Waterfowl and Water Foul

(1) "Open Season for Murder."

By John Savage (?-?).

Illustrations by William A. Smith (1918-89; HERE).

First appearance: This Week Magazine, October 28, 1956.

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 26).

   "That was the stupidest stunt you ever pulled . . ."

A RELAXING hunting trip turns deadly when a father and son stumble across organized crime—as if the wrong ammo load wasn't bad enough . . .

Main characters:

 ~ Jimmie Davison ("What's a market hunter?"), his father ("Nastiest criminal on earth"), Moore ("We'll freeze to death"), the second man ("a big fat guy in overalls"), and a third man ("His mouth fell open and he pulled his head out of sight again").

References (all from Wikipedia):

- "shotgun" (HERE)

- "gauge" (HERE)

- waterfowl hunting (HERE)

- "rice fields" (HERE)

- "mallard" (HERE)

- "tule" (HERE)

- "widgeon" (HERE)

- "canvasbacks" (HERE)

- "sprig" (HERE)

- "snow goose" (HERE)

- the origin of "gypped" (HERE).

(2) "The Iron Box."

By John Savage (?-?).

First appearance: Collier's, February 7, 1953.

Reprinted in EQMM, December 1956 (today's text).

(Note: This issue also contains Avram Davidson's "The Ikon of Elijah"; IMDb HERE).

Other reprints:

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (U.K.) #47, December 1956.

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Australia) #116, February 1957.

Short story (15 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 75).

(Note: Text very faded and may require magnification and demagnification.)

   "I think I should be the one to tell it, because Katona and his iron box changed my whole life."

IF, as they say, it takes a thief to catch a thief, wouldn't it follow that it takes a magician to neutralize one of his profession? Add to that the well-substantiated rumor that during the Cold War people disappeared who wouldn't have otherwise disappeared had there not been a Cold War. In consequence, according to our story, it looks as if there could have been at least one magician selected to disappear—at the bottom of a river . . .

Main characters:

~ Unnamed narrator ("I have always been a sucker for any kind of magician or escape artist"), Janos Katona ("a disciple of Houdini"), the gendarme ("I shall return in three hours to arrest you, if you are still here"), and Tisza ("would know how to assassinate a man without making a martyr of him").

References and resources:

- "the Seine":

  "The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mile) river in northern France. . . . There are 37 bridges in Paris across the Seine (the most famous of which are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf) and dozens more outside the city." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a disciple of Houdini":

  "You sigh and the song begins, you speak and I hear violins, it's . . ."

  "Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "An escape act is a curious thing":

  "Escape or Die, the form of escape performance originated by Houdini, is the standard for top-of-the-line escapologists. There are at least three possible ways for an escapologist's life to be at risk from the possible failure of this escape. These are death by drowning, as in the water escapes Houdini pioneered; death by suffocation, as in escapes from airtight enclosures containing no water, such as coffins; and death by falling, as also originated by Houdini, in a straitjacket escape hanging high above the earth as when Houdini hung from cranes and buildings upside down in a strait jacket where falling would mean certain death." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a pulley in the flies":

  "A fly system, or theatrical rigging system, is a system of ropes, pulleys, counterweights and related devices within a theater that enables a stage crew to fly (hoist) quickly, quietly and safely components such as curtains, lights, scenery, stage effects and, sometimes, people. Systems are typically designed to fly components between clear view of the audience and out of view, into the large space, the fly loft, above the stage." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "from Communist Budapest to the American zone of Vienna":

  "[In 1949] The Communists gained power while the Soviet Army propped up the Hungarian state. Under their auspices, the former Arrow Cross torture chambers in the prisons filled up with their opponents. Arrests, beatings or summary executions were used as a standard tool by the Secret Police, who employed an extensive net of informants. Random arrests without charge were commonly initiated by regime informants, some of these abductees were never heard from again. By this time the administration was composed predominantly of hardline communists or careerists, who made up the Soviet-accepted controllers of wealth and power. . . . The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed, the Soviets, rather than appointing a Hungarian hardliner or a Soviet general, gave a chance to János Kádár, a former kidnapped minister of the revolution. Due to the co-operative efforts of Kádár and huge loans taken from the West to offset the failing economy, Hungary became the favorite Communist state of the West by the late 1970s." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Espionage in Austria is legal if the country itself is not the target. The city [Vienna] has about 17,000 diplomats, many assigned to international organizations. Because of their presence and Austria's neutrality, Vienna became an important center for espionage, as depicted in The Third Man; during the Cold War the city allegedly had more spies than Austrian soldiers." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Hungarian underground":

  "The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October–4 November 1956), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country." (Wikipedia HERE.) 

