St. John is a late 1970's-early 1990's detective series. The series was unique and has enjoyed lasting popularity due to the nature of it's main star, Leland St. John, who is an uncouth police detective in America.
Overview[]
Leland St. John is an uncouth, loud-mouthed yet sharp-minded police detective. He is partnered with the young and inexperienced Darcy Daniels, who comes from a priveleged background. This causes tension between the two, due to Leland's rough upbringing. However, Daniels is determined to take on crime and protect innocents, although her methods often clash with Leland's.
List of episodes[]
Season 1
Life Sentence (Part 1) - Leland St. John, an uncouth police detective is assigned his new partner; a young police officer named Darcy Daniels. On the same day, he visits a criminal in prison who he previously captured, as he is due to be put to death later in the week. Darcy takes it upon herself to review the case file and notices one or two inconsistencies. Leland scolds her for doing so and tells her the case is closed. The case itself actually involved the man alledgedly murdering his girlfriend and her lover. However, Darcy is distracted from her amateur investigation of the case when a shooting occurs downtown.
Life Sentence (Part 2) - Following the shooting, during which Leland puts the gunman, a petty thief, in hospital, Darcy takes advantage of the distraction to further unearth the truth. She finally uncovers the fact that Leland's partner on the case was in fact another one of the woman's lovers. When she threatened to expose the affair, he killed her, but the killing was interrupted by her lover, who he also murdered. He then planted evidence and had the wrong man locked away. Darcy reveals it in time to save the innocent man's life and put the true culprit behind bars. Leland confronts her and she is determined to make her time on the force count, although Leland cannot promise to not stand in her way. The ending has Leland being protected due to his apparent naivety in the case, but the ending implies that he knew the true story and said nothing.
Final Curtain - A popular stage actor is touring with Hamlet but everything grinds to a halt when he is stabbed with a sword. Darcy and Leland investigate, eventually discovering that the theatre owner had in fact gone bankrupt and saw the actor as his ticket back to success. However, the actor then revealed his plan to retire. After an arguement, the man grabbed a sword which had been left lying around the dressing room by a teenaged stage hand playing a prank and then ran the actor through.
Home, Sweet Home - While Darcy faces possible eviction due to legal issues in her area, a real estate agent is shot dead in an open house, opening the floor to a wide range of suspects. The killer turns out to be the victim's brother, who struggles with a drug addiction. He attempted to raid the house for silverware during the open day but was caught and was forced into action, which took a fatal turn. Darcy is forced to move in with Leland temporarily.
Strange Bedfellows - Darcy and Leland struggle with their living condition while a crooked lawyer tries to sever his mob ties, only to wind up dead. Leland is positive that a local mob boss, who has chased for a long time, is the culprit, but Darcy convinces him to read between the lines. They eventually find that the lawyer's own secretary killed him, as they had previously had an affair and he planned to fire her, but Leland still finally manages to nail the mob boss for the killing of a bookie.
Hit and Run - Leland and Darcy race to find a way to prove that a man who accidentally ran down his wife did in fact plan the killing, making it murder.
Up and Away - A commercial airline pilot kills his wife and then drinks heavily at the airport bar before attempting to take to the cockpit. However, due to various diffcult circumstances, Leland and Darcy cannot pick him until the morning. After a night in airport custody, however, the man is dead. Suspicion immediately falls to the airport staff, especially security, but as always Darcy is cautious. Leland is about to make an arrest when the man in question, a security guard who was observing the monitors, is also killed. The culprit turns out to be one of the deceased's passengers; a manic preacher and religious fanatic who saw the man as a sinner and killed him by tipping off the monitor guard, but the guard then turned on him, planning blackmail.
An Education in Death - A popular school teacher is found dead in a grimy apartment building, apparently a victim of strangulation at the hands of her drug-addled boyfriend. Shortly thereafter the boyfriend is found hanging and Leland declares the case shut. As ever, Darcy keeps an on the case, which angers Leland. Darcy eventually persuades him to take a second look and they find that the boyfriend did not commit suicide. The killer is revealed to be one of the girl's co-workers, who became obsessed with her. They are unable to explain exactly what transpired but are able to pin him down for the second killing. It remainds unclear exactly how the original victim died.
The Kiss of Death - A woman dies mysteriously and her family plans to sue the company who manafactured her lipstick, stating it contained a deadly poison, for wrongful death. When the case fails, the victims mother shoots a high-ranking company member dead before being comprehended.
