Murder, She Wrote quotes

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Jess, when I suggested that you write a book called Murder at the Digs, I never dreamed you'd come meandering out to a place like this.

Jessica Fletcher: Suggested? Well, as I recall, it was more like a dare.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Was it? I don't recall. In any case, when you leave here, you'll have one hell of a book or one hell of a suntan. Maybe even both.

Gideon Armstrong: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] I gave you everything you wanted.

Cynthia Armstrong: You gave me exactly what you wanted to give me – thanks a lot, Gideon – and exactly when you wanted to give it. And what I really wanted was out of this rotten marriage and your miserable face out of my sight. Yes, I bought the land secretly. And it was Stan, he found Raymond.

Dr. Stan Garfield: That's a lie! It's a lie!

Cynthia Armstrong: Yes, you did. You found Raymond and you got him to steal the gold artifacts from the university museum. And then he made sure that there were gonna be all inexperienced people working at this dig, people who could be fooled. And as for you, Benton, you were easy.

Jessica Fletcher: But why kill Raymond?

Cynthia Armstrong: Because he got so greedy. We could've made millions on this. But he came at me, and he made all these crazy threats to me. He threatened he would tell my husband the truth. I had to stop him. I had to get rid of him. I picked up this rock, you see, and I killed him.

Karen Parks: Why did you throw the body off the cliff?

Jessica Fletcher: To hide the real cause of death. You see, they couldn't leave the body in the cave because, once he was discovered missing, there'd be a search, and we might've found him there. Actually, the fall would have hidden the real cause of death if he had died from the blow on the head. What you hadn't realized was that he died of drowning.

Gideon Armstrong: If you just had come to me, we could have talked it out.

Cynthia Armstrong: And you would've listened to me, wouldn't you have, Gideon?

Jessica Fletcher: Are you so sure it's a robbery? Or did the killer just want it to look that way?

Lt. Varick: Maybe it was a robbery because it looked that way. This is New York, Mrs. Fletcher. This kind of self-employment is a way of life for some people.

Norman Amberson: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murder] Why would I have done that?

Jessica Fletcher: Was it perhaps triggered by that bill from Vinton's that your secretary insisted on calling your attention to? That was when you learned Elizabeth had purchased an item of clothing for another man. You must've guessed who that other man was. Someone Liz had promised never to see again.

Norman Amberson: Roger Adiano. He's an actor. Not very good. Certainly not successful. Just a boy. Liz was out. I used my key. I thought I was just gonna wait for her, but that wasn't it. That was a lie. I wanted to look around in her things, even though I was afraid of what I was going to find. It wasn't much, just trifles she had forgotten to throw out.

Jessica Fletcher: The program from an off-off-Broadway play. I remember now. It was on the floor near the overturned coffee table.

Norman Amberson: I didn't bother to destroy it. It was meaningless to anybody but me.

Jessica Fletcher: To you, it meant Elizabeth had broken a promise. She'd gone to see Roger Adiano in a play and had probably bought him a gift.

Norman Amberson: I could see them in my mind. Just a flash. Then all the pictures came back of her with all the other men. It snapped, turned right around. I hated her. I hated the woman I loved. Classic. I wanted to destroy her, blot her face out of my memory. I was looking around for something to use on the portrait. I couldn't find my pocket knife. I found the lipstick in my pocket. And when she came in and found me, I could see from the terror in her eyes that ... She ran for the bedroom, and I grabbed the scarf around her neck. I wasn't really aware of what I was doing. Then she was dead, and I panicked.

Jessica Fletcher: And you vandalized the apartment to make it look like she had been killed by an intruder.

Norman Amberson: Survival. Self-preservation. Oldest instinct. Oh, God, I loved her.

A.D.A. Tom Casselli: Mr. Harris, do you recognize anyone in the courtroom?

Fenton Harris: In my business, it's good practice never to recognize the customers.

Cornelia Montique: All my customers started coming here, so I thought I might as well join them.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: At least, in the diner, you didn't have to dress up as Betsy Ross.

Jessica Fletcher: Doctors who make their rounds in hip boots hardly qualify as fashion experts.

Harrison Fraser III: Suppose we cut to the bottom line. It's my word against his. I have a great deal of influence in this part of New England.

Jessica Fletcher: I'm sure you do, but connections won't help you to evade a simple answer to a simple question.

Wilhelmina Fraser: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] When Betty suggested this trip, I did my homework. At least, I thought I did. I was so sure it would look like botulism. I didn't mean to make anyone else sick. I only wanted to get Harrison back.

