I mentioned in a posting some time ago that
in the book "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes which
deals with the Soviet espionage in the Manhattan
Project that allowed the USSR to build an atomic
bomb years earlier than they could have without
this help, the author describes how British/German
communist physicist/spy Klaus Fuchs was caught,
but the information they used to identify him
was secret and could not be used in court to convict
him. Thus, the prosecutors had to get a confession
out of him. To do this, they got a special investigator who was described in the book as a
"Columbo" type, dishevelled on the outside, but with
a keen mind and he was able to maneuver Fuchs into
confessing. Thus, we see, Columbo has become part
of the folklore of modern society, just as Sherlock
Holmes did a hundred years ago.

Thanks for the info. Great story.