After Beverly Gareth is electrocuted in her bath, Cabot Cove is flooded with poison pen letters, which prove hard for the town to handle as Amos prepares to hand the reins over to a new sheriff, Harry Pierce. Jessica has her hands full with a travel writer who has come to stay with her for a time to put Cabot Cove on the map.

Season 2, Episode 10: Sticks and Stones (December 15, 1985)

Tonight on Murder, She Wrote…

Cabot Cove is flooded with negativity, which proves rough for the town to handle as Amos prepares to retire.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury, and were they in any exploitation movies?

John Astin is back as Harry Pierce, now going from real estate man to perhaps sheriff. This is the last of three appearances by him as this character; he also played Ross Hayley in season 1’s “Hooray for Homicide” and will return as Fritz Randall in season 11.

Spoiler, but this isn’t the last appearance of Tom Bosely as Sherrif Amos. He’d be on the show until season 4, when he left to be the lead on Father Dowling Mysteries.

Friedrich Hoffman is played by Paul Benedict, who you may know best as Harry Bentley from The Jeffersons. He was also in Mandingo, Smile, A Mighty Wind and This is Spinal Tap. He had acromegaly, the same birth defect as Andre the Giant and Rondo Hatton. Still, it was recognized by an endocrinologist whose intervention allowed him to live a much longer life.

George Knapp is played by Joseph Campanella, the voice actor behind the cartoon version of Spider-Man’s enemy, The Lizard. He was also in tons of films like Dead Girls Don’t Tango, Body Chemistry, Hangar 18 and Earthbound.

Larry Burns is played by John David Carson, the son of cowboy actor Kit Carson. He was also in The Fifth Floor, Empire of the Ants and Creature from Black Lake.

Elvira Tree is Marsha Hunt, who was Joe’s mother in Johnny Got His Gun.

Edna is Evelyn Keyes, who was in everything from Gone With the Wind and The Seven Year Itch to Wicked Stepmother, A Return to Salem’s Lot and Hell’s Half Acre. She was married to Artie Shaw.

Nils Anderson is Denny Miller, who played Tarzan in Tarzan, the Ape Man (in 1959, not with Bo Derek) and had henchman roles on numerous TV shows.

Lila Norris is Betsey Palmer, and man, you probably know that I’m obsessed with her.

Michael Digby is played by Parker Stevenson, one of the Hardy Boys.

Adam Frobisher is Christopher Stone, who was in Cujo and The Howling. He was once married to Dee Wallace.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt is back, played by William Windom as always.

Bart Nelson is played by Howard Witt. He was Mr. Boogedy!

Smaller roles include Phillip Brown as Deputy Willard and background roles for Ceil Cabot, Ken Sasnsom, Bob Tzudiker, Garnett Smith, Kristy Syverson and Danny McCoy, Jr.

What happens?

Sheriff Amos has retired for all of a minute when a series of mean letters — ala Needful Things but three years before that came out, but they’re both ripping off the Agatha Christie story The Moving Finger — bring him back in to work with Jessica, as new lawman Harry Pierce is pretty much the worst. Everyone is losing their minds because of these letters, as evidenced by a lady named Edna, who thinks Jessica is sleeping with her husband, so she smacks her in the head.

These letters are being sent because a woman named Beverly planned for letters to be sent out when she dies, as she is convinced that she will be killed. She is — death in the bathtub, my favorite — and she’s not the last, as a suicide soon follows.

Who could have turned the town on itself? Why is Cabot Cove so mean?

Who did it?

In an amazing misdirect — and one I would hope was planned from his first appearance — Harry Pierce shows that he’s more than a bad real estate developer. He’s also a killer and someone who burned down his own buildings for insurance settlements. He even pulls a gun on Jessica and says that he was friends with her and Frank, but now she has to die.

Who made it?

This episode was directed by Seymour Robbie and written by Jackson Gillis, Linda Shank and Mark Giles.

Does Jessica get some?

She’s lucky she didn’t get killed.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

This is a deadly serious episode, even if one woman thinks Jessica was in bed with her spouse.

Was it any good?

Yes! When I first saw this, Gomez Addams being the killer was a shock.

Any trivia?

This is the first time in the series that one person from Cabot Cove murders someone else from the town. Until now, it’s all been crimes involving outsiders.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Well, one thing’s for sure. This has got accident written all over it. Frayed cord, bathroom door locked from the inside. Even Mrs. Fletcher couldn’t make a murder out of this one.

What’s next?

An archaeological dig, potentially the site of Coronado’s City of Gold, does not please everyone as a new corpse is discovered.