THIS week we have a story by the one and only Erle Stanley Gardner! Yes, the Erle Stanley Gardner. Gardner, of course, best known for his Perry Mason stories, wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces both under his own name and a slew of pseudonyms for both books and magazines. He was also wrote numerous nonfiction books that were mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico. According to wikipedia, Gardner was “the best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death.”

When a beautiful woman drops out of the swirling mists of fog looking for directions at the Oakland airport, she accidentally leaves behind a purse whose contents may or may not be linked to at least one murder and who knows what else—and it sends Dave Flint on a mission to find the girl and return the bag—even if it means his life! From the pages of the February 1930 issue of Flyers, it’s Erle Stanley Gardner’s “Above the Fog!”

There may be no adventure left on the ground these days, but above the fog. . . .

• Download “Above the Fog” (February 1930, Flyers)

AS A bonus, here’s a brief article about Erle Stanley Gardner that appeared in the pages of the newspaper magazine This Week, the week prior to the supplement serializing his latest novel Fugitive Gold!

An Adventure Every Day
That’s the life of Erle Stanley Garner, whose new serial,
“Fugitive Gold,” begins next week

A STRANGE apparition of squat, chain-like things slowly crawls across a cacti-dotted section of our Southwestern desert and finally takes shape—a string of automobiles and trailers.

A depression riddled clan seeking new life and some small fortune in a change of scene? A new health-movement idea? Or perhaps a gold-seeking expedition hunting a lost mine? No, none of these—though the last is warm. It is merely the home and office of one of America’s most popular authors, whose latest serial, “Fugitive Gold.” begins next week in these pages.

The fiction train on location.

At a glance, it is evident that Erle Stanley Gardner is not the drawing-room, cocktail-drinking type, but a virile, nature-loving man who lives the same sort of vigorous and adventurous life as the heroes of his stories. He is medium height and stocky and wears a wide sombrero and the look of one who has spent much time in the outdoors.

Mr. Gardner’s early life was spent on the Pacific coast. He was admitted to the California Bar when he was twenty-one and found his first clients among those who made their livings from underworld activities. With prohibition, organised crime increased and so did his work and its accompanying dangers.

Once Mr. Gardner, lest he should talk too much, was kidnapped by gangsters and held prisoner in a hideout house, the gangsters expecting a pitched battle with the police. The events of those hours remained indelibly seared upon his memory.

The skill which Mr. Gardner exhibited in the trial of jury cases, however, gradually led to his dropping of criminal cases, and he became widely known as a trial attorney specializing in cases tried before juries. Some ten years ago he wrote his first magazine stories and in 1933 his first book, “The Case of the Velvet Claws.” He has given up the law, of course, and today devotes all his time to writing.

Lunch time on the road.

Erle Gardner has traveled all over the world, but he loves and belongs to the Southwest of which be writes so colorfully and fascinatingly—and so convincingly. Convincingly, because he relies only partly upon imagination for plots, preferring to supplement his stories from first-hand contact. It is not surprising, therefore, that he has found himself in more positions of personal danger than the average man would in two lifetimes.

Upon one occasion, seeking a lost gold mine (much the same as the lost mine that plays so important a part in “Fugitive Gold”) he was challenged by two horsemen, one of whom “cut down” on him with a six-shooter. Gardner finally outdistanced them in his car, felt chagrined when safe, and returned, rifle in hand, “to see what it was all about.” The horsemen stared at him, both fingering their guns; he stared at them. At last a wordless truce was declared and they went their own ways. Such a type of man is Erle Stanley Gardner, the author.

An author? But how does he live in this house on wheels? How does he get any work done? The interviewer stands a little abashed as Mr. Gardner gently explains: “There are three trailers, all self-contained living units. There are double beds; closets; water tanks; stoves; windows; awnings; screens; ice-boxes and radios.

“As to getting work done, I use dictating machines for first drafts of stories and I can dictate fast enough to keep all three of my secretaries busy transcribing. These secretaries, incidentally, have been with me since I began writing eleven years ago and travel everywhere with Mrs. Gardner and me. Two years ago we went to China and left the secretaries behind, but I won’t do that again. There were lots of times I was punching the portable when there were priceless experiences to be had.”

Mr. Gardner is at home in the Southwest.

This, then, is how the man lives whose latest and best novel begins next week in these pages. A novel of the modern bad men of the Southwest. The story of a lost gold mine. A story of adventure, of crime and love. A story packed with thrills and fast-moving action, with breathless suspense and a romance as tender and as strong as the rugged land in which it takes place. Watch for “Fugitive Gold” by Erie Stanley Gardner—in our next issue.

