Simbiota Criminal

This Spanish-language pulp magazine, Simbiota Criminal by Alan Star (Ediciones Toray, 1959), opens as a science-fiction detective story. Police officer Robert Cone discovers a corpse in a New York alley displaying horrific facial expressions. The body is identified as Evan Roop, a forty-five-year-old spaceship steward recently employed on Earth-Mars runs. Dr. Disher's autopsy reveals extraordinary pathology: Roop's lungs, liver, and spleen are completely devoured, yet with no visible wounds or external trauma. Eleven specialists cannot explain the organ destruction. Donald Callowan and assistant Harold Dean of the Spacial International Police investigate. Dean interviews Roop's landlord Parker and discovers fellow tenant Franklin Bixby, who exhibited unusually exuberant behavior despite Roop's death. Bixby claims he last saw Roop the night of discovery at a bar on Twelfth Street. Roop had complained of stomach pain over several preceding days. The narrative suggests mysterious circumstances surrounding Roop's mysterious death and possible connection to his Mars travels.