Thrilling Crime Cases #44

When Tod Grayson, fresh out of prison after three years, visits the man who testified against him, he arrives to find him dead—shot five times—and is immediately arrested by Captain Glumm. Gregory Gayle, convinced of Grayson's innocence, uses ballistics and detective work to expose the real killer: a two-bit gangster known as "Sugar" Bole, whose weakness for sugar cubes proves to be his undoing. What follows is a wild shootout at a hash house where Gayle must use his wits—and his .45—to bring a murderer to justice and survive a fiery trap.

Bob Brown and Frank Badgely thought they had it all figured out—a pair of trigger-happy thieves who'd blazed through the Midwest in 1946 stealing cars and robbing anyone in their way. When they botch a traffic stop in Hammond, Indiana in 1947 and leave behind a crucial piece of evidence, clever police work and a relentless investigation begin closing in on them. "Two Bright Boys" shows how two hardened criminals who believed they were smarter than the law ultimately face the consequences of their violence.

After four years inside, George Birts walks out of a Minnesota prison in 1945 swearing he's reformed—but his promises evaporate within hours when he returns to crime and violence. When a botched drugstore robbery leaves him wounded and desperate, he turns to his old flame Aggie, a former nurse, dragging her into his increasingly brutal scramble to stay ahead of the law across the Northwest territories. As a manhunt intensifies and bodies pile up in his wake, Birts discovers that his only escape may cost him everything he once wanted.

Pete Stockbridge, the master of disguise known as the Chameleon, must turn the tables on racketeer Mugs Horton after a brutal attack leaves him apparently dead—but the reports of his demise prove greatly exaggerated. Using his uncanny ability to assume another's face, Pete infiltrates Horton's inner circle to secure a confession and stop the crook from claiming a valuable bus franchise. It's a clever con wrapped in 1951 pulp thrills, where one man's cunning proves deadlier than any blackjack.