The Setup, Pt. 1

S2, E17: Terry Nash, a family man, barely survives an apparent assassination attempt in which he sees his wife and infant daughter killed. In the hospital Nash's brother-in-law confides to him that his late wife's side of the family have been marked for gangland execution for years. Nash, whose memory about the attack is foggy, knows only two things...his wife and child are dead ...and he wants revenge. The man said to be responsible is a state's witness for a pending federal underworld investigation and he is in the protective custody of Starsky and Hutch. Nash positions himself in a hotel across the street from where the three are sequestered; he then phones multiple bomb threats into the hotel. As Starsky, Hutch and their state's witness are about to leave, another man identifying himself as an FBI agent redirects them away from their planned fire escape route out - through the building's front door. Despite Starsky and Hutch's best efforts - they walk right into Nash's path and he shoots their prize witness dead. On his way out of the hotel, the escaping Nash runs headlong into a hotel thief - also on the lam. The hotel thief is mistakenly arrested for the killing. When Nash reads about it, he turns himself in, to police. Starsky and Hutch try to check out his story and virtually nothing about Terry Nash is true. They even look at a band film of the day he was to have withdrawn a large sum of money and Nash is not on it. He is as surprised and baffled as they are.