DEATH IN TURN

If your life seems too good to be true it probably is.

This awesome cover in comic book style goes in the uncredited catgory, another egregious miscarriage of attribution justice. It was painted for the 1959 Red Seal edition of Harry Whittington’s mistaken identity thriller You’ll Die Next!, one of the lightning quick tales at which he was especially good. In this one a man who can barely believe the perfection of his existence—he’s married to a stunning beauty who loves him, is an inexperienced but eager sex partner, and is content to make him popovers* for breakfast—comes to think she has a dark past when gangsters show up to violently upend his existence. It seems to derive from something that happened in San Francisco. He’s never been there—but his wife has. He’s soon on the run from both gangsters and cops, blamed for things he never did, wondering if he enitre life has been a lie. Whittington goes full bore with the villains here. One of them had his eyes burned out with acid and doesn’t bother covering them. He just goes around aiming his vacant sockets at people. You’ll Die Next! isn’t perfect, but considering Whittington at one point produced eighty-five novels in twelve years, we’ll forgive him his flaws. A fun, fast read, this one.

*Crispy biscuits made from eggs, butter, and sugar, kind of like Americanized Yorkshire puddings. Never heard of them before, but they sound yummy.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1976—Gerald Ford Rescinds Executive Order 9066

U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signs Proclamation 4417, which belatedly rescinds Executive Order 9066. That Order, signed in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, established “War Relocation Camps” for Japanese-American citizens living in the U.S. Eventually, 120,000 are locked up without evidence, due process, or the possibility of appeal, for the duration of World War II.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

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