One other chief weakness of the episode is that it wins the award for one of the weakest payoff clues. Phone records of conversations between the two? If that's all it took to prove the twins were guilty of murder, well sorry, but just like "Lady In Waiting's" weak payoff clue, that should have been something found out at the beginning, and it's also something the twins would not have been dumb enough to preserve a record of if they're faking a feud to deflect suspicion.

aww...poor mrs. peck is being raked over the coals...
but i can understand, her character was a bit over-the-top. but darnit! i just found her so funny. and there were the tender moments between her and columbo when he was explaining how he has always been a bit messy and such, and then she offers him the health cookies and milk..that was a very touching scene. and in the last scene where she is so upset about finding out that the 'boys' were indeed the murderers, just look at columbo's face and hers as well..he hated to disappoint her so..

It isn't the phone conversations alone that prove the guilt of the twins, it is also Columbo's demonstration that the crime could not have been committed by one person alone. So if there were two people involved in the crime, the only "pair" of suspects that Columbo has are the twins. Still only circumstantial I suppose, but a bit more solid than some of the other circumstantial endings.

I disagree with you who think it is a weak episode. Martin Landau is superb and I watch it quite often.

In that last scene, I always liked the way that, not only Columbo, but one of the two brothers, felt the need to let Mrs. Peck down gently.