Frank Kelso: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murder] About a couple of days after New Year's, soon as I come home, I knew Jolene been with another man. I got mad. She just laughed at me. I grabbed hold of something, a brass bookend, I think, swung at her. Next thing I know, she was laying on the ground there, eyes wide open, staring up at me. Then I realized he was there. The bedroom door. Ed Bonner. Seen it all. It was Ed's idea. Cart Jolene off, bury her in the woods, me say she was off visiting her mama. All the time, he was telling people behind my back that she'd run off with another man.

Jessica Fletcher: Is that when the blackmail started?

Frank Kelso: Just a few dollars at first. You know, just... Then more and more. He loved to see me sweat. Last night, he come back here after I closed, looking for his cigarette lighter and money. Whole lot of money. I couldn't pay him no more. I took out my gun, and I shot him. Wasn't like it was with Jolene. This time, I didn't feel nothing. Just like killing a wild dog.

Carrie McKittrick: At my age, thirty years seem like last month. It's last month I have trouble remembering.

Jessica Fletcher: [after deducing the murderer's identity] Carrie wasn't so much a murder victim as much as she was a means to an end, and I suppose that's what makes this so hard to accept. I mean, a smart killer would have injected Carrie with insulin, so the murder would not have been detected. But you wanted the murder discovered, Ruth, and you made sure that the clues pointed to your husband.

Sister Ruth Fargo: No.

Jessica Fletcher: When I first met you, I assumed "Sister Ruth" had a religious connotation. But when you said that you'd met Willie John in London when he'd had a diabetic attack, it made me wonder if the term "sister" might not refer to your former vocation. A nurse. It would have been simple to find a uniform in the locker room downstairs and washable hair color spray. The kind Mr. Whittaker's secretary wears is available at any all-night drսg store. If anyone had seen you from a distance, they'd have mistaken you for Sue Beth. You even wore gloves so that Willie John's fingerprints would still be on the syringe.

Earl Fargo: Ruth, why? Did you do it for Willie John?

Sister Ruth Fargo: For Willie John? No. I did it to Willie John. Or I tried to. I had to be free of him, but that meant destroying him totally. I tried to tell you, Mark. I couldn't. As much as I know you love me, you could've never understood. Willie John was crushing me, Mrs. Fletcher, wringing the life out of me with his sanctimonious piety. I'm a woman, and every day I've been getting older and older, living like some plaster saint. The dutiful wife of the great and good Willie John Fargo. What was I supposed to do? Divorce him? Oh, my God. Can you just see the headlines? Or kill him? That would have thrust me into an even more untenable role. The keeper of Willie John's flame, living in chastity for the rest of my years.

Rev. Willie John Fargo: Ruth, why didn't you tell me?

Sister Ruth Fargo: I did, Willie John, every day in a hundred different ways. But you were always too busy to hear.

William Readford: You wish to inspect the diary, Doctor, not speed-read its contents.

Dr. Sylvia Dunn: How am I supposed to bid on it if I don't know what's in it?

William Readford: You're in it, Doctor. That's all you have to know.

Lt. Nathanial Casey: McGraw, I'm giving you five seconds to get out that door before I throw you out.

Harry McGraw: Yeah, you do, Casey. And I'll go right to my pals on the Morning Bulletin and tell them how this Boston flatfoot with baked beans for brains just put himself in line for a foot patrol beat in Brockton.

Albert Cromwell: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murders] I was going to steal the diary. Richard Bennett showed up. He recognized me from Evangeline's. I knew if the diary turned up missing, he'd figure I was the one that stole it, so I killed him. And I put his body in the armoire. I didn't know it was going to be auctioned off. I thought it was blue-tagged.

Lt. Nathanial Casey: And Radford? Why'd you kill him?

Albert Cromwell: Well, I knew he faked the theft of the diary. I tried to force him to tell me where he had it. He didn't scare. He came after me. I grabbed a knife off the wall.

Jessica Fletcher: But why, Mr. Cromwell? Why did you want the diary so badly?

Albert Cromwell: So she could rest in peace. You know, we were going together for a long time before she became famous. But her career, that came first. That meant she had to be seen with all the right people, like Richard Bennett. So, she dumped me. Went off looking for fame. But I never stopped loving her. Then I had to watch her name being dragged through those scandal sheets. Well, that's why she turned to drugs, you know. I think she wanted to stop too, but she was just too weak to, you know, pull herself out. I just couldn't stand it any longer. I had to help her. I had to put her out of that misery.

Jessica Fletcher: Then Evangeline's death wasn't suicide.

Albert Cromwell: I did it because I loved her. You can understand that, can't you?

Phyllis Walters: I had nothing to do with any of this.

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Nobody said you did. Yet.