Crime and Punishment #36

A chaotic mid-day shootout erupts right on the cover of this 1951 entry in Lev Gleason's long-running true-crime anthology — Charles Biro's cover art captures a fedora-wearing gunman getting shot outside a barber shop, as police close in from one side and accomplices scramble on the other, with speech bubbles crackling with tension. The banner promises three tales inside, including "The Fifth Man," "Case of the Red-Headed Killer," and "Blackmail," all framed as true criminal case histories. At 52 full pages for just a dime, this is a satisfying slice of postwar crime comics at their most visceral.