Murder, She Wrote Season 1 quotes

Connie Anderson: [after confessing to the murder] I just couldn't believe that he was a murderer and a thief. Not Evan.

Jessica Fletcher: You've been in love with him for a long time, haven't you, Connie?

Connie Anderson: I tried to let him know, but I wasn't about to throw myself at him. He just never thought of me that way.

Richard Binyon: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] When I took over my father's grocery store, I hated it. It was shabby. I started to remodel it, to turn it into the kind of down east, cracker-barrel place the tourists would go for. I didn't know it would cost so much. I borrowed all I could. Then I had to steal. Little things at first, out of people's houses when I made my deliveries. And then, a man I met in a bar sold me a little kit of tools for opening people's houses when they weren't home. I never thought that I'd end up, you know, murdering somebody.

Joyce Hacker: [after confessing to the murder] I knew my way around animals, except for the human kind. I guess I should've taken some lessons from you, Jessica.

Colin Biddle: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] I knew he had to die. And then you walked in, and I saw the perfect way to get rid of him. And to stop your meddling, too. I phoned up De Kooning in his suite, arranged to visit him to finalize our agreement.

Jessica Fletcher: Then you left a fake message from De Kooning to me, asking me to meet him there. Only you met him first. Would it have been worth it anyway, Colin, with your friends here, just waiting to kill you in the end?

Colin Biddle: I'm sorry for what I did to you, Jessica. For what I did to Nigel.

Nancy Godfrey: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] Richard didn't know about the killings. He did his thing and I did mine.

Liz Dougherty: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] I didn't have any idea that Danny was still alive, or that Ben would show up. But I knew I had to get my hands on that file, and I had to get it out of Danny's computer. It was still downloading what Yoshinaga was sending and I was copying it onto the disk when I heard Ben's truck. I hoped he wouldn't see me, but when he came in and headed for the computer, I had no choice. I had to make certain that no one would ever be able to access Danny's computer.

Jeff Kinkaid: Liz...

Liz Dougherty: I did it for you. You know that, don't you? It's what we wanted, together. But I guess, when it came down to it, I wanted it more than you.

Alexis Hill: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] I pleaded with her. But she insisted I admit everything, that her concern was John Galloway's reputation, and she wasn't going to let me spoil it. She threatened to tell everyone. I panicked.

Jessica Fletcher: And then you decided to frame John Galloway by scratching that message into the tabletop.

Alexis Hill: Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up every morning wondering if this'll be the day they finally realize you have no talent? They were good, Freddie's diaries. They were beautiful. The stuff real journalism is made of. Murrow, Kuralt, Pyle. Writing I'd never be capable of in a thousand years. And what good was that going to do for a John Doe in Potter's Field?

Augie Grumbacher: [after confessing to the murder] All those years being paid a pittance for polishing those priceless diamonds for everyone else. I just wanted something for myself.

Jessica Fletcher: [after exposing the murderer] Intuition kept telling me that there was a link between Paul's death and Lars Anderson's. And up to this moment, I've fought the notion that it was you. Knowing of your great affection for Anna, how could you have killed her son, Edgar?

Edgar Warner: Paul wanted quick money. He had no real interest in the business. And then I'd watched my dear, beautiful Anna growing older and more and more confused about the prospect of losing the winery. She'd never admit it. She was slowly dying. And when I had no more of my own money to keep the business going, I embezzled my clients' assets.

Jessica Fletcher: You had to save the winery for Anna. But Paul found out.

Edgar Warner: He threatened me. He threatened to expose me. I followed Paul from the airport to the Justice of the Peace to the restaurant. And when Paul went to the jeweler's, I followed him there, too. Then this week, just when a new loan seemed possible, Anderson said that he'd arranged to buy up the second mortgage. It would've meant that my embezzlement would have been discovered. And what I'd done to Paul would've been for nothing.

Al Wallace: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Terry Deauville was everything I wanted in a woman, Mrs. Fletcher. I loved her in so many ways. But the only man she wanted to go with was that pig, Sam Bryce. And I couldn't forgive either of them for that.

Joellen Waller: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] In Mat's class, Stewart Murphy gave me his story to read. He could really write. I photocopied it and stuck it in a drawer. And after endless rejection slips on my stuff, I got desperate. On an impulse, I changed the title and signed my name to it and sent it off to Hartley Publishing.

Lt. Harry Fogel: And bingo, you had a hit on your hands.

Joellen Waller: Arnold told me he was contacting me on Stewart's behalf. I agreed to buy Stewart's original manuscript for $30,000 and met him at Telesales, but he showed up without it. He said he needed it for insurance. Well, that's when I decided he had to die. I remembered his allergy to quinine. Back in Buffalo, Arnold had told me the lethal effect even simple tonic water could have on him. So, I suggested a drink to seal our partnership. He wanted whiskey and ginger ale, and I slipped in quinine water. I wiped my fingerprints off the bottle of quinine water and off my glass and followed him out. I knew it was only a matter of time until the quinine took effect. I took back my money from the little slime, but I still had to find the manuscript. I found the $200 from Wade and the locker key and figured he had hidden the original of Stewart Murphy's book. I wanted to take the Medic Alert bracelet so no one would know how he died, and then I heard the guard coming down the hall. I had to get away.

Jessica Fletcher: And the glass Arnold drank out of happened to have Mat's fingerprints on it.

Joellen Waller: When I heard about that, I talked Mat's super into letting me into his apartment, and I planted the $100 bills. I tried that damn key in every airline, railroad and bus terminal in town!

Jessica Fletcher: If you'd known he'd gotten off the bus in Yonkers, you might have gotten away with it.

Sally Otterburn: [to Boyd Venton, after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] When you told me about him, I knew that he'd never let you off the hook. I called him. I didn't even know for sure if he had the statuette, but I told him that Faris was so desperate that he had stolen museum funds. Millions in cash to buy it back. He was interested, and he said he'd meet me. That was all I needed.

Jonas Cole: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murder] Petrocelli was spying on Vicki. He accidentally spotted me with the rope and grapple, trying the descent. Well, he was going to blackmail me. It was nothing personal towards Andrea. It's just that I'd lost so much money in the stock market, and on last year's tour, I desperately needed an infusion of cash.

Jessica Fletcher: And Andrea, dead, was your only asset.

Liz White: [after confessing to the murder] Four years of my life. I gave the man everything. Sacrificed my career, submerged my own goals to help him with his L-214. The damned tedious obsession of his. All I wanted in return was a commitment. That's all.

Joan Kemp: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] My worst mistake was thinking that Austin Young could ever love me the way I loved him. He thought of me as a child. I couldn't bear to see the woman I knew he was making love to. He'd hold my hand, kiss my cheek. I wanted him to make love to me. He said when I grew up, I would understand. I still don't. Every day at lunch, I would pour him his glass of wine. My very own ritual. That day, I said goodbye to everyone, and I slipped inside his trailer.

Lt. Gabriel Caceras: And laced his wine with sleeping pills.

Jessica Fletcher: And for thirty-five years, you didn't realize you'd been photographed leaving the murder scene.

Joan Kemp: Fritz kept threatening me with it. He said he'd go tell the police, that it would make his book a huge bestseller. That no-talent sycophant! He wasn't good enough to polish Austin Young's boots. At the beginning of the screening, I noticed there was an empty seat next to Fritz, so I grabbed it. I dropped a handful of pills into his glass, hoping they would dissolve. I guess they did because, by the last reel, Fritz was telling me he wasn't feeling so good. He got up out of his seat and staggered up the aisle.