Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Spanish Moss Murders

December 6, 1974 Season 1 Episode 9

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This one begins with Kolchak looking the worst I’ve seen him. He had just gone through something terrible, and we were about to find out. This episode blends Cajun folklore and good old-fashioned monster mayhem into one of the show’s best stories. This episode includes another actor whom I have always liked. Keenan Wynn starred in a lot of movies and television shows and was a wonderful character actor. In this episode, he plays Police Chief Joe ‘Mad Dog’ Siska, who is trying to stay calm…not easy around Kolchak. Chicago must have gone through many Chiefs of Police!

This time, Kolchak investigates a series of strange murders where the victims are covered in Spanish moss, crushed, and drowned far from any water. The culprit? The Père Malfait, a swamp monster from legend, a Cajun bayou boogeyman conjured up by an innocent street musician in a sleep study that takes away the ability to dream. People connected to the sleep subject (Don Mantooth) in unrelated ways are chosen as victims, so Kolchak will have to first discover who (or better, what) is killing them and figure out how to stop it.

The Père Malfait monster was played by Richard Kiel, who also played the Diablero the previous week in Bad Medicine. Producers liked him so much in both roles, they asked him to be available for a second season of the show. This one is highly thought of by The Night Stalker fans. I sound like a broken record, but again, this episode is smartly written and acted. Many times, McGavin would rewrite the scripts if he didn’t like them, and that happened a lot. He got no credit for that. That is probably the reason that no clunkers exist in this series. It also could have contributed to him asking out of his contract at the end of the season.

Kolchak starts digging, and, naturally, finds strange things. Kolchak’s journey in this episode takes him from sleep labs to recording studios,  to morgues, to warehouses, snapping photos and ticking off cops the whole way. Watching Kolchak rant his way through bureaucracy and disbelief is golden. It’s folklore meets journalism, and in Kolchak’s world, that always makes for one hell of a story.

If you want to get ahead…here is NEXT WEEK’S Episode!

If you want to get ahead…here is NEXT WEEK’S Episode!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

27 thoughts on “Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Spanish Moss Murders”

    1. Yea…but I don’t think he enjoyed having to do that but evidently he was really good at it! There are no episodes under the 6.9 mark in all of their episodes…so no clunkers in this series at all…even at 20 episodes that is good.

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  4. Another very good one. Why does easy-going Mr K seem to cause anxiety amongst his co-workers and cops, I wonder?

    ‘Green Glop?’ Not the technical term, but apt and colourful.

    How’d the Peré Malfait die? Well Max, might I say he came… to… a… sticky… end. (Yeah, sorry. As a pun just too too bad.😬)

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    1. I mean…I curse when I watch it…”how come no one believes him?” But then I realize…hmmm…yea I guess a few are really hard to buy.
      The Green Glop…be careful…I’m sure Marvel is searching for new villians or heroes names!

      LOL…yea he just moss’d away.

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  5. I wondered if the guy who played the fiddler — no not that kind, for some of the readers! — recording artist was a real musician. Randy Boone was a recurring character in The Virginian per imdb. Kinda cool. I really liked this episode. It was creative, and the way they used sleeping, dreams, etc. was very very interesting. Who is to say either the monster or what is possible in deep deep sleep. I had no idea that was Richard Kiel as the moss monster.

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    1. I would have never known the monster was him by just looking…that is probably the reason they used him again because no one would know in that makeup. I should have said who the fiddle guy was…thats a good pickup.
      I’m enjoying this series the more I see it. Now that I know the characters well…I love it. The next one wasn’t as strong but it was different and really good. The one after that was superb. A lot of quality here…and McGavin really knew how to write as well.

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      1. They were real skimpy with showing him I noticed. Yes, McGavin had a good feel for what was needed. I remember seeing some doc about Jeff Price being the creator but they didn’t want to credit him.

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