Murder Most Foul
1) In 1971, Stanley Norris was murdered, but not too many tears were shed for this ruthless businessman. Although he had many enemies, the police had a hard time tying any of them to the case because the murder weapon had no fingerprints. Leslie was arrested for his murder (because she was in possession of the gun). During the trial, it looked like Linell Conway, Stanley’s secretary who harbored a not-so-secret crush on him, was the culprit. When Linell was put on the stand, her mother, Marion, stood up and announced that she had murdered Stanley because of the way he had treated Linell. As the courtroom descended into chaos, Marion had a heart attack and died.
2) When Malcolm Granger died of a heart attack in 1976, the hospital investigated whether Nurse Rita (Lenore Kasdorf) had caused it. Although she was cleared, Rita was then put on trial for the murder of Malcolm’s father, Cyrus, who had died years ago. The climax of the trial was when Roger took the stand and revealed that she couldn’t have killed Cyrus because she was with Roger that night. This admission cleared Rita of the crime, but Ed (Mart Hulswit) was so horrified by the revelation that he dumped her. In 1977, Cyrus’s true murderer was unmasked: his crazy daughter-in-law, Georgene.3) Phillip’s former nanny, Diane Ballard, eventually immersed herself in the business of blackmail. She knew about Alan’s dirty deals (in part because of their affair), Phillip’s true parentage, Henry’s illegitimate child and Ross’s history with Amanda. On the night she was murdered in the fall of 1981, Diane had threatened to expose the crimes that Joe committed while on the police force. Needless to say, the list of suspects was long. Joe helped the cops piece together the case, but then he, too, was murdered. Months later, it was revealed that Carrie was guilty of both crimes. Turns out, Carrie blamed Diane for a past lover’s suicide; Joe was getting too close to the truth. But that wasn’t the only twist: Carrie had multiple personalities and it was one of her rogue alters who had killed. Once the jury learned of this, Carrie was acquitted.
4) Lujack (Vincent Irizarry, with Jaison Walker as IQ) persuaded Andy Ferris to reveal to Springfield that Phillip was behind the explosion that injured Beth. The men attended Alexandra’s Valentine’s Day ball in 1985 with that intention, but when Andy began having doubts, Lujack announced very loudly that if Andy backed out, Lujack would kill him. At that very moments, the lights went out and a shot was fired. When electricity returned, Andy was dead and Lujack was literally holding the smoking gun. Not surprisingly, Lujack was found guilty at trial and sent to prison. Soon, India looked like the real murderer, but in fact, she was being held hostage by the true killer: Floyd, who had killed Andy because of what he had done to Beth. Floyd was sent to jail.5) Alan became involved in an illegal art-smuggling scheme in 1987 with Paul Valere. Paul was found dead, and Alan was arrested for the crime. Soon, Jackson and Chelsea discovered that Warren actually murdered Paul. Warren locked Jackson in the Blue Orchid and took Chelsea and Alan hostage. Phillip rescued them, and Warren was hauled off to jail, where he confessed to all of his crimes.
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