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Private Notes
Homicide detectives discover more than gracious living behind the plush facade of a suburban estate. In the wealthy eastern suburbs a dentist is found dead on his sitting-room floor and his wife and 14-year-old son are missing.
A confession of a false testimony from a dying woman, a pearl brooch and a bitter young criminal cause a murder case to be re-opened after 20 years, leading to a grisly discovery within Pentridge prison. Detectives want to question Emma Perkins, but did she have something to hide? She ran, she didn't look where she was going, and she died before she could tell what she knew.
Victor Ryder's wife, Susan, joins the Shepherds Of Life, a weird religious sect. Susan, aided and abetted by her mother, locks her infidel husband out of the house. After weeks of mounting emotional hostility, Victor Ryder reaches breaking point. He shoots his mother-in-law, and, taking his wife hostage, barricades himself in the Shepherds Of Life 'temple'. The leader of the sect, Gardiner Adams, tries to persuade the distraught Ryder to give himself up, but he too is taken hostage. Ryder's immediate superior, Bernard Sheils, who has full knowledge of his employee's difficulties, cannot lure him out. Joanna Wilson, a sect member who knows another side to the sanctimonious Adams, tries but also fails.
A car crash on a lonely country road looks like an accident. Then one witness claims to have heard footsteps, and another hearing a car being driven off. The Homicide squad begin their investigation amid the pile of unfinished paperwork at the local police station, and unravel a web of conspiracy, adultery, blackmail and murder among the intrigues of a small town.
Peace loving Eric and Alma Lamb discover that honesty is not always the best policy when they become involved in a brutal murder.
Notes: The Broadcasting Control Board ruled that this episode should not be screened before 8:30 PM.
A brother and sister are gunned down hours before they are due to fly out of Melbourne. A key, a missing fur coat, and a remarkable talkative cockatoo all baffle the Homicide squad. Two brothers in the second-hand business run foul of the law when they find the abandoned fur coat which the police need as evidence.
The quiet country town of Summerton has a rude awakening when its most prominent citizen, Councillor Rupert Morgan, is shot dead. His body is discovered just after the local newspaper editor, Greg Carson, and his close friend John Grayley, the local sergeant of police, are preparing for a day of fishing. When the Homicide team arrive to investigate, they find there is a general hatred of the murdered man throughout the town. And it just happens that Grayson's newspaper is on the verge of publishing a front page expose of the councillor, an unscrupulous man who has been embezzling one-and-a-half-million dollars of council funds. While helping with the police investigation, Carson, who has a reputation of being a good newspaper man, also fights to protect his scoop expose from being used by the big city reporters, who invade Summerton on the trail of the story. Carson is determined to run it, regardless of the man's death. During the investigation, the Homicide team look into Councillor Morgan's private life, including his association with Mrs. Juliet Stacey and her daughter Sandra.
When a spate of bombings occur, Homicide detectives face a potentially disastrous situation. But when another bomb is found and defused, the contents provide them with a vital clue.
Tate, a master of the martial arts, sells his skills in the market place of crime. He is a cold-blooded killer, his motivation is obscure, and his only emotion is pleasure in his work. The Homicide squad have a race against time to get to him before more people are harmed. Tate is eventually captured by Sen. Det. Deegan, who is also quite accomplished at the martial arts.
Notes: Scriptwriter Jim Simmonds, who holds a black belt in Taekwondo, had been wanting to write a Homicide episode featuring the martial arts for three years. His opportunity came when Dennis Grosvenor, a brown belt in karate, joined the cast. In addition to writing the script, Simmonds choreographed all the fight scenes, and was eventually cast in the role of Tate.
When a solicitor is murdered, a schoolboy leads the Homicide detectives to a deserted cinema and a strange friendship.
The Homicide squad is called in when the wife of a leading gangster is shot. Was it calculated murder, or was the bullet meant for someone else?
Kevin Watson is a clever and conniving criminal - he has dabbled in petty thievery and assault, but his forte is rape and violence. Watson's amazing string of acquittals has earned him the title of 'the egotist' - but then he gets careless after two innocent people are murdered.
Actress Joan Kendall leads a seemingly normal life with her husband, children and dog. However, medication cushions the pressures of her TV world, and one morning she stabs her husband to death. The Homicide team are confronted by an agonising puzzle - is she using her mental condition as an excuse? Is she as deranged as she now appears to be? Or is she acting out the most cunning role of her career?