- "the other side of the Curtain":

  Fifties and sixties readers would have no difficulty determining what "the Curtain" referred to:

  "During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was a political metaphor used to describe the political and later physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, its allies and neutral states." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Quai d'Orsay":

  "The Quai d'Orsay is a quay [a shipping wharf] in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Allez-y": "Go ahead."

- "a capsule of potassim cyanide":

  "The effects of potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide are identical, and symptoms of poisoning typically occur within a few minutes of ingesting the substance: the person loses consciousness, and brain death eventually follows. During this period the victim may suffer convulsions." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- According to FictionMags, John Savage made relatively small contributions to the slicks of the time, the 1950s, '60s, and '70s: The Saturday Evening Post (his first credit), Collier's, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, This Week, Redbook, even the Ladies' Home Journal; however, he can't be regarded as a detective fiction writer.

- The latest bona fide magician that we've bumped into would have to be The Great Merlini (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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"Lips Lie, but Eyes Don't"

"The Eyes Have It."

By Joseph F. Hook (?-?).

First appearance: Ten Detective Aces, May 1948.

Short short story (4 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 73).

(Note: Very faded text.)

   "He didn't seem much like a dick, this mild, soft-spoken little man. But he knew that to ferret out larceny . . . the eyes have it."

DIDN'T Sun Tzu say (and we're paraphrasing) that the acme of military skill is to win a battle without firing a shot? Since it's without firing a shot that our unprepossessing detective solves a crime, you could say that he displays the acme of detectival skill . . .

Principal characters:

~ Unnamed narrator ("The wife and I were lucky enough to find a furnished house, and that's how I came to meet Jim Clark"), Jim Clark ("I confessed that he was not my conception of a detective"), Matilda Clark ("Howdy neighbor"), Calvin Dupree ("cashier in the Crosby depart-ment store"), and Mrs. Calvin Dupree ("She was a young, well-dressed, stunning blonde and, quite naturally, extremely nervous").

Typos: "A cartain"; "an abrurt end".

References and resources:

- "pheasants":

  While the birds have been around forever, the Anglophonic word for them is of a more recent origin:

  "According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'pheasant' ultimately comes from Phasis, the ancient name of what is now called the Rioni River in Georgia. It passed from Greek to Latin to French (spelled with an initial 'f') then to English, appearing for the first time in English around 1299." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Pheasant hunting is very popular in much of the U.S., especially in the Great Plains states, where a mix of farmland and native grasslands provides ideal habitat. South Dakota alone has an annual harvest of over 1 million birds a year by over 200,000 hunters." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Pheasant Survival Tactics

- According to FictionMags, Joseph F. Hook started out his short fiction writing career wobbling between Westerns and crime fiction.  Between 1922 and 1956, he was a consistent contributor to pulp mags like Two Gun Western, Detective Story, and others of the era, transitioning almost exclusively to Westerns in 1936, making "The Eyes Have It" something 

of an exception. This is our first meeting with him.

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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Two by Davidson

(1) "Rest in Peace."

By Avram Davidson (1923-93; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Keyhole Mystery Magazine, June 1960.

Reprinted in AD 100, Volume 1 (2023).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "Such a well planned murder that nothing could go wrong. Well, hardly anything."

AMBITION has a downside, as Macbeth discovered:

     I have no spur

     To prick the sides of my intent, but only

     Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

     And falls on th’other.

Henry, too, is riding for a fall . . .

Main characters:

~ Henry Sloucomb ("Had wanted to make money, lots of it, and fast. See the world. Live well"), Jacob Sloucomb ("My books, my memories are here. My friends, those who are left, are here. And the University is here"), Captain Todd ("The doctor says he's been dead for about two days"), and Calhoon ("What do you mean, 'What do I mean?'").

Resource:

- All of the other KEYHOLE stories accompanying "Rest in Peace" are linked (HERE).

(2) "The Memory Bank."

By Avram Davidson (1923-93; Fantastic Fiction book list HERE and Goodreads HERE).

First appearance: EQMM, June 1967.

