Authentic Police Cases #6
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAuthentic Police Cases #6 (November 1948, St. John) marks Matt Baker's debut on the series that would come to define his non-romance work at the publisher — it is the first of what would become 28 Baker covers across the title's 38-issue run, and one of the earliest signed covers of his career. The issue sits at a hinge point in comics history: it arrived on newsstands during the height of the 1948 moral panic, and both an interior panel by Walter Johnson and stories from this very issue were subsequently weaponized as evidence of comics' harmful influence — by Fredric Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent (1954) and before the New York State Legislative Committee. The backlash that greeted this issue effectively ended the title's first run and redirected St. John's publishing strategy toward romance comics, with Baker's cover work accelerating that pivot.
This anthology issue contains multiple crime stories. "Killer's Mob Caught in Cleanup" depicts a police investigation into organized crime figures, with detectives tracking down Renaud and his associates through interrogation and surveillance. A second story, "Wagon Driver Slain in Hold-Up," follows detectives investigating the murder of a wagon driver named Thomas and the subsequent capture of suspects on Lorain Road. The final visible story concerns fugitive William Miller being pursued by Canadian Mounties through the wilderness after a shootout, culminating in his capture; William Kurulak was sentenced to be hanged and his accomplice Mike received 15 years in prison.
A burglar known as the Human Cat for his stealth and skill at diving through windows strikes a house in New Jersey and shoots the owner during the robbery, but manages to escape. When police launch their hunt, they must piece together evidence from ballistic tests, stolen jewelry, and a crucial gold pin to prove Antonio Boccadora committed the crime—even without finding the murder weapon itself. This authentic police case shows how persistent detective work can trap a cunning criminal when the clues finally come together.
Detective Pat Carlyle races to stop a dangerous gem thief named Renaud, who's been murdering wealthy women for their jewels across the city. When a torn newspaper clipping points to a woman named Elaine as the next target, Pat must track down Renaud before he strikes—only to uncover a shocking connection to a seemingly respectable South American consul who's been orchestrating the entire operation. It's a tangled case of international intrigue, desperate criminals, and a detective working against the clock to protect an innocent life.
Cleveland residents lived in fear of the Red Keenan Gang's reign of robbery and violence—until Detective Cody, Lieutenant Storey, and the city's police force began closing in on the killers. When a sharp-eyed resident recognizes one of the bandits and tips off the authorities, law enforcement orchestrates a dramatic trap that brings the gang's crime spree to its breaking point. Based on actual case files from the Cleveland Police Department, this is the true story of how a dedicated force of officers brought dangerous criminals to justice.
When a midnight robbery in Saskatchewan spirals into a deadly chase, Constable Novakowski and Inspector Moorhead lead the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a relentless pursuit of three dangerous bandits across the Canadian wilderness. As the manhunt intensifies from highways to remote farmland, the fugitives face an ever-tightening net that will test whether the Mounties can bring all of them to justice.
When Patrolman Richard Donald hears desperate cries of "Mama! Mama!" coming from a burning New York apartment building, he springs into action alongside the fire department to rescue what sound like trapped children. As firefighters battle the inferno to reach the source of the anguished calls, the rescue effort takes an unexpected and darkly comic turn that leaves everyone looking rather foolish.
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St. John Publications was still finding its footing when issue #6 appeared — Archer St. John had launched his first non-licensed series barely six months after entering comics with licensed titles, reportedly shaped in his cautious approach to crime material by his 1920s personal run-ins with Al Capone as a newspaper editor. Baker's arrival at St. John in mid-1948 (his first newsstand work for the publisher predating this issue slightly, per Library of Congress copyright records) proved transformative; the cover of #6 was inked by Ray Osrin, a frequent Baker collaborator, as confirmed by comics historian Shaun Clancy from studio documentation. When local newsstand ban lists and press scrutiny caused St. John to pull back from crime comics entirely in late 1948, both Authentic Police Cases and the concurrent Crime Reporter ended in the same month — the following month, St. John pivoted to romance with Teen-Age Romances, again with a Baker cover, cementing the trajectory of both the publisher and Baker's career.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First Matt Baker cover on the series: issue #6 is Baker's debut on Authentic Police Cases, inaugurating what would become a run of 28 Baker covers across the title's 38 issues (1948–1955).
- Cover penciled by Matt Baker and inked by Ray Osrin — confirmed via studio documentation cited by historian Shaun Clancy.
- Interior art by Walter Johnson and Jack Cole (creator of Plastic Man); the Jack Cole story 'Smashing the Red Keenan Gang' was reprinted from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 (November 1939).
- A Walter Johnson interior panel from the story 'Human Cat Trapped by Death Gun Slugs' — featuring the character Antonio Boccadora — was reproduced by Fredric Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent (1954) as an example of objectionable comic content.
- Stories from issues #6 and #7 were cited as evidence of harmful comics before the New York State Legislative Committee.
- The Human Cat story was later reprinted in Fugitives from Justice #3 (St. John, June 1952), retitled and revised.
- PS Artbooks collected issues #6–10 (1948–1950) in a 2019 hardcover volume, with an introduction by Barry Pearl on the series' newspaper-sourced crime stories.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Blue Ribbon Comics #1 (1939), Punch Comics #11 (1944), Dynamic Comics #14 (1945), Red Seal Comics #15 (1946), Punch Comics #18 (1946)
Reprinted in Authentic Police Cases #8 (1950), Fugitives from Justice #3 (1952), Authentic Police Cases #4, Gwandanaland Comics #1410
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