8.6/1083 votesLoading...#1 - Who Killed Holly Howard?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1963
A top fashion model is found at a construction site, apparently shot to death. When it is discovered that she was drowned before she was shot, Burke tracks the case back to her ditzy landlady, and then to the heads of the ad agency she was modeling for and the artist who was painting her likeness for a giant ad campaign. Getting involved with another model, Burke soon discovers a plush hideaway owned by three Texas millionaires who ""entertain"" gorgeous young women poolside (where the murder may have taken place). Even though he uncovers a blackmailing butler and information that an older admirer had paid for cosmetic surgery for the model, Burke is suddenly stumped when it is revealed that the water in the dead girl's lungs had orange blossom bath salts in it and not chlorine from the pool.
Director: Hy Averback
Writer: N/A
- 8.6/1042 votesLoading...
#2 - Who Killed Merlin the Great?
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/2/1964
Merlin the Great's famous escape-from-a-coffin trick backfires when it is discovered that he has been shot while ""buried"" in a hotel pool - but how was it done? and which of the rival magicians has a deadly trick up their sleeve? The only clues are a feather found on the body and the grave of someone named ""Miriam"". Whodunit? Was it the lovely magician's assistant, the escape artist, the fortune teller, the hotel doctor, the ventriloquist or the knife thrower? A phony seance exposes the real culprit.
Director: N/A
Writer: William Link, Richard Levinson
8.4/1051 votesLoading...#3 - Who Killed His Royal Highness?
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/21/1964
The Grand Duke, Maximilian Karol Alexandrei Kadarian, collapses at a banquet. The Grand Duke was famous locally as phony royalty, who owned a fabulous emerald necklace, now missing. The suspects include his former wife, his secretary, the owners of the banquet hall (two former vaudevillians), the ghostwriter of his autobiography, a ""reformed"" safecracker, another Russian noble now working as a director, and the mysterious and elusive ""Charlie Prince"".
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1040 votesLoading...
#4 - Who Killed Lenore Wingfield?
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/4/1964
Wealthy Lenore is blown away by a shotgun blast while sailing on a barge in her pool, dressed as Cleopatra, and is discovered by one of the men she has befriended from the local mission. Wealthy after several marriages, but coming from hillbilly stock, the victim was planning to change her will. Was the killer her only surviving ex-husband, her sexually repressed sister, her favorite cousin or his ""down-home"" girlfriend, or the shady rival businessman who's planning on marrying off his daughter to the victim's heir? A whole flock of chickens provide a vital clue.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: Leigh Chapman
- 8.3/1028 votesLoading...
#5 - Who Killed Rosie Sunset?
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 1/27/1965
Why would anyone kill sweet old Rosie Sunset, who sold maps to the movie stars homes? An heiress who was seen giving Rosie a ride, Rosie's neighbor (a Russian sculptor with a sexy sister, whose work mysteriously has appeared in Rosie's apartment), a neurotic, workaholic printer on the ground floor of Rosie's building, an accordion player (who suddenly disappears after being questioned), and Rosie's estranged step-son (who needed Rosie's money for his florist business) - all fall under suspicion. The solution lies in Rosie's past hospitalization and her late husband's ""hobby"".
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1067 votesLoading...
#6 - Who Killed Harris Crown?
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1963
Promoter Harris Crown is killed when the car he is driving goes off a cliff. Burke soon discovers that all the brake fluid had been drained and that the car belonged to Crown's wife (a race car enthusiast) who is involved in a charity benefit and ""involved"" with the benefit's choreographer, who in turn is being kept by a wealthy (and jealous) society matron. Other suspects include Crown's strapped-for-cash brother and his greedy wife, and Crown's current mistress. Burke is assisted in his search for the killer by a gossip columnist and a shop owner (who takes a sudden shine to Burke, until she finds that he's a ""poor"" cop).
Director: Don Weis
Writer: John Meredyth Lucas
- 8.2/1041 votesLoading...
#7 - Who Killed the Swinger on a Hook?
Season 2 Episode 14 - Aired 12/23/1964
Someone seems to be systematically killing a group of individuals on a list. One name on the list - Amos Burke. What is the connection between these people? One possible suspect (who's name also appears on the list) is badly beaten, and Burke finally discovers that the solution comes from a case many years ago when he was just starting out on the police force. Can he trap the killer before he becomes the next victim? After one attempt on his life fails, Burke is kidnapped, but leaves his phone line open to the station so that Les and Tim can track where he's being taken. The case ends with a fight in an abandoned mine shaft.
Director: Lewis Allen
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1029 votesLoading...
#8 - Terror in a Tiny Town (2)
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 1/12/1966
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1077 votesLoading...
#9 - Who Killed Mr. X?