Reprinted in AD 100, Volume 1 (2023).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 61).

(Note: Text faded but legible.)

   "We don't know if this is the first crime story spawned by automation—probably not; but surely it is an early example . . ."

PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES: We all know the old saying. HOIST BY THEIR OWN PETARD: That's another one. The Board of Directors should take those apothegms under serious consideration, because there's one person in their organization who has peered into their "glass houses" over the years and knows a lot more than they will ever be comfortable 

with . . .

Main characters:

~ Thom Hart ("wasn't going to wait for the normal course of events"), Edwards ("After all, automation isn't everything. Humanity counts for something"), Joe ("Just want to keep on here like always"), May Jenson ("she'd have to go too, one of these days"), Stanton ("roared and pushed himself halfway up from the table"), Hopkins ("Suppose you retired on full salary, Joe. Eh?"), and Powell ("seemed to have shrunk back into his gray suit").

Typos: "Filemore"; "You'd bttr be quiet".

References and resources:

- "automation":

  "The benefit of automation includes labor savings, reducing waste, savings in electricity costs, savings in material costs, and improvements to quality, accuracy, and precision. . . . The paradox of automation says that the more efficient the automated system, the more crucial the human contribution of the operators. Humans are less involved, but their involvement becomes more critical." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Corbett and Jackson":

  "On May 21, 1891, Corbett fought Peter 'Black Prince' Jackson, a much-heralded bout between crosstown rivals, since they were both boxing instructors at San Francisco's two most prestigious athletic clubs. They fought to a no-contest after 61 rounds." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "On 21 May 1891, in Benicia, California Jackson fought the future world champion James Corbett. The match with Corbett went 61 rounds before it was declared no contest, as both boxers were too exhausted to continue." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Ty Cobb":

  "[Tyrus Raymond] Cobb is credited with setting 9000 MLB records throughout his career. Cobb has won more batting titles than any other player, with 11 (or 12, depending on source). During his entire 24-year career, he hit .300 in a record 23 consecutive seasons, with the exception of his rookie season. He also hit .400 in three different seasons, a record he shares with three other players. Cobb has more five-hit games (14) than any other player in major league history. He also holds the career record for stealing home (54 times) and for stealing second base, third base, and home in succession (4 times), and as the youngest player ever to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Braddock":

  "[James Walter Braddock] was an American boxer who was the world heavyweight champion from 1935 to 1937." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Colley Cibber":

  "Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Millard Filemore [sic]":

  "Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, and was the last president to have been a member of the Whig Party while in office. . . . Historians usually rank Fillmore among the worst presidents in American history, largely for his policies regarding slavery, as well as among the least memorable." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Battle of Jutland":

  "The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, lit. 'Battle of the Skagerrak') was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, during World War I. The battle unfolded in extensive manoeuvring and three main engagements from 31 May to 1 June 1916, off the North Sea coast of Denmark's Jutland Peninsula. It was the largest naval battle and only full-scale clash of battleships of the war, and the outcome ensured that the Royal Navy denied the German surface fleet access to the North Sea and the Atlantic for the remainder of the war, as Germany avoided all fleet-to-fleet contact thereafter. Jutland was also the last major naval battle, in any war, fought primarily by battleships." (Wikipedia HERE.)

(Click on image to enlarge.)

- "My mind to me a kingdom is":

  From a poem (HERE and HERE) by a 16th-century poet (HERE). The first stanza:

      My mind to me a kingdom is;

     Such perfect joy therein I find

     That it excels all other bliss

     Which God or nature hath assign'd.

     Though much I want that most would have,

     Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

- "fragments of celluloid film":

  "Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day uses are for manufactur-ing table tennis balls, musical instruments, combs, office equipment, fountain pen bodies, and guitar picks. . . . Most movie and photography films prior to the widespread move to acetate films in the 1950s were made of celluloid. Its high flammability was legendary since it self-ignites when exposed to temperatures over 150 °C in front of a hot movie-projector beam. While celluloid film was standard for 35mm theatrical productions until around 1950, motion-picture film for amateur use, such as 16mm and 8mm film, were on acetate 'safety base,' at least in the U.S." (Wikipedia HERE; see especially HERE.)

- To say that Avram Davidson was prolific would be an understatement; his short fiction alone consumes four FictionMags pages.

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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"There Is Perfection in the Detection of Crime"

"The Perfect Crime."

