Crime and Punishment #70

Ted Armand builds a ruthless criminal empire with spotters, pickpockets, and safecrackers all working under his command—turning a city into his own organized playground of theft and violence. When troublemakers threaten to expose or challenge his operation, Armand eliminates them with cold calculation, drawing the attention of Lieutenant Griggs and the police force determined to find the mastermind behind the crime wave. As the cops close in on Armand's office, the question becomes whether they can stop him before his organization grows too big to dismantle.

When swindler Jason Stone is found dead in his office with a suicide note beside him, Inspector Dane must separate fact from fiction—because the clues tell a very different story. A woman with a personal vendetta, a forged confession, and one crucial detail about a paperweight expose a murder masquerading as self-destruction in this classic whodunit from Crime and Punishment #70.

Frankie Garson starts as a desperate phone repairman who overhears big-money betting conversations on the job—a glimpse of wealth that plants a seed he can't shake. When he's fired for eavesdropping, he cons his way into a bookie operation by offering to rig phone lines for illegal betting, launching himself into a criminal climb fueled by ruthlessness and ambition. As his hunger for power grows, Frankie learns that greed has a price, and the very traits that got him to the top may be what brings him down.

Frankie Klaw, a ruthless St. Louis crime boss, rules his underworld empire with an iron fist—but his abusive treatment of his hapless brother Buck plants seeds of dangerous resentment. When Buck's loose tongue and failed criminal ventures leave him bitter and paroled years later, he reconnects with Frankie's wife Lola, and together they hatch a cold-blooded plot to eliminate the man who's made both their lives miserable. George Tuska illustrates this dark tale of revenge as the law closes in on the guilty.