Crime Does Not Pay #81

Lev Gleason's long-running Crime Does Not Pay reaches issue #81 with a cover by Charles Biro that drops readers right into a tense street confrontation — a woman in a red jacket points and protests her innocence to a sharp-dressed man in a green suit, while a uniformed officer looks on skeptically and a breathless youngster rushes up from behind. The cover promises a full 52-page magazine packed with "All True Crime Illustories," including the featured tale of "Deadly" Matt Cornish, scourge of the fishing fleets, alongside stories with titles like "The Tear Gas Murders!" and "It Looked Like Suicide!" Interior art from George Tuska and the Comics Code seal of approval round out this 1949 issue that made crime comics both thrilling and, ostensibly, a moral lesson.