Kolchak: The Night Stalker/The Ripper

From The TV IV

The Ripper

Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	September 13, 1974
Production Number
Writer(s)	Rudolph Borchert
Director(s)	Allen Baron
← Movie The Night Strangler	1x02 → The Zombie
Kolchak: The Night Stalker — Season One

The Ripper is the first episode of the first season of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It follows the TV movies The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler.

Guest Stars: Paul Baxley (Cop in Alley), Mickey Gilbert (The Ripper), Beatrice Colen (Jane Plumm), Ken Lynch (Captain R.M. Warren), Ruth McDevitt (Miss Eggenweiler), Roberta Collins (Police Detective Susan Catazzo), Denise Dillaway (Debbie Fielder), Ike Jones (Mail Boy), Dulcie Jordan (Driver's Wife), Donald Mantooth (Second Policeman), Cathey Paine (Ellen), Mews Small (Masseuse)

1 Plot Overview
2 Notes
3 Arc Advancement
4 Trivia
5 Quotes
6 Reviews

[edit] Plot Overview

After getting in trouble for impersonating a police commissioner, Kolchak is assigned to handle the advice column for a week while Miss Emily (see note below) is on vacation. He must individually answer the letters in her advice column.

In a showdown with police, even though a serial killer is shot dozens of times, he isn't even slowed down. When they try to wrestle him to the ground, he simply throws the officers off like rag dolls. As the killer is fleeing the scene, he is struck by a car, severely damaging it, but he still keeps going.

Later, due to a little misunderstanding, Kolchak is in the back of a police car. Before they get to the station, they respond to a call to pursue the killer. Kolchak is able to get out of the police car with his camera, and get pictures of the killer in action. Despite jumping off a four-story building, and being shot dozens of times, this person keeps going. Only an electric fence stops him.

Kolchak believes that the killer is the same Jack the Ripper that terrorized London in 1888, and that electricity could be his only weakness. The police won't believe him, because they already have him locked in a jail cell upstairs. But even as they speak with Kolchak, the Ripper escapes from his cell, knocking the steel door off its hinges.

On a hunch Kolchak visits a woman he believes has been watching the Ripper. She is a veritable Peeping Tom. She watches people through her window with a telescope, and even keeps logs with times and dates. After talking to her, he is even more certain.

A quick trip to an electrical supply store provides him with everything he needs to set a trap. Quickly he sets the trap, and then breaks into the Ripper's house, waiting there for him to return.

When the Ripper does return, Kolchak is trapped in his wardrobe closet. He panics (or feigns panic) and runs, tripping over and running into things as he goes. He really knows he's in trouble when he runs into a sofa and trips over Jane's dead body! Jane was a fellow reporter.

The Ripper follows him outside. Kolchak is slowed slogging through a small pond. With the Ripper right behind him in the pond, Kolchak electrifies his trap (the pond), destroying the Ripper, who vanishes in a wisp of smoke. Unfortunately, Kolchak's less-than-professional wiring job catches the house on fire, and it burns to the ground, destroying all evidence.

[edit] Notes

Miss Eggenweiler, the nosey neighbor who saw the man with "x-ray eyes", was played by Ruth McDevitt, who would go on to take a regular role on the show as Miss Emily, the INS advice colmnist.

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

[edit] Characters

[edit] Referbacks

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

The name of the massage parlor was the Sultan's Palace
The letter from the nosey neighbor was blue.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

[edit] Allusions and References

Jack the Ripper

[edit] Memorable Moments

Carl visits the massage parlor where the last victim was murdered. He talks with the masseuse, telling her that he only wants to talk to her and ask her questions; that he is a reporter who only wants to watch. He is promptly arrested for soliciting a lewd act. The woman was a detective.