The Columbo Wiki
Advertisement

Margaret Nicholson was a therapist and the wife of Professor Howard Nicholson in Mind Over Mayhem.

Dr Margaret Nicholson was a therapist who was married to Professor Howard Nicholson, a scientist working at the Cybernetic Research Institute who was many years her senior. Due to their age gap, many assumed Professor Nicholson to be her father rather than her husband, but despite this the two of them were happy together. Dr Nicholson was also notably the therapist of Neil Cahill, who was aware that he had plagiarized his supposedly groundbreaking research from Carl Finch due to him guiltily confessing to her in their sessions. One evening in 1974 during an all-night therapy session she was holding, Howard was murdered by Marshall Cahill. Lieutenant Columbo questioned Margaret about it, but she was unable to provide him with much useful information. As the investigation proceeded, Dr Nicholson continued to urge Neil to confess to his plagiarism to ease his guilty conscience. After Neil did confess, Lieutenant Columbo accused him of having murdered Professor Nicholson so that he could continue an affair he was having with her, even providing a witness, a supposed employee of the Shangri-La Motel named Mr Whitehead who claimed to have seen the two of them booking a room at the motel. However, this ultimately turned out to be a ruse to goad Neil’s father, Marshall Cahill, into confessing for the crime.

Dr Margaret Nicholson was played by Jessica Walter.

Advertisement