“Logic,” Col.
Lyle Rumford intones to a cadet under his charge, “is the battlefield of
adulthood.” The year is 1974 and Rumford has a problem. With the country’s
involvement in Vietnam winding down, “nobody wants to play soldier anymore,”
William Haynes, chairman of the board at Haynes Military Academy, where Rumford
serves as commandant, tells him. The proof, Haynes points out, is in the
school’s enrollment, which hovers at 1,100 even though the campus can
accommodate more than five times that number. To solve this problem, Haynes,
with the support of the board of trustees, plans to convert the single-sex
military academy into a co-educational junior college. For Rumford, this not
only means the loss of his job but, in his mind, another sign of the nation’s
military and moral decline. With a final vote on the conversion in the offing,
Rumford is prepared to take extreme measures – murdering Mr. William Haynes.
If there is one Columbo episode that explains the
lieutenant’s genius (not to mention the idiosyncratic way the show tells its
stories), Dawn’s Early Light is it. Watching
Columbo for the first time can be a
bit disorienting. Unlike most crime procedurals on TV which focus on who committed a murder, Columbo focuses on how a murder is committed, as the rumpled detective utilizes his
observational skills and deductive reasoning to solve the case. And in Dawn’s, Columbo uses the power of logic
against a man who worships it.
Like many Columbo villains, Rumford thinks he has
planned the perfect murder. First, he tampers with an artillery shell that will
be fired from a cannon as part of the Academy’s Founder’s Day celebration,
removing the blank powder charge and replacing it with a powerful plastic
explosive. Next, Rumford stuffs a cleaning rag used to polish the cannon down
its barrel, which will result in a backfire when the shell is discharged,
killing Haynes. With the trap set, all Rumford needs to do is wait for Haynes’s
arrival on campus. The two get into an argument about the school’s pending
changeover and, (as Rumford surely predicted) Haynes asserts his power over
Rumford by deciding he, Haynes, and not Rumford’s second in command, Captain
Loomis, will preside over the day’s events, including firing the cannon. Minutes
later, Haynes is dead.
But setting up
Haynes is only half the plan. Rumford also knows the police will come out to
investigate what caused the explosion and he thinks he has that figured out
too. The cannon is a World War I relic used every day so the logical conclusion
will be that the misfire was caused by the cannon’s age. But Rumford has a
fallback if that does not satisfy the police in the form of a patsy – Cadet Roy
Springer. Springer, you see, is a troublemaker with two suspensions and a long
list of demerits on his record, but, not coincidentally, is the cadet
responsible for servicing the cannon, a job Rumford gave him. If the police
figure out the barrel was clogged and Springer tries to deny it, Rumford will
point to his past history of bad behavior as evidence that he carelessly left
the rag in the barrel, resulting in Haynes’s inadvertent demise. The police,
left deciding between the words of a malcontented student and an upstanding
military commandant will surely side with the latter, Rumford assumes.
In the wake of
the explosion, Rumford’s meticulous planning seems to work. Police officers
mill about the parade grounds, disinterested in doing any work; one even tries
to console the Colonel, telling him not to blame himself because the old cannon
just gave out. So far, so good. But one variable Rumford did not account for
was the presence of Lieutenant Columbo, who applies his own version of logic to
every crime scene he encounters. Columbo is rarely the first officer on scene,
which ends up working to his advantage. The cops who greet him provide a
preliminary assessment of what they think happened, which almost always lines
up with the explanation the killer hopes for, and that gives Columbo the
jumping off point to begin his own analysis. Here, they have quickly settled on
the “gun gave out” theory, but Columbo is never willing to accept things at
face value. While everyone else is eager to wrap things up and go home, Columbo
paces the parade grounds, locating a piece of thread lodged in a broken piece
of the barrel and a charred piece of the cleaning rag that had been placed in
the barrel. He also overhears an offhand remark by an officer that the blast
was heard in a town eight miles away. Taken separately, these clues may not
mean much, but with Columbo, they become puzzle pieces he tries to fit in their
right place.
These little bits
of information were there for all to see yet Columbo was the only one who
noticed them. Once in hand, Columbo can test the “cannon blew up” theory by
speaking to Col. Rumford. Rumford, who had mistaken Columbo for a trespasser
upon first seeing him, is caught off guard when Columbo questions him during an
impromptu memorial service in the chapel. First, Columbo locks Rumford into important
testimony, confirming with him that the artillery charges the Academy uses are
“blank,” made up of sodium nitrate and cotton wadding. He then gets Rumford to
identify the cleaning rag. By doing so, the “cannon gave out” theory is gone.
