Crime Does Not Pay #79

Spike Spitz, a hardened criminal serving fifteen years for armed robbery, is released from prison with one obsession: recovering the fortune in gold he buried in Bluehill years ago before his arrest. He returns to the small town under the guise of reformation, taking up gold prospecting to justify his presence near Mineral Ridge—but Sheriff Corriden grows suspicious of the ex-con's convenient story and shifty manner. As Spike's past associates close in and secrets threaten to surface, his carefully constructed cover begins to crack under the weight of his own violent nature.

A phony theater producer uses a summer stock company as cover for an elaborate jewel theft ring, placing fake servants in wealthy homes to case and rob them. When the police begin closing in on the operation, Jack Roscar pressures his reluctant cast to stage a play that will serve as an alibi for his next big heist—but a fatal mistake at the Rayburn estate puts the law squarely on his trail. This is a true crime story of calculated deception brought down by a single slip-up.

When a holdup at an all-night diner goes bloodily wrong, three bandits scatter—but one of them has shot a cop, and that cop happens to be Lieutenant Jim Scott's father. Scott pursues the trio relentlessly, tracking down one informant after another while Frankie Darrell and his increasingly nervous partner Benny the Weasel flee southbound, leaving a trail of desperation and violence in their wake. What begins as a bungled robbery becomes a personal vendetta, and Scott's determination to bring his father's shooter to justice drives the hunt toward its inevitable collision.