Eww! No way! If you want them shaved do it yourself! Non chiamate la polizia would translate as Don't Call the Police, a title chosen because that's exactly what doesn't happen. A Chicago businessman gets out of the shower to find his mistress dead, and he doesn't call the cops, instead relying on a private investigator named—wait for it—Barr Breed. That's one of the better names. This was published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore for its Biblioteca Economica collection, and it's from 1955 and was written by Bill S. Ballinger, aka Frederic Freyer, aka B.X. Sanborn, aka Barr Breed. Actually, strike that last one. We just wanted to say it again. The book originally appeared in 1948 in the U.S., where it had another precisely descriptive title—The Corpse in the Bed. The art for Signet by Mitchell Hooks was excellent, and you see that below. We'll have more from Hooks later.
Okay, okay, I owe you five bucks—you can do more pull-ups than me. John Richards offers up striking cover art for UK imprint Corgi Books’ edition of Bill S. Ballinger’s The Longest Second. The story concerns a man who wakes up in a hospital bed with amnesia and a slashed throat who must go about finding his identity and situation. Unable to speak, and with no way to tell who is friend or foe, he digs for clues. He discovers his name is Vic Pacific, he was found naked save for his shoes—one of which contained a thousand dollar bill—and things just get weirder from there. Two women quickly become involved, but one of them… well, she ends up hanging around a bit too long. The Longest Second was originally published in 1957, was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1958, and the Corgi edition above is from 1960. It’s considered one of Ballinger’s best.
Crime goes around, crime comes around. Well, we’re back from Madrid, none the worse for wear. Here’s a 1 euro find—a Circulo del Crimen with bloody cover art by Florencio Clavé and fiction by Bill S. Ballinger. The story here is based on the novel Rafferty, aka The Beautiful Trap, which Ballinger wrote back in 1953, but this translated and illustrated version dates from 1985. The 21 in the lower corner tells us there must be a lot of these Circulo del Crimen books floating around. We’ll keep our eyes open for more.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot.
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