arrived in his “Columbo” clothes fresh to shooting a scene!

That was so fun!

Peter is such a legend, sadly, not many are like him..

The MOST interesting part of Columbo for me is that when he eventually identifies the killer, it doesn't always mean the person will be found guilty, because a seasoned and talented lawyer might be able to thwart the conclusions made based on some small detail that Columbo digs up. The conclusion is special for me because he FIGURED IT OUT and was able to make the arrest.

Best Columbo ever

Not so quietly, in some cases. Eric Mason tried to have him mauled to pieces by his dogs. I'm glad they don't all try to get him, though.

Not all of the suspects go quietly. On several episodes the suspect tried to run or some even tried to murder Columbo but he was wise to them.

@@bernhardwall6876 Another example was the rich rapey college kids in Columbo Goes to College, who tell Columbo their father's lawyers are going to get them off as they're hauled away to the police station.

Especially after going through the torture of the shoe lace and loop demonstration.

The magician tried to behe*d him with his guillotine.

Agreed. And that's not always the case. In fact, I'd argue that on several occasions Columbo actually feels compassion and empathy for the murderer. One great example was the Johnny Cash episode. I think Columbo really liked that guy, but he knew he still had to do his job. On the other hand, there are some that he truly despises, especially if he doesnt see any sort of remorse in their personality towards their victims, like the one with Leonard Nimoy as the doctor. Man.. I never saw Columbo so angry at a killer in all of the seasons I watched. That was his most pissed off moment when he slams the water carafe on the doctor's desk. Awesome scene!

He played the part perfectly, great actor.

Well if you want to be technical there was always two. Detective Columbo and, of course, his beloved but never seen wife. EDIT: Just remembered the Mrs. Columbo series existed. There goes my long standing theory that Columbo's wife was part of a framing device Columbo used to seem like a bumbling everyman so the criminals get sloppy.

@@yellowstalk6653 The Mrs Columbo series was made without the agreement or involvement of the creators of Columbo, who disowned the series. The character was renamed Mrs Callahan and the series renamed "Kate Solves a Mystery". In one of the 1990s Columbo episodes, Columbo says "A woman's been going around claiming she's my wife. But that isn't her."

@@RJSRdg Perfect, my theory still stands!

​@@yellowstalk6653I always had a theory that he was drawing on real experiences with his wife when he would bring her up on the job, but that in reality she had been dead for some time. I thought it would be a beautiful story if that was his sort of way of remembering his wife, with her helping him catch bad guys even after she's gone.

Is he wearing a wig?

@@Richard_Straker i don't think so, because there is a scene in this episode where he was swimming and his hair was still wet and you can see his scalp. if it's a wig it's not too bad in 1974. a lot better than BURT REYONLDS obvious hair pieces.

He was a keep fit fanatic

He was 37 playing a 53 year old…

That confused me as well. But, Jannis just said "your little demonstrations proves one thing and one thing only, somebody else put on Stafford's gym shoes." SO HE AGREES, but Stafford was dead and so there was no phone call, so he lied. He could only know he was in his gym clothes if he put them on him.

I thought of the same thing - the phone call. Stafford told him he changed and was about to work out. But as @truthlifefishing1730 mentioned, if they can prove the time of death, then there was no phone call so it would have to be him if he knew about the gym clothes. However, if the time of death could not be proven, then there is still that possibility that the phone call was made and Jannis still has a viable alibi.

@@slayer8actual The telephone company would be able to check that. Which should have been checked once murder was supposed.

It's because the guy hadn't tied his own shoelaces and jannis was the only one who knew he was in the gym at that time so it was he who put On and tied the guys laces up

Landline phone companies can (or at least could) pull a record of calls coming in or out, though said records probably aren't kept forever. If the investigation pulled that info after he was found dead, they'd probably be able to confirm where the call came from/to, and the time, to see if it lines up when the man was actually already dead. So they'd ideally have proof something was off about the phone call, Jannis knew the man was in an outfit no one else knew about, and a part of said outfit doesn't match how the murdered man puts on his own clothes. I'm guessing he probably has other shoes at home to compare multiples, too. Would all that hold up in court? Possibly not; without the phone evidence, almost certainly not. Columbo always went for dramatic "gotha" moments that wouldn't always work in reality. But sometimes Columbo's gotcha was intended to make the murderer feel cornered, slip up, and give away their guilt.

