"Maybe a State Police Crowd Could Have Handled It Better, but I Don’t Know."

"Murder Money."

By Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937; Wikipedia HERE and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Argosy, March 9, 1935.

Short short story (9 pages).

Online at the Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

   "Sort of reverse English, huh?"

IF a middle-aged Huck Finn had ever decided to kick back in front of the fireplace and recount a tale of murder, it might have looked something like this . . .

Main characters:

~ George, Rance Dalton, Sheriff Elbert Donworthy, Andy Fuller, Mose Brown, Orty Jones, Terry Breen, Milt Morris, Pen Harmon, Phil Straus, Mrs. Eliza Gunnerson, Brick and Bessie, Doc Overton, and the unnamed tramp (and, yes, one of them is the killer).

Typo: “'Hands up!' she [he] ordered."

References:

- "The country was full of men out of work"; "The depression must be over":

  This being 1935, of course, the Not-So-Great Depression was still on everybody's mind:

  "In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, famine, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth as well as for personal advancement." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "until prohibition got wiped out":

  "The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "put the hounds on his tracks":

  "A hound is a type of hunting dog used by hunters to track or chase prey. What makes hounds unique is the way they hunt; some, known as scent hounds, follow trails with their powerful noses, while others, called sighthounds, rely on their sharp vision and speed to spot and chase prey across open land. Breeds like the Beagle, Bloodhound, and Greyhound are well-known examples." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resource:

- Earlier this year we spent some time with Ellis Parker Butler's Great Near-Detective, Oliver Spotts (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"The Man Had Been Stabbed from Within!"

HERE we have, right in the middle of the Golden Age of Detection (and Prohibition), nothing less than a brazen full-on assault on the genre (and the Volstead Act) by the staff of a popular magazine. An unjustifiable act of malice? No, we're more inclined to think they were all going bonkers waiting for the Eighteenth Amendment to be repealed . . .

"Mystery Number."

Judge Magazine, January 9, 1926 issue.

36 pages.

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "Within the deserted mansion itself, deserted save for a finger-print expert, a rifle-bore expert, a blood-stain expert, a toxicologist of note, a micrograph photographer, a score of plain clothes men and Inspector McGrouch—summoned hurriedly from his evening game of lotto, stood the Great Glumph, monosyllabic, hawklike, impenetrable."

WARNING! You'll need to have a high STQ (Silliness Tolerance Quotient) to get through this, so before you read it you might check with your psychiatrist—or, better yet, your wife . . .

Mystery references:

- Seven Baldpates (on the cover).

- The Black Hand (page 2).

- "The Amazing Adventures of Sherlock Lupin - A Tragedy of the Comic Weeklies" (pages 5 and 19).

- "Watson, the Needle!" (page 6).

- Mysterious trapdoor full-page cartoon (page 7).

- "The Midnight Crime" (page 8).

- "Stabbed from Within - A Glumph of the Bumps Yarn!" (pages 10 and 22-23).

- Mary Roberts Rinehart full-page cartoon (page 15).

- "The mystery story" cartoon (page 19).

- "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (page 26).

- "Home Life of a Playwright" (page 27).

- "The Matrimonial Mystery" (page 29).

 

Resources:

- George Jean Nathan was a co-perpetrator of this issue of Judge; there's more about him (HERE).

- S. J. Perelman was also connected with Judge but not, evidently, with this particular issue; to make up for that, see his "Mastersleuth Unmasked at Last!" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"It Was Now a Cold Problem of Science"

"The Shadow on the Spark."

By Edward S. Sears (?-?; the ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Amazing Stories, August 1927.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Illustrated by Aragon (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (18 pages).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE) and Archive.org (HERE; text faded).

   "As he almost fell over the threshold, a shot rang out and a twinge in the left shoulder told him it was a good shot."

JUST BACK FROM his trip to Europe, Dr. Jarvis learns that a close friend has died in surgery. As Jarvis looks further into the situation, he becomes more and more convinced that his friend didn't die of shock on the operating table but was murdered. With a six-figure insurance policy lurking in the background and two likely suspects standing to benefit from it, Jarvis single-handedly turns the coroner's inquest upside down, one that was on the verge of rendering an accidental death verdict, with facts that prove beyond a doubt that it was murder . . .

Typos: "a swift lawford" (?); "the impersonation of innocence" (perhaps "personification" is meant here); "Boss was with him" (Gutenberg only).

