Wanted Comics #43

Rick Hardmore runs a horse-betting operation at the beach until a police raid forces him to go on the lam—and sets him on a ruthless path to build his own criminal empire. With backing from Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio, Hardmore establishes the P and L Syndicate to muscle in on the beach's gambling and protection rackets, crushing anyone foolish enough to resist his rise to power. As he consolidates control over five years, Hardmore discovers an even more lucrative scheme: forcing legitimate businesses into financial ruin so they'll pay for his syndicate's "protection."

Henry Randolph Mitchell and an accomplice rob the Williston, Florida bank in a brazen daylight heist, but their glaring physical differences—one man strikingly tall, the other distinctly short—become the very clue that undoes them. The FBI takes the case with characteristic precision, and while Mitchell's partner is swiftly captured, Mitchell himself vanishes into the wind, leaving authorities on high alert for this inveterate gambler and fugitive.

Tony Ritto survives a failed bank robbery and flees to the small town of Ashland Hills to hide out until the heat dies down, but desperation and his criminal instincts soon push him to rob a jewelry store in a nearby city. When he escapes with his landlady Mrs. Ross behind the wheel, his own obsession with obedience to traffic laws becomes the unlikely noose around his neck. A small-town cop's sharp eye for what doesn't fit—one law-abiding drive from a woman known for ignoring traffic signs—turns a careful crook's last gambit into his downfall.

When a businessman threatened by racketeers calls on Lieutenant Detective Matt Dundy for protection, the officer sets a trap—but gets ambushed for his trouble. Now with the witness missing and evidence scarce, Dundy and his partner in crime detection, Doctor Philip Gage, must use scientific methods to track down the extortionists before they strike again.

When a sleazy operator named Minty Vamos witnesses a street accident on the Bowery, he hatches a vicious scheme: recruit desperate derelicts, insure them heavily, then stage fatal "accidents" to collect the payoffs. As Vamos and his crew execute their murderous con with cold calculation, an alert young patrolman begins to suspect the string of deaths is no coincidence—and starts closing in on the racket. This hard-boiled crime tale exposes the predatory underbelly of the city's most forgotten corners, where human lives mean nothing to those willing to profit from them.