Kolchak: The Night Stalker/The Youth Killer

The Youth Killer
Season 1, Episode 19
Airdate	March 14, 1975
Written by	Rudolph Borchert
Directed by	Don McDougall
Produced by	Cy Chermak
Stream
← 1x18 The Knightly Murders	1x20 → The Sentry
Kolchak: The Night Stalker — Season One

The Youth Killer is the nineteenth episode of the first season of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Starring: Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak)

Also Starring: Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo)

Guest Stars: Cathy Lee Crosby (Helen), Dwayne Hickman (Sergeant Orkin), Kathleen Freeman (Della Sarkof), Demosthenes (Kaz Kazantarkis)

Co-Starring: Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke)

Co-Starring (end credits): Ruth McDevitt (Emily Cowles), John Fielder (Gordy), Eddie Firestone (Conventioneer), Michael Richardson (Mervin), Penny Santon (Mother), James Murtaugh (Manager)

with James Ingersoll (1st Young Man), Reb Brown (2nd Young Man), Joss White (Secretary)

Plot Overview

A young man rapidly ages. His hair turns gray as he jogs. In the span of a minute, he collapses dead of old age. A ring falls from his hand and rolls into the grass.

At the office Tony makes sure that Kolchak knows that the head office in New York wants a story on "swinging singles" by Friday. As usual Kolchak has little interest in doing the story he is assigned.

When a young woman rapidly ages and falls to her death from her balcony, Kolchak investigates. He finds a ring, but is forced to give it to the police. So he pays a visit to Gordy "the Ghoul" at the city morgue. Gordy extracts a promise from Kolchak for a used color television set for his office ... in exchange for looking in the personal belongings box of the first victim. Kolchak pockets a key from the box.

Noting the ring mark on the victim's finger, Kolchak returns to the park where the first victim died and finds the ring. When a police officer questions him for parking in a "no parking" zone, Kolchak puts the ring on his finger and pretends to be looking for a four-leaf clover.

The key that he got from the morgue had a number on it: 118E. Kolchak searches for hours before finding a building with a matching room (on Acron Street). In classic Kolchak fashion he enters the apartment without permission and searches. He finds a scroll from the Max Match dating service. The scroll is given only to select members called Olympians. He takes it. He also discovers that the man, William Cubby, had only one eye -- the other was a glass eye.

At Max Match, Kolchak meets with Helen, the director of the service. He shows her the Olympian ring and drops hints about young people aging rapidly and dying. She eventually, ushers him out, politely. But that doesn't stop him. He returns that night after closing time and breaks in. In a back room he finds a temple. There he witnesses (and records) her praying to the Gods in ancient Greek.

Kaz, a cab driver friend of his, translates the recording. Kolchak learns that each sacrifice must be perfect -- Greek Gods were easily offended. Kolchak realizes that the ring he is wearing marks a victim for sacrifice, so he tries to remove it, but can't. Kaz tries to help, using mayonaise, but that fails as well.

Kolchak breaks back into the Max Match offices and trashes the temple, hoping that that will be enough to break the spell and turn Helen into stone. But Helen walks in unharmed, even amused.

They begin to speak of the gods and where punishment will fall. Kolchak then points out that she made a fool of the gods by sacrificing a one-eyed man. She tries to deny it, but the gods are offended. Wind gusts through the temple and Helen is turned to stone.

Trivia

The Show

• The first murder takes place on September 20 around 8:05PM.
• Tony has lost weight (five pounds) by doing yoga for 45 minutes a day.
• A gibbous moon is seen in the skies during this episode.
• The police apparently call Kolchak a "pinwheel" behind is back ... and to his face also.

Allusions and References

• Helen, the "youth killer" turns out to be Helen of Troy.