That episode has one of the more obvious endings IMHO. Some of the others were much harder to figure out.
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JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen

As I recall, the sheriff realized he was sure to lose the upcoming election, and hence his income. Therefore, he decided to steal the Chinese temple dog to provide himself a nest egg. He couldn't just take it from the house, so he used it to kill Wright. Later, when "investigating" the murder, he removed the dog (which was obviously the murder weapon) as evidence. Then he could later steal it from the evidence locker of his own sheriff's station.
It's been a few years since EQ has aired on a channel I get, but I have seen this episode (and all the others) several times. Obviously, I agree with those who think this is a great series.

Thanks. Now I can sleep tonight. I probably watched the episode 35 years ago, but forgot it. What was the motive. Was the old guy going to back the other candidate?

It was the sheriff that did it. I have all of the Ellery Queen eps on DVD including the 90 min. pilot and watch them frequently. Funny, the butler never actually ever did it in any of the episodes

RTV shows Ellery Queen at 11 pm Sundays in our market. Great show. Too bad NBC cancelled it prematurely. Same almost happened w/ Seinfeld, I've read. BTW, I taped last night's episode, but inadvertently only taped 3/4 0f it. The episode was the Adventure of the Chinese Dog. The last scene I saw was when the daughter and her fiance boogied. Who did it? My money is on the housemaid. Go ahead, spoil me.

I get this network, but it's kind of sporadic. I mean, they will run a show, followed by three hours of commercials - then another half hour of something.
But i will keep looking!

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