"It's a Little Matter of Murder, Pete"

"Sneaky Pete's Christmas Eve."
By Johnston McCulley (1883-1958).
First appearance: G-Men Detective, January 1948.
Reprinted in G-Men Detective (Canada), January 1948.
Short story (12 pages).
Online at Pulpgen (HERE).

"When reformed pickpocket Jones becomes a Yuletide guest of Ricardo and Carlotta, he is thrust into a dangerous role!"

Teaching someone else the tricks of the pocket picking trade shouldn't create much of a problem as long as it's done on the QT, but never in his dreams did Sneaky Pete Jones
think it would get him framed for murder . . .

Resources:
- The only other McCulley story title that we could find mentioning the name of "Sneaky" is "Sneaky's Christmas Pearls," Detective Story Magazine, January 3, 1931; could this be the same character?
- Apparently our author favored using pickpockets as his main characters, especially
one called Thubway Tham (HERE), to whom Sneaky Pete bears more than a passing resemblance; perhaps this was McCulley's way of "reforming" Tham.