• Download “An Adventure Every Day” (May 19, 1935, This Week)

AN OVERWHELMING majority of Oppenheim’s pulp output were aviation stories, many featuring our intrepid trio, The Three Mosquitoes. In 1933, when the Mosquitoes were winding down their adventures in Popular Publications aviation magazines, Oppenheim tried his hand at a new genre that was very popular at the time—detective fiction. Over the next fourteen years oppenheim would produce eighteen detective stories for the some of the leading magazines in the field—Dime Detective and Dime Mystery Magazines, Popular Detective, Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Mystery, Black Book Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Strange Detective Mysteries and Phantom Detective—as well as even ghost writing a Phantom Detective story (”Murder Calls the Phantom” March 1941).

Finally we have Daniel Craig, known as the Bystander. . .

    He could see himself, young Daniel Craig, then a humble clerk, walking proudly to the marriage-license bureau with the lovely girl who had consented to be his bride. They had been strolling past a bank when the hold-up gang had barged out with their loot, guns blazing a thoughtless swathe. Craig and his fiancee had been what the newspapers called “innocent bystanders.” Craig had only been wounded, but the slug that hit the girl had ripped the life from her; she had died in Craig’s arms.

    Daniel Craig had left all vestige of humble, happy youth in the hospital; he’d come out like tempered steel. In a month he’d hunted down that bank-gang, and killed the man whose thoughtless slugs had slain his fiancee. After that, giving up clerking, Craig had opened this office—into which he now strode—as a private detective. But rarely did a case come whose storm-signals he had not seen beforehand; for as the Bystander, no longer an innocent one, he roamed the streets looking for crime.

Oppenheim’s Bystander appeared in three issues of Dime Mystery Magazine often confronted with weird menaces.

Beauty Treatments for Corpses
July 1940

In his first appearance, the Bystander’s eye is caught by a girl reminiscent of one from his past that leads him to a rotting corpse that had been very much alive moments before. The girl’s own sister tries to hire Craig to investigate why her own body seems to be rotting away until her husband phones and tells her not to. That’s like waving a bone in front of a dog and Craig can’t help but investigate this bizarre series of deaths! From the July 1940 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine it’s Ralph Oppenheim’s Bystander in “Beauty Treatments for Corpses!”

(P.S.—This story contains what must be one of the longest scene of a villain boasting about the details of his fiendish plan ever. I get the feeling Oppenheim had more story than he had room to tell it in and had to resort to the exposition to flesh out the story so to speak. No pun intended.)

On four slabs in the morgue lay the girls who had fallen victim to the mad master of rotting flesh. But to Daniel Craig they marked only the beginning of a murder plague which was to bring him within the very jaws of hell!

• Download “Beauty Treatments for Corpses” (July 1940, Dime Mystery Magazine)

The Bystander—self-sworn enemy of crime since the day his bride became the innocent victim of gunmen’s lead—appeared in two more bizarre tales of weird crime resulting in hideous corpses in the pages of Dime Mystery Magazine:

Thieves Without Faces
September 1940

When the Bystander started out to clear lovely Anne Ferris of a shop-lifting charge, he could not guess what was waiting for him. In all his long years of fighting crime, the Bystander had never seen anything like those vastly, distorted corpses—or that he was putting himself into the power of a monstrous murder syndicate whose victims died with the flesh decaying on their bodies! The Bystander found himself trapped and helpless—while they prepared for their last, most fiendish act of all!

Death Stalks in Purple
February 1941

At first the Bystander refused to help the police find the maker of those hideous, purple corpses. But then people began taking pot shots at him from dark corners, and he realized that Ahmed Bey and company had no real interest in his further health. And the Bystander was never the man to turn down a dare—especially from Death! For the death-loaded touch of an invisible finger was turning lovely young girls into rigid corpses—hideously purple!

AN OVERWHELMING majority of Oppenheim’s pulp output were aviation stories, many featuring our intrepid trio, The Three Mosquitoes. In 1933, when the Mosquitoes were winding down their adventures in Popular Publications aviation magazines, Oppenheim tried his hand at a new genre that was very popular at the time—detective fiction. Over the next fourteen years oppenheim would produce eighteen detective stories for the some of the leading magazines in the field—Dime Detective and Dime Mystery Magazines, Popular Detective, Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Mystery, Black Book Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Strange Detective Mysteries and Phantom Detective—as well as even ghost writing a Phantom Detective story (”Murder Calls the Phantom” March 1941).