The remnants Columbo discovered are inconsistent with the material used for
blank charges and the char on the rag confirms it was in the barrel when it was
fired. Moreover, Rumford’s description of the material in a blank charge will
also come in handy later.
But Rumford is
not concerned. When Columbo asks who is responsible for cleaning the cannon,
Rumford hands up Roy Springer, demerits and all, on a platter. And, in
Rumford’s mind, this should be the end of it, even after Columbo speaks with
Springer and accepts Roy’s denial that he left the rag in the cannon. Columbo
tells Rumford that Roy immediately identified the rag, something the
perpetrator would not have done. Rumford parries with his vaunted logic –
Springer was in charge of cleaning the cannon, the rag was found in the barrel,
and Springer is a poor-performing cadet, ipso
facto, he is to blame.
But that does
not satisfy our wily lieutenant. Restless, he awakens at three o’clock in the
morning and calls the officer who mentioned the blast being heard so far away.
Why Columbo wonders, if the cannon is fired every day (another fact he picked
up in his conversation with Rumford) has no one ever complained about the noise?
Irritated, the sleepy officer tells Columbo it is because the cannon never blew
up before. While that might satisfy others, Columbo decides to send material from
the cannon to a ballistics lab and sure enough, the lab confirms the presence
of C-4, a powerful plastic explosive.
And this is the
pivot point for the episode. Applying logic, Columbo first ruled out the cannon
misfire being due to age because he found the cleaning rag in it, which Rumford
confirmed would have caused the cannon to backfire. He then ruled out the rag’s
placement in the barrel being an accident because the artillery shell itself
(which Rumford also told him should have been a “blank” charge) was tampered
with. Using this basic form of deductive reasoning, Columbo now knows he has a
murder on his hands caused by someone doctoring the artillery shell and
stuffing a cleaning rag down the barrel of the cannon. He knows how the murder was committed, but he now
needs to figure out who committed it
by focusing on the basics of police work - motive, means, and opportunity.
Columbo shares
his findings with Rumford, and with them, his conclusion that Haynes’s death
was no mere accident, but murder, “plain and simple.” This is the moment you
see in many Columbo episodes. The
killer, initially dismissive of Columbo based on his shabby appearance,
perceived dimwittedness, and seeming focus on irrelevant details, suddenly
realizes they underestimated him. He is not the bumbling fool they initially
took him to be, but a dogged investigator who methodically gets to the truth.
It is an experience Columbo himself described in the show’s very first episode.
There, another well-organized killer thought he had covered all his bases but
Columbo observed that the people he captures are not hardened criminals and
have no prior experience in committing a murder, much less covering one up.
They don’t realize the mistakes they make, but Columbo sees them almost
immediately because he is an expert at investigating murders and they are amateurs
at committing them.
Springer, who
Columbo already saw as a weak suspect, falls off the list entirely when Columbo
learns that Roy wasn’t even on campus the night before Founder’s Day. Even if
Roy thought Rumford and not Haynes would oversee the Founder’s Day celebration,
and Roy wanted to kill Rumford for being such a flaming jerk (motive), he would
have needed access to plastic explosives and the knowledge of how to use them
(means). Even if both of those things were true, Roy lacked opportunity to tamper
with the shell because he left school to see his girlfriend.
Instead, Columbo
sets his sights squarely on Rumford, where a much more logical story falls into
place. Start with motive. Another variable Rumford did not account for was what
Haynes would bring with him to the Academy. When the cops search Haynes’s car,
they discover a blueprint showing plans for a gymnasium. At first, Columbo is
unsure what to make of it (it’s the third page of a three page blueprint, but
the other two pages are missing). Even more curious is when Columbo is told by
a cadet named Morgan that the existing gym is only seven years old. He finally
connects the dots when he realizes the new gym has no urinals, it is designed
for women. Coupling that information with his observation at the dining hall
(where he supped with Rumford) that many tables were empty and Rumford telling
Columbo enrollment was down, Columbo realizes that a plan was afoot to admit
women. When Columbo asks about this, not only does Rumford confirm Haynes’s
plan, but mentions that the school would convert from a military academy to a
junior college. Although Rumford dismisses the idea that the plan would have
been implemented, when Columbo presses, asking whether the board will tell him
the plan was rejected, Rumford deflates, “you’ll do what you need to do” he
moans, as Columbo gives a knowing look. After all, Columbo has spent enough
time with Rumford to know the Colonel is a serious military man who believes
the school molds the next generation of soldiers who will defend our country.
