Crime Does Not Pay #41

Charles Biro's cover for this 1945 issue of Crime Does Not Pay drops readers straight into a tense barbershop confrontation — a menacing figure in a blue suit looms over a helpless man reclined in the barber's chair, straight razor in hand, while two alarmed bystanders back away in panic. It's the kind of charged, pulpy scene that made this series one of the most gripping crime anthologies of its era, promising "All True Crime Stories" across a full 52 pages. Inside, tales like "The Smile of Death," "The Cocksure Counterfeiter," and "The Slippery Mr. Smith" await, edited by Charles Biro and Bob Wood for Lev Gleason Publications.