This episode finds Jessica Fletcher in New York City, taking care of some business in her capacity as a board member of the Museum of Cultural History. The owner of the Larkins Department Store, which is going out of business, has initially made a deal for the building to go to the museum. But at the last minute, financial problems relating to the company’s pension fund have pushed him to renege on the deal and instead sell to a retail company called Amalgamated.
When Jessica’s friend and employee of the Larkins Department Store is arrested for murder, Jessica investigates!
Episode facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
The first victim was Henry Wilson, the chief accountant at Larkins Department Store; the second victim was Hallowell, partner in Amalgamated–the company buying the Larkins building!Click to reveal the killer
It was Floyd Larkin, the owner of the Larkins Department Store!Click to reveal the weapon
The first victim was killed with a hatchet, while the second victim was killed with a crossbow! Both were items taken from the sporting goods department.Click to reveal the location
The first victim died in M. Gillis’s office the night before Jessica’s meeting with Larkin; the second victim died in “the bower” of the department store on the evening of the staff farewell party!Click to reveal the motive
The killer had embezzled funds from the staff pension plan and killed to prevent it from becoming public!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the fact that the two murders must have been connected, and the fact that the killer was seen to have a piece of mosquito netting stuck in his lapel pin!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- Wendell J. Grayson as the Security Guard at Larkins Department Store.
- Charles Parks as Henry Wilson, the chief accountant at Larkins Department Store.
- Mimi Kuzyk as Athena ‘Tina’ Poulos, a senior employee and trustee at Larkins Department Store who is having an affair with the owner.
- Michael Tolan as Lt. Alan Terwilliger, in charge of the murder investigation. This is Tolan’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Sound of Murder” as the same character, and in “No Accounting for Murder” as a different character.
- Harley Venton as Clint Hallowell, a partner of Amalgamated who was getting insider information from the chief accountant at Larkins Department Store. This is Venton’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Murder on Madison Avenue“.
- Peter Donat as Floyd Larkin, the owner of Larkins Department Store. This is Donat’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “From Russia…With Blood” and “Final Curtain“. He also went on to appear in the MSW movie The Celtic Riddle.
- Joel Fabiani as Thornton Brewer, a parner of Amalgamated who is gaving an affair with Maude Gillis. This is Fabiani’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Murder on Madison Avenue“.
- Kate Mulgrew as Maude Gillis, a senior employee at Larkins Department Store, apparently in charge of personnel. This is Mulgrew’s third and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Ever After“.
- Michele Lamar Richards as Meredith Peckham, Jessica’s associate and the attorney representing the Museum of Cultural History.
- Martin Milner as Bill Maguire, the manager of the sporting goods department and Jessica’s friend. This is Milner’s fourth of five appearances on MSW, this time as a different character; he previously appeared as a repeat character in “Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel” and “Thursday’s Child“.
- Fred D. Scott as Fritz, the elevator operator at Larkins Department Store. This is Scott’s second and final appearance on MSW.
- Felicia Lansbury as Gloria, the secretary for Mr. Larkin. This is Lansbury’s second of four appearances on MSW; she previously appeared in “Alma Murder“.
- Musetta Vander as Shirin Hourani, a department store employee who also took Jessica’s writing seminar.
- Andrew Lauer as Ernie Fishman, a department store employee interested in wedding displays and dating Shirin Hourani.
- Matthew Sullivan as the Plainclothesman (police officer) who found the deerstalker outfit in the trash.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
The first thing I want to mention (because it happens almost at the very beginning of the episode) is a slight blooper during the scene in which the security guard comes out of the elevator and walks towards the offices to discover the first victim’s body. If you look closely at the bottom-left of your screen, you’ll notice that a rug is being flipped and dragged as the camera pans and follow’s the security guard’s movements.
Aside from that little detail, it’s also notable that this episode continues to illustrate producers’ attempt to inject some continuity into the series. For one, there is yet another character who is brought back from earlier seasons: this time it is Lt. Terwilliger, whom Jessica first met in Season 9’s “The Sound of Murder“. Additionally, this marks the first mention of Jessica’s role in setting up the Museum of Cultural History — something that will be brought up again in several future episodes.
And last but not least, it must be mentioned that the building used to stand in for the Larkins Department Store during this episode is in reality the former Bullocks Wilshire Department Store, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. In a way, the history of the fictional Larkins Department Store mirrors the history of the real Bullocks Wilshire Department Store, which was sold to Federated Department Stores in in 1980s and then Macy’s, before the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and permanently closed in 1993. The building was subsequently bought by Southwestern Law School in 1994, which owns it to this day. Therefore, in the period during which this episode was likely filmed (i.e. late 1993 or early 1994), the building was indeed abandoned.
The most fascinating thing about MSW using this building as a location for its episode is actually the fact that Angela Lansbury, when she was just a young aspiring actress in the 1940s, used to work at the Bullocks Wilshire Department Store! Which, of course, makes the line in which she states that “this place holds some very personal memories for me too” during an early scene in this episode all the more poignant.
You can find a video interview of Angela Lansbury talking about her time working at Bullocks Wilshire on the PBS website.
Murder, She Watched 