Notes: The Broadcasting Control Board ruled that this episode should not be screened before 8:30 PM. It was shown in Adelaide and Brisbane as part of the original run, but in Melbourne and Sydney it first went to air during a repeat screening of the series, the restriction having caused it to be dropped from the original schedule.
Jim Knight is a frustrated novelist, who has produced no more than half a page in six months. Taunted with this unpalatable truth by a friend, Knight kills him in a fit of rage, and goes on a spree of drunken violence and destruction. The Homicide team find that Knight, with years of experience as a journalist, is a hard nut to crack with routine interrogation, so they set a complicated trap for him.
A chemist is murdered during a break-in, and the two youngsters responsible, Linda Williams and Ronnie McDermott, are forced to hole up in a derelict house. The Homicide squad track them down, but McDermott has acquired a Magnum, and is determined that he won't go to jail.
Notes: The Broadcasting Control Board ruled that this episode should not be screened before 8:30 PM. In Melbourne it was dropped from the original schedule, and first went to air during a subsequent repeat run of the series.
The Homicide squad has found clues to a murder, but they can't find a body. After a bizarre search involving several tall stories and wild goose chases, Insp. Lawson is decidedly confused, and has no case.
Tina Kennedy, daughter of Betty Kennedy, a pregnant, harassed, aggressive and downtrodden mother, is found to be dead on arrival at hospital, and the explanation for her fatal injuries do not satisfy the doctor.
Notes: Maggie Millar won a Logie Award for Best Individual Acting Performance (1975) and a Sammy Award for Best Actress In A Single TV Performance (1975) for this episode. After the programme, HSV-7 referred anyone with a potential problem to Parents Anonymous, a counselling group, which received several calls as a result.
Racing driver Casey Burton is killed while testing a new fuel injection device. Homicide detectives have to determine whether it was an accident or murder. There are a host of suspects, but the Homicide squad uncovers the real culprit and his strange motive in a climactic day at Calder Raceway.
Bill Sellars, a big time racket operator, seeks revenge on the person who murdered his wife, but a few things stand in his way, including small time burglar Sam Horton, whose robbery complicates matters and turns out being a lot more trouble than he expected.
Homicide detectives investigate a dating service when a body is found in scrubland. Is she the only one or are there more victims to come? Several middle-aged and usually well-off women have disappeared in various cities around Australia, and the only other thing they seemed to have in common was membership of various lonely hearts clubs. Nobody connects these disappearances until a sinister couple posing as brother and sister make a slip in their near perfect strategy for murder.
Three brutal murders and a one-sided love affair combine to present an intriguing case for the Homicide squad.
Julia Edwards and her husband Grant are known as a happy, loving couple. But when Julie is shot while sketching in a cemetery, detectives uncover facts which make them doubt this description.
Is a prominent member of a City Council a straightforward honest man, or is he the instigator of a brutal murder and a savage bashing?
When a butcher's wife is found brutally stabbed to death her husband becomes the prime suspect.
Notes: Charles Tingwell does not appear in this episode.
Old Charlie is deeply attached to his mother, and when separated from her, he often gets into trouble with little girls. He is 64 and has been to prison several times for child molesting. When his 82-year-old and very ill mother dies from an overdose of painkillers, the Homicide squad must determine if it was suicide, a mercy killing, or murder. Everything points to Charlie when it becomes obvious he has disappeared, but the case is complicated when it is discovered that a burglary was taking place in the house at the time of the old woman's death.
Notes: Originally titled 'What Would You Have Done?'. Guest actor Hedley Cullen said: "The role of Charlie in Homicide was a beautiful part - most sympathetic. I spent most of the time weeping."
A policeman is killed at a factory break-in, and Homicide detectives uncover a long running feud between an ex-criminal and a police sergeant.
Figure skater Heather Morton is strangled on deserted land near an ice skating rink. Detectives learn that Heather had loved and discarded many boyfriends, and many of these men hated her.
Geoff Brady leads the residents of his street into action to stop a big developer. The response is blatant and brutal - thugs move in, residents cower behind closed doors, and Brady's pregnant wife is bashed so badly that she loses her baby. Brady then takes up a gun against the ruthless real estate developer.
o young men, Lambert and Cook, who have a compulsive hatred of 'poofters', kill Gerard Rivers, a successful homosexual businessman. Insp. Lawson uncovers some strange personal viewpoints and bizarre sexual practices of some well-to-do, respected members of the community.