We’ve covered Dime Detective Magazine’s “Honest” Glen Kelsey and Thrilling Detective’s Dave Rogers, State Trooper…

This brings us to Jonathan Drake, Ace Manhunter, from the pages of Black Book Detective! Drake appeared in three consecutive issues of the Black Book, but the three stories were written by three different authors. Oppenheim wrote the first of the three stories which introduced the character. Drake was a world-renown criminologist frequently called in to work with the police on their toughest, most baffling cases! The details of these cases were recorded in huge black loose-leaf volumes—his Black Book of Crime!

Drake had been educated in both this country and abroad and possessed a working knowledge of many branches of science, medicine and the arts. He had been thoroughly trained in all types of physical combat and possessed an extensive knowledge of firearms—and an expert marksman with every type of lethal weapon,

Drake lived in what had once been a millionaire’s mansion on upper Fifth Avenue—and transformed into a complete miniature investigation bureau! There was an immense library whose walls were lined with bookshelves that extended from floor to ceiling with practically every bit of literature that had been devoted to the study of criminology. A teletype machine connected directly with police headquarters sat on one desk constantly ticking out all of the vital and routing information that was sent out by the teletype operators at Centre Street.

In another room on the lower floor of the house was a complete file of descriptions, fingerprints and photographs of most known criminals. While in a third room was a morgue of newspaper clippings dealing with all of the important crimes that had been committed during the past twenty years. The entire fourth floor of the house had been transformed into a complete laboratory where Jonathan Drake used all of the most modern methods in tracking down various clues!

Drake was the type of man who liked to surrounded himself with a staff of capable assistants. Men both old and young who had been trained to work under his direction, and who were always on call when he felt their services were needed, but it was upon young Tommy Lowell that Drake depended the most. Though just twenty-one, Tommy had been with the detective ever since Drake had started his career. At that time he had been an orphan newsboy of eleven who had become a friend of Drake.

The criminologist had legally adopted the boy, given him a good education, and Tommy Lowell had developed into an excellent assistant. Red-headed, freckled-faced, he was bright and quick-witted and learned swiftly. Now the two of them lived in the big house on upper Fifth Avenue with two servants who took care of the place. Here they devoted their time to a never ceasing war against crime!

The Death Chair Murders

OPPENHEIM jumps right in and gets the plot going with a grisley electrocution before introducing our hero (a page long descriptive that is repeated word for word in the second story by Donald Stuart (aka Gerald Verner)). When a second victim is found by a manhole still hooked to the city’s electrical grid and burning, Drake tries to find a connection between the two. This leads to four other men—all six had worked a number of years ago for the Triconi mob and now a shadowy Executioner seem to be exacting revenge for the mob—at least that’s how things appear. Will Drake be able to discern the motive behind the murders, unmask The Executioner, and save the lives of the other four men? Find out in Ralph Oppenheim’s “The Death Chair Murders” from the pages of the November 1938 Black Book Detective!

Cold Hands of Horror Reach Out for the Innocent Victims of a Specialist in Slaughter—and Jonathan Drake, New York’s Ace Manhunter, Speeds into Action! A Gripping Complete Book-length Novel of a Grim Executioner’s Vengeance Voltage!

• Download “The Death Chair Murders” (November 1938, Black Book Detective)

More from The Black Book of Crime

THE Black Book of Crime records the sensational, successful cases of Jonathan Drake—New York’s ace manhunter—who brings the latest scientific discoveries, plus his physical strength and consummate skill, to bear upon the lurking crimes that fester beneath the surface of the vast metropolis.

When Jonathan Drake arrived at Backwaters he was not looking forward to his visit with any degree of anticipation. He had no prevision of the tragic events that would take place—but he disliked the average week end house party. This, however, did not turn out to be an average week end house party. From the moment he entered the estate of Montague Hammond, theatrical producer, he was gripped with a strange sense of foreboding. There was death in the warm summer air, bitter hate in the glance of the week end guests when they looked at each other. Then—murder!

Venita Shayne, most beautiful of actresses, one of Hammond’s guests, was the first victim. She was found in the study—in a swivel chair by a writing table, one arm hanging limply at her side, the other, bare to the elbow, flung out across a blotting-pad. On the edge of the desk rested the platinum head, twisted half-sideways. When Drake examined the corpse, he was horrified. The eyes were wide and staring and suffused with blood; the fair skin blotched and mottled and of a horrible liver color. One glance was sufficient to tell him the truth—Venita Shayne—beautiful no longer—was dead!

