UPDATE: Stewart Sterling's "Fit to Kill" and "Shot with Luck"

Story links changed to The Luminist Archives (HERE) and one cover image swapped out.

"It Was a .38 Colt Revolver, Recently Fired, Wrapped in a Shaggy Black Wig"

Here's a story featuring one of Ed Hoch's series characters that, as far as we can tell, hasn't been reprinted anywhere. Hoch's 'tec went by two names: "Al Darlan" and "Al Diamond." In this one he's working as "Darlan," who's been hired to do some campus sleuthing as he tries to find out who put the . . .

"Money on the Skull."

By Edward D. Hoch (1930-2008; ISFDb HERE; Wikipedia HERE).

First and only appearance: Antaeus, Spring/Summer 1977.

Short story (16 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "Call off your goons or they'll end up in the river along with those boats."

About thirty years ago there was a sensational case involving an attempt to cripple a figure skater. In today's story our gumshoe is called in to investigate what might be an attempt to do something similar in competitive rowing at a small college, but this time the result isn't limited to just personal injury but murder . . .

Main characters:

~ Arnold Bantor:

  "You don’t talk much like a private detective." 

~ P.I. Darlan:

  "That’s because you watch too much television."

~ Frank Evans:

  "He relaxed into a grin. 'Hell, all women are witches, aren’t they?'"

~ Gretel Mackenzie:

  "She smiled, eyes boring holes through us, and held up the white thing in her hand. I saw now that it was a bone—a polished white bone about eight inches long. 'I’ve been fine, Frank,' she answered, pointing the bone at his chest."

~ Gilda Harcourt:

  ". . . was a striking girl with short brown hair and a ready smile. She stuck close to the side of a leering gray-haired man who must have had twenty years on her. This, I learned, was her husband—Professor Devon Harcourt of the English Department."

~ Devon Harcourt:

  "If she [Gilda] was playing around with the handsome rowing coach, I could well understand it. Harcourt was just a dirty old man."

~ Sam Turk:

  "A smile now—slight, but playing about his lips. 'Bantor worries about the obvious'."

~ Roscoe Spice:

  "'I don’t know a thing about it,' he said, but he averted his eyes."

Resources and references:

- There's plenty of information about the competitive sport of rowing and, in particular, sculling in Wikipedia (HERE) and (HERE).

- "Ever since New York State legalized off-track betting, all the big money goes to the betting parlors. They’re all over Manhattan, and there are a few upstate too. It’s killing guys like me":

  An instance of making legal what was once a felony:

  "Off-track betting (or OTB; in British English, off-course betting) is sanctioned gambling on greyhound racing or horse racing outside a race track. Before the 1970s, only the state of Nevada allowed off-track betting. Off-track betting in New York was legalized in 1970, after years of unsuccessful attempts. By the 1970s there were 100 betting parlors in New York City, and twice that number by the late 1980s. In New York City, the thought was that legal off-track betting would increase revenue while at the same time decrease illegal gambling activity, but one effect of the legalization was a decrease of revenue at racetracks. The 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act struck a compromise between the interests of horse tracks and owners, the state, and OTB parlors, and stipulated that OTB revenues were to be distributed among the tracks, the horse owners, and the state. Another stipulation was that no OTB parlor was allowed to operate within 60 miles of a track." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- The New Thrilling Detective Website has a concise article about Al Darlan/Diamond (HERE).

- The FictionMags listing for today's detective (note: "ss" = short story; "nv" = novelette):

   ~ ~ ~ Al Darlan (a.k.a. Al Diamond) ~ ~ ~

  (1) "Jealous Lover," (ss) Crime and Justice Detective Story Magazine #4, March 1957 [Captain Leopold is also here]

  (2) "The Naked Corpse," (nv) Killers Mystery Story Magazine #4, March 1957

  (3) "Darkness for Dawn Stevens," (ss) Fast Action Detective and Mystery Stories, February 1958

  (4) "Layout for Murder!", (ss) Off Beat Detective Stories, July 1962

  (5) "Where There’s Smoke," (ss) Manhunt, March 1964 (online HERE)

  (6) "Verdict of One," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, October 1970

  (7) "Twist of the Knife," (ss) Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, December 1970

  (8) "Climax Alley," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May 1971 (online HERE)

  (9) "Lady with a Cat," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November 1971

  (10) "Money on the Skull," (ss) Antæus #25/26, Spring/Summer 1977 (above)

  (11) "The Other Eye," (nv) Crime Wave (Swedish Academy of Detection, 1981)

  (12) "Sunken Car," (ss) Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, June 1982

  (13) "Saratoga Steal," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 2001

  (14) "The Pulp Artist’s Wife," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, August 2006

  (15) "The Girl Next-Door," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2007

  (16) "A Wandering-Daughter Job," (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, June 2008.

- Our last dealings with Ed Hoch's short short short fiction covered two stories: "Getaway!" and "Execution on Clover Street" (HERE).

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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UPDATE: Miscellaneous Monday—Number Nineteen

Changed online link to the GAD site (HERE), not the Thrilling Detective as stated earlier.

