Jews and Passing: Columbo, “A Stitch in Crime”

by Andrew Hamilton

WHITES HAVE always been able to “see” Blacks, with the exception of a small handful who were light enough and behaviorally similar enough to pass as White.

Given concentrated communications technology, institutional racism, monopoly, and censorship, Whites today are fatally brainwashed and lied to about what they see and think, but they can still see.

Whites have — and always have had — a much harder time “seeing” members of other races, whether Arabs, Mestizos, non-White Caucasians, Asians, or hybrids.

Most difficult of all for Whites to differentiate, never mind actually oppose, are Jews.

Conversely, every Jew is hyper-aware that he is Jewish, and that all Gentiles, including Whites — including you — are the hideous, alien Other. This is true even if you’re a perfect closed-minded, adoring philo-Semite who idolizes Jews and applauds everything they do.

On two different occasions before I knew about Jews I made innocuous comments while conversing with them — a Jewish woman in one case, and a man in the other. My innocent (unrelated) remarks had nothing to do with race, politics, or anything remotely controversial or sensitive. On both occasions their formerly friendly manner immediately vanished, and they were on guard. Neither one said anything. The young woman’s transformation was remarkable — assuming you can read people at all. In contrast, the man remained poker-faced, exhibiting the change only in his eyes and subsequent guardedness.

No White should ever be in the position I was in, where Jews are incessantly scanning you for every little nuance, like some kind of alien, because every moment you’re the Other in their eyes, while the clueless Gentile, completely oblivious, thinks he’s conversing with a fellow human being — or, as we might say today, White person. I didn’t even figure out they were Jews until years later.

The subset of Whites capable of thinking objectively about Jews (regrettably, they will always remain a subset) must learn to constantly recognize the Jew, see the Jew, become ultrasensitive to the presence of the Jew. He must never perceive Jews as White. Ultimately, both peoples, not just one, must share the same view on this subject.

Unfortunately, even well-informed, open-minded men willing to think empirically and critically about Jews, can have a deucedly hard time just identifying the Other.

Watching an old Columbo movie from 1973 called “A Stitch in Crime” (NBC TV), I suddenly came across a striking scene.

A secondary character, a nurse, is being interviewed by the Italian American detective character, the star of the show (played by Jewish actor Peter Falk, who had a glass eye). He is questioning the woman about her roommate, also a nurse, who has been murdered.

The following brief (41 sec.) scene ensues.

I immediately recognized the nurse character as Jewish from her speech patterns, voice inflections, word arrangements, and thought patterns. Also, the sharp distinction she innocently but candidly draws between her White roommate’s altruistic personality and her own self-centered nature.

I wondered, “Why in the world did the producers cast a blonde, blue-eyed shiksa in an obviously Jewish role?” It baffled me.

For the true meaning of the Yiddish word shiksa, by which I here merely mean “White woman,” scroll down to the subheadings “The Joys of Yiddish” and “A Slab of Meat” in “Portnoy’s Complaint: A Goyische View” by National Alliance founder William Pierce from 1972.

The nurse, who appears twice in the show, is never called a Jew or depicted as one in the film, apart from the marked traits I’ve just mentioned (and some body language and mannerisms I’ll describe in her next scene). Nor does she look characteristically Jewish (compared, say, to Sarah Silverman) — in fact, just the opposite.

Nita Talbot — Jewish or White?

I looked the actress up, and was surprised to discover that she is Jewish. Well, I jumped to that conclusion, anyway. Talbot was 41 when the film was made. At 90, she’s the only major cast member from the episode who’s still alive.

What altered my original assumption that the actress was White was circumstantial evidence, which must be resorted to when reliable information is insufficient or entirely absent. In this case that meant her occupation (actress), birthplace (New York City), and birth name (Anita Sokol), which I assumed was Jewish. And, of course, her spot-on Jewish portrayal.

The problem: Any good actor can play a part the way Talbot did, although, admittedly, it’s a bit dicey for a Gentile to portray an actual Jew, even humorously, though it has been done (Eddie Murphy, 40 sec.).