Venita may have been the first to die—but she was by no means the last during that week end of horror! And it took all the wit and daring of Jonathan Drake to combat the diabolical killer that hovered over Hammond’s estate on invisible wings of menace!

Every page of THE WEEK END MURDERS is crowded with suspense, action and thrills. It’s one of the most baffling of all the cases chronicled in the Black Book of Crime!

WHEN Jonathan Drake arrived aboard the Griffholm in New York Harbor, he was expecting nothing more than a routine job of investigation into the business of a Winter Olympic Star Sports Group. He had no idea that before he reached the upper deck he would be faced with the fiendish murder of the piquant and attractive Scandinavian skating star, Svana Hanson.

She was found just inside the deck window of her cabin, with a knife buried deep in her heart. Evidence showed that the knife had been thrown from a sports deck on which scores of people were congregated. Some of them still engaged in a last game before docking, others lining the rails for a first glimpse of New York. The trail of bloody death moved along through the streets of New York, stalked the covered runways of Madison Square Garden, and then made a final rendezvous at Lake Placid’s winter sports center!

Every page of THE WINTER KING KILLINGS is crowded with glamorous action and spine-chilling thrills. It’s one of the most baffling of all cases chronicled in Jonathan Drake’s Black Book of Crime. You’ll grip the sides of your chair as you follow a sensational series of events to their breath-taking conclusion in THE WINTER KING KILLINGS!

Hero Wanted—Apply Within

BLACK BOOK MAGAZINE first hit the newsstands with the June 1933 issue. For the next six years, it tried different approaches to success. Issue one began with a featured novel and several backup short stories. The following year it started promoting “three new complete novels” in each magazine, but abandoned that approach after four issues. It then tried shorter novelets, combined with short stories. By April 1935, the magazine went on an extended hiatus to return in January 1936 with a “weird menace” approach with scantily-clad women in peril or skulls and severed heads on the covers before going on a break again.

The magazine returned in March 1938 and returned to form with hard crime. It now had one main novel length story and several support stories. In an effort to get readers to return month after every other month, Black Book decided to feature a continuing character in the main novel. First up—A.J. Raffels, the gentleman thief, a character created by E.W. Hornung. the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. The Raffels stories, written by Philip Atkey under the pseudonym Berry Perowne, had been running in Thrilling Detective for the past two years in America and in the pages of The Thriller in England the previous few years before that. Sadly, Raffels only lasted two issues in the pages of Black Book Magazine. (Fear not, he would go on to run occasionally in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine until 1983!)

It’s go big or go home, so next Black Book went with a super sleuth character—Jonathan Drake, Ace Manhunter! Ned Pines had three writers—Ralph Oppenheim, Donald Stuart (aka Gerald Verner), and Charles S. Strong—each write a novel using the character. They’d run them three consecutive issues and judge the results as they always did by reader reaction.

When you have read it, please drop us a line and tell us what you think of it. The readers of this magazine are, you know, its real editors—for your comments, suggestions and opinions, as expressed in your letters, fix our policies. So remember—the more letters, the better the magazine—and let’s have your views on Jonathan Drake and THE DEATH CHAIR MURDERS. Thanks!

I guess readers hadn’t quite embraced the Ace Manhunter as the editors had hoped and in the “Off The Record” column in the March 1939 issue, the editors were already promoting Rick LeRoy, famous globe-trotting detective by Barry Perowne for the next issue. Perowne’s LeRoy had previously appeared in the pages of The Thriller.

He lasted one issue, and it was in the issue after that, July 1939, that fate met destiny and Norman A. Daniels, writing as G. Wayman Jones, introduced readers to The Black Bat who captured the reader’s imaginations and would go on to appear in every subsequent issue until the end in 1953!

Next week: It’s Dime Mystery Magazines’ Daniel Craig, the bystander!

THROUGH the dark night sky, streaking swiftly with their Hisso engines thundering, is the greatest trio of aces on the Western Front—the famous and inseparable “Three Mosquitoes,” the mightiest flying combination that had ever blazed its way through overwhelming odds and laughed to tell of it! Flying in a V formation—at point was Captain Kirby, impetuous young leader of the great trio; on his right was little Lieutenant “Shorty” Carn, the mild-eyed, corpulent little Mosquito and lanky Lieutenant Travis, eldest and wisest of the Mosquitoes on his left!

