Racket Squad in Action #13

Smooth-talking photographer Stockton Parkes trades his struggling camera work for a bogus modeling agency, charging hopeful girls steep tuition fees and photo placement fees with promises of fame that never materialize. When his schemes escalate into outright fraud, the con man discovers that every crook makes one fatal mistake—and his is about to catch up with him.

Max Holman and his wife run a brutal extortion scheme targeting models—threatening to disfigure their faces with acid unless they hand over half their earnings—while a terrified accomplice serves as proof of what refusal costs. When one victim's despair leads to tragedy, the Racket Squad launches a manhunt to stop the couple before they can claim another target. It's a hard-hitting crime story where justice arrives in the most ironic of ways.

Two street hustlers spot what looks like a valuable diamond ring and strike a crooked deal to sell it—but neither realizes the ring isn't what they think it is, and their scheme to cheat each other backfires spectacularly. This two-page crime tale from 1954 proves that greed and dishonesty have a way of catching up with you, no matter how clever you think you're being.

Perry Kormaine thinks he's a savvy businessman, but he's about to learn an expensive lesson when smooth-talking strangers—led by the charming Henry Lelson—rope him into what appears to be a spectacular uranium investment opportunity. As the con artists execute their carefully orchestrated scheme, a tenacious police captain works to track down the slick trio operating across multiple states. It's a sharp reminder that even the cleverest businessmen can fall prey to confidence men who know exactly which strings to pull.

A smooth-talking hawker lures bargain hunters with an incredible deal on Canadian rye—just two dollars a bottle, half the normal price—but when Calvin brings home his case, he discovers the scam: the bottles are filled with grain and buckshot, not liquor. A sharp lesson in why too-good-to-be-true offers usually are.

College basketball star Scott Adams dreams of fortune and fame—until racketeers approach him in the locker room with an offer of easy money to fix games. Tempted by cash and caught in a web of greed, Adams tumbles deeper into the con, but the criminals' own lust for profit eventually brings the whole operation crashing down when the Racket Squad moves in.

A smooth-talking TV repairman gains the trust of an apartment building's residents by offering free service—but his real scheme is to collect their sets under false pretenses. When the tenants realize they've been swindled and try to contact him, they discover his business number is a dead end, and the con man is already working the same angle on an unsuspecting building across town.