Crime Must Pay the Penalty #7

Apr 1949 · Ace Magazines [1940s-1950s] · 0.10 USD

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This anthology issue presents multiple crime stories based on actual cases. "Showdown in Abilene" recounts a frontier marshal's confrontation with a gun-toting renegade during the lawless days of the American West, set in 1875 at a Texas cattle ranch. A second story follows criminals who execute a elaborate train robbery scheme near New York, stealing ten thousand dollars from a bank account and engineering a train accident to cover their tracks, only to be apprehended when picked up and questioned. A third story depicts a con artist hawking a fraudulent "miracle salve" to gullible townspeople, claiming it cures ailments, before the scheme is exposed as a robbery racket targeting wealthy victims.

Contains 4 stories

The Cleveland Vulture

8 pp · Crime

Peter Calherny, a career criminal with a talent for cruelty, engineers a scheme to rob charity funds meant for the blind—but when his victim can't be allowed to talk, he frames an innocent man for the murder. Now the relentless work of law enforcement begins to close in on the real killer, even as an unsuspecting patsy faces the electric chair. Watch as Calherny's own cunning becomes the noose around his neck.

Showdown in Abilene

6 pp · Western-Frontier

Big Gun of the Arsenal Gang!

8 pp · Crime

Johnny Faronek, a ruthless gangster with a well-stocked arsenal and a talent for manipulation, plots his return to power after years in prison by reuniting with his old rival Roy Julep—but what looks like a partnership is really the setup for a deadly reckoning. As Faronek orchestrates a series of crimes and betrayals to tighten his grip on the underworld, the police close in, determined to prove his involvement in a murder that threatens to destroy everything he's rebuilt.

Jonathan Wild - Kingpin of Crime!

7.66 pp · Crime

In 17th-century England, a petty con artist named Jonathan Wild runs the "miracle salve" scheme alongside other small-time crimes—until he steals gold candlesticks and realizes that organization is the real fortune. Wild begins recruiting the city's scattered criminals into a unified army, teaching them that strength lies not in individual theft but in unified numbers powerful enough to defy the King's soldiers themselves.