We’re back with the third and final of three Ralph Oppenheim’s Three Mosquitoes stories we’re featuring this March for Mosquito Month! And this one’s a doozy! Allied intelligence had learned that the Germans had built a great seaplane, destined to turn the whole tide of the naval war. This seaplane was not only a compact fighting and raiding ship, but it could make remarkable speed and cover remarkable distance. It was even rumored that the Germans proposed to send a whole fleet of these new planes across the Atlantic, with the object of raiding the American coast!

Many had been sent and tried to destroy the Reutz Aircraft Factory where said seaplane was being built and developed but were unsuccessful. Our intrepid Trio has been sent in a huge bomber alone, in an effort to get through and take out the plant. But when they are shot down 45 miles behind enemy lines—it’s Travis who comes up with a plan that will take them into the heart of the beast, through enemy jaws, to complete their mission and take out the plant! Read all about it in Ralph Oppenheim’s “Through Enemy Jaws” from the December 1929 issue of Sky Riders!

Into that maelstrom of screaming lead and crashing shells went the Three Mosquitoes, the dare-devils whom nothing could stop. Into that nest of spies and intrigue they dove, on the most treacherous mission they had ever had. Would the demonic, mysterious enemy seaplane gain through? The lives of millions hung breathlessly in the balance!

• Download “Through Enemy Jaws” (December 1929, Sky Riders)

AN OVERWHELMING majority of Oppenheim’s pulp output were aviation stories, many featuring our intrepid trio, The Three Mosquitoes. In 1933, when the Mosquitoes were winding down their adventures in Popular Publications aviation magazines, Oppenheim tried his hand at a new genre that was very popular at the time—detective fiction. Over the next fourteen years oppenheim would produce eighteen detective stories for the some of the leading magazines in the field—Dime Detective and Dime Mystery Magazines, Popular Detective, Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Mystery, Black Book Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Strange Detective Mysteries and Phantom Detective—as well as even ghost writing a Phantom Detective story (”Murder Calls the Phantom” March 1941).

Oppenheim had five stories in the pages of Thrilling Detective—the first two in 1936 and 1937 featured Dave Rogers. Dave Rogers was a motorcycle riding state trooper. In this second of the two published tales, a former state trooper, young Bob Hall, has returned to the station as a Federal Agent investigating a counterfeiting ring that is believed to be operating in the area. Rogers says he’s seen one of the three counterfeiters in the area, but is asked to give Hall a wide berth in his investigation. However, when young Bob Hall turns up frozen solid just a short time after Rogers has seen him speeding by on the other side of town, he throws himself into the case!

From the February 1937 issue of Thrilling Detective, it’s Dave Rogers, State Trooper in Ralph Oppenheim’s “Cold Steel!”

Dave Rogers, State Trooper, Battles Frozen Death in His Fight to Smash a Band of Murdering Counterfeiters!

• Download “Cold Steel” (February 1937, Thrilling Detective)

Next week: It’s Black Book Detective’s Jonathan Drake, Ace Manhunter!

“LET’S GO!” Once more, The Three Mosquitoes familiar battle cry rings out over the western front and the three khaki Spads take to the air, each sporting the famous Mosquito insignia. In the cockpits sat three warriors who were known wherever men flew as the greatest and most hell raising trio of aces ever to blaze their way through overwhelming odds—always in front was Kirby, their impetuous young leader. Flanking him on either side were the mild-eyed and corpulent Shorty Carn, and lanky Travis, the eldest and wisest Mosquito.

We’re back with the second of three tales of Ralph Oppenheim’s Three Mosquitoes we’re featuring this March for Mosquito Month! This one is epic! The “Flying Dutchman” and his Circus have been overwhelming the Allied squadrons up and down the Western Front with their sheer numbers. Needless to say Kirby wants to take out the “Flying Dutchman”—Kellar—and put an end to his Circus. They go up again each other several times with alternating fortunes and develop a mutual admiration and respect for one another. Unfortunately, the Western Front is not big enough for both Aces.

From the April 1928 issue of War Novels!

They were known as the “Three Mosquitoes” Kirby, Carn, and Travis—and they were famous all over the Western Front as the most daring three-plane combination that ever flew over the Boche lines and engaged the enemy planes in deadly combat. Kirby, the leader, was after Kellar, the German ace called the “Flying Dutchman”—and here is the story of what happened—one of the most thrilling and exciting flying yarns ever written! Zoom into her, gang!