Behind the Mask - A Mexican wrestler announces his plans to retire and reveal his civilian identity, as he has never been publicly unmasked. However, he suddenly takes an unexpected heart attack in the ring. Suspicion falls on the manager, who then goes missing. Leland assumes he has gone on the run until his body is found. The death is revealed to be a part of a plot by a gambling group who's identities would be compromised by the reveal.
And the Kitchen Sink - A man empties out the contents of his home following a nasty divorce and drives over a cliff. The car is found but not the body. After a long investigation and the body turning up, Darcy deduces the truth. The entire fiasco was a charade and act of revenge by the man against his embittered ex-wife. He took what remained of his belongings prior to a meeting that would determine their fate and faked a suicide attempt. When he subseqeuently confronted the woman and her lover and their beach house, a fight broke out and the boyfriend wound up drowning him.
Who Shot Sherlock Holmes? (Part 1) - Leland is unable to rule out any possible suspects, including Darcy, when a man, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, is murdered at a fancy dress party.
Who Shot Sherlock Holmes? (Part 2) - After a second party guest is found dead, Darcy realises that the killing was a case of mistaken identity; the intended victim had swapped out costumes with another man, who was then shot dead. Now the motives become clear and a successful arrest can be made.
Season 2
To See What I Could Sea - An old ship captain in bludgeoned to death and his estranged daughter soon arrives in town. Leland is suspicious of her, as she appears to be only interested in her inheritance. The inheritance is revealed to be key to the investigation; the captain was one of the last surviving members of a gang of men who pulled off a famous heist, the loot of which was never found. Deciding to reconcile with his daughter, the man planned to retrieve a some of the stolen money to pay her, as he was secretly dying of an illness. One of his former associates, who was part of the original group, begged him to not and then murdered him when the captain refused.
This Old Man - Leland begins to fell his age as he and Darcy investigate a murder at a retirement home. A elderly man was found face down in the pool, initially assumed to be an accident but it soon becomes clear he was murdered. Later, a young nurse is found bludgeoned to death. The killer is revealed to be the head nurse; she was secretly selling prescription drugs. The old man stumbled upon this and confided in the young nurse before the head nurse brought him to the pool, pushed him in and drowned him.
Death by Laughter - The circus is in town and Leland isn't interested, or atleast until one of the clowns is fatally stabbed one night during a performance. Later the tight rope walker nearly falls to his death due to sabotage. The saboteur is caught and revealed as the strong man; the strong man was once the star attraction until the tightrope walker appeared on the scene. He then decided to kill him, but the clown stumbled across the plan. The strong man then stole a knife from the knife throwing act and stabbed him.
Made for TV - An unpopular TV executive dies after falling down a stairwell. Leland decides tha even if he was pushed, he deserved it and closes the case. Darcy continues to snoop and begins to suspect a conspiracy at the station. Ultimately, it is decided that he died by accident, tripping on the stairs after a heated arguement with his wife. However, the ending implies that a young intern at the studio pushed him.
More Than You Can Chew - A noted resturaunt critic is stabbed to death after giving a resturaunt a bad review. Suspicion falls to the chef, believing that he feared the resturaunt closing down, and the murder weapon is identified as coming from his kitchen. However he is then kidnapped. The chef turns out to be the true culprit, and hired a gang of thugs to stage his kidnapping to throw the blame.
Traveler's Check - A German girl is found slain in a back alley. Leland tries to brush off the case but Darcy believs something more is going on. The killer is found to be medical student who recognized her from Germany; things were finally starting to look up for him when suddnly she arrived from Germany, pregnant.
The Apprentice - A figure skater who is preparing a young woman to take up her mantle is savagely attacked. Although she survives, she is later killed by a bomb placed in her car. The killer is revealed to be the young student, who had heard rumours that the skater was planning to call off her retirement.
Smoke and Mirrors - Leland and Darcy must prove that a master illusionist commited a murder.
Death's Doorstep - A furniture store owner is found dead in his own store. The man's own son is found to be the murderer, having previously attempted to kill someone by pushing an oak desk on top of him. The incident was written off as an accident but the father witnessed the attempt. He was killed during the subsequent arguement.
Death Wish - Leland finds passion in a case involving a murdered police officer. The dead man's wife is eventually found out; the man actually had a brain tumor. The wife then called in a family friend to oversee a mercy killing, planning to smother the man as he slept. However, the officer awoke and attacked the friend. In the struggle he was then beaten to death with a fire poker. The incident was then set up as a home intrusion gone awry.
Different Drum - A blind man is implicated in the death of a prostitute. The whole incident is revealed to have been staged by a human trafficking ring who killed the prostitute and set up the blind man. They then mislead him into walking into traffic and being run down. All members are eventually arrested.