Patti Sue Diamond

**Patti Sue Diamond** (Florence Henderson; 1934-2016) is the main antagonist of "Ballad for a Blue Lady," episode 7.09 of *Murder, She Wrote* (airdate December 2, 1990). She is introduced as a blues singer and the wife of country star Bobby Diamond, as well as the stepmother of Alice Diamond and an old friend of Jessica Fletcher.

A few days before the episode's events, Patti Sue received a two-page latter from Bobby in which he admitted he met a woman who "made him feel young again" and that their marriage was coming to its end. Furious over being "[thrown] away like yesterday's newspaper," the former planned to kill the latter, and knowing her husband's habits, the vengeful woman laced a bottle of Bobby's favorite bourbon with strychnine and placed it in his farmhouse prior to leaving for a concert that she was singing at. Just as she expected, the country star died after he drank the poisoned bourbon, and to make sure she had a "real good alibi," she called Bobby at 10:30 PM during the concert's after-party in order to make sure he had his nightly drink. When he didn't answer, the villainess concluded out that her murderous plot was a success.

An hour later, Patti Sue left the after-party and went back to her house, making a stopover at the farmhouse in order to confirm her suspicions. After she saw her husband's corpse on the floor, the former set up the crime scene to appear to be the site of a suicide by placing the bottle of strychnine next to his bottle of bourbon and also leaving the second page of his letter behind to make it appear to be Bobby's suicide note. Beforehand, Patti Sue cut off the top third of the second page, which featured the logo of the Diamonds (a musical ensemble that Bobby was once a part of) and also had the number "2" written at the top right-hand corner; she did so in the hopes of making sure that the note was never discovered to be part of said letter. As she prepared to leave, she noticed that Bobby's tape recorder was in operation. Not wanting his "death agony" to be his final recording, Patti Sue took the tape with her and then threw it into a creek.

Her reveal as Bobby's killer ironically came after her greedy stepdaughter (who realized that her stepmother would inherit the family's business) attempted to kill her twice—first by poisoning her coffee and then doing the same to her intravenous therapy drip while she was hospitalized. Alice's plan to make it look like her stepmother murdered her father and then committed suicide "out of remorse" ultimately led to the truth being uncovered. The murderous blues singer survived both attempts on her life due to having eaten a big bowl of ice cream earlier, which lined her stomach. Furthermore, Jessica deduced that Patti Sue was Bobby's murderer once Alice presented her father's "suicide note" to her, Preston Wardell (Alice's boyfriend), and Lieutenant Jackson—with the missing top third of the page incriminating her. Back at the hospital that the villainess was laid up in, Jessica gently encouraged her old friend to confess to everything, which she did. Additionally, before her offscreen arrest, Patti Sue tearfully voiced her belief that she had ruined her friendship with Jessica after the latter expressed her sorrow for the former.