• Download “The Sky’s The Limit” (April 1928, War Novels)

And check back next Friday when the inseparable trio will be back with another exciting adventure!

THIS year for Mosquito Month we’re going to focus on some of Ralph Oppenheim’s Detective fiction. An overwhelming majority of Oppenheim’s pulp output were aviation stories, many featuring our intrepid trio, The Three Mosquitoes. In 1933, when the Mosquitoes were winding down their adventures in Popular Publications aviation magazines, Oppenheim tried his hand at a new genre that was very popular at the time—detective fiction. Over the next fourteen years oppenheim would produce eighteen detective stories for the some of the leading magazines in the field—Dime Detective and Dime Mystery Magazines, Popular Detective, Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Mystery, Black Book Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Strange Detective Mysteries and Phantom Detective—as well as even ghost writing a Phantom Detective story (”Murder Calls the Phantom” March 1941).

Throughout all his detective stories, he had a number of detectives that returned in subsequent stories. These are the detective stories we’re going to feature this month. To get things going, we’ll start with the first of Oppenheim’s detective stories—”The Death Lady” featured on the cover! and in the pages of the July 15th, 1933 issue of Dime Detective Magazine!

“The Death Lady” introduces us to “Honest” Glen Kelsey, a private dick who’s built his reputation on the strength of his trustworthiness! “‘Honest Glen Kelsey’—the man you can trust—three years with the Department of Justice, etcetera, etcetera.” His assistant, Mr. Peebles, was the direct antithesis to the young, broad-shouldered Kelsey, whose blue eyes, with their humor wrinkles, showed the lust for adventure—rather he was bald, near-sighted, and very clerkish, with spectacles on his thin nose.

George Cranford visits Kelsey’s office and explains the crux of the case:

“We have become what you might call country gentlemen,” George Cranford explained. “And since we’ve settled up there our life has been stainless; our reputation in the town is unimpeachable. But unfortunately,” his voice faltered, “there is something in the past, something which Stephen and I—Lord, I had hoped it was buried. But the past always comes back. Mr. Kelsey—the past always comes back. I was just beginning to forget—and then, only last week, came the first of the threats. Threats, Mr. Kelsey, from somebody my brother and I were both certain had died years ago—somebody,” his voice was a shaky whisper, “who has returned as if from the grave—from the dead—”

Cranford refuses to divulge too much information in Kelsey’s office and requests he come out to their Connecticut home, but entrust him with a valuable box before departing telling him to keep it in a safe place! Upon opening the box, Kelsey finds only small sharp rocks.

After narrowly getting crushed by a tree just outside the Cranford’s home, Kelsey arrives at the Cranford’s to find a a small group of suspects in the house: besides George and his brother Stephen, their niece from a third brother Ellen; “old family friend” Curtis Harvey; and the swarthy, almost olive-skinned Carlos, the new chauffeur.

Shortly after his arrival, George himself turns up dead and brutally mutilated on the porch! The sheriff is called in, questions everyone and locks down the house with Kelsey inside which does afford him a chance to get more information on people and search for information.

In addition to the question of who the murder is, is the question of why and or how the bodies are turning up mutalated. A question which is spoiled by the cover of the magazine which shows a man torturing another within a Iron Lady! That still leaves the questions of who and why—

From the pages of the July15th, 1933 issue of Dime Detective Magazine, It’s Ralph Oppenheim’s “Honest” Glen Kelsey in “The Death Lady!”

There she stood—that enigmatic murder smile welded on her lips—waiting to clasp her victims in a death embrace. What was this horror-creature who cast her torture shadow over the House of Cranford—whose lightest caress meant bloody mutilation for those she wooed?

• Download “The Death Lady” (July 15, 1933, Dime Detective Magazine)

“Honest” Glen Kelsey would return for a second and final time a few months later. Once again featured on the cover and in the pages of the September 15th 1933 Dime Detective Magazine in a story titled “Brand of the Beast”.

Next week: It’s Thrilling Detective’s Dave Rogers, State Trooper!

MARCH is Mosquito Month! We’re celebrating Ralph Oppenheim and his greatest creation—”The Three Mosquitoes! We’ll be featuring three early tales of the Mosquitoes over the next few Fridays as well as looking at some of Mr. Oppenheim’s detective characters. So, let’s get things rolling, as the Mosquitoes like to say as they get into action—“Let’s Go!”

