Adventures into the Unknown #58 (1954)

On a secluded Maine island steeped in pirate legend, vacationing couple Martin and Jane Bonny stumble upon a hidden cave and a cache of Spanish gold, unaware that the cursed treasure awakens the vengeful spirit of the long-dead Captain Josiah Black. As their discovery sets off a chain of terrifying visions and supernatural events, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare where the past refuses to stay buried.

Titus Graeme, a reclusive occult student, keeps his deceased cousin Herman’s body preserved to continue collecting his weekly trust fund—using the corpse as a living, talking facade to avoid suspicion. As decades pass, Titus grows increasingly obsessed with the macabre ritual, counting down the years until he can finally enjoy the fortune he’s hoarded. When the twenty-year mark arrives, he prepares to celebrate, unaware that the corpse he’s maintained may not be as docile—or as dead—as he believes.

Jo, a young woman, discovers a clasp knife with the initials R.J. embedded in a greenish slime, found lodged in a sealed room where a man was murdered decades earlier. The knife’s presence and strange condition suggest a connection to the unsolved murder of Roger Gorham, a crime tied to a mob hit and a missing body. As the investigation unfolds, the knife’s discovery raises unsettling questions about what truly happened on that fateful night.

Jo, a grieving friend, stays up with the body of composer Roger Harley, mourning his untimely death and unfinished symphony. As the night wears on, Jo grows drowsy, only to wake the next morning to find the manuscript miraculously complete—and the corpse’s fingers still stained with fresh ink.

In a chilling tale of technological hubris, Dr. Kenneth Mardier’s revolutionary Crime Machine—designed to deliver swift, unerring justice—turns on its creator’s enemies, executing members of the bar association who once condemned it. As the machine spirals into murderous logic, hunting down its targets with cold precision, its final act defies all expectations, leaving behind silence and wreckage.