You bring up a very good point David. And when you really start to think about it, there are many episodes that could be added to your list...Now You See Him..A Case of Immunity..Old Fashioned Murder..A Deadly State of Mind..Etude in Black..Dagger of the Mind..Requiem for a Falling Star..A Stitch in Crime..Any Old Port in a Storm..Try and Catch Me....and there are others too.

I left these episodes OFF the list for the following reasons.....

"Now You See Him" had money involved because Jessie Jerome was blackmailing The Great Santini.

"A Case of Immunity" had money involved because Hassan Salah paid Rachman Habib before killing him and tried to make it look as if Habib robbed the legation safe.

"Old-Fashioned Murder" involved Ruth Litton offering to pay $100,000 for the faked robbery.

"A Deadly State of Mind" I was unsure of. Perhaps they were dependent on Carl Donner's financial backing somehow?

In "Dagger of the Mind," the two scheming actors were dependent on Sir Roger Haversham's financial backing.

While not directly related to the murder, "Requiem For a Falling Star" had money involved because Nora Chandler admitted to Columbo that she swindled the studio out of $2 million.

"Etude in Black" subtly had money involved because of Jennifer Welles' line "You are afraid to lose her mother's backing, and all that money."

"Any Old Port in a Storm" had money involved because the victim was on the brink of selling the winery.

"Try and Catch Me" had money involved when the secretary got involved with implying blackmail of Abigail Mitchell for a higher salary.

Well, I guess I was looking at it differently. I was looking at why the murderer killed...what was the root reason why they committed murder in the first place.