Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Knightly Murders

March 07, 1975 Season 1 Episode 18

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

In this one, we have another police captain. John Dehner plays Captain Vernon Rausch in this episode. His name is not Steve McQueen or Marlon Brando, but he had an incredible 305 acting credits to his name. A wonderful character actor that you have probably seen in the 1940s through the 1980s. He was in Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone, Mission Impossible, and so many other television shows. Compared to the other captains, he actually talked to Kolchak without making him go away for the most part…but he is “playing out the string” to his career, so to speak, and he gets reporters like Kolchak to do a lot of the investigating for him.  Carl calls him out on this. 

Another character actress, Lieux Dressler, played Minerva Musso an interior decorator. She livened the episode up with her couple of appearances. 

The 18th episode of Kolchak begins with a series of killings in Chicago tied to a museum exhibit of medieval artifacts. Victims are found run through with what appears to be a lance. The police look for a modern suspect using antique weapons, but Kolchak sees a pattern linked to a specific suit of armor on display. Each murder is connected to members of a small historical society, men who share a past dispute that dates back years.

Kolchak digs into the background of the group and learns they were once part of a medieval re-enactment order. One of their former members died under questionable circumstances. The armor in the exhibit had belonged to that man. As more society members are killed, Kolchak concludes that the armor itself is animated, moving on its own to carry out revenge. Witnesses describe a towering knight appearing and vanishing without explanation.

SPOILER Below

In the final act, Kolchak tracks the armor to the museum after hours. He confirms that the spirit of the dead member is driving the killings from within the suit of armor. Using quick thinking rather than force, he disrupts the armor and ends the threat, exposing the truth even as the authorities dismiss the supernatural angle. As usual, Kolchak files his story, and as usual, it is unlikely to see print.

I love this quote by Tony:

  • Carl Kolchak: What is important is that it takes 420 pounds of pressure – psi. – to crush a telephone. Now, it says right here that a medieval knight in full armor and in full weaponry weighs well over 400 pounds.
  • Tony Vincenzo: Oh, I feel much better. All my life I wanted to know that a medieval knight could crush a telephone.
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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.

15 thoughts on “Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Knightly Murders”

  2. Pingback: Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Knightly Murders – MobsterTiger

  3. Good review of the episode, Max. The chief was very familiar and now I know why. I also liked the bits with the lively interior decorator. My favorite part of it was the suit of armor itself. What a beautiful thing in its black sheen. Medieval artifacts are fascinating to me and would like to visit a museum with some in it.

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    1. Thanks! Well last week when you asked the question about why so many police captains….and I told you that captain had been on so many shows…well I was thinking of this guy! I was thinking one episode ahead so I apologize for that.
      The armor is very interesting. I can’t imagine how much they weigh…and those weapons are not light either. I wouldn’t mind seeing them as well.

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  4. Well Max., I ain’t aiming to visit Chicago in 2027 now- they can keep their offer of a free room at the luxurious Inca Suite. I don’t have my heart set on a holiday that much.

    Seriously, how scary was it when Kolchak says ‘it will be 52 years in 2027????’ Where does the time go???

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      3. I saw my first….well I don’t what term is… bicentennial plus… quarter this week, commemorating 250 years. Ya, bicentennial was 50 years ago already!

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