"Deadly Lady" is the second episode of the first season of Murder, She Wrote. It aired on October 7, 1984.
Summary[]
It's choppy seas for a multi-millionaire who is swept off his yacht and killed during a hurricane. When Jessica tries to investigate, she becomes embroiled in a family storm of deceit and greed.
Plot[]
When a hurricane hits the area around Cabot Cove, a yacht sends out a distress signal. After the winds die down, the yacht, crewed by four sisters, is towed in. The sisters, Nancy "Nan" Earl, Maggie Earl, Lisa Earl Shelby, and Grace Earl Lamont, claim that during the storm their father Stephen Earl was swept overboard by a wave.
The same morning, a hobo named Ralph shows up at Jessica's house and offers to clean the lawn and repair the house for food. Although his tailor-made but well-worn clothing betrays his claims of being a hobo as not entirely true, Jessica soon warms to the man.
The sisters and Grace's husband pester Sheriff Tupper to issue an inquest so that they can begin processing their father's affairs, even without a found body as proof of death. Sheriff Tupper stands his ground and is automatically suspicious of the heirs to Earls' large fortune.
Checking out the storm trajectory, Jessica realizes that at the place and time the Earl sisters claimed the wave swept their father overboard, they were smack in the middle of the eye of the storm. One sister, Maggie Earl, then confesses to shooting Stephen in the chest.
When the newspapers come in with an obituary for Stephen Earl, Jessica realizes that Stephen is none other than Ralph. The next morning, Stephen/Ralph is found washed ashore with shotgun wounds as described by Maggie. Confronted with this news, Maggie recants her story and shares what really happened with Sheriff Tupper and Jessica: her sisters and father had come up with an elaborate scheme to fake Stephen Earls' death and draw out Nancy's ex-fiancé, a gold digger named Terry Jones. Once he had "coincidentally" showed up again, their father would reveal himself, thereby proving to Nancy that her ex was only with her for her inheritance.
Maggie's incarceration ends when the coroner confirms that Stephen was alive after the sisters were towed in.
A search of the beach reveals two ladies shoes which belong to Nancy, who is then arrested. She has no alibi, having spent the evening with her gold-digger fiancé Terry.
However, Jessica notices there are no marks on Nancy's soles, which should be there if she had walked home from the rocky beach barefoot. Sheriff Tupper takes Nancy into custody anyway, per Jessica's suggestion. This ploy later leads to exposing Terry.
Later that evening, Maggie breaks into Jessica's home. Her confession is overheard by the Sheriff, whom Jessica had called as soon as she heard the glass being broken. When Jessica finds the sisters to tell them that Nancy has been arrested, she mentions the shoes found on the beach. Maggie casually comments that she never wore pink, but neither Jessica, Nancy, nor the Sheriff had ever disclosed the shoe's color. Jessica had known it was Maggie, after learning from Terry that Maggie had told him about the real death of Stephen Earl, thus setting Nancy up to be without an alibi.
In the end, Nancy breaks up with Terry, realizing that he really was only in it for her money.
Starring[]
Regular cast[]
Recurring cast[]
Guest stars[]
- Carol Swarbrick as Emma (Deputy Sheriff CCSD)
- Howard Duff as Ralph/Stephen Earl
- Doran Clark as Nancy Earl
- Marilyn Hassett as Maggie Earl
- Anne Lockhart as Grace Earl Lamont
- Cassie Yates as Lisa Earl Shelby
- Dack Rambo as Brian Shelby
- Richard Hatch as Terry Jones
- Tom Bower as Jonathan Bailey
- John Petlock as Nils Anderson
- Robert Beecher as Elias Cobb
Trivia[]
- This episode is the first to be set in Cabot Cove, and the first to feature Sheriff Amos Tupper.
- Guest stars Richard Hatch and Anne Lockhart previously appeared together in the TV series Battlestar Galactica (1978).
Gallery[]
External links[]
"Deadly Lady" at the Internet Movie Database