# Nearly as heinous crime as an alibi for murder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2017, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-as-heinous-crime-as-an-alibi-for-murder/776032 "2017-01-01T06:56:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-as-heinous-crime-as-an-alibi-for-murder/776032/6 "2017-01-01T16:32:33Z")
The plot in a COLUMBO episode – “Publish or Perish” – had Jack Cassidy, the man with the most punchable face ever seen, establish his alibi by smashing his car into someone else’s before getting locked up for drunkenness. He hams it up like mad, since the point is for (a) the bartender to remember the irritating loudmouth who was boozing it up and for (b) it to be plausible that he was _so_ drunk that, when asked where he was during the murder, apparently doesn’t even recall smashing into that vehicle – because the best alibi is one the insult-slinger clearly didn’t set up, to the point where he honestly doesn’t seem to realize he has it. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-as-heinous-crime-as-an-alibi-for-murder/776032)._