Episode 43: Bobby's Legs and the Penthouse Mafia

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, we're leaning into the spoilers because the actual episode title is CHRISTOPHER BUNDY - DIED ON SUNDAY. The reason behind that enigmatic half-joke of a reference to a children's nursery rhyme aside, we're dipping into the seedy world of adult men's magazine... publishing. Our title character (Bert Convy is back!) is a smut peddler who somehow got the rights to a JB Fletcher short story, and our heroine (Angela Lansbury) isn't taking the matter lying down. With her nephew Grady (Michael Horton) in tow, she heads the the mogul's estate where we see him and his desperately unhappy family: a bratty niece (Michelle Nicastro), a sullen nephew (Bobby Di Cicco), and a superglam sister (Carol Lawrence) ready to take the reins of his empire because... well, he dies on Sunday. We're further entrenched in suspects on the property: a spurned businessman (Robert Stack, being his most Robert Stack), an assumed faithful bodyguard (Alex Rocco), a suspicious butler (Robert Hooks), and a rising star in girlie-mag pictorials (Katherine Moffat). Whether it was family, foe, or the IRS (jeepers, ANOTHER subplot?), it's up to Jessica and the cop of the week (Robert Costanzo) to solve the killing of the pervy publisher!Get the drapes, would you?