"Your Rabbit's a Genius!"

The perfect crime doesn't have to be murder, as we'll see when a smart armchair detective matches wits with . . .

"The Cunning Cashier."

By Arthur Porges (1915-2006; ISFDb HERE; Wikipedia HERE).

First appearance: The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, April 1967.

Short story (9 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 125).

(Note: Text very faded but legible.)

   "He didn't miss a thing . . ."

The recruiting poster urges us to "Aim High." Our thief groks that, but will today's sleuth also get the message?

Principal characters:

~ Lionel Wickwire:

  ". . . was so much traditional cashier—meek, competent, faithful, and underpaid—that the most gullible bank manager should have been able to predict criminal activity as inevitable. Yet, when the theft came, 'Old L.W.' broke from the norm to display a kind of brassiness not 

in character at all."

~ Captain Gregg:

  ". . . explained all this, quite ruefully, to Julian Morse Trowbridge, who slumped behind a huge, littered desk, almost lost in a sagging armchair that seemed upholstered with dirty leather over quicksand."

~ Julian Morse Trowbridge:

  "Once a child prodigy in mathematical physics—among other things—at Harvard, Trowbridge had developed too much intellectual horsepower for his youthful chassis. 

After a complete breakdown, he had vanished . . ."

Typos: "Julian Morse Townbridge"; "gatepots".

References and resources:

- "Like that man-sized rabbit in the play a few years back. Except that he's not invisible":

  You might have seen the movie:

  "Harvey is a 1944 play by the American playwright Mary Chase. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work in 1945. It has been adapted for film and television several times, most notably in a 1950 film starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Harvey is a 1950 American comedy-drama film based on Mary Chase's 1944 play of the same name, directed by Henry Koster, and starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull. The story centers on a man whose best friend is a puca (pooka) named Harvey, a 6 ft 3 1⁄2 in (1.92 m) tall white invisible rabbit, and the ensuing debacle when the man's sister tries to have him committed to a sanatorium." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "I've built a kind of blinker device, well-known in astronomy":

  That's how Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto (yes, it's still a planet) 93 years ago:

  "A blink comparator is a viewing apparatus formerly used by astronomers to find differences between two photographs of the night sky. It permits rapid switching from viewing one photograph to viewing the other, 'blinking' back and forth between the two images taken of the same area of the sky at different times. This allows the user to more easily spot objects in the night sky that have changed position or brightness. It was also sometimes known as a blink microscope. It was invented in 1904 by physicist Carl Pulfrich at Carl Zeiss AG, then constituted as Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Clyde William Tombaugh (1906–97) was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was considered a planet, but was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Tombaugh's task was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs, then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the plates to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or appearance between photographs. On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and 29. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 21 helped confirm the movement." (Wikipedia HERE.)

It's a planet. Get over it.

- "Thoreau was right in stressing the problems of ownership":

  "And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house which Minerva made, that she 'had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided;' and it may still be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation, have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only death will set them free." (Walden, 1854: "Economy" HERE.)

- We last communed with Arthur Porges in re his story featuring the first appearance of his series sleuth Cyriack Skinner Grey, "The Scientist and the Bagful of Water" (HERE). Follow the links from there to other Porges writings.

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 Set-up Was Perfect!"

Continuing with our detour into perfect crimes, we return to one of our favorite uberpulpsters as he explores how things can go wrong with a killer affecting . . .

"That Well-Groomed Look."

By Ray Cummings (1887-1957; FictionMags HERE).

First appearance: 'G-Men Detective,' May 1947.

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 78).

(Note: Text faded but readable.)

(Parental caution: Violence.)

   "It looked as though nobody could ever discover the slip-up in George Dufois' perfectly-planned act of murder, and yet—"

"It is a sad thing to think of," said Dorian Gray, "but there is no doubt that Genius lasts longer than Beauty." George, however, is here among us to show how that isn't necessarily true . . .

Typos: "Suprisingly"; "the captial"; "It's safety".

Main characters:

~ George Dufois:

  "A conceited ass, without the nerve to do anything but admire himself in the mirror! And you think I'll risk ten thousand on you?"

~ Alton Kane:

  "Stingy old buzzard! Okay, he was asking for it!"

~ Sergeant McFee:

  "Them's nice shoes you got on, Dufois!"

~ Peter Jackson:

  "It was Kane's only close neighbor who had arrived."

References and resources:

- "pearl-gray spats":

  "Spats were worn by men and, less commonly, by women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They fell out of frequent use during the 1920s. Made of white cloth, grey or brown felt material, spats buttoned around the ankle. Their intended practical purpose was to protect shoes and socks from mud or rain, but also served as a feature of stylish dress in accordance with the fashions of the period." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "at the haberdasher shop":

  "The word haberdasher appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It is derived from the Anglo-French word hapertas. It is debatable what hapertas meant, but most likely it was some type of fabric or assorted small ware. A haberdasher would retail small wares, the goods of the pedlar, while a mercer would specialize in 'linens, silks, fustian, worsted piece-goods and bedding'." (Wikipedia HERE.)