The greatest fighting war-birds on the Western Front are once again roaring into action. The three Spads flying in a V formation so precise that they seemed as one. On their trim khaki fuselages, were three identical insignias—each a huge, black-painted picture of a grim-looking mosquito. In the cockpits sat the reckless, inseparable trio known as the “Three Mosquitoes.” Captain Kirby, their impetuous young leader, always flying point. On his right, “Shorty” Carn, the mild-eyed, corpulent little Mosquito, who loved his sleep. And on Kirby’s left, completing the V, the eldest and wisest of the trio—long-faced and taciturn Travis.

Let’s get things off the ground with an early Mosquitoes tale from the pages of the October 13th, 1927 issue of War Stories. The great German Ace Breikhart has been making his personal mission to down any observation balloon the allies have up. As a result, our intrepid trio has been assigned the task of protecting the observation balloons. An assignment Kirby finds boring and beneath his capabilities, until…

Breikhart, the greet German Ace, flying his darting little red Fokker, was bringing down captive balloons with devilish frequency. Again he outwitted Kirby—and now Kirby was in a savage, reckless mood!

• Download “Up and Out” (October 13, 1927, War Stories)

And check back next Friday when the inseparable trio will be back with another exciting adventure!

THIS week we have a story from the pen of the Navy’s own Allan R. Bosworth. Bosworth wrote a couple dozen stories with Humpy & Tex over the course of ten years from 1930 through 1939, mostly in the pages of War Aces and War Birds. The stories are centered around the naval air base at Ile Tudy, France. “Humpy” Campbell, a short thickset boatswain’s mate, first class who was prone to be spitting great sopping globs of tabacco juice, was a veteran seaplane pilot who would soon rate two hashmarks—his observer, Tex Malone, boatswain’s mate, second class, was a D.O.W. man fresh from the Texas Panhandle. Everybody marveled at the fact that the latter had made one of the navy’s most difficult ratings almost overnight—but the answer lay in his ability with the omnipresent rope he constantly carried.

Humpy & Tex find themselves in the brig, busted down for their shenanigans. They volunteer to dive down and unfoul the anchor seeing it as a chance to retrieve the cognac they had dropped in the harbor the night before, but end up abandoned without air on the ocean floor—definitely not the place for two airman! “Jawbone of an Ace” by the Navy’s own Allan R. Bosworth is one of the duo’s later adventures from the pages of the January 1935 War Birds.

Humpy And Tex, Flying Fish Of The Azores, In A Mad Scramble From Ocean Floor To Sky-Top For Cognac And Krauts!

• Download “Jawbone of an Ace” (January 1935, War Birds)

THIS week we have a short story by renowned pulp author Frederick C. Davis. Davis is probably best remembered for his work on Operator 5 where he penned the first 20 stories, as well as the Moon Man series for Ten Detective Aces and several other continuing series for various Popular Publications. He also wrote a number of aviation stories that appeared in Aces, Wings and Air Stories.

This week’s story features that crack pilot for World News Reel, the greatest gelatine newspaper that ever flashed on a silver screen—Nick Royce! Davis wrote twenty stories with Nick for Wings magazine from 1928-1931.

Tip Top, one of the biggest producers in the movie field, is looking to add a news reel to their releases and want to buy up one of the present independent movie reel producers and it’s down to Compass and World News Reel. Which ever company can out perform the other and provide the best news reels will get the gig—only problem is, someone’s on the payroll of Compass at World News Reel and causing trouble. From the April 1928 Wings, it’s Frederick C. Davis’ “Winner Take All!”

Two flyers of the newsreel wage an air-feud in the clouds, and over the flame-belching tanks of the oil fields Nick Royce, sky-eater, plays his ace-in-the-hole.

• Download “Winner Take All” (April 1928, Wings)

FREQUENT visitors to this site know that we’ve been featuring Terry Gilkison’s Famous Sky Fighters feature from the pages of Sky Fighters. Gilkison had a number of these features in various pulp magazines—Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Starting in the February 1936 issue of Lone Eagle, Gilkison started the war-air quiz feature Sky Writers. Each month there would be four questions based on the Aces and events of The Great War. If you’ve been following his Famous Sky Fighters, these questions should be a snap!

Here’s the quiz from the July 1936 issue of Lone Eagle.

If you get stumped or just want to check your answers, click here!

THIS week we have a story from the short-lived Sky Devils magazine by Anthony Field. Anthony Field was a pseudonym used by Anatole Feldman who specialized in gangland fiction—appearing primarily in Harold Hersey’s gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories. His best-known creation is Chicago gangster Big Nose Serrano. But he also wrote a number of aviation stories including four stories for Sky Devils featuring Quinn’s Black Sheep Squadron—this is the second of those four stories!

