Lucy Caruso

Lucy Caruso is a villainess from "Talked to Death," episode 5.18 of Diagnosis Murder.

She was played by the late Mary Frann.

Lucy Caruso is a talk show host and the owner of a housing complex. Regarding Lucy's latter occupation, it was revealed that she is a slumlord, as her tenants were living without working utilities (among other problems). Fellow talk show host Mary Montgomery found out about not only Lucy's dark secret, but those of another talk show host, Larry Duggin, and producer Tom Grant, and with that, the trio colluded together in a plan to kill Mary.

Grant had known about Mary and co-host Darrin Tate's plan to boost ratings; they had acted like they couldn't stand each other (in actuality, they were close friends), and their latest stunt would have Darrin shooting Mary with a prop gun full of blanks. The group actually replaced the blanks with real bullets before the show began, and that resulted in Darrin inadvertently killing Mary, with Darrin left stunned over what had occurred. Mary's assistant, Freddie, found out about Lucy's involvement in Mary's death, which led to Lucy meeting Freddie in an isolated area. Freddie was surprised to see Duggin with Lucy, as he figured that Lucy was the sole killer, and it was at that moment that Grant struck Freddie with a crowbar. The villainous triumvirate placed Freddie in his car and sent it over a cliff, making his death look like an accident.

Mark Sloan had figured out that Lucy, Duggin, and Grant had worked together on killing Mary, and following Freddie's death, he and the rest of the group worked together to trap the villains. Jesse Travis was on the set of Lucy's show, revealing her activities as a slumlord, and in response, the evil Lucy claimed that she was tricked into buying the rundown buildings. After the conspirators panicked, they returned to the site of Freddie's murder and attempted to set him up as Mary's killer, only to find Mark in the car and the police waiting to arrest them, as Mark's plan was to make sure that the trio would work together on another plan to avert suspicion. The episode ended with Lucy and her cohorts being interviewed by Darrin from prison, with Lucy feigning remorse over her actions.