Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1015

About this issue

William Perry Brown's "The Reporter-Detective's Big Pull; or, The Wall Street Swell's Snag" is a detective mystery serial published in 1897. Young newspaper reporter Tom Boland receives an assignment from his night editor to interview financial magnate Commodore Sutherland regarding a speculation scandal involving Union Pacific stock. Arriving at the Sutherland mansion, Boland discovers the commodore's body lying in the drawing-room with a crushed skull. Before notifying police, he investigates, finding a bloody gas-pipe murder weapon, a scarf pin and tie fragment clutched in the victim's hand, and evidence suggesting the killer deliberately left the front door unlocked. Arriving just as Boland examines the weapon, De Lancy Leland—the commodore's nephew—accuses the young reporter of murder. Police arrest Boland despite his protestations, while Sutherland's grief-stricken daughter Agnes arrives to identify her father's body, appearing to doubt the reporter's guilt.