Although New York City is a non-White metropolis that spawns Jews in unending numbers, in 1930 (the year Talbot was born) there were still some genuine White New Yorkers around — more than there are today, anyway.

There is scant information about Talbot’s background. I haven’t found a specific source stating that she is Jewish, indicating what her parents’ names or occupations were, or anything else about her early life.

The surname Sokol, though sometimes Jewish (the names of some Jewish Sokols buried in Buenos Aires, Argentina [near bottom of page]; as an eastern European Ashkenazi surname [second paragraph], also mentioned here: “The Origins and Meaning of Ashkenazic Last Name”), can also be Czech, Polish, Croatian, or some other Slav nationality.

A huge proportion of “eastern European” immigrants to the US during the first mindless population inundation were actually Jews who disguised their true identities under various eastern European nationalities. Henry Ford’s The International Jew discussed this in 1920. Eastern Europe was overpopulated with Ashkenazim, large numbers of whom saw greener hicks to fleece, and subjugate, in the US and western and northern Europe. Needless to say, they’ve been spectacularly successful.

Finally, if Talbot is Jewish, one must consider the possibility that her striking appearance (for a Jew) might indicate part rather than full Jewish parentage. There are many half- and quarter-Jews. Most Jewish women are not good looking compared to White women. There are some attractive Jewish actresses, but upon examination most turn out to be half- or quarter-Jews. Being half-Jewish would make Talbot a Jew in my eyes.

Though Talbot never became famous, she is best remembered as the sultry spy Marya, whose Russian-accented catchphrase, “Hogan, darling,” became well-known during her seven appearances on the TV comedy Hogan’s Heroes (CBS, 1965-1971).

Not an Act

Next, I wondered if her speech patterns and mannerisms in Columbo were natural rather than feigned. Perhaps they were things she couldn’t alter?

I watched several old Talbot clips, including an episode of the syndicated TV comedy series The Jim Backus Show (“The Woman’s Touch,” 1961) and a clip from the detective show Peter Gunn (1959) to find out.

The evidence indicated that her Columbo portrayal was indeed an act, rather than the expression of innate traits.

Her striking light gray-blue eyes and blonde hair also appear genuine in light of earlier performances. Of course, there is the possibility of plastic surgery where nose, lips, and other facial features are concerned.

For a Jewish woman she would be unusually tall, sources indicating her height as 5’ 8½”-5’ 9”. See this photo, where she stands to the left of petite Anglo-American actress Debbie Reynolds (5’ 2”). In “A Stitch in Crime” she’s taller than Peter Falk (5’ 6”), and only a little shorter than Leonard Nimoy (6’ — quite tall for a Jew), who towers over Falk.

Height, like hair and eye color and other features, varies (on average) between races, and between ethnic groups within races. Jews tend to be short compared to Whites. As an example, scroll down to the photo of actors Michael Douglas (a half Jew who identifies as Jewish) and Donald Sutherland (Scottish and English).

A definite curiosity was Talbot’s appearance in “Triple Cross” (1961), an episode of the TV police/gangster series The Lawless Years (NBC), set in the 1920s and starring New York City-born character actor James Gregory as Barney Ruditsky, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD’s gangster squad.

Gregory is immediately recognizable from many old TV shows and movies. He’s one of those character actors you’ve seen dozens of times without ever knowing their names. I’d never thought of him as Jewish, but after watching this episode I provisionally assume he was.

If so, he falls into that indefinable category of male Jews like TV “newsman” Morley Safer, actors Lee J. Cobb and Eli Wallach, and even Peter Falk and Leonard Nimoy, who can easily pass for White given how varied America’s and Europe’s White populations have become. That is, if you don’t already know their backgrounds.

In other words, appearance-wise and behaviorally the former are not akin to Elliott Gould, Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, or Abbie Hoffman (click the hyperlink to see photographs of the latter three).

But, note well, even in a far more homogeneous America than we live in today, most Whites couldn’t tell even the latter Yids from themselves, never mind the preceding ones!

