Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #14

A card sharp named Fenwick works a rigged game aboard the S.S. Berkshire, but when a passenger catches on to his cheating, a violent confrontation leaves Fenwick desperate to cover his tracks—and the scratches on his face that could expose him. Cornered and thinking fast, Fenwick devises an elaborate scheme involving a fake alibi and a dangerous plunge into the ocean, only to discover that the one witness he carefully positioned may not be quite what he seemed.

Al Rickey devises what he thinks is the perfect crime: staging his wife Irma's death as a car accident on a mountain road to collect her insurance payout. But as he executes his plan on a remote stretch of road, a simple miscalculation threatens to unravel everything he's worked for.

Roger Cagney, a hardened career criminal facing a life sentence, makes a desperate break from custody and stows away in an Army truck heading out of Colorado, hoping to put enough distance between himself and the authorities before his escape is discovered. As he hides his way across state lines toward what seems like freedom, Cagney's gamble takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself locked inside a mysterious warehouse at a military base—one filled with strange scientific equipment. What started as a flight for survival becomes something far more complicated when Cagney realizes exactly where he's ended up.

Two jungle adventurers discover the legendary temple of Kraggu-Monda and its priceless green stone—but when one partner betrays the other to claim the artifact, he sets in motion a curse far older and deadlier than any treasure. Dick Strum survives his wound and pursues his treacherous partner across the jungle, desperate to reclaim what was stolen from him, only to find that some prizes exact a price no amount of gold can pay. This tale of greed and retribution from 1953's Lawbreakers Suspense Stories reveals why the sacred idol's gaze was never meant to be disturbed.

A desperate fugitive seeks shelter in a dingy hotel after fleeing a crime scene, but a gypsy fortune-teller's cryptic warning about death arriving at midnight begins to eat away at his nerves. Locked in his room and waiting for the clock to strike, he's convinced one of his former partners is coming for him—but what actually arrives proves far more unsettling than any gunman.

Big Ben Collins, a brutal gangster who lords his power over his wife Cora and his timid lieutenant Bert, has no idea that the two people closest to him are plotting his downfall. Cora devises a scheme to drug Ben, lock him away, and claim the bank robbery money for herself and Bert—but as their plan unfolds in a single fateful night, the real question becomes: who will betray whom first? This 1953 crime tale delivers exactly what its title promises: a twist that nobody sees coming.

When a man discovers his roommate dead and calls the police, detective Martin Dale from the coroner's office arrives to investigate—and a crucial bloodstain on the suspect's tie becomes the linchpin of the case. Using forensic evidence that reveals the true timeline of death, Dale pieces together a damning portrait of guilt that contradicts the man's alibi.

When Henry Buller discovers his partner Martin Roget has prepared a poisoned drink to kill him, he turns the tables with a gun—only to realize he's already swallowed the poison in his moment of triumph. Desperate to survive, Henry races to find a doctor before the poison takes hold, setting up a grim race against time where his own crime might be undone by fate itself.

Pierre Fresnay, a serial killer known as the Gruesome Giggler for leaving mocking poems on his victims' bodies, sits in a Parisian prison awaiting execution for fifteen murders. On the eve of his death, he makes a final request that surprises his jailers—not for food or comfort, but for pen and ink to compose one last secret joke. The guards, determined to deny him any final satisfaction, supply him with harmless substitutes, confident they've outsmarted the condemned man at last.