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1963
When a body is discovered dumped alongside the merry-go-round at an amusement park, clues (including a phone number on an old matchbook cover) lead back to the elusive millionaire Emory Flood. Burke is thwarted in his attempts to speak to Flood by the top three men in the Flood empire. Meanwhile, Burke and Tim come to the aid of an elderly woman who is also trying to see Flood, and interview three lovely starlets who are being ""supported"" by Flood (two of whom hate the man, while the third definitely strikes romantic sparks with Burke). Until Burke can identify the dead man, discover the true scene of the crime and locate Flood, he can't find the killer. A photo of Robert Mitchum reveals the clue which proves that the crime was based on a case of mistaken identity.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1073 votesLoading...
#10 - Who Killed Sweet Betsy?
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1963
Betsy Richards drinks a lethal martini and Burke investigates the Richards mansion, Betsy's three identical sisters (who may look alike, but who have decidedly different personalities), her wheelchair-bound (and possibly psychotic) aunt, her current beach bum lover (who might have been about to leave Betsy for another sister), her alcoholic brother-in-law, and a slightly demented professor of psychiatry. An attempt is made on the life of another sister and, after a second death, the dark secret of the Richards family is finally revealed.
Director: Hy Averback
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1032 votesLoading...
#11 - Who Killed the Surf Broad?
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1964
An up-and-coming actress dies while surfing, apparently from an obscure medieval poison. But how was it administered? When Burke is faced with an unfamiliar milieu, he sends Tim undercover as a surfer. The victim's grasping mother, a famous novelist, the one-armed owner of a beachfront bar, not one but two bikini-clad young women, and the owner of a surf shop, who had been having an affair with the victim, all come under suspicion. A speargun shoots a little too close to home before the killer is finally uncovered.
Director: Don Taylor
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1037 votesLoading...
#12 - Who Killed Everybody?
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1964
A showgirl jumps out of a cake at a stag party, only to discover all the guests dead. Each of the four wealthy men had a wife who had good reason to murder her own husband (one husband was abusive, one a ""weakling"", one was vulgar and unappreciative, and one an animal hater), but who would want to kill all four? Or could the killer be the stuffy country club secretary, who wanted the four men banned from the club and was in love with one of the not-so-grieving widows? And how to get rid of the showgirl, who insists that Burke and Tim take care of her?
Director: N/A
Writer: William Link, Richard Levinson
- 8.1/1039 votesLoading...
#13 - Who Killed the Richest Man in the World?
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/11/1964
A sniper fires through the window of the suite of the richest man in the world, who is planning on selling an oil lease to one of several bidders, each of whom was an expert marksman. Burke is informed that the bullet missed its intended target and killed, instead, the multimillionaire's personal bookkeeper. The tycoon constantly berates Burke for not having solved the crime to his satisfaction and insists on sending his staff along on the interviews with the suspects. After a bomb attempt again fails to kill the tycoon, Burke is almost shot by the sniper, who runs and falls to his death. Who hired him? - the Texan, the big game hunter, or the crazy brothers?
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1027 votesLoading...
#14 - Who Killed Davidian Jonas?
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 12/30/1964
A shipping tycoon's corpse is discovered draped over his yacht's anchor when it is hoisted out of the water. The tycoon's intended merger would ruin several of the guests on his current cruise. A large earring is a major clue - did it belong to the victim's brother (a gypsy king), or the maharanee, or perhaps to the ship's sexy radio operator? Or was the killer the rival shipping magnate, the boozy hanger-on, or his ever-so-pleasant PR man? When Burke finally realizes the importance of whose stateroom was where and how much alcohol was drunk on the night of the fatal party, he knows who the killer is.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1036 votesLoading...
#15 - Who Killed Mother Goose?
Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 1/13/1965
The beloved author of a series of children's books is strangled with her typewriter ribbon. Burke determines that the victim meant to leave a clue by pointing to a page in a book of nursery rhymes. But who does the clue lead to: the childrens' TV show hostess, the victim's secretary, the beat poet, the child psychiatrist, or the victim's publisher? When Henry is kidnapped by one of the suspects, the stakes go higher. When Burke finally deciphers the clue, he traps the killer using doctored videotapes recorded by the victim.
Director: N/A
Writer: William Link, Richard Levinson
- 8.1/1024 votesLoading...
#16 - Peace, It's a Gasser
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/3/1965
No description available
Director: James Goldstone
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1071 votesLoading...
#17 - Who Killed Purity Mather?
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/6/1963
A self-proclaimed witch sends Burke a record predicting her murder, along with a list of suspects. When her body is discovered after a fire, she has been disfigured by acid, leaving only a clue of a tattoo. The design of the tattoo matches that of an amulet carried by her pet raven. For likely suspects, Burke has to choose between a less-than-imposing ""vampire"", the head of a nudist colony, the ""reincarnation"" of the Goddess of Love, a wealthy man obsessed with spiritualism and his compliant companion, and a con artist/fakir. Before the case is solved, Tim saves Burke from a ""brush"" with death!
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Harlan Ellison
- 8.0/1054 votesLoading...
#18 - Who Killed Eleanora Davis?
