Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff) is the owner of the Cabaret of Magic, and headlines the Great Santini (Jack Cassidy), a magician extraordinaire. On the side, though, he's blackmailing Santini because he knows that Santini is really Sgt. Stefan Mueller, a former Nazi SS prison guard. To avoid being exposed, Mueller kills Jerome in the middle of his famed water tank escape act, thereby giving himself what he believes to be an airtight alibi. To do so, he sneaks out of a room where he hides during the act, makes his way through the cabaret's kitchen dressed as a waiter up to Jerome's office, shoots him, then returns to his act without anyone missing him. Robert Loggia portrays Harry Blandford, the club's maître d’ and Jerome's partner. This was Jack Cassidy's last Columbo episode.