Tue, Oct 23, 1973
A robbery of armored car guards morphs into a deadly hostage standoff, with bulldog Lt. Theo Kojak as the negotiator. Half the Talaba Brothers gang escapes with the cash, but when the other half is cornered, they invade a surplus store, crammed with guns and ammo. The robbers also have bargaining chips: the 5 people in the building, plus a badly wounded patrolman, who dove in the store to warn of the incoming robbers. While young Detective Bobby Crocker pursues the thieves who got away, his boss at Manhattan South, the dapper, bald Kojak smooth-talks Jerry Talaba to get the hostages out. Hothead Talaba demands a crewed, fueled 707 at JFK, or he'll start killing the hostages, then toss them out before the TV cameras and hundreds of spectators - one by one.
Tue, Oct 30, 1973
A police detective kills a Manhattan lawyer, after setting up an elaborate alibi for himself. First, Nick Ferro lets Pinky, who he just busted on the street, inject some horse the junkie bought. Ferro then phones in the collar. While Pinky is nodding off in Ferro's car, the policeman digs a gun with a silencer out of a sidewalk hiding place, and cabs to the male attorney's hotel love nest. Ferro switched the rest of the street heroin for another packet, and turns in a baggy of soap powder at the precinct, along with the addict, after the shooting. Why did one of Lt. Kojak's most decorated badges want the mouthpiece dead?
Tue, Nov 20, 1973
The elusive 'Excalibur' killer has returned to New York after an absence of two years and Kojak is determined to catch him this time. All of the victims are single women strangled with a stocking with a quarter in it, then left in water with the mark of Excalibur on their forehead and a purple cord around their neck. Clues soon lead Crocker to a bar called The Body Boutique where a regular group of artists, models and gurus hang out.
Tue, Dec 4, 1973
Manhattan is awash with re-cut stolen gems after a legit jeweler is killed, but Kojak ties the honest gem-smith's silent partner to Lawrence, a shady power broker. The partner was "The Prettiest Girl in New York," then fell on hard times, but was taken into the gem business by the honest Max Krouse. Now Celia Lamb is back living high under Lawrence's oily thumb. Kojak perceives the guilt Celia holds about her savior Max, and hopes to use it to bring down Lawrence and the gem chop shops.
Tue, Dec 11, 1973
Kojak begins sucking lollipops, after a wheel-man brags he's in on a caper which will make the NYPD more laughable than the Keystone Kops. Soon, a fellow gang member ices Artie the driver and dumps the corpse in a park. The gang member who jerked the trigger was only supposed to stash Artie out of town, so the gang leader's antsy that when Artie's body and belongings are discovered, the police will be on alert. Lt. Kojak keeps the murder out of the obits, but has no clue what the gang's target is. Loud-mouthed Artie owes a lot of people bread, and some tell Kojak's detectives that Artie'll cough up their cash on Monday. So Kojak has less than a week to foil the mammoth heist, plus his struggles to give up smoking make him even more caustic than usual.
Tue, Dec 18, 1973
Kojak's operative, an undercover lawyer, is killed investigating endless opportunities for graft provided by an elaborate makeover for an inner city neighborhood. The hoods make the murder appear to be an auto accident, delighting those who'll benefit from the bottomless pork barrel. The developer has a spotless rep, plus a mistress working for the planning commission, forcing Kojak to use unconventional tactics to confront the cabal.
Tue, Jan 15, 1974
Lt. Kojak fails to bring down a wily heroin kingpin, so he ups the ante by putting himself up for sale, pretending he's got no shot at Captain's bars, so he's going for dirty money instead. Theo Kojak's top undercover operative Gil sets up an elaborate scam with the dealers, where the heroin Gil seized from Janis will be traded back to the smugglers, and bags of sugar will be put in their place in the Manhattan South property locker. But Janis connives to switch the deal around, so he has his own personal Theo on the inside, on the take.
Tue, Feb 19, 1974
A young girl smuggles a stolen Canadian blank plate to New York in a leg cast. Her accomplice, an artist, is killed by a mob hit man but the girl manages to slip away from him at a hotel thanks to a friendly traveling salesman. Kojak investigates the murder of the artist and the killers trail leads him straight to the innocent salesman from Encino.
Tue, Feb 26, 1974
Cat burglar David plunges to his death when a banker cuts his cord for burgling $1 million in bonds the financier embezzled. David's partner Le Jeune gets away with the bonds, but must use a Wall Street fence who's another crooked banker - and works with the murderer. Kojak's belief that Le Jeune wouldn't kill his longtime partner so obviously is confirmed when the murderer's much younger wife fingers her husband to clear herself from accessory to embezzlement.
Tue, Mar 5, 1974
On the trail of a ring counterfeiting lottery tickets, a detective's partner is killed. Det. Fiore feels guilty for giving in to his partner's quest for front page heroism, plus being felled by stomach pains when he had a chance to shoot his friend's killer. When Fiore's diagnosed with terminal cancer, he realizes he's sacrificed having his own life for devotion to Det. Ryan and Ryan's wife. Kojak worries that Fiore's quest for salvation will result in murder, blowing their long-pursued case against the counterfeiters.
Tue, Apr 9, 1974
A nebbish helps his therapy group by bombing the nemeses they whine about. Kojak can't find a pattern in the serial murders, especially after an innocent secretary who just moved to Manhattan is blown up, but he knows there is one because she was killed in a parking space with her name on it. NYPD holds back that the bombs all come in brown paper bags, to fend off serial confessors. Danny Zucco can't wait for his next group to see the joy he's brought to his adopted family.