Principal characters:

~ Dr. Milton Jarvis ("He was not a judge, merely an instrument of justice"), Jim Craighead ("Well-known banker dies of shock following operation"), Ross Craighead ("the idealistic type—he would be more apt to give money away than try to get it by murder"), Tessie Prettyman ("Our men have watched the girl"), Inspector Craven ("you’ve started me looking for a murder or some crime"), Miss Cornhill ("the head nurse"), Dr. Lawson ("It seemed an eternity before he answered"), Piggy Bill Hovey ("an educated rogue, talks French and is a great student of toxicology"), Mr. Bailey ("if this discussion has any bearing on the death of Jim Craighead, I would like to know"), the coroner ("the fact of poisoning can readily be established by an autopsy"), and Timothy Clegg ("sullenly glared").

References and resources:

- "down in the Tombs":

  "The Tombs was the colloquial name for Manhattan Detention Complex (formerly the Bernard B. Kerik Complex during 2001–2006), a former municipal jail at 125 White Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was also the nickname for three previous city-run jails in the former Five Points neighborhood of lower Manhattan, in an area now known as the Civic Center." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Wikipedia links: "Nux vomica" (HERE); "strychnine" (HERE); "digitalis" (HERE); "morphine" (HERE); "opiates" (HERE); "scopolamin" (HERE); and "mydriatic" (HERE).

- "subjected to the third degree":

  "Attested from 1900. The phrase, meaning 'intense interrogation by police,' likely refers to the Third Degree of Master Mason in Freemasonry, the ceremony for which included an interrogation. Alternatively, it reflects the practice of interrogation under torture, where three degrees of torture were recognised, of increasing intensity. In other contexts, three degrees of interrogation were recognised, with torture being the third degree." (Wiktionary HERE.)

- "revolving about the nucleus much as the planets revolve about the sun.":

 "Rutherford's new model for the atom, based on the experimental results, contained new features of a relatively high central charge concentrated into a very small volume in comparison to the rest of the atom and with this central volume containing most of the atom's mass; this region would be known as the atomic nucleus. The Rutherford model was subsequently superseded by the Bohr model." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Becquerel Rays" (Wikipedia HERE and HERE), "X-rays" (Wikipedia HERE) "and the various rays known as 'gamma,' etc." (Wikipedia HERE).

 - "the world war":

  "World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914–11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft. World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Tarrytown":

  "Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

(Click on image to enlarge.)

- "if a man insists on buying liquor, he must go to rather ugly looking places to get it":

  An indirect reference to Prohibition:

  "The Eighteenth Amendment passed in 1919 'with a 68 percent supermajority in the House of Representatives and 76 percent support in the Senate' and was ratified by 46 out of 48 states. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Not all alcohol was banned; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, some states banning possession outright." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a riot car siren":

  They've been substantially upgraded and up-armed since the 1920s:

  "A riot control vehicle, also known as a riot suppression vehicle or simply a riot vehicle, is an armored or reinforced police vehicle used for riot control. A wide array of vehicles, from armored SUVs and vans to dedicated trucks and armored personnel carriers, are used by law enforcement to suppress or intimidate riots, protests, and public order crimes; hold and reinforce a police barricade to keep the scene contained; or simply transport officers and equipment at the scene in a manner safer than what could be achieved with a standard police car." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "as Webster once said":

  The full quote: "There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession."

  "Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th U.S. secretary of state under presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. Webster was one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, arguing over 200 cases before the United States Supreme Court in his career." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Edward S. Sears evidently didn't write much (short fiction, anyway) (FictionMags data; ss = short story; nv = novelette.)

  ~ “Poosh ’Im Up, Jardine," (ss) Action Stories, May 1925 (about magazine HERE)

  ~ "The Shadow on the Spark" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories, August 1927 (above)

  ~ "The Atomic Riddle" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1928 (online HERE)

  ~ "The Singing Moonbeams" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories Quarterly, Summer 1929 (online HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"But Your Tongue Slipped"

"If Christmas Comes."

By Steve Fisher (1912-80; Wikipedia HERE; the IMDb HERE; Paperback Warrior HERE; and The Thrilling Detective HERE).

Tony Key No. 4.

First appearance: Detective Fiction Weekly, December 25, 1937.

Reprinted in:

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine #14, January 1944 (today's text) and November/December 2024.

  Silver Screams, 1994

  Murder at Eight, 2024.

Short story (13 pages.)

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 5.)

