What I’m referring to in the subject line is Gallesko’s overlook of the newspaper. Surely anybody would know (and Gallesko seemed like a very intelligent man) that a cut-up newspaper would leave lots of debris. When questioned, his answer was, “well, the maid forgot to clean up the room and then lied about it.” You can see Columbo’s response to that in his facial expression. The expression was sort of “Yeah, right. What a bunch of bull****.)

I guess Gallesko was akin to the other Columbo villains in that they all make those gaffs where you want to scream out at the tv and say "Think about what you are saying or doing" - strange as I find myself doing that a lot and in some cases wanting the killer to get away with it. I did it for the goodness knows how manyeth time last night with Etude in Black. Part of the fascination with Columbo that the show at times makes you really want the killer to win!

While you are right that it was dumb of Galesko
to forget the scraps of paper, I must admit
the first time I watched the episode (and this
episode made more impression on me the first
time than any other making me really wonder
how Columbo was going to crack this case),
I didn't think about it, either.

It's interesting that people have mentioned this, because of course Frances tells Paul, just before the murder, "They'll know it was you." He says, "I don't think so. Not if it goes the way I planned." The way Dick Van **** says those lines, he definitely seems to be considering that possibility.

I know that web sites are often edited in a careful way, and I'm not putting that down, but is the last name of the Gallesko actor actually edited out (for, I guess, the obvious reason)? It's a very strange coincidence, but just two minutes before noticing that, I heard a joke on the show Family Guy, where a TV network cut out the first and last names of that actor, because of the connotations.

grant, if you type it dick vandyke..you can get away with it.