Kojak Girl in the River (1973–1978) Online

Although it takes a while to find out that they do have a serial killer, Telly Savalas and the detectives from Manhattan South get to work on a serial killer who was doing his work in Vietnam before relocating to New York.

Some of Telly Savalas's best scenes are on the phone with the mother of a previous victim. No dialog on the other hand, but Telly's expressions say a lot more than his dialog would give him. Kojak was one throughly dedicated cop.

Our killer is a guy with a bushy head of hair and several of the cops put on wigs for a lineup. There's a bit of humor involved with the fact that poor Stavros doesn't need any wig for that. I did so love George Savalas as Stavros in this series. Always the good natured butt of Kojak's zingers.

In fact a wig plays a big part in solving this one.

The show begins with the discovery of a dead nude woman. The m.o. looks similar to a serial killer that was striking two years earlier. However a few things were different as well. Because of this, Kojak isn't about to assume it's the same perpetrator. Later, when they gather evidence and the Captain wants Kojak to make an arrest....but once again, the Lieutenant still has a gut feeling that this might not be the right man. What's next? See the show.

The story here is unusual for 1973 because serial killer plots were pretty uncommon back then and became more popular in recent years. The story is interesting and worth seeing. Is it among the best of the episodes? No. It's good but doesn't stand out like a few of the show.

***SPOILERS**** Having disappeared for some two years the killer who calls himself "Excalibur" is back and back with a vengeance murdering young women and drowning them in a lake or bathtub after ringing their necks with a nylon stocking. Let. Theo Kojak, Telly Savalas, who missed him the first time around is determined to capture the crazed lunatic but needs help from this spaced out hippie Eloise, Jenifer Shaw, who's room-mate Edna Bell was "Excalibur" latest victim.

Checking out all the leads in the case it becomes apparent that the killer got his idea in murdering his victims while in the far east in Vietnam thus the NYPD having anyone in the area, soldier or civilian, who was there within within the last two years a suspect in the murders. It's in fact Eloise who's used by Let. Kojak to draw the killer out who turns out to be not only a religious fanatic but someone whom she's been romantically involved with.

***SPOILERS*** With the killer paying Eloise a midnight visit in order to murder her, for her not paying full attention to him, he's caught in a trap set by Let. Kojak before he can strangle her and dump her body in the bathtub. As for Louise her only defense against the killer is to go in to a hippie-like self induced trance hoping that the killer by seeing this would freak out and forget what he's there for: To murder her. But it was a slug from Kojack's .38 that did the trick by stopping him cold.