(Note: Some text clipped but interpretable.)

   "You are sweet on her, aren't you?"

THE GLITZ AND GLAMOR of Yuletide Hollywood suffer a temporary dimming when a walking dead man is found on the floor of a drugstore—done in, appropriately enough, with poison. Since the victim had a movie studio connection, being an assistant film cutter, Tony Key is on the scene. Ostensibly a freelance Hollywood agent, Tony is more than most people suspect, his real job being "to put a heavy foot on the Hollywood crime wave in picture circles." (Why are we not surprised that there is such a thing?) In the end, as Tony already suspects, it's the green-eyed monster that put the victim on the floor of that pharmacy. Even at Christmastime, some things never change . . .

Main characters:

~ William Blake ("stared glassily up and past us at some Christmas tinsel on the ceiling"), Tony Key ("the world's highest paid detective"), Ben Thompson ("I am fine, who is dead?"), Betty Gale ("Merry Christmas to a corpse"), Mickey Ryan ("a bantam-weight guy with gray hair wandering around the store"), Stella Matthews ("It was something in the past that I thought I could bury and forget"), Roger West ("like Clark Gable, was one of the really big stars"), and Wilt Davis ("Yes, I disliked Bill Blake," he said, "that isn't news").

Typo: "lavendar".

Comment: Offhand, we can think of a couple of other authors have also used the epistolary technique to tell crime stories: Dorothy L. Sayers (HERE) and Lawrence G. Blochman (HERE and HERE).

References and resources:

- "even Garbo":

  "Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 1905–1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's silent and early golden eras. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, she was known for her melancholic and somber screen persona, her film portrayals of tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  Apart from Greta, our author namedrops some of the most famous Hollywood celebrities. Many links to Wikipedia:

  Marie Dressler (HERE)

  Jean Harlow (HERE)

  Rudolph Valentino (HERE)

  Lillian (Lilyan) Tashman (HERE)

  Mickey Mouse (HERE), the same rodent who was also a suspect in another murder (HERE).

Lionel Barrymore (HERE). While he played a well-known French detective (HERE), his brother portrayed a better-known English sleuth (HERE).

  Mae West (HERE)

  Clark Gable (HERE)

  Luise Rainer (HERE).

- "it isn't Hollywood Boulevard then, it is Santa Claus Lane":

  "The Hollywood Christmas Parade (formerly the Hollywood Santa Parade and Santa Claus Lane Parade) is an annual parade held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It follows a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) route along Hollywood Boulevard, then back along Sunset Boulevard, featuring various celebrities. Traditionally, Santa Claus appears at the end." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Hollywood's most prolific scenario writer":

  "In the silent era, screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright, photoplay writer, photoplay dramatist, and screen playwright. Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being the authors of the films as shown, and argues that they could not be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for a technical product, a brief 'scenario,' 'treatment,' or 'synopsis' that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a little extra kid"; "cowboy extras":

  "A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera, or ballet production who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background (for example, in an audience or busy street scene). War films and epic films often employ background actors in large numbers: some films have featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members (hence the term 'cast of thousands'). Likewise, grand opera can involve many background actors appearing in spectacular productions." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "tuned in Bing Crosby":

  Enormously popular, Crosby had a whole series of radio shows. When "If Christmas Comes" was first published, Der Bingle was two years into an 11-year run on the Kraft Music Hall (1935-46):

  "Harry Lillis 'Bing' Crosby, Jr. (1903–77) was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. Crosby was a leader in record sales, network radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons. Crosby made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "swell copy for Winchell":

  "Walter Winchell (1897–1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence 'turned journalism into a form of entertainment.'

  "He uncovered both hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "another film cutter":

  "The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences which create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is an extremely important tool when attempting to intrigue a viewer. When done properly, a film's editing can captivate a viewer and fly completely under the radar. Because of this, film editing has been given the name 'the invisible art'." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "I Get That Old Feeling"; "The Lady Is a Tramp":

  "'That Old Feeling' is a popular song about nostalgia written by Sammy Fain, with lyrics by Lew Brown. It was published in 1937." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "'The Lady Is a Tramp' is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette (the first line of the verse is 'I get too hungry for dinner at eight...') and phony social pretensions. It has become a popular music standard." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a Bromo":

  "Bromo-Seltzer is mentioned in several films and TV shows, including The Crooked Circle (1932), Bed of Roses (1933), Topper (1937), Wonder Man (1945), Somewhere in the Night (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), the 1998 The Simpsons episode 'Bart Carny,' and in Golden Girls (Season 4, Episode 1).