That's future U.S. president Harry Truman in his haberdashery in the 1920s.

- If you're interested in real-life perfect crimes then find a few (HERE).

- Our last visit with Ray Cummings also had a perfect crime theme; go (HERE) for that.

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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"Far from the Perfect Crime"

"Eye Witness."

By Grant Lane (house pseudonym used by William G. Bogart, 1903-77).

First appearance: Underworld Detective, July 1935.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 66).

(Parental caution: Violence and language.)

   "In former years, Slip had done a lot of thinking of the perfect crime. He congratulated himself now on having pulled one. It was such a cinch."

The perfect crime. Yeah, sure . . .

Principal characters:

~ Slip Leighton:

  "Too bad everybody didn't have brains like Slip. But then everyone couldn't be smart."

~ Stan Fraser:

  "Looked as though Stan Fraser was doing pretty well with himself these days. Well—why not? Hadn't he and Lea given Slip the run-around and let him take the rap?"

~ Lea Turner:

  "A slight moan broke from her lips. But that was all."

~ Manx:

  "Slip knew immediately that the cat was a Manx. It was the cat Stan had had ever since Slip knew him."

~ The old lady:

  "She eyed him critically, expecting an apology. But Slip never apologized to anyone."

~ Detective Smythe:

  ". . . huge and with a beety red face, steamed in."

Typo: Is it Stan "Fraser" or Stan "Frazer"?

Reference and resources:

- "a Manx":

  "The Manx cat (in earlier times often spelled Manks) is a breed of domestic cat (Felis catus) originating on the Isle of Man, with a mutation that shortens the tail. Many Manx have a small stub of a tail, but Manx cats are best known as being entirely tailless; this is the most distinguishing characteristic of the breed, along with elongated hind legs and a rounded head." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Writing as "Kenneth Robeson," our author (William G. Bogart) produced 3 Doc Savage novels on his own and with Lester Dent wrote 11 more (FictionMags HERE), plus dozens of stories in several pulp genres.

- You could also be interested in Edmund Pearson's take on the perfect crime (HERE).

- You might find it alarming how many university students have plotted perfect crimes (fictionally, of course), at least six of them, but the pros do get a representation with David Morrison's "Slight Detail" (HERE).

- Finally, we discussed Bogart's wartime crime story "Murder on Santa Claus Lane" (HERE) a few years ago while the story link was still available.

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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"My Own Theory, If Reduced to Practice, Would Prove Not To Be Paradoxical At All"

"Pangborn's Paradox."

By David Mason (Samuel Mason, 1924-74) (ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

Illustrated by Richard Kluga (HERE).

First appearance: Infinity, June 1958.

Reprints page (HERE).

Short short story (5 pages).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

   "So you know all the punchlines to the old kill-your-own-grandfather gag, eh? Wanna bet?"

. . . and it's on a bet that Pangborn will seek to demonstrate just how paradoxical his paradox really is—or isn't . . .

Main characters:

~ Randall:

  "'Can't kill grandpa,' Doctor Randall said, from far down in his comfortable chair. 'No such thing as time travel'."

~ Pangborn:

  "'You underestimate the Physics department,' Pangborn told us coldly. 'In spite of heavy losses to our staff—last year's treason trials cost us three of our most brilliant young men—we've made some very remarkable strides. We have what is crudely termed a time machine—although the correct term is temporal transducer. In fact we are currently conducting some very interesting researches with it'."

~ Von Juntz:

  "'But,' Von Juntz reminded him, 'by your own statement you said it, that there is no paradox, and no risk. Grandpa would be dead, you would be alive, and there is no paradox, yes?'"

~ Grandpa Pangborn:

  ". . . at the bar was only one solitary customer, a tall lean man in a frock coat and plug hat with a cigar from which smoke curled richly, and a schooner of beer before him. He looked up at the bar mirror, and we saw a lean, evilly humorous face with the Pangborn features clearly marked on it. 'Grandpa,' Von Juntz whispered."

Reference and resources:

- "Von Juntz liked to look like a nineteenth century Heidelberger":

  For centuries the university in Heidelberg has enjoyed a universal respect due to its intellectual firepower:

  "In 1810 the French revolution refugee Count Charles Graimberg began to preserve the palace ruins and establish a historical collection. In 1815, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia formed the 'Holy Alliance' in Heidelberg. In 1848, the German National Assembly was held there. In 1849, during the Palatinate-Baden rebellion of the 1848 Revolutions, Heidelberg was the headquarters of a revolutionary army. It was defeated by a Prussian army near Waghaeusel. The city was occupied by Prussian troops until 1850. Between 1920 and 1933, Heidelberg University became a center of notable physicians Czerny, Erb, and Krehl; and humanists Rohde, Weber, and Gandolf." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- If you found today's story interesting, then you might find Sgt. Mort Weisinger's "Thompson's Time-Traveling Theory" (HERE) worth a look.

- However, you'll probably never regard time travel quite the same after you've followed Ben Hardy on his adventures (HERE).

Bottom line:

  "Edith Keeler must die."

   — Spock

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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