ABC airs the 17th episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on Jeff Rice’s novel and the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin. Erik Estrada (CHiPS) guest stars. 
A number of physically fit individuals (an Air Force pilot, a football player, a Green Beret, a policeman) are turning up dead. Among the similarities is the fact that their hearts have been cut out with a dull knife, they were overcome without a struggle, and that each victim is found on higher and higher flights of stairs. Kolchak arrives at the site of one murder, and witnesses a strange feathered figure making his escape. The feathers are from parrots found in the Southern hemisphere. Carl comes to believe that the murders are being committed by an Aztec cult devoted to resurrecting an ancient mummified warrior over a period of ten 52-year cycles. The mummy claims the hearts of the first four victims, but the fifth must be a willing sacrifice, a “Perfect Victim.” The willing sacrifice is Pepe, a box boy who has been given a year to have anything he wants to before being killed. Kolchak must convince Pepe that he should break his side of the bargain before the ninth cycle is completed.
written by Arthur Rowe
directed by Don McDougall
music by Gil Mille and Jerry FieldingCast: Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Ramon Bieri (Captain Webster), Pippa Scott (Tillie Jones), Sorrell Booke (Mr. Eddy), Victor Campos (Professor Jamie Rodriguez), Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke), Erik Estrada (Pepe Torres), Carlos Romero (George Andrews), Udana Power (Capt. Timmins), Sondra Currie (Vicky), Cal Bartlett (Officer Lyons), Ernesto Macias (Andrew Gomez), Robert Casper (Prof. Jones), Mina Vasquez (Rita Torres), Dorrie Thomson (Lona), Merrie Lynn Ross (Nina), Scott Douglas (Major Taylor), Mickey Gilbert (The Mummy)
Notes: This episode was compiled with the episode Demon In Lace into a syndicated TV movie titled Demon And The Mummy. Actor Ramon Bieri plays Captain Webster in this episode, despite having appeared as Captain Baker in Bad Medicine.
LogBook entry by Steve Crowe