Startling Terror Tales #12

Al Bork, known as "The Bull," claws his way to the top of the underworld rackets with brutal strength and ambition, but his rise accelerates when he partners with the mysterious Mephis, a shadowy figure with uncanny information and connections. As Bork consolidates power and pushes out his loyal lieutenant Mouse, he begins to discover that his new partner may be far more than a mere information broker. This crime tale takes a sinister turn as Bork learns too late just who—or what—he's been dealing with.

Around 1850, Paris descends into a crime wave that forces Prefect M. Henri to recruit Eugene Francois Vidocq, a reformed criminal turned brilliant detective, to dismantle the organized ring terrorizing the city. Vidocq infiltrates the criminal underworld, posing as a lowlife to gain the trust of the gang's inner circle—but his double agent, Germaine, sets a trap that threatens to expose everything. When the heist goes violently wrong and bodies start dropping, Vidocq must outmaneuver desperate criminals before the whole operation collapses into chaos.

Sadie Krum abandons her ailing mother in search of luxury, falling in with criminals in the big city and trading her poverty for mink coats and stolen jewels—until a payroll heist goes badly wrong. Arrested alongside her associates, Sadie finds herself right back where she started, serving time and facing a future far grimmer than the one she fled.

A chronic thief thinks he's found the perfect crime—pilfering just a few cents daily from hospital lockers so no one notices the theft. When the staff at City Hospital discovers the systematic disappearance of their loose change, a young intern devises an ingenious trap using a special powder to catch the culprit in the act. What seems like a fool-proof scheme unravels in "Fool-Proof Scheme," a taut crime tale from *Startling Terror Tales* #12.

In 1950s Brooklyn, Wild Bill Lovett commands the White Hand Mob with ruthless cunning—until his lieutenant Ernie devises a scheme to frame him for Johnny Greco's murder and turn Johnny's sister Julie against him. When the plot backfires and the truth unravels, Wild Bill finds himself fighting for survival against those closest to him, with only Julie as an unlikely ally in a web of betrayal and blood. This gritty crime tale explores how ambition and deception breed chaos even among the most brutal gangsters.