Kolchak: The Night Stalker (TV Series 1974–1975) S01E17 Legacy of Terror

Star football player Leanie Strayham is attacked by strange, feathered assailants, who cut out his heart with a blunt knife; and when Staff Sergeant Anderson, recently returned from Vietnam, investigates the source of unearthly pipe music, and his body is later found similarly mutilated. Hearing of the murders, Kolchak forgoes joining Vincenzo and Updyke at an important convention and heads for the crime scene to cover the gruesome facts. Finally arriving at the convention, Kolchak promptly gets into hot water with Vincenzo by refusing to interview Air Force Captain Timmins, the first woman qualified for combat. Meanwhile, a rude assistant manager named Pepe Torres, accompanied by three gorgeous girls, insults Timmins’ commanding officer, Major Taylor. Timmins returns home, but while en route he is killed by feathered attackers. Hearing a police report on the murder, Kolchak arrives at the scene, and narrowly escapes with his life when he encounters one of the feathered attackers. Deciding to interview Major Taylor, Kolchak returns to the convention, but Police Officer Lyons prevents him from reaching his subject. Undaunted, the reporter tries to gain access to the major by dressing up as a busboy, but Vincenzo and Updyke blow his cover and he is forced to run away from Lyons, inadvertently getting locked in a basement storeroom by hotel manager Tillie Jones. Inside the storeroom, Kolchak finds a painting depicting an Aztec dressed in feathers, and a packing crate containing the body of an ancient mummy; Kolchak’s startled cries alert the police, who arrest him and take him to see Tillie. Luckily for Kolchak, the manager declines to press charges; once the police have left she then tells Kolchak that Torres turned up out of nowhere a year ago, and has been given anything he wants by the hotel owner, including his three voluptuous assistants. Kolchak tries talking to the arrogant, flute-playing Torres, but learns nothing; he then tries to examine the mummy, only to find that it has since vanished. Continuing his investigations, Kolchak discovers that the murders are being carried out by a group of Aztecs, who repeat a series of five sacrifices every fifty-two years until their god, Nanauson, can rise again; learning that the final victim must be willing to die, Kolchak realises that the hedonistic Torres has made a deal with the ancient god – and unless Kolchak can stop this misguided fool from allowing himself to be sacrificed, an ancient evil will soon be resurrected… Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke), Ruth Mc Devitt (Emily Cowles), Ramon Bieri (Captain Webster), Pippa Scott (Tillie Jones), Erik Estrada (Pepe Torres), Sondra Currie (Vicky), Sorrel Booke (Eddy), Carlos Romero (George Andrews), Victor Campos (Professor Rodriquez), Udana Power (Captain Timmins), Cal Bartlett (Officer Lyons), Ernesto Macias (Andrew Gomez), Robert Casper (Professor Jones), Nina Vasquez (Rita Torres), Dorrie Thomson (Lona), Merrie Lyn Ross (Nina), Scott Douglas (Major Taylor) Directed by Arthur Rowe TX (US): 14th February, 1975 Notes: [club8917230|*Featuring] Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo