"It Would Be So Nice to Live in the Twentieth Century with Its Crimes and Insanity"

"From This Dark Mind."
By Rog Phillips (Roger Phillip Graham, 1909-65).
First appearance: Fantastic, November-December 1953.
Reprinted in Fantastic (UK), February 1954 and Fantastic, July 1967.
Short story (16 pages).
Online at SFFAudio HERE (PDF).

"If the late Rog Phillips was right — in this thoroughly absorbing glimpse of psychiatry 21st-century style — then our great-grandchildren may well see a day when flu epidemics end with a wise word to the men behind 'Little Orphan Annie' and when M.D.'s are subordinated to psychodiagnosticians like Dr. Hugo Bard, who on one notable occasion — this one — not only forestalled a potential murderess but also simultaneously exposed a perfect murder which no one committed!"

It's a world where seemingly innocent words can betray homicidal tendencies and being born again can save two lives . . .

Principal characters:
~ Dr. Hugo Bard: "Here, in a way, he was royalty. Every successful surgeon since the beginning of time knows the feeling, and lives for it. The surgeon is a king, his subjects the internes and nurses, his kingdom the incarnate manifestations of his specialty."
~ Mable: "Better have your head examined, doc."
~ Nancy: "Mr. David Green just canceled his appointment for today. He has the flu."
~ David Green: ". . . everything indicates he has murder on his mind."
~ Capt. Jim O'Conner: "When the city fathers hand down orders that you medics can forecast crime I'll help you. Until then I can't do a thing . . ."
~ Mrs. Gorham: "Eventually she might have shot her husband for dropping ashes on the rug or something just as monumental."
~ Dr. Allan: "Last time I'll play second fiddle to a psychodiagnostician."
~ George Davis: "Not too intelligent, but well adjusted to his body-type and station in life."
~ Mary Davis: ". . . a sixty-forty personality."
~ Dr. Arden: "Good lord, man, do you realize what an enormous task it would be to contact five thousand doctors in one afternoon?"

Comment: A society constantly being tweaked by even just a few Hugo Bards could be a great place to live or a nightmare, depending on which parts of your mind (and how much of those) you (as well as the people around you) are willing to have edited or excised.

Resources:
- Wikipedia HERE - The SFE HERE - The ISFDb HERE - FictionMags HERE - A few works by Rog Phillips are at Project Gutenberg HERE - A list of 50 mind control movies at Listal HERE - Wikipedia ("Gestalt psychology") HERE and ("Word Association - Psychology") HERE.
- It wasn't too long ago that we dealt with futuristic psychiatry HERE.

The bottom line: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

   — The Bible

"As Guiltless As the Babe Unborn"

"A Circumstantial Puzzle."
By R. E. Francillon (1841-1919).
First appearance: Unknown.
First collected in Romances of the Law (1889; online HERE).
Reprinted in Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection (1992; dis-cussed HERE and for sale HERE).
Novelette (25 pages).
Online at SFFAudio HERE (PDF), Forgotten Books HERE, and Hathi Trust HERE (slow load).

"This story is not a sentimental one."

There is skulduggery afoot in Redport, but the victim refuses to believe the truth—and the person trying to sort it all out winds up in gaol:

The almost insuperable difficulty of telling a story with even a grain of truth in it is this—or, I should rather say, the two insuperable difficulties are these: firstly, there is never the faintest dramatic point about really true stories; secondly, if they are worth telling at all, they are almost always incredible. And the truer they are, the more pointless and the more incredible they are. The story I am going to tell is neither dramatic nor probable. And yet it seems to me worth telling . . .

Principal characters:
~ Charles Standish, a solicitor: Enmeshed.
~ John Buller, a businessman: Unpredictable.
~ Adam Brown, a financial clerk: Untrustworthy.
~ George Richards, a bank manager: Duty-bound.

Comment: A 20th- or 21st-century mystery author could have given this story a neat twist, but Francillon has chosen to be prosaic and disappointingly predictable; the characterization, which is good, alone carries the narrative weight.

Resources:
- When the author says "very few men indeed are Timons," see HERE and HERE for what is meant; the plot hinges on a case of monomania, detailed HERE.
- The Early Office Museum has information about 19th-century check protection measures HERE.
- We can't find very much about R. E. Francillon, the most being bibliographical at FictionMags HERE.
- One of Francillon's most enduring works has been Gods and Heroes (1894), a children's mythology book that's still in print, online HERE and HERE.

The bottom line: "The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery."
   — Ralph Hodgson

"While I'm Working in the Ballroom You'll Dust Off the Safe in the Bedroom Upstairs"

"Open and Shut."

By C. S. Montayne (1892-1948).
First appearance: Clues Detective Stories, November 1935.
Collected in Frozen Hours (for sale HERE).
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online at the Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

"Say, isn't it funny the way guys fall for these redheads? They must be smart or something."

Never get between a girl and her jewelry—never:

He drilled a hole above the safe’s central knob. The soap filled in the crack around the door. With an eyedropper he carefully dripped nitro into the hole. Then he made the double connection with the detonator wires, held a rug snatched up from the floor over the safe and touched off the charge. The explosion was dull and muffled. He dropped the rug, opened the twisted door and lifted out an ebony jewel box.

He carried the box to the bed, opened it and stared at its glittering contents.

A voice came from the other side of the room. "I really wouldn't take that away," it said. "Mother is particularly fond of her necklace and rings. If I were you I'd put it back."

Principal characters:
~ Slim Gordon: In the criminal world, he'd be middle management.
~ Anstey: When he's not cracking safes, he's getting bamboozled by pretty girls.
~ Professor Morgan: He works his magic by remote control.
~ "A pretty girl with bright-red hair": . . . and plenty of moxie, too.

Resources:
- When it came to crime fiction, C. S. Montayne was primarily a writer of the hardboiled school; three of his series characters were The Canary Kid (list HERE), Johnny Castle (info HERE, HERE, and HERE), and Dave McClain (HERE and HERE). Montayne was also a member of a mob of writers who churned out adventures for The Phantom Detective (not to be confused with Lee Falk's The Phantom)—see article HERE and list HERE; his own massive FictionMags listing begins in 1913 and runs to 1950.

The bottom line: "Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, More than quick words, do move a woman's mind."
   — Shakespeare

"So I Decided, If I Was Going to Do the Thing At All, I'd Do It Up Right, and Kill Her Properly!"

"The Crime Therapist."
By Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99).
First appearance: Future Science Fiction, October 1954.
Collected in The Dark Intruder & Other Stories (1972, Ace Double).
Short story (8 pages).
Online at SFFAudio HERE (PDF).

"The trouble with substitutional expression is that the subject knows he's substituting . . ."

If, in the "streamlined, crime-less world" of 2467, children are compulsorily required to undergo social conditioning, then the impulse to commit murder should be practically unheard of—so why is Frank Colby fighting the urge to kill his wife?

"You must try to be brave. You see, he decided on the murder therapy. I suppose you have no objection to being murdered?"

"None whatever, but—oh, that's so drastic!"  . . .

Principal characters:
~ Dr. Rhoum (Ex-T.), M.D., Licensed Crime Therapist: He has the cure—even if it means murder.
~ Frank Colby: There's only one thing separating him from that girl at the Sky Harbor 

Hotel—a victim.
~ Mrs. Helen Colby: She has a right to be afraid.
~ Demella and Hamilda: Dr. Rhoum's otherworldly (in more ways than one) assistants.

Technoprolepsis: According to our author, the 25th century has its good points:

. . . here on a modern Earth, where you could have shrimp in California and twenty minutes later, for a fifty-cent traffic-token, have coffee in Boston; where two weeks passage on a dionite-drive spaceship would take you to Theta Centaurus, and two months to the fourth planet of Antares. Here, where children were carefully conditioned for social adjustment, and crime simply was not.  . . .

Resources:
- Dr. Rhoum is a "Rigellian," presumably from a planet orbiting Rigel (which might be comprised of three or even four stars); see HERE for how authors have used Rigel in their fiction and HERE for what's now known about it. Aldebaran also gets a mention; see HERE and HERE for more.

- Other data sources: Wikipedia HERE - SFE HERE - FictionMags HERE - ISFDb HERE - Project Gutenberg HERE.
- Another science fiction story concerned with future crime is discussed HERE.
- Controversy has plagued Bradley's reputation in the years after her death, as denoted in The Guardian article HERE.

The bottom line: "There is only one cure for a murderer."
— Dr. Rhoum

"We Merely Observe the Clues, Deduce the Truth, and Announce the Criminal"

For those of you with Kindles, one of our intrepid readers named Cisco has collected together Carolyn Wells's five stories about a most unusual group of detectives, with the title Sherlock Holmes and the International Society of Infallible Detectives: Five Classic Pastiches of Holmes and His Rivals. It's for sale at a very reasonable price HERE.

The Amazon description reads thus:

"The members of the Society of Infallible Detectives were just sitting around and being socially infallible in their rooms in Fakir Street when President Holmes strode in. He was much saturniner than usual, and the others at once deduced there was something toward." 

Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin, A. J. Raffles, The Thinking Machine and many others assemble for five cases of mischief, mayhem, and murd... well, not quite murder. But certainly mischief and mayhem. Publishing in newspapers and magazines from 1912 to 1917, mystery writer Carolyn Wells (1862-1942) provides us with five comical tales of the assembled literary detectives of her day. All five stories are accompanied by their original illustrations, including three by classic Sherlock artist Frederic Dorr Steele. The stories are:

* "The Adventure of the Mona Lisa"
* "Sure Way to Catch Every Criminal. Ha! Ha!"
* "The Adventure of the Lost Baby"
* "The Adventure of the Clothes-Line"
* "Cherchez la Femme"
* . . . plus "Sources" and 13 illustrations.

Resource:
- We've previously dealt with this estimable society HERE.

"If a Thunderbolt Had Fallen It Could Hardly Have Caused Greater Consternation"

"The Arrest of Captain Vandaleur."
Florence Cusak #2.
By L. T. Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, 1844-1914) and Robert Eustace (Eustace Robert Barton, 1868-1943).
First appearance: The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine, July 1899.
Collected in 21 Mysteries (Kindle Megapack for sale HERE).
Short story (14 pages).
Online at SFFAudio HERE (PDF), ManyBooks HERE, and Prof. David Stewart's collection HERE (PDF).

"I arrest you for conspiracy, and for fraudulently obtaining money by means of a trick."

Concerned about a close friend of hers, Laura Farrell, Florence Cusak seeks Dr. Lonsdale's help in curing her friend's husband, Walter, of a "moral insanity," a gambling addiction that Florence is convinced will eventually result in financial ruin for them both.

The problem is further complicated by the involvement of a bookmaker who feeds Farrell's habit, Mr. Rashleigh, known to the C.I.D. as "a notorious swindler," and by Captain Vandaleur, whom Florence knows "well in connection with more than one shady affair."

To cap it all off, Mrs. Farrell is terminally ill, the result, Lonsdale determines, of psycho-somatic illness brought on by excessive worry. For Florence and the doctor, it's clear that unless they expose the fraud being practiced on Farrell very soon, not only will he be reduced to penury but Laura will almost certainly die of a broken heart . . .

Principal characters:
~ Florence Cusak: Amateur detective and sometime police consultant who keeps her secrets and, in this case, sniffs out the modus operandi.
~ Dr. Lonsdale (the narrator): The Watson of the piece.
~ Walter Farrell: Honorable but foolish.
~ His wife, Laura: On her way to extinction, unless . . .
~ Mr. Rashleigh: He's betting he'll get away with it.
~ Captain Vandaleur: Much too lucky.
~ Inspector Marling of Scotland Yard: He has a loud voice.

Comment: This one taps into several of the the richest veins of Victorian melodrama, with what's at stake very nearly going over-the-top; as for the finale, the less said the better.

Resources:
- While a crooked bookie operation is at the heart of our story, England has had legal racetrack betting for quite some time:

The first bookmaker in the United Kingdom is considered to be Harry Ogden, who opened a business in the 1790s, although similar activities had existed in other forms earlier in the eighteenth century. Following the Gaming Act 1845, the only gambling allowed in the United Kingdom was at race tracks. The introduction of special excursion trains meant that all classes of society could attend the new racecourses opening across the country. Cash concentrated towards the bookmakers who employed bodyguards against protection gangs operating within the vast crowds. — "Bookmaker," Wikipedia

- The story mentions "flat racing," which you can read about HERE.

- About L. T. Meade: Wikipedia HERE, GAD Wiki HERE, and FictionMags HERE; about Robert Eustace: Wikipedia HERE, GAD Wiki HERE, and FictionMags HERE.
- FictionMags (HERE) lists only four Florence Cusak stories:
   (1) "Mr. Bovey's Unexpected Will" (1899)
   (2) "The Arrest of Captain Vandaleur" (1899)
   (3) "A Terrible Railway Ride: The Story of the Man with the False Nose" (1900)
   (4) "The Outside Ledge" (1900)

- One of Meade and Eustace's most popular works is A Master of Mysteries (1898), which is discussed HERE and online HERE.

The bottom line: "The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."
— John Steinbeck

"PIRATES! PIRATES! We're Being Attacked by Space Pirates!"

"Grandma Perkins and the Space Pirates."
By James McConnell (1925-90).
First appearance: Planet Stories, March 1954.
Short story (15 pages).
Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; select page 6 from the dropdown menu).

"Raven-haired, seductive Darling Toujours' smoke-and-flame eyes kindled sparks in hearts all over the universe. But it took sweet old Grandma Perkins, of the pirate ship Dirty Shame, to set the Jupiter moons on fire."

It was supposed to be a normal in-System trip from Callisto to Earth for the Kismet, and it was until . . . As usual, there's never a cop around when you need one:

"Pirates! Attacking us! Incredible!" cried the Captain. "There are no pirates any more. What have we got a Space Patrol for? Where in blazes is the Space Patrol anyway?"

But the Captain doesn't know the half of it, and would probably pop a valve if he even suspected that a certain little old lady was bored with the trip and looking for some excitement:

"If I go down and hide, I'll miss all the fun. Of course, it's safer, and an old woman like me shouldn't be up and about when pirates are around, but—" A delicious smile spread over her face as she took her scruples firmly in hand and turned to follow the bellowing Captain towards the bridge.

Principal characters:
~ Grandma Perkins: At a mere 152 years of age, she's "a withered little lady, scarcely five feet tall, with silvered hair, eyes that twinkled like a March wind, and a friendly rash of wrinkles that gave her face the kindly, weathered appearance of an old stone idol. Her slight figure was lost in volumes of black cloth draped on her in a manner that had gone out of style at least fifty years before."
~ Darling Toujours: 3-D video film star; "She was credited with being the most beautiful woman alive and there were few who dared to contradict her when she mentioned it."
~ Carlton E. Carlton: The "acid-tongued author whose biting novels had won him universal fame."
~ Captain Homer Fogarty: Bluff Commander of the luxury STARship Kismet (capable of "blasting through space at close to the speed of light"); Fogarty's been known to charge about "like a rhinoceros in heat."
~ Johnny Weaver: Helpful ship's steward.
~ Commodore Trumble of the Space Patrol: "His cap carried enough gold braid to stock a small-sized mint."
~ Professor Spindle (offstage): "He invents lots of things."
~ The space pirates manning the Lulu Belle (soon to undergo a name change): Lamps O'Toole, their "nominal leader"; Snake Simpson, his none-too-bright second in command with a tendency to malapropism; and Willie Wicket, "the youngest of the pirates."

Comments: If you remember the Helen Hayes character in Airport (made, please note, sixteen years later), you'll have a good picture of Grandma Perkins. Typos: "metallic coveting"; "dean suits."

Resources:
- On occasion science fiction writers have given Callisto, Darling Toujour's home "planet" and one of Jupiter's 67 moons, some attention (as shown HERE); the real Callisto as depicted by space probes (see HERE) has proven to be far different from what they initially imagined.

- There's an article about James McConnell at Wikipedia HERE and one at SFE HERE, while the ISFDb has bibliographical details HERE.

The bottom line: 

  "You've got a great deal to learn about women."
    — Grandma Perkins