Crime Must Pay the Penalty #7 (1949)

In the grimy underbelly of 1949 Pittsburgh, a desperate thief named Pete Calherny kills a manager during a botched robbery, framing his partner and fleeing to avoid the electric chair. Years later, now a parolee working at an Ohio service station, Calherny plots a new crime—robbing a blind woman’s charity deposit—only to stage a brutal assault to pin the murder on an innocent man, setting off a chain of events that will test the reach of justice.

Johnny Faronek, recently released from prison, returns to New York determined to settle old scores, tracking down Roy Julep—the man he believes betrayed him. As Faronek manipulates a series of coincidences and double-crosses to frame Roy for a bank heist and orchestrate a fatal plane crash, he sets himself up as the new kingpin of the gang. But with the law closing in and old allies turning on him, Faronek’s web of deception begins to unravel just as he thinks he’s won.

Jonathan Wild, a cunning conman posing as a crippled beggar, builds a criminal empire by selling a fake miracle salve, then turns to grand theft—stealing a set of gold candlesticks from a wealthy merchant. When caught, he manipulates the authorities by framing a drunk, using his sharp wit to escape justice and recruit his fellow thieves into a disciplined, organized gang. With his new army of criminals, Wild declares he’ll defy the king’s soldiers and rule London’s underworld.