The only distinction I've been making has to do with the character nuance I've seen in the episode over the years and what I felt was a great performance and a great piece of writing in the episode that highlighted the nuance. And this isn't a question of "wanting" anything from anyone, it's merely expressing a different perspective in a discussion. I plead guilty to being passionate about this one because it's my favorite non-S1 episode and is something I've written elsewhere about (and also because one of my fondest memories of this forum is the mutual love of this episode I shared with our dearly missed Carleen)

Adrian Carsini's failure to generate any kind of sympathy from me is something I blame on the writing and the coldness of Donald Pleasance's performance. You could have constructed an *identical* killing in the episode borne out of the *same* impulse, and we'd still have a character who was guilty of a horrible crime *but* he would have some nuance that would make him come off as tragic. "Any Old Port" failed on that subjective level with me. "Forgotten Lady" might have made Grace Wheeler come off to me exactly as she does to you in the hands of a different actress, direction and script. These are the subjective points in evaluating these episodes that I don't think are being appreciated enough. Sometimes the key is to go beyond the pure literalness of the storyline and see the other intangibles.

I have a hard time being very sympathetic to Carsini. Yes, I find him deliciously awful, and therefore enjoyable to watch. But his predilection of snobbery ("My mother was English, which gave me breeding"), downright pettiness ("May our enemies never be as happy as we are right now"), and belligerence (the infamous "liquid filth" scene) pale in comparison to his crime. His brother/victim took TWO DAYS to die, slowly starving and suffocating. I'm sorry, it that it simply one of the most horrific murder methods ever seen on a Columbo.

And Tommy Brown was a groomer/rapist whose line of "the guilt was getting to me" never rang true to me. Say what you will of Edna, but that girl died because he raped her, repeatedly, and she might have sought the justice that she was entirely entitled to. Gee, if only Tommy had felt guilty of THAT, she might have been able to heal and have a fruitful life.

" statutory rape" does not make him a rapist.
It's an arbitrary law that varies from state to state and is often used to entrap and imprison poor and minorities.
Not excusing , just explaining.

This is, of course, open to interpretation, but Maryanne's demeanor did not strike me as someone who had freely given consent to their sexual relationship.

It struck me as an allusion to real life musicians Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry who had similar problems with the law.
Both were contemporaries of Johnny Cash