  "It is mentioned in John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.

  "Drugstore Bromo-Seltzer dispensers are mentioned in Georges Simenon's 1949 detective novel Maigret chez le coroner that takes place in Arizona.

  "It is mentioned in several songs, including 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' by Rodgers and Hart, 'Adelaide's Lament' in the musical Guys and Dolls, and 'Pachuco Cadaver' by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. In Spike Jones' version of Laura, the chorus chants 'Bromo-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer...' to evoke the sound of a chugging train." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Steve Fisher's Tony Key stories (FictionMags data; ss = short story, nv = novelette):

  "Murder Game—With Mirrors," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, May 15, 1937

  "Batten Down That Killer," (nv) Detective Fiction Weekly, June 19, 1937 (online HERE)

  "Mystery at Malibu," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, November 20, 1937

  "If Christmas Comes," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, December 25, 1937 (above)

  "Me and Mickey Mouse," (nv) Detective Fiction Weekly, January 22, 1938

  "Hollywood Party," (ss) Black Mask, June 1938

  "The Glamour and the Glory," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, September 3, 1938

  "Pennies on Your Eyes," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, October 22, 1938

  "Goodbye to Hollywood," (nv) Detective Fiction Weekly, December 10, 1938

  "Cinderella Wore Black," (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly, April 19, 1941

  "Rain in Hollywood," (nv) Detective Fiction Weekly, July 26, 1941

  Murder at Eight, 2024 (collection).

- Our only previous encounter with Steve Fisher seems to have been the short-short-short tale, "Listen to Reason" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"The System Has Fallen Down, Somewhere"

HERE we have an Arthur B. Reeve story that might never have been collected anywhere (we're not sure); regardless, let's watch Craig Kennedy tackle . . .

"The Mystery of the Vault."

By Arthur B. Reeve (1880-1936).

Illustration by W. M. Allison (1880-1964; Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists HERE).

First appearance: Clues Detective Stories, December 25, 1929.

Short story (11 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 387).

(Note: Text very faded but readable.)

   "Kennedy, the impossible has happened; only Houdini come back to life or Einstein turned crook could have done it!"

Bank robbery has a long, disreputable, and largely unsuccessful history, but that hasn't stopped people from giving it a go. No one was more surprised by and no less a victim of it than that befuddled red-headed pawnbroker who sought enlightenment from the Sage of Baker Street. In today's story, the victims of just such a theft also seek enlightenment, this time from Craig Kennedy, scientific detective par excellence, only to have him confess at 

one point: "I suppose I myself was picked out for the role of the boob detective because I happened to be available." For Kennedy, being a cat's-paw like that isn't customary and undoubtedly rankles, so no doubt there's some real job satisfaction when he nails down the perps . . .

Principal characters:

~ Walter Jameson:

  ". . . Kennedy was as usual as great an enigma to me as if I were not his most intimate friend."

~ James Gage:

  "The new vault of the Broad-Wall Trust Company has been entered and robbed—and there is apparently not a clue!"

~ Craig Kennedy:

  "It's surprising how much you learn by studying girls."

~ Ethel Wynne Gage:

  "I knew that beautiful face. It was Ethel Wynne, late of the Follies, now Mrs. Gage."

~ Miss Madeline Croney:

  "Oh, I have quite a philosophy of finger tips."

~ Mr. Ingraham:

  "So, you see why it is that we say that the impossible has happened!"

~ Burton:

  "I hear the four, though, have sometimes made up a week-end party on a fast cruiser . . ."

~ Dave Wharton:

  "Wharton's racket is night clubs."

~ Walker:

  "Rather a clever fellow—always on the job."

~ Schwartz:

  "Let me out, I say! This is an outrage! Let me out!"

The Kennedy Method:

  "It had always been his rule that the fewer people he took into his confidence the fewer weak links there would be in forging his chain of evidence."

