Universal Crime

A motivational researcher blackmails to further his career, kills a man, then frames the victim's wife.

An enraged publisher hires a gunman to kill an author who intends to sign a contract with a competitor.

A prodigy and his robot help investigate the murder of a professor who threatened to disgrace a colleague's scientist son.

A gospel singer kills his evangelist wife when she denies him more money and threatens blackmail.

A man murders his wife and has a friend cover up the act with a burglary, only to have the friend blackmail him into doing the same favor in return.

Lt. Columbo keeps a close watch on a physical-fitness fanatic suspected of murdering his business partner.

A prominent photographer hatches a scheme to cover up his wife's murder with a phony kidnapping plot.

A military-academy commandant murders to protect his career and prevent his school's conversion to a coed junior college.

Columbo's Mexico cruise is disrupted when an automobile executive kills his blackmailing lover, the ship's singer, then frames a musician.

After killing his mother-in-law, an electronics magnate's alibi is a video security system.

A psychiatrist (George Hamilton) romances a wealthy patient (Lesley Ann Warren) then uses her in his alibi after killing her husband (Stephen Elliott).

A retired actress/dancer stages her wealthy husband's suicide after he refuses to finance her Broadway comeback.

A foreign dignitary murders his rival then disguises the crime as part of a robbery blamed on college protesters.

A cunning advertising consultant leading a double life as a spy tries to cover up the details of a homicide.

A retired bullfighter credited with saving a young man from a bull arranges the death of the boy's father to protect his own reputation.

A magician claims an airtight alibi -- being sealed in a tank of water -- in the murder of a blackmailing associate.

Lt. Columbo's prime suspect in the case of a drowned yacht magnate also turns up dead.

An egotistic TV detective matches wits with Columbo after murdering his producer , a former lover and current blackmailer.

The curator (Joyce Van Patten) of a strapped family-owned museum stages a robbery, for insurance, then murders to hide her crime; guests Celeste Holm, Tim O'Connor.

An accountant, embezzling to support his wife's lifestyle, murders his partner after the man discovers his crimes.

A mystery writer uses her plot as a guide to murder her nephew , whom she blames for her niece's death.

Columbo investigates the murder of a gourmet restaurant owner who had been the victim of an extortionist.

A TV-network executive murders her boss and lover when he fails to promote her.

Columbo suspects a psychologist (Nicol Williamson), a noted expert in mind control, is guilty of murder.

An Irish poet, who fronts a peace organization while secretly running guns, kills an arms dealer who tries to swindle him.

A Hollywood director tries to fool Columbo when a studio becomes a murder scene.

The detective is called in to investigate the death of a sergeant major at a training camp.

Homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo investigates the murder of a famous painter's ex-wife.

Columbo investigates the disappearance of the director of a men's magazine.

The disheveled detective investigates the apparent suicide of a notorious racketeer who was facing an indictment.

When a crooked estate agent dies in prison, his widow vows to exact her revenge on the two men that put him there. After killing her husband's informing boss, she sets her sights on Lieutenant Columbo.

A dentist frames his wife for a murder in order to keep up his image and expensive lifestyle.

A famous romance novelist is shot dead in the course of what looks like a robbery.

The rumpled lieutenant is invited to give a college lecture on criminology but ends up investigating the murder of one of the institution's professors.