Nah, you don’t need a game of Clue to do it — or even a dusty VHS tape of the cult-classic comedy. All that’s required is the below photo

gallery that reviews some of soapdom’s most mind-boggling murder mysteries, from the shot someone just took at offing General Hospital rat bastard Drew Cain to the infamous “Who shot J.R. Ewing?” case on Dallas. Columbo trench coats on, and in we go… !

 

 

In 2011, all of Genoa City was looking to snuff out Jack Abbott’s former and future flame (when she was played by Maura West, now Ava Jerome on General Hospital). But, despite all that gunning, she was said to have been done in by a blow to the head with a rock. Whodunit? Nikki Newman was the prime suspect… until video evidence pointed to her then-husband, Deacon Sharpe (between Bold & Beautiful gigs)… until 11 years later, when the deceased rose from the grave and it was revealed that he’d helped her fake her demise.

If ever a villain had been asking for it, it was this one. Not only was he sleeping with Paulina Cory, he was also blackmailing her. And when sometime wife Marley Love learned that he was cheating on her and dumped his ass, he retaliated by raping her. Whodunit? Marley’s mother Donna confessed to the crime, but it was really Paulina who had gotten trigger-happy.

Abe Carver. Victor Kiriakis. Tony DiMera. Doug Williams. Even Alice Horton. Murder victims were dropping like flies in Salem in 2003. Whodunit? Of all people, Marlena Evans was revealed to be the Salem Stalker. She was even gunned down by the authorities, only for it to later turn out that neither she nor anyone else had died. They’d all just been spirited away to Melaswen Island by André DiMera for… um… reasons.

By the time the conniver was gunned down in 2025, half of Salem was packing heat and picturing his face in the bullseye. You could hardly blame ’em, though, considering what a kidnapping, raping, remorseless rat bastard EJ was. Whodunit? Against all odds, little Rachel Blake. She demanded at gunpoint to know where EJ had stashed her grandma and… Oops. “Bang” went the gun.

There could have been a Most Unwanted poster of the blackmailer hanging in the post office, he was so loathed around Pine Valley — with good reason, too. Lots of ’em. In fact, the night that Linda Warner’s coconspirator met his maker, Palmer Cortlandt and daughter Nina were both headed to his apartment with murder on their minds. Whodunit? Though Nina’s mother Daisy was discovered over the body holding the smoking gun — well, the bloody knife — Donna Tyler recalled under hypnosis that merry widow Marian Colby had actually offed the gigolo.

Troy McIver’s evil twin was never bound for a long life, what with his proclivity for blackmail and rape. When the mad doctor wound up dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs in 2001, stand-up guy Sam Rappaport was put on trial. But… Whodunit? It was the object of Colin’s obsession — Sam’s old flame, Nora Buchanan — who had given her kidnapper a helpful nudge toward his final resting place.

The clever millionaire thought that he’d have the last laugh by framing his much-younger wife Cassandra’s lover Paul Williams for his murder. But the joke turned out (a) not to be very funny at all and (b) on George. Whodunit? Daddy Warbucks cashed in his chips, so to speak, courtesy of Adrian Hunter, his missus’ other boy on the side.

The son of C.C. Lionel Lockridge and Sophia Capwell had rubbed a lot of people the wrong way by the time he was murdered in the soap’s premiere. Sibling rival Mason, wronged lover Santana Andrade… Few and far between were the characters who could look Channing’s way without glaring. Whodunit? Kelly Capwell’s sweetheart Joe Perkins served time for the crime. But later, a dramatic reenactment of the fateful — and fatal — night revealed that the trigger had been pulled by Sophia, who’d been hoping to put a good scare in ex-lover Lionel.

Before General Hospital made Sonny Corinthos its untouchable antihero, being a mobster on a soap opera was akin to having a target painted on your back. So Carlo was already on borrowed time when kidnapping victim Sarah Gordon escaped, and green-eyed monster Asa Buchanan learned about wife Renée’s past with the mafioso. Whodunit? The last person we’d ever have expected: Carlo’s sweet niece — Kevin Buchanan’s girlfriend, Stephanie Hobart — in retaliation for his murder of her father.

It was murder mystery upon murder mystery in Oakdale in the mid-1980s. Marie Kovacs… Henry Strauss… Cal Randolph. All of them died before their killer was revealed to be Mr. Nice Guy Doug Cummings… who was then stabbed. Whodunit? It was neither Kim Hughes, the singer Doug had stalked, nor his fiancée, Kim’s stepdaughter Frannie, but Marsha Talbot. His ex-lover had discovered him raping Frannie and expressed her displeasure with the pointy end of a letter opener.

When the shady exec was put out of business in 2023, there wasn’t really any mystery about it. Obviously, it was wife Gabi Hernandez (then Camila Banus), whose true love Stefan DiMera he’d brainwashed to despise her. Wasn’t it? Whodunit? In fact, the killer turned out to be Connie Vinisky, who we’d have sworn was too sweet to cut a slice of bread, never mind run around stabbing people.

In 1996, the sleazebag who seduced Bobbie Spencer to win a bet was so determined to seize the property on which an orphanage was built that he — wow, that’s dark — burned it down. When he died in the same blaze — after being bludgeoned with a baseball bat — everyone suspected Laura Spencer, who’d refused to let the opportunist replace the home with a shopping mall. Whodunit? After lawyer Justus Ward helped get Laura acquitted of the crime, he confessed to his friend that he’d been the one to “strike out” Damian.

In 1992, all eyes were on Palmer’s nefarious nephew (played by James Patrick Stuart, now Valentin Cassadine on General Hospital). They didn’t like what they saw, either. He’d raped Gloria Marsh and planned to do the same to “bride” Hayley Vaughan. Whodunit? It was “Janet From Another Planet” Green, who became known as the Crowbar Killer for the manner in which she dispatched Hayley’s abuser.

After trapping half of Genoa City on a mountain in France in 2025, Cane Ashby found himself sipping tainted whiskey along with former employee Damian… who just happened to be dating the boss’ ex-wife, Lily Winters. Before the men could go for help, a gloved assailant hurled a knife at Damian, committing the ultimate backstab. Whodunit? In essence, the butler. Cane’s creepy assistant Carter killed Damian in order to clear his employer’s path to Lily — and then fatally shot Chance Chancellor while trying to escape.

The conniving up-and-comer knew that he was bound to get burned, playing with fire as he was in 1981 by sleeping with boss Rae Woodard and her married daughter, Kimberly Beaulac. So the real surprise wasn’t that he was killed, it was… Whodunit? When the secret lovers were busted by Mommie Dearest, an epic blowout ensued, one that left Kim pumping her boyfriend full of lead. She wasn’t technically his killer, though; Michael died from injuries sustained afterwards, when he was paid a visit by some displeased Mob cronies.

After the budding recording artist sang her swan song in 1983, it was assumed that she’d been strangled by alcoholic Gary Ewing, who was rumored to be her lover. Whodunit? Not Gary, that’s for sure. The vocalist was silenced by her real lover — her manager, Chip Roberts. When Ciji had refused to abort their child and, on top of that, learned that he was a con man using an alias, he went to extremes to keep her from blowing his other affair, with Diana Fairgate.

In 1983, it certainly looked like Tony DiMera was the Salem Slasher who was going around stabbing and poisoning women, and leaving them with a raven’s feather in their hands. But in Salem, looks can be deceiving. Whodunit? The murderer at large, who killed not only Tony’s amour Renee but Marlena Evans’ cousin Trista, was the prime suspect’s cousin, who’d been given extensive plastic surgery by Uncle Stefano in order to be a more useful Tony than the real one had ever been.