Crime Does Not Pay #63

"On the Level" by C.H. Moore tells how three armed bandits held up a gas station in Railway, New Jersey, but the quick-thinking telephone operator notified police and they were apprehended as they left. The story includes several true crime anecdotes: Mrs. Ruth McBride of Pittsburgh surprised a purse snatcher and beat him; a French convict escaped using a gun made from cake crumbs; Charles Little attracted Kansas police attention due to his unnaturally green hair, which he had bleached to disguise his appearance after deserting the Navy; and sneezeless soap powder led to the capture of a warehouse burglar in Washington, D.C. A longer narrative follows three sons of a criminal family through generations as they continue their father's murderous ways, until one son's photograph inspires the formation of a crime-fighting organization that eventually brings the family's cycle of violence to an end, with the final member meeting his fate in a St. Louis diner.