Barney Ruditsky, the character James Gregory played, was a real-life New York Jewish police detective presented as a law enforcement hero to White Americans by Hollywood and the mid-20th century press. He became a private eye in Tinseltown and was paid by his fellow Jews there to be the technical advisor on The Lawless Years. In reality, Ruditsky was a shady character with gangster ties of his own, who even shielded Jewish criminals from the law.

The Lawless Years claimed it was based on the exploits of real-life mobsters whose names were changed for the series. The gangster in “Triple Cross” is “Olaf Jorgenson.” In the entire history of the world there probably hasn’t been a White gangster with such a name.

Nita Talbot played Jorgenson’s moll, “Mildred Greyson,” who Ruditsky had known years earlier on the Lower East Side under her real name, Mildred Gross. In other words, Talbot played a Jew, but without the speech or mannerisms she displayed in Columbo. She played the Greyson/Gross character as “White.”

Nita Talbot’s Columbo scene is quite funny once you know what’s going on, and her role-playing is spot-on. I actually laugh when I watch it.

There is no inherent reason for Talbot’s Jewish persona in terms of the story — it is wholly irrelevant. Part of the humor is due to the incongruity between her manner and her physical appearance. It was an inside joke, since most viewers wouldn’t get it. I wonder if it was written that way, or improvised on set by Jewish director Hy Averback and Talbot.

Since Talbot’s speech patterns and mannerisms weren’t innate (she was consciously acting), she must have been shrewdly mimicking Jewish traits she observed in her early family and community environment while growing up, and in the entertainment industry in which she worked.

The nurse’s openness about her husband-hunting, her desire to find a well-to-do heterosexual mate like surgeon Nimoy, or some cosmetic surgery patient in upscale Beverly Hills, would be Politically Incorrect and forbidden today, as would a later scene where she patiently waits in Nimoy’s car as the doctor exits and walks around to open her car door for her.

As an aside, during this first run of Columbo on NBC from 1971-1977, when it appeared on a rotating basis with McCloud and McMillan & Wife under the umbrella title The NBC Mystery Movie/The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, all the major characters in the show were White — albeit, frequently played by Jewish actors in “Whiteface,” that is, who were not recognized as Jews by the audience.

But Blacks were already included in virtually every episode, always in a positive light, primarily as “background scenery,” with a few lines of dialogue at most. Often there was none. With the benefit of hindsight we can see how Hollywood Jews were altering public perceptions to push America to where we are today, and will be tomorrow.

Peter Falk and Leonard Nimoy

Motion and sound add additional dimensions to (still) photographs to assist in identifying race and ethnicity.

The second Columbo clip is longer than the first. It further elaborates Talbot’s character, and permits us to observe the two lead actors in the film, Peter Falk (Columbo) and Leonard Nimoy, who guest stars as a homicidal surgeon. Both men were Jews playing White characters. Nevertheless, they “passed” as White, and were perceived as such by television viewers.

Throughout Colombo’s run, Falk was a plausible stand-in for an Italian American. Nimoy likewise passes for White, as does Talbot — when you ignore her Jewish role-playing and see her in other parts.

The first clip showed Peter Falk as Columbo, and here we see him again. Falk’s portrayal is slightly atypical in that he is portrayed as having a cold. Similarly, in the earlier scene he acted tired, having been up half the night because his wife was ill.

Born in New York City to a well-to-do Jewish family, the movie and TV actor was the descendant of Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe. Several reviews of a 2017 biography, Beyond Columbo (a book not even mentioned, much less cited, in his reverential Wikipedia biography), paint an unflattering picture of Falk as a man who “drank and smoked incessantly, loved boozing and was an inveterate womaniser,” “a negligent husband and an absentee father.” He died in 2011 from Alzheimer’s, a curious sidelight on Columbo’s fabled absentmindedness.

Though Falk was certainly conscious of his Jewishness, he was a far less identified Jew than Leonard Nimoy, who was born in Boston to immigrants from Ukraine.

