50 years ago tonight, CBS aired “Computer Killer”, S07E15
Charles Aarons (Jeff David) is the 1970s equivalent to a computer hacker. It is plain ass scary what this guy can do. Aarons is part of a company that sold HPD their new software and hardware.
Aarons sticks his nose into the case of Maureen Tillis (Ava Lyn Readdy). She's murdered by her husband Tony (Alfred D. Goldman) during an argument. Tony's father is Hugh Tillis (Robert F. Simon) – a man willing to do anything to get his son off. This is where Aarons comes in.
DA Manicote (Glenn Cannon) finds a credible witness in William Allen Curtis (Norman E. DuPont). Aarons does a bunch of stuff including falsifying computer records to point the finger at Curtis and not Tony.
When it's all said and done, McGarrett and Five-O finally figure out the manipulations. They arrest Aarons and a whole bunch of people go to jail. Of note, Aarons not only manipulated records, he also killed two people. He is not a nice guy.
Mr. Mike has a great review here: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log7.htm#159
This isn't one of my favorites because I think they get kind of deep into the weeds on the computer stuff. But that's the point. I've been dealing with computers since high school (nevermind how long ago that was!) and those computers were a few steps up from what they're dealing with here.
What's scary – the amount of computing power at our fingertips today. This episode was definitely ahead of its time. We're all still chasing our tails today with the amount of information, disinformation and the like all over the internet.
Regardless, Happy 50th, “Computer Killer”!!