Quinn’s Black Sheep is another of those squadrons populated with other squadron’s troublemakers like Rossoff’s Hell-Cats or Keyhoe’s Jailbird Flight or any number of other examples. It seemed every author had a series with a black sheep squadron.

Captain Jack Quinn, brought in for disciplinary action, manages to convince the General that he could solve a lot of his headaches by hand-picking the problem aces out of other squadrons and forming an essentially independent squadron to take on the Boche. Thus, Quinn’s flight was a crew of hard bitten aces who had been tempered—to a man—in the cauldron of war, having unflinchingly facing Death many times before.

There are rumors of a spy on the Black Sheep ‘drome and when a mysterious woman arrives, Quinn finds himself thrown into the unfamiliar world of intrigue in an effort to find out who the woman is—and who the spy is and finds out there is a sinister plan afoot to wipe out the Allied High Command!

Once again the hell-diving Black Sheep Squadron rears through screaming, shell-torn war skies! Some member of that infamous Black Sheep Squadron was a spy who had sold their honor to hell—so theirs was a double mission of hate as they roared through flaming skies in a mad attempt to save the Allied High Command from raw annihilation!

• Download “Flaming Destiny of the Sky Damned!” (July 1938, Sky Devils)

“HAW-W-W-W-W!” That sound can only mean one thing—that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors is back to vex not only the Germans, but the Americans—the Ninth Pursuit Squadron in particular—as well. Yes it’s the marvel from Boonetown, Iowa himself—Lieutenant Phineas Pinkham!

Phineas Pinkham meets his match when the 9th Pursuit’s latest replacement in the form of one Lieutenant Monk Flanagan, once known as Perfesser Merlin the Great of the Hipperdrome Vodyville Circuit, arrives. Poor Phineas gets a taste of his own medicine—he can certainly dish it up, but can he take it? Find out in Joe Archibald’s latest Phineas mirthquake, “Pride of the Pinkhams” from the May 1932 Flying Aces.

One Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham to a squadron would be enough in any man’s war—according to Major Rufus Garrity. But somebody back at Wing thought differently when he assigned Lieutenant Monk Flanagan, late of the Hippodrome Vaudeville Circuit, to the Ninth Pursuit!

• Download “Pride of the Pinkhams” (May 1932, Flying Aces)

THIS week we have a story by J.D. Rogers, Jr. Rogers is credited with roughly fourteen tales from the pages of Flying Aces, Sky Birds and Sky Aces. “The Yellow Ace” from the August 1929 Flying Aces was his first published tale. In it James Lawrence arrives on the tarmac of the 23rd Squadron R.F.C. with his newly designed fighter plane. In the make-up of this plane was the knowledge and experience of a young man who had played and worked in his father’s aeroplane factory since age permitted. Prompted by zealous patriotic duty he had built this super fighter for his country, a country which the warring nations had far surpassed in the art of building aircraft. Refused a fair demonstration of his plane by a very inexperienced air board, the youth, with his flame of patriotism quenched, turned from his own country to England whose air board was frantic for a plane fast enough and maneuverable enough to successfully combat the German demons who had held the air supremacy through the war.

England welcomed the American. Her air experts praised the flying qualities of his plane demonstrated in trying maneuvers, but they were skeptical of its fighting ability. It was then that the youth, reckless because of miserable failure at home and unexpected success abroad, offered to fly his plane in real combat to prove its fighting ability. The air board, convinced that the pilot knew the maneuvers of air combat, gave him a thirty day trial upon the battle front to prove his handiwork. . .

Read the thrilling adventures of the man who was branded a coward. Follow flaming tracers as they eat into his plane. Watch him zig-zag through steel-spattered skies—and see if he’s yellow!

• Download “The Yellow Ace” (August 1929, Flying Aces)

FREQUENT visitors to this site know that we’ve been featuring Terry Gilkison’s Famous Sky Fighters feature from the pages of Sky Fighters. Gilkison had a number of these features in various pulp magazines—Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Starting in the February 1936 issue of Lone Eagle, Gilkison started the war-air quiz feature Sky Writers. Each month there would be four questions based on the Aces and events of The Great War. If you’ve been following his Famous Sky Fighters, these questions should be a snap!

Here’s the quiz from the June 1936 issue of Lone Eagle.

If you get stumped or just want to check your answers, click here!