I don't think it was anywhere close to the worst alibi but while watching it I didn't think it was good enough to think your gonna get away with murder.

YM...as I read your post about Etude and Alex Benedict all I could think of was one word....COCKY....Alex was just so cocky that he thought he could do anything and get away with it. The point you made about him flamboyantly putting on the flower at Jenifer Welles' place was right on target. He could have just quietly tucked it into his pocket...but no!! Mr. Cocky had the nerve and the audacity to pin it back on his lapel with such a flourish.......one word.....COCKY!!

I didn't get Ward Fowler's faked alibi in "Fade into Murder". He drugs his friend, tapes the ballgame, commits the murder, rewinds the tape to the point where his friend fell asleep, resets the clock and wakes his friend. So what kind of alibi is that?! If he fell asleep at 8.50pm and Ward sneaks out to commit the murder say at 9.10pm and returns and wakes his friend who thinks it is still 8.50pm, Ward takes him to his bedroom for his friend to sleep it off, then Ward has no alibi because all Columbo need to ask was what time did you nod off and he would reply 8.50pm and Columbo would say to Ward so no one can varify your whereabouts after 8.50pm!

Thanks Kev!! I wanted to bring this one up but I couldn't find the right way to explain it clearly!!! But you did!

Very true Kev. Ward wasn't too smart (or, again, was it the writers). Some alibis involved a lot of risk. In Double Exposure, if something had gone wrong with the tape recorder, or if listeners had noticed a change in voice, that there would have been no alibi there. The murder of the second projectionist was quite a good alibi, using Columbo himself as the alibi...but of course Columbo already knew the dime trick.

And in Etude...what if Mike the Mechanic had locked the bathroom window for the night....or Frank (Mike Lally).....that wouldn't have been a good thing.

And Paul.....um......don't hate me!!! It was a nickel not a dime!!!!!!!!!......The heel-nipper rears her ugly head!!!!

Thanks Cassa...the heel snapper is back...although the long absence probably means that I have been getting things right for a while!

Boy! You are definitely right there!!! You are on your way to becoming Headache Jr.!!!!!

"By Dawn's Early Light" had a somewhat weak alibi for the killer because Rumford was one of few people with a key to access and alter the charge of the cannon.

Another person with access is the so-called
"Officer of the Day" but Columbo doesn't
bother to ask who that is. This always
puzzled me. Also, Columbo asks Rumford
if there is anyone out of the past who
might have a motive to kill him and
Rumford stupidly says there isn't anyone.
He could have diverted Columbo's attention
by making up someone.
BTW-there is a clear allusion to homosexuality
in this sequence. Columbo asks if maybe
there was jealousy over a women and Rumford
EMPHATICALLY says no--added to the fact that
he is surrounded by so many young boys.