MURDER, SHE WROTE: THE LAST FREE MAN (TV)
Summary
One in this murder mystery series about an unassuming Maine mystery writer turned sleuth named Jessica B. Fletcher who uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
In this special made-for-television movie, Jessica attends a lecture by Professor Cassandra Hawkins about her ancestor, Samuel Pinkney, a slave falsely accused of murder. Jessica confesses her shame that her own relative, Sarah McCullough, was Samuel's owner; Cassandra shows her the engraved watch passed down from Samuel and explains that he mysteriously has two different graves, showing dates of death 30 years apart. Jessica and Cassandra then meet scholar Stanford Thornton, who questions their "agenda" in investigating Samuel's case, suggesting that his Southern pride is offended by the implication of injustice. Undeterred, Jessica and Cassandra pore over Sarah's old letters.
In the long-ago past, Sarah attends the wedding of Mary Hobbs and Robert Mercer. Mary's hotheaded ex-suitor Jeb McNeil castigates Sarah for paying Samuel a small wage, but Sarah defends her right to treat him with "human dignity." Later, Cornelius Ashland urges Robert to either sell his land or acquire slaves to work on it. Jeb shows off his fancy six-shooter pistol. Sarah notes Robert's trust in Samuel when Robert hands over the keys to his home for an errand. But later that night, Robert is shot dead by an unseen assailant. At the scene of the crime, Jeb spots a brass button apparently belonging to Samuel, and Sarah is shocked to find Jeb and the other men preparing to lynch Samuel as the killer. She angrily defends his innocence, though Samuel refuses to tell her his whereabouts from that evening.
In the present, Jessica decides to hunt down Sarah's journal to find out more information, and she and Cassandra begrudgingly seek Stanford's help in determining its whereabouts. Stanford is busy with a reenactment from "The War of Northern Aggression," defending the participants' rights to "preserve the past." Jessica and Cassandra soon come across more letters detailing Sarah's investigation at the harness shop where Robert was killed. She finds a suspicious bullet in the wall, suggesting that Jeb's unique pistol is the murder weapon, though Jeb quickly claims that the gun was stolen. Sarah protests that Samuel had no motive, and Mary begins to suspect Jeb as well, wondering if he acted out of jealousy over her rejection of him. Sarah tries to encourage Samuel, though he sadly tells her that "the slave is always guilty" regardless of the facts.
In the present, Cassandra finds herself shaken by their discoveries, disturbed by the cruelties in her own family's past. The duo next questions Eliza Hoops, a descendant of Levi Stillman, to whom Robert Mercer had been sending "packages." Though the elderly woman's memory has begun to fail her, she reveals a "magic compartment" in her house. Jessica and Cassandra are both shocked to realize that Levi and Robert were involved with the Underground Railroad. Stanford sternly denies their claims, but when Cassandra's car is vandalized by Southern "loyalists," she gives him a severe talking-to about the dangers of his comments and his beliefs about "preserving" historical atrocities like slavery. Abashed, Stanford gives them a helpful tip about a church-turned-infirmary in Manassas where Sarah likely died, and where they soon locate Sarah's missing journal.
In the past, Mary's father Charles Hobbs assures Sarah that Samuel simply "turned on" his friend Robert, but Sarah argues that Samuel had the keys to the shop, whereas the killer broke in. Mary resumes socializing with Jeb, turning her suspicions to Samuel; Sarah discovers that Samuel, along with Robert and Levi, have been helping other slaves – including his own secret wife Bess and his friend Jeremiah – to escape up north. Charles finds Jeb's lost pistol in a creek near Sarah's home, seemingly confirming Samuel's guilt. Sarah urges the trio to run for it as the slave owners close in to track them down. Sarah misleads Charles, Jeb, and the others about the slaves' movements, but they soon catch up. Jeb shoots Samuel in the back. Fatally wounded, Samuel urges the other two to leave him, giving Bess the watch from Sarah and asking her to tell their unborn child of his father's attempts to help others to freedom. Jeremiah drags a devastated Bess to safety, and Sarah stays with Samuel in his last moments. When the others arrive, Sarah furiously denounces their cruelty and then announces that Charles is the real killer, having murdered his son-in-law because of his covert anti-slavery actions. Charles coolly admits to the crime, but defends his right not to have his family name "sullied," asserting that his influential friends will assist him in the cover-up.
Jessica and Cassandra conclude that Sarah attempted to clear Samuel's name but died of an illness during the Civil War before doing so, and that Jeremiah took on his deceased friend's name and identity after reaching the North, thus the two separate graves. Mary and Jeb later married and Charles' crime was concealed for decades. Stanford resolves to correct the records and shed light on the truth of Samuel's cruel death. Later, Cassandra visits Samuel's grave and tells him of their findings, relieved that he is "finally free." Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: May 2, 2001 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:27:03
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:87065
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense; Drama, historical; Slavery; Murder; African-American Collection - Drama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 2001
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Charles F. Engel … Executive Producer
- Anthony Shaw … Supervising Producer
- Alex Beaton … Producer
- Christopher Seiter … Co-Producer
- Anthony Pullen Shaw … Director
- Peter S. Fischer … Created by
- Richard Levinson … Created by
- William Link … Created by
- Matthew Sommer … Writer
- Stanley Clarke … Music by
- Angela Lansbury … Cast, Jessica Fletcher / Sarah McCullough
- Phylicia Rashad … Cast, Professor Cassandra Hawkins
- Michael Jace … Cast, Samuel Pinkney
- David Ogden Stiers … Cast, Stanford Thornton
- Madison Mason … Cast, Charles Hobbs
- Tim Abell … Cast, Jeb McNell
- Elizabeth Lackey … Cast, Mary Hobbs-Mercer
- Mac Davis … Cast, Sheriff Underwood
- Beth Grant … Cast, Louisa Ashland
- Tim DeKay … Cast, Robert Mercer
- Walton Goggins … Cast, Billy Weber
- John Hostetter … Cast, Cornelius Ashland
- Taraji P. Henson … Cast, Bess Pinkney
- Keith Jefferson … Cast, Jeremiah Jessup
- Lee Garlington … Cast, Laura Lee Kestes
- Gloria Stuart … Cast, Eliza Hoops
- Jeremiah W. Birkett … Cast, Jim
- Peter Sherayko … Cast, Morgan Spencer
- Elizabeth Dennehy … Cast, Archivist
- Norman Marshak … Cast, Angry Mob Guy