"It Had Gotten to the Sordid Stage When He'd Decided To Do Something About It"

"Welcome, Killer!"

By Henry Hasse (1913-77; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

Artist uncredited.

First appearance: Detective Tales, December 1949.

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 101).

(Note: Text faded but readable.)

(Parental note: Strong language.)

   "I've been away a year, but I still know how to use this gun!"

THERE'S been a murder and the man accused of it has run away. Now it's a year later, and the police have just learned that he's come back. Maybe all it takes is an appeal to his better nature and he'll turn himself in. Call it a "crime of passion," challenge the flimsy circumstan-tial evidence, and it might be enough to keep him out of the electric chair, at least. There's a better way, though, but it's risky, and if it goes wrong, he might not live long enough to prove that, in spite of what everybody thinks, he really is innocent . . .

Principal characters:

~ Lieutenant Penger ("I hope they throw the book at you!"), Mel Latting ("He had come back and holed up here"), Lora ("she was no good, she was a two-timing dame"), and Joe Morrow ("huddled in a far corner").

References and resources:

- "a Police Positive":

  "The Colt Police Positive is a small-frame, double-action revolver featuring a six-round cylinder, chambered for either .32 or .38 caliber. A .22 caliber model was also offered. Designed primarily for sale to federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies, the Police Positive was introduced into the firearms market by Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1905." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "Crime of passion":

  "The 'crime of passion' defense challenges the mens rea element by suggesting that there was no malice aforethought, and instead the crime was committed in the 'heat of passion.' In some jurisdictions, a successful 'crime of passion' defense may result in a conviction for manslaughter or second degree murder instead of first degree murder, because a defendant cannot ordinarily be convicted of first degree murder unless the crime was premeditated. A classic example of a crime of passion involves a spouse who, upon finding his or her partner in bed with another, kills the romantic interloper." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "The old unwritten law!":

  A custom that justifies murder:

  "Lex non scripta is a Latin expression that means 'law not written' or 'unwritten law'. It is a term that embraces all the laws which do not come under the definition of written law or 'lex scripta' and it is composed, principally, of the law of nature, the law of nations, the common law, and customs." (Wikipedia HERE).

- We've previously featured two stories by Henry Hasse, one being science fiction, "We're Friends, Now" (HERE), and one that appeared in EQMM eighty years ago, "The Man Who Read Too Many Detective Stories" (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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