By Ben Ray Redman (1896-1961; ISFDb HERE; Saturday Review obit at UNZ HERE; Goodreads list HERE).

First appearance: Harper's, August 1928 (online HERE; go to text page 350).

Reprinted in EQMM, July 1951 (today's text).

Other reprints:

 The World’s Best One Hundred Detective Stories, Volume 5 (1929)

 101 Years’ Entertainment (1941)

 Rex Stout Mystery Magazine #4, March 1946

 Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Australia) #51, September 1951

 Mystery Digest, September 1958

 Suspense (Australia), February 1959

 Suspense (U.K.), February 1959

 Crimes and Clues (1978)

 The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000)

 Murder Short & Sweet (2008).

Filmed in 1957 as an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series (WARNING! SPOILERS! IMDb HERE).

Short story (14 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 93).

(Note: Text magnification might be necessary.)

   "He seemed to have something up his sleeve."

AS WE'VE NOTED before, the perfect crime requires the perfect criminal. The perfect criminal requires perfect knowledge. And, since perfect knowledge lies beyond the reach of us ordinary mortals, there can be no perfect crime or even the conception of one. But that doesn't stop egotistical individuals from trying. Take the killer in a classic movie who justifies himself, at least to his own satisfaction: "I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create"—which exactly echoes the master detective in our story: "the perfect crime must be a work of art, not of necessity." It's too bad that this detective mistakes a crime of passion for a work of art; if he hadn't, he would have saved himself from having to act out "of necessity," and a life would have been spared . . .

Principal characters:

~ Dr. Harrison Trevor ("The world's greatest detective"), Gregory Hare ("eminent criminal lawyer"), Ernest West (deceased), Alice West ("Oh, yes, his wife, gorgeous woman"), Harrington ("He eliminated West"), and Inspector Furst ("still toyed with the idea that it might not have been murder").

References:

- "in one of Pindar's odes":

  "Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet's role. His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the Classical period. Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of the vicissitudes of life, but he also articulates a passionate faith in what men can achieve by the grace of the gods." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "sitting in the electric chair":

  "The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, conceived this execution method in 1881. It was developed over the next decade as a more humane alternative to conventional executions, particularly hanging. First used in 1890, the electric chair became symbolic of this execution method." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a heavy touring car":

  "Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). 'Touring car' is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. . . .Touring car was applied in the U.S. to open cars (cars without a fixed roof, for example convertibles) that seat four or more people and have direct entrance to the tonneau (rear passenger area), although it has also been described as seating five or more people. Touring cars may have two or four doors, and the drivetrain layouts of early touring cars was either front- or mid-engined." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the public hack":

  "Hack is short for hackney (from the Middle English hakeney), which at one time described a horse of average size, used for regular riding—as distinct from stronger horses used for hauling or in war. . . . Hack as a vehicle for hire was established by the 19th century." (Merriam-Webster.com. HERE.) Also see Wikipedia (HERE).

- "in the Street":

  That would be Wall Street:

  "The Wall Street area is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and commercial banks and insurance companies. Several other stock and commodity exchanges have also been located in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street, including the New York Mercantile Exchange and other commodity futures exchanges, along with the NYSE American. Many brokerage firms owned offices nearby to support the business they did on the exchanges. The economic impacts of Wall Street activities extend worldwide." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- ".25 pearl-handled revolver":

  It could have been an automatic, not a revolver, since people loosely refer to any handgun as a "revolver." However:

  "The cartridge is of semi-rimmed design meaning that the rim protrudes slightly beyond the diameter of the base of the cartridge so the cartridge can headspace on the rim. This semi-rimmed design allows for it to be used in revolvers. Although rare, .25 ACP revolvers were produced in the early twentieth century by Belgian, French, and German gunmakers such as Adolph Frank and Decker." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "played dog-in-the-manger":

  "The story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, the metaphor is now used to speak of one who spitefully prevents others from having something for which one has no use. Although the story was ascribed to Aesop's Fables in the 15th century, there is no ancient source that does so. Greek origin: The short form of the fable as cited by Laura Gibbs is: 'There was a dog lying in a manger who did not eat the grain, but who nevertheless prevented the horse from being able to eat anything either'." (Wikipedia HERE.)

"The Perfect Crime" - Alfred Hitchcock, James Gregory, and Vincent Price horsing around

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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