In the second clip you see Nimoy as he walks with Talbot on Malibu Pier, and speaks to her briefly in front of her apartment.

Wikipedia, always a dependable source of Establishment PR, relates the following tale: Nimoy’s “parents left Iziaslav separately, his father first walking over the border into Poland while his mother and grandmother were smuggled out of the Soviet Union in a horse-drawn wagon by hiding under bales of hay. They reunited after arriving in the United States.”

You can believe that if you want. I’m from Missouri. Actually, I snort at it. The endless BS emanating from these ultra-privileged tyrants long ago made me an inveterate unbeliever.

Nimoy sang in his synagogue choir, had his bar mitzvah at age 13, and is buried in the large, segregated Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, the final resting place of countless Jewish entertainers, industry executives, and gangsters like Sidney Korshak. It is owned by Temple Israel of Hollywood.

Nimoy is most famous for playing the human-Vulcan hybrid Mr. Spock on TV’s Star Trek and its movie sequels. Wikipedia, again, says:

He incorporated into the series the Vulcan salute, which became identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (Jewish priests) hold their hand when giving blessings. The accompanying spoken blessing is “Live long and prosper.”

Whether this is true, part true, or a tall tale I can’t say. But the fact that he told the story illustrates his relatively strong Jewish consciousness. He was affiliated with Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in Hollywood.

Like his parents he spoke Yiddish, and “was long active in the Jewish Community.” He published a book of photographs, Shekhina (2002), illustrating the “feminine side of Judaism.” It consisted of many pictures taken by the actor of nude and partially clad female professional models, actresses and dancers, “not all of whom [surprise] are Jewish.”

At the height of his fame, Nimoy was a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. He left his wife of more than 30 years on her 56th birthday and married another woman a few years later.

With Nita Talbot we must again revert to mannerisms.

First, Talbot and Columbo walk to the exterior door of her apartment. Columbo is afflicted with the sneezes.

Illustrating illusions characteristic of filmed entertainment, when Talbot inserts her key into the apartment door, the two actors are outside. But when the camera shifts indoors to show the pair entering, the interior of an apartment hallway is incorrectly shown behind them. This is known as a continuity error.

Columbo is still sneezing. Talking nonstop over him—“I’ve got a great home remedy for that!”—Talbot hurriedly walks from her door to the kitchen. Her entire body language strongly conveys the impression of a female Jewish walk. A “female Jewish walk”? Who even knew there was such a thing?

This is followed by a kind of Jewish mother routine in which she insists that the protesting but still suffering detective take rhythmic sips of water from a glass while breathing according to her instructions. She won’t listen to a word he says until he obeys.

Strangers in Our Midst

What is striking about Talbot’s brief performance in Columbo is its depiction of pronounced Jewish behavioral/psychological/speech patterns where physical appearance (phenotype) strongly implies Whiteness.

In the final analysis, based on the small amount of inconclusive and conflicting evidence, the odds seem greater than 50-50 that the actress is Jewish or part-Jewish. But more information is needed. It illustrates how hard differentiating Jews from Whites can be. Very often in real life adequate information is lacking.

Informed Westerners must do their best to combine knowledge of “soft” behavioral traits with physical appearance to better “see” Jews in their midst, in the media, and who wield power over them. Fortunately, appearance and behavior often reinforce one another, thereby assisting in the accurate recognition and identification of Jews when other evidence is lacking.

No matter how well Jews blend in so natives can’t “see” them, there are usually “tells,” especially over longer periods of time and with greater exposure.

Psychologically and spiritually, Jews are profoundly different from the rest of humanity.

They not only know this, but are acutely mindful of it. It creates an inner tension that never relaxes, except when they’re among their own. Even then they can’t really let down their guard because their fellow Jews are such a treacherous, untrustworthy lot, and lack the endless gullibility of Gentiles. Figuratively speaking, Jews will knife one another pretty quick.

At bottom, the anxiety over being “seen” is the dread of being found out in a far more profound sense.

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