A TV reporter fakes a news story by hiring a stuntman to fake a suicide by jumping from a bridge. After a bystander is killed things spin out of control when the jumper's girlfriend hires Barnaby to find out what really happened.
One of the men that J.R. served with in Vietnam has come up missing after he joined a mercenary group. At the request of his Vietnam buddies wife, J.R. and Barnaby investigate the group in hopes of finding him.
One of Betty's friends comes to her when her alcoholic husband goes off the deep end and becomes physically abusive. Barnaby and J.R. become involved when he becomes a suspect in the murder of the woman's boss.
A woman trying to hide her sordid past from her well-to-do husband is blackmailed into stealing thousands in bonds from her husbands company. Investigating on behalf of the insurance company Barnaby unearths the details.
After a man is injured in a hit-and-run accident, his sister runs for help. But when she comes back a few minutes later, he's vanished without a trace. She then hires Barnaby and J.R. to find him, and they discover that the brother has been involved with some very bad people.
A gang leader sends two of his men to bring Barnaby to him but he's not around so they get J.R. and bring him to him. He tells J.R. that his friend and lieutenant was shot and killed. Most of his gang are inclined to believe that someone from a rival gang may have been the one who killed him and would like to start a war. But the leader doesn't think so. So he wants J.R. to find who it is before a war breaks out. Barnaby upon learning of what happened to J.R. and what he is doing is doing some digging of his own.
After a security guard is murdered during the theft of a valuable emerald collection Barnaby and J.R. are hired to investigate. What they unearth is a madam, her low-life boyfriend, and a call girl carrying out her part in a scheme to rip-off unsuspecting men of their valuables.
Barnaby travels to the small town of Las Mesas looking for a missing woman. He finds her, but he's taken captive along with her and several town residents by a group of men waiting to steal $250,000 from an armored car that is going to come through town. Their only hope to escape lies with J.R.
With the help of his biological mother a young man tries to claim his birthright into wealth by posing as the reincarnation of his late father. Barnaby and J.R. see through the facade and try to prevent another murder.
While spending time at her cabin in a small town in California, Betty comes between a doctor who's hiding his real identity and the three men who want to kill him because of an incident that happened during the Vietnam War.
Barnaby investigates the deaths of two people that were predicted by a twelve year old girl. Barnaby discovers that what's behind her premonitions is more sinister than psychic.
Barnaby and J.R. investigate the murder of a man's brother and discover that the ugly truth behind his death lies in a mentally ill young woman and the delusions that she's held onto since her own fathers death.
Barnaby and J.R. look into the deaths of two brothers who were murdered just days apart. Their investigation leads them to believe that their deaths are somehow tied a local woman's return after being in a sanitarium for three years.
Betty has no choice but to look after the son of an old college friend she hadn't seen in years after he walks out in the middle of a lunch date. What she doesn't immediately realize is that he's involved with two men planning a big heist.
J.R. enlists the help of Barnaby after a friend of his is being blamed for the murder of his girlfriend, and his friends lawyer mysteriously seems to want to undermine a case for his innocence.
Barnaby asks a woman who has just been paroled for information on the man she was involved with so he can recover money he stole. She refuses, so J.R. goes undercover to get the info and discovers her life is in danger by this same man..
After a distraught and depressed woman attempts suicide, Barnaby Jones is compelled to re-investigate a case in which he may have helped wrongly convict her ex-husband of kidnapping a little boy four years earlier.
Barnaby continues to re-investigate an old kidnapping case in which he firmly believes the wrong man has been put into prison for the crime. But as the investigation deepens, and the murders pile up, Barnaby knows he is close to the truth.
Betty gets more than she bargained for when she helps a couple find their deranged son. After finding him she quickly discovers that they're even more deranged than he is-and that they'll kill anyone who gets in their way, including her.
J.R. tries to protect a beautiful young woman from a dangerous stalker and his two cronies, but they get trapped in a deadly situation with them. Barnaby gets suspicious that they are in trouble comes to their aid.
Barnaby and J.R. investigate a string of yacht disappearances in the waters off the coast of California and Mexico. Eyewitness reports say they were taken down by a mysterious whirlpool, but Barnaby suspects a hijacking operation is really behind the mystery.