As you know, Columbo is not about the killer getting his punishment. It's about Columbo finally wiping of that arrogant smirk off his(her) face, humiliating him(her).

Some witnesses in the room would have been helpful.

Alot of the endings in columbo wouldn't work in a court of law

@@donjohn2695 they sure wouldn't. I always saw it as a silent agreement between Columbo and the murderer: "You caught me, I will go to the police station without resistance." Columbo's job is done. What the sleazy attorney does after that is of no importance.

Even if the evidence isn't enough, you get the DA to make a deal. You're right, it might not hold up in court. We'll offer you twenty years if you plead guilty to murder. Otherwise, we're going for life. Take the plea, and you'll get out someday and still see your kids and family as a free man. Don't take the deal and lose, and you're in prison for life. You'll die in prison. Obviously, he could take it to court and be found not guilty and be free. But they know they did it. So they'll always see it possible that a jury will convict them. And you never know what a jury is going to do. The option to serve a sentence and still have some life after opposed to risking it all and losing is enough to get most people to plea.

Not just cigar ashes.

me too. Robert Conrad was a great murderer.

Because the sequence of events put the victim as being murdered, then dressed by the killer.

Not as simple as that. Did you comment without actually watching the clip? A good prosecutor would point out all the other evidence Columbo gathered up, such as how the murder and only the murderer knew he would be in his gym clothes, when the last anybody else saw of him he was in his business clothes. Its not just the last bit at the end that will convict them.

There is no case. Columbo only has to catch the killer, he doesn't have to convict them as well.

Agreed, but then he admits "someone else put his shoes on it could have been anybody." He cannot have it both ways and then he abandons he testimony. Witnesses in the room would have been better.

On the other hand the prosecuting attorney can argue Stafford didn't call Janus, Janus called Stafford. The telephone company records for that time would be able to back up that the call was an outgoing call from Milo's number to Stafford's number. Not Stafford's number to Milo's number.

What reason would Stafford have for calling Janus merely to tell him he was working out in the gym and he was now in his gym clothes? Surely Stafford's private life or movements was none of Janus's business.

@@patrickjohnson5658 Such an oddity put Columbo onto Janus.

Yes, but then he admitted that it was someone else that killed him and dressed him. SO how could stafford have told him?

​@@truthlifefishing1730 ohhhh i get it now

Not in this case, it is not the shoelaces that is the prood, it is the FACT that he KNEW that the victim was in Gym clothes and had said so under oath. so ues it is a very good indicium for guilt.

@@bentalexranebundgaard4867 in court the simple fact he was mistaken in his original interview is not enough evidence. Any decent lawyer would eat that case up.

He looks about 45.

High paid lawyers are not always what they are cracked up to be. Mark Geragos was a high paid celebrity lawyer, yet he couldn't get Scott Petersen off the charge of killing his wife in 2004. A good prosecutor would grill him on the witness stand as to how the victim could have telephoned him to tell him was in his gym clothes, then claim "it could have been anybody" that put on his gym clothes and his shoes AFTER he was dead.

So did Khan! It's a shame DeForrest Kelley didn't do one to complete the set!

And the murderer could have done up shoe laces again for some reason or another, the whole attire having been put on by Stafford himself beforehand. It's only the shoe that looks to have been done up by someone else. Not even put on(can't be certain). Just the laces done up.

I do that oftentimes too. Then I untie the laces afterwards before putting them back on again.

mah

janus could not know at all that the victim had gym clothes because he was last seen alive in business clothes, the mere fact that janus mentioned gym clothes , proves he did it .

Columbo already demonstrated that Janus could not have tied his own shoes.

Yeah but the telephone records would show there was no outgoing call from Stafford to Janus at the time period he claimed there was. Janus made it all up and pretended to carry on a phone conversation with a guy who was already dead.

Slipping out of dress shoes without undoing the laces is an extremely common act.

@@r0bw00d nonsense. It was a plot hole.

@@jimjoe9945 Your unfamiliarity with suits is now on full display with that comment.

@@r0bw00d nonsense.

The murderer is the one who took off his dress shoes. Why bother to untie them, he was in a hurry?