Notes: Rescheduled by ADS-7 in Adelaide to a later timeslot (9.00 PM) due to the 'poofter bashing' subject matter. In Melbourne it was not shown as part of the original screening, and was eventually aired during a repeat run. The title is taken from a statement by a youth actually charged with a crime of this type.
Danny Simmons is spending a few days in the country with his maiden aunt, Miss Murphy, who is living in what was formerly a home for wayward girls with two other old ladies. Her 17-year-old maid, Cheryl, is having affairs with most of the local boys, until someone curtails her immorality with a fatal dose of strychnine. Danny Simmons finds himself in an awkward position - Cheryl's body was found at his door, and soon a similar attempt is made on his life.
Notes: Bud Tingwell does not appear in this episode, and Don Barker appears in only one scene. Most of the episode is carried by Gary Day and Dennis Grosvenor.
The Homicide squad investigates the murder of an unknown woman in a city park. When they find out the identity of the woman they learn very little about the murderer - she had met him for only a moment seconds before her death. Detectives face a puzzling case as they realise the reason for the murder is locked in the killer's mind.
A farmer is killed by a hitch-hiker, and police suspect an itinerant surfer. Homicide detectives have a difficult task searching for the killer along Victoria's surfing coastline with it's many communities and remote beaches.
Notes: Scriptwriter Jim Simmonds cast this story as a cautionary tale for would-be hitch-hikers following several hitch-hiking murders in Queensland. First television role for Susan Hannaford, whose next major part was as Kitty in The Sullivans.
A talented young pianist, Nathan Ellis, and his possessive mother are walking their dog in an industrial area of the western suburbs, when they stumble across the remains of a vague acquaintance. Investigations lead to a drug user and reveal that Nathan was being blackmailed and abused by the dead man.
An HSV-7 news crew covering a story on pollution discover two bodies near the Maribyrnong River. The Homicide squad not only have to find the killer, but also establish the identity of the people killed. Forensic tests come to nothing, but an appeal to the public results in a positive identification - a husband and wife thought to have been on holidays. Their killer is the husband's father, and his motive has strange religious overtones.
Notes: Scriptwriter John Drew had a middle and an end to this story, but did not quite know how to start it, as it called for the discovery of two bodies in an area where no-one would normally go. The solution was to use a news team doing a story on pollution. Newsreader Brian Naylor appears as himself.
A dishonest second-hand car dealer is run down late at night, and he thinks someone is trying to kill him. Prime suspects include a dissatisfied customer and his wife's lover.
Homicide detectives investigate the death of a burnt out, but still young drug addict, who was an ex-student leader wanted for the bombing of an Army installation in 1968. Two girl accomplices have eluded capture, one hiding out in Perth, the other in Fiji. One of the girls, Mary, is involved in a copper smuggling operation, and Det. Sgt. White and Sen. Det. Redford, who have been sent to Fiji to apprehend her, wait behind a Fijian police stake-out before they can move in on their girl.
Notes: Segments filmed on location in Fiji.
A local ballet company is thrown into confusion when its temperamental leading dancer, Brett Chilton, is shot and wounded after a party. Detectives learn that everybody in the ballet company hated Chilton, and there are half a dozen suspects with motives for the attack. Chilton then confuses the issue by pretending to know who the guilty party is, and uses his narrow escape to destroy the careers of those around him.
An elderly cinema projectionist witnesses the killing of a man on a parking station. He is only too willing to help the police in their investigation, which results in tragedy for himself.
Notes: Scenes from Ryan episode 18 'Fibber The Dancing Galah' are used in a cinema film sequence.
26-year-old Jerry Fraser is is friendly with 16-year-old Francesca Carlotti, who is unaware that he is a psychopath. Her Italian father disapproves of their friendship and Fraser kills Francesca and her parents. Fraser then has vivid hallucinations in which he still sees the girl.
Notes: Guest actor Maria Mercedes described this episode as "terrifying and bizarre - like a Hitchcock thriller. The ending is hair-raising".134 An earlier black-and-white episode had a similar title: 'The Snipers', episode 76.