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/20/1963
When an unidentified brunette is discovered in a fake electric chair at a run-down amusement park/sideshow run by ""Professor"" Kingston, Burke has to track several elusive clues back to a modeling agency and the three somewhat odd people who run it, a blackmail scheme, eloping tennis players, and a feisty old Irish landlady. With the help of a vital piece of information gathered by Burke's girlfriend Juliet and the assistance of three young boys, the case is solved.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1050 votesLoading...
#19 - Who Killed the Paper Dragon?
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/20/1964
During Chinese New Year celebrations, a car crashes into a street full of revelers. After the Chinese woman behind the wheel flees the scene with a little girl, leaving behind her shoe, a tourist discovers a dead body in the trunk. Tracking the case to the nearby nightclub The Paper Dragon, run by Burke's old friend (of ""very mixed"" Chinese and Irish extraction), Burke tries to discover if the club's dancer is the killer or the next victim. A local drunk ventriloquist, the dead man's wife, and a shifty promoter round out the suspects.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jameson Brewer
- 8.0/1051 votesLoading...
#20 - Who Killed Molly?
Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 3/27/1964
A rose-covered cottage is the scene for the death of a seemingly ordinary housewife. Burke and Tim (who is contemplating settling down with his current girlfriend) soon discover that all is not what it seems in suburbia. The dead woman's husband, her totally gaga neighbor, a stripper with a boa constrictor, a flustered physician, several predatory landladies, a tennis bum, a couple of wigs, and the surly head of the Burglary Division all help to turn what at first seemed like just a slip in the bathtub into one of Burke's more complicated cases.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1034 votesLoading...
#21 - Who Killed Vaudeville?
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/23/1964
The burlesque comedy team of Witt, Watt and Who (now an accountant, a desk clerk and a bartender with a dark secret), a professor of the striptease, a tap dancer, the manager of a hotel for showfolk, a unicyclist - any one of them may have ""killed vaudeville"", but one of them certainly poisoned baggy pants clown Rags McGuire, who was about to be featured in an event at the Hollywood Bowl. But why was Rags killed? He only left a few small bequests and an old battered trunk that no one seems to want. But was that really all? Burke corners the killer at the Hollywood Bowl and almost brings the house down.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1025 votesLoading...
#22 - Who Killed the Card?
Season 2 Episode 32 - Aired 5/5/1965
The head of a greeting card firm was killed, but not by the arrow protruding from his body. It was slow, methodical arsenic poisoning. His flirtatious teenage assistant takes a shine to Burke, but he's afraid she may be the prime suspect. If not, there are several others to choose from: the victim's ambitious successor, the mousy psychologist and his domineering wife, or the jingle writer. Burke's intentions are misunderstood and he comes close to being a second victim. The series ends with the whole cast of regulars involved in a big musical production number (of dubious artistic merit).
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1057 votesLoading...
#23 - Who Killed My Girl?
Season 1 Episode 29 - Aired 4/17/1964
When an old flame of Burke's is gunned down, he uncovers the darker side of her relationship with several men. The former chauffeur for the victim's father, an old friend of the family, an philandering astronomer and his embittered wife, a free-wheeling B-girl, a vulgar jazz trumpeter - any one could have killed ""my girl"". The truth may lie in Diana's little black book. Les and Tim are worried that Burke is too close to the case to handle it rationally. Burke refuses their help. Only after he is attacked in his own home and, later, is forced to hear the truth about Diana's past, does Burke realize who the killer is, with the help of Les's wristwatch.
Director: Don Taylor
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1047 votesLoading...
#24 - Who Killed the Eleventh Best Dressed Woman in the World?
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 4/24/1964
A notorious homewrecker is discovered dead in a mud bath at a fashionable spa. Burke soon learns that every other guest at the spa, including the owner, had a strong motive for murder. The strongest case is against the woman whose husband might have been planning on divorcing her to marry the victim. A movie starlet, the best dressed woman in the U.S., a millionairess and her aunt/companion, and the spa's owner also need to be carefully watched. Even after Burke is viciously attacked, he puts himself in danger again in order to smoke out the real killer.
Director: Don Weis
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1030 votesLoading...
#25 - Who Killed Cop Robin?
Season 2 Episode 26 - Aired 3/24/1965
Burke's mentor is slain in a dark alley. His killer may be a suspect from one of his former cases who got off, but who was actually guilty. But why would Officer Robin confront the killer without backup? Can Burke decide which (if any) suspect previously accused of a crime (possession of narcotics, assault with a deadly weapon, murder, blackmail and smuggling) is Cop Robin's killer? Burke discovers that the victim was already dying and was trying to prevent another crime from being committed by forcing the criminal to get caught for his murder.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Burke's Law
Every episode of Burke's Law ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Burke's Law!
Burke's Law is an American detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show...
Genre:Drama
Network:ABC
Best Episodes Summary
"Who Killed Holly Howard?" is the best rated episode of "Burke's Law". It scored 8.6/10 based on 83 votes. Directed by Hy Averback and written by N/A, it aired on 9/20/1963. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Who Killed Merlin the Great?".