Killing a man who wants to end that role is an obvious motive.
But what of
means? Here again, Rumford is nothing but helpful. Columbo locks in a statement
from Rumford, who agrees with Columbo that he (Rumford) is an expert in
explosives. More importantly (and you can see Rumford squirm when he is asked)
Columbo wants to know who has access to the arms room on campus where the
cannon shells were kept. As it turns out, only three people have keys to that
room – the cadet in charge of cleaning the cannon, the officer of the day, and
Rumford himself, who confirms no one could have taken his keys. In other words,
Rumford knows how to use plastic explosive and had access to the room where the
shells were kept. Check and check in the “means” department.
Which just
leaves opportunity. Columbo is helped by something we see over and over on the
show: the killer cannot help but be who they are. Normally, it is a know-it-all
who thinks they’ve outsmarted Columbo, but here, Rumford’s undoing is being a
stickler for Academy rules. In the early morning hour when Rumford stuffed the
rag in the cannon, he noticed a large jug of alcoholic cider dangling out the
window of a bathroom in one of the dormitories, a clear violation of the
school’s code. After Haynes is killed and while Columbo and Rumford are
talking, Rumford interrupts their conversation to give Loomis a dressing down
over the presence of the cider jug in the dorm where Loomis stays and directs
him to investigate things tout suite. Rumford harangues Loomis throughout the
episode for failing to apprehend the culprits to the point where the two do a
surprise inspection in the middle of the night hoping to find the verboten
hooch.
When the search
comes up empty, the boys (including Springer and Morgan) do not understand how
their contraband was not discovered. As it turns out, they have Columbo to thank.
Although Loomis was hapless, Columbo cracked the case in about 10 seconds when
he noticed some debris in one of the sinks in the dorm bathroom. Looking up, he
realized the cider was hidden in an air duct in the ceiling. And this is where
another signature Columbo move pays off. The lieutenant reads people well and
he rarely passes judgment. He knows petty criminals and misdemeanants often
make good informants just as well as military cadets who skirt the rules. Once
Columbo assures the boys he is not going to turn them in, he asks them to tell
him everything about the jug – who was responsible for it, when they hung it
out the window, when it was pulled back in; once they share this information,
the final puzzle piece snaps into place.
The boys tell Columbo
the first time they hung the jug out was the night before Founder’s Day and it
was removed before reveille the following morning at 6:30. This time frame
allows Columbo to corner Rumford once and for all. Loomis goads Rumford into
meeting him on the parade grounds under the pretext of having cracked the cider
mystery. When Rumford sees the offending jug dangling out that same bathroom
window, he order Loomis to bring the cadets out to be interrogated. But Rumford
has walked into Columbo’s trap. As Rumford starts questioning the boys, Columbo
interrupts to ask Rumford when he first saw the jug. Rumford lies, saying it
was a few days before Founder’s Day. If that is the case, Columbo wonders, why
did Rumford, who runs such a tight ship, wait all that time before asking
Loomis to investigate? Rumford dodges, suggesting it might have been a
different day, but Columbo is having none of it. The cadets (clearly on
Columbo’s side) confirm that the jug was first put out the night before
Founder’s Day and brought in early the next morning. Given this evidence, and
Rumford’s prior statement that he had been in a staff meeting that night until
10 pm and then retired to his quarters and slept until reveille, Columbo points
out that Rumford’s story is a lie. After all, even if Rumford had walked the
parade grounds after the staff meeting it would have been too dark to see the
jug and he could not have seen it after he woke up because Roy had already
taken it down. No, Columbo says, the only time the jug could have been visible
is in the early morning light right before Roy plucked it out of the window.
Check mate. And
unlike other Columbo episodes where the lieutenant resorts to gimmickry to get
a confession or incontrovertible evidence of guilt, Dawn’s is pure deductive reasoning, applying the facts to the
evidence at hand in order to reach the logical conclusion. It is no surprise
then that Rumford grudgingly acknowledges Columbo’s skill, while being
unapologetic for the crime he committed. Two men met on the battlefield of
adulthood, and it was a rout in Columbo’s favor.
