Crime SuspenStories #10

In "Rocks in His Head!" from Crime SuspenStories #10 (1952), Charles, a surgeon haunted by financial guilt, finds himself entangled in a web of desperation after his wife Cynthia flaunts a $4000 mink coat. When a hospital emergency forces him into surgery, he’s tempted by a valuable diamond ring on his patient’s hand—then hides it in the skull of a dying man, hoping to retrieve it later. But secrets buried beneath the surface may not stay quiet for long.

In "Lady Killer," Ralph’s plan to eliminate his wife goes awry when he returns home to find her gone—only to be confronted by the chilling aftermath of her vengeance. As he waits, memories of his affair with Jeanne surface, revealing a web of deceit that unravels in a single, deadly night. The story unfolds with cold precision, leaving Ralph trapped in a trap of his own making, facing justice for a murder he didn’t expect to commit.

In "Missed by Two Heirs!" from Crime SuspenStories #10 (1952), two stepsons plot to inherit their late mother’s fortune by eliminating Henry, the man who received it—first by sabotaging the spiral staircase he uses, then by poisoning his orange juice. When Henry outsmarts them and leaves with a sample for the police, the boys drink the poison themselves, certain they’ve avoided suspicion. But as the officers arrive at the door with a twist neither expected, the truth of their fate hangs in the balance.

In "Friend to 'Our Boys'!", Corporal Tacker returns home on leave to find his family’s rented house overrun by rats and insects, a squalid state the landlord refuses to fix. With no help from the USO and his family’s safety at risk, Barry takes them to a hotel and demands his security deposit back—only to be told he must inspect the property first. When the landlord enters the crumbling house to fabricate damage, the floor gives way, plunging him into a nightmare of gnawing rats, with no one to hear his screams.