References and resources:

- "only Houdini come back to life or Einstein":

  The amazing magician had passed away of peritonitis just three years before our story was published, the brainy scientist of an abdominal aortic aneurysm twenty-six years after. (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

- "some relativity thief in the fourth dimension!":

  "Four-dimensional space (4D) is the mathematical extension of the concept of three-dimensional space (3D)." . . . "Science fiction texts often mention the concept of 'dimension' when referring to parallel or alternate universes or other imagined planes of existence. This usage is derived from the idea that to travel to parallel/alternate universes/planes of existence one must travel in a direction/dimension besides the standard ones. In effect, the other universes/planes are just a small distance away from our own, but the distance is in a fourth (or higher) spatial (or non-spatial) dimension, not the standard ones." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

- "The door of a modern vault is a very complex affair":

  "Vault technology developed in a type of arms race with bank robbers. As burglars came up with new ways to break into vaults, vault makers found new ways to foil them. Modern vaults may be armed with a wide array of alarms and anti-theft devices. Some 19th and early 20th century vaults were built so well that today they are difficult to destroy, even with specialized demolition equipment." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a treasure house to make Croesus look like a cheap skate":

  "In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man . . . Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as 'rich as Croesus' or 'richer than Croesus' are used to indicate great wealth to this day." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a modern Midas had by his magic touch":

  "Midas was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. His father was Zeus, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remem-bered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into pure gold. Midas is the biological son of Zeus and this came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch." . . . "Claudian states in his In Rufinum: 'So Midas, king of Lydia, swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid and his drink harden into golden ice then he understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer'." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

- "The most expert yeggman who ever lived":

  "Movies often depict a safe-cracker determining the combination of a safe lock using his fingers or a sensitive listening device to determine the combination of a rotary combination lock. Other films also depict an elaborate scheme of explosives and other devices to open safes." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a little rum-running":

  The repeal of Prohibition wouldn't go into effect until four years after our story. (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "it might be just another instance where a motor was one of the efficient criminal instruments":

  Parker and Barrow made extensive use of "motors" during their spectacular but 

mercifully brief career. (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a selenium cell and a relay . . . a poor conductor of electricity in the darkness, a good conductor in the light":

  "Selenium was used as the photoabsoring layer in the first solid-state solar cell, which was demonstrated by the English physicist William Grylls Adams and his student Richard Evans Day in 1876. Only a few years later, Charles Fritts fabricated the first thin-film solar cell, also using selenium as the photoabsorber. However, with the emergence of silicon solar cells in the 1950's, research on selenium thin-film solar cells declined." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "oxyhydrogen blowpipe":

  "It produced a flame hot enough to melt such refractory materials as platinum, porcelain, fire brick, and corundum, and was a valuable tool in several fields of science." . . . "Oxyhydrogen was once used in working platinum, because at the time, only it could burn hot enough to melt the metal 1,768.3 °C (3,214.9 °F)." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "harveyized":

  Subjected to the Harvey process: "A process for hardening the face of steel, involving the additional carburizing of the face of a piece of low-carbon steel by heaping a solid carbon-rich fuel (such as charcoal) on the face of the steel and then subjecting this to very high heat at high pressure for a prolonged period of time, followed by a violent chilling, as by a spray of cold water. This results in a thick surface of extreme hardness supported by material gradually decreasing in hardness to the unaltered soft steel at the back." (Wiktionary HERE.)

- "out of Dannemore [sic]":

  "Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision maximum security state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannemora (having once served as a massive insane asylum named Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminally Insane), although its name is derived from its location in Clinton County, New York." . . . "In 1929, Clinton Correctional was the site of a riot. Coupled with riots in other prisons in that year, it led to prison reform in New York. Included was the construction of schools in the prison and the renovation or rebuilding of most of the structures within the prison walls to update the facilities to modern standards." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the greatest robbery since the Manhattan Bank affair":

  "On Sunday, October 27, 1878, the Manhattan Savings Institution bank and depository in Manhattan, New York City was robbed of $2,747,700 ($65 million 

in 2017 dollars) in cash and securities by the former gang of serial bank robber 

George Leonidas Leslie. At the time, it was the largest-paying criminal heist 

in history." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Robbing banks seems to be a popular pastime with criminals (see Wikipedia HERE). Even fiction can inspire it, as happened in 1971 in, of all places, Baker Street (see Wikipedia HERE).

- The easiest thing about robbing a bank is that the vault doesn't move, but how about a theft where the vault doesn't move at less than fifty miles per hour? See Fred M. White's "The Night Express" (HERE), no doubt inspired by real events.

- Michael Grost's megasite contains extensive information about our author (HERE).

- The latest Craig Kennedy adventure that we happened to come across is "Deep Sea Treasure" (HERE).

The bottom line:

  "Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place."

   - Johnny Carson

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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