Number 2240: Kill Dutch!

Prohibition-era gangster’s name, Dutch Schultz, was an alias. His birth name was Arthur Flegenheimer. Would his life and criminal career be remembered today if he had kept the name Arthur Flegenheimer? (Rhetorical question.)

This version of Schultz’s career, unlike most crime comics biographies of famous gangsters, is fairly accurate. A couple of names are changed, and it doesn't mention Schultz’s famous stream-of-consciousness babble on his deathbed (which was transcribed, becoming famous on its own). During Prohibition Schultz teamed up with a speakeasy owner named Joey Noe. The story shows the Joey Noe-Dutch Schultz gang hanging a rival gangster, Joe Rock (called Ricci in the story) by his thumbs. The Dutch Schultz biography in Wikipedia gives a chilling description of the torture: “They beat [Rock] and hung him by his thumbs from a meat hook and then allegedly wrapped a gauze bandage smeared with discharge from a gonorrhea infection over his eyes His family reportedly paid $35,000 and he was released. Shortly after his return, he went blind. From then on, the Noe-Schultz gang met little opposition as they expanded to control the beer supply for the entire Bronx.”

The story appeared in Fox’s Murder Incorporated #3 (1948). There are no credits for the story or artwork, although it is signed B/S.

Number 2209: “Dam the rotten luck!” Murder morals in a crime comic

Joseph Federal is a very bad man. He strangles women for money. In “Joseph Medley Lady Killer,” from Murder Incorporated #3 (1948), he curses his luck after killing a young woman: “She wasn’t lying I know! That money is nowhere in this room. Dam the rotten luck!” Yes, the word “damn” was deliberately misspelled.

The story was reprinted four years later in Shock Detective Cases #20,* and “dam” was replaced by a standard comic book “#*@*”, using symbols to replace cursing. Showing murder wasn’t forbidden...just some mild swearing.

 Original printing, 1948

Censored, 1952.

The original version was published by Fox, and came from the height of the crime comics boom in 1948. It was the sort of thing that got parents, teachers, and guardians of public morals in a dither. I don’t think Dr Wertham ever saw this, because if he had he could have easily used several panels in his book, Seduction of the Innocent, to show how brutal crime comics could be. Sexy, too. L.B. Cole, editor of Shock Detective Cases, in a couple of panels had the dresses extended to appear more modest. This is the world of editorial decision-making: what an editor thinks goes too far, and how to fix it.

Artwork, signed by Carter, is actually by Rudy Palais. Palais, who died in 2004, was an early comic book artist who had work in various genres, including crime and horror. His artwork for Harvey’s horror comics line is known for the sweat drops flying off characters’ faces, although his style is so distinctive I don’t need sweat drops to identify it

Number 787

Crime Does Pay Week: Charlie Birger and the Birger-Shelton War

This is day two of Pappy's Crime Does Pay Week.

According to the Grand Comics Database this ultra-violent example of the art of the crime comic is drawn by a young Gil Kane, published in Murder Incorporated #1, in 1948. Victor Fox was the publisher, and his books of this era almost single-handedly define sleaze.

As for the actual comic book, the story has some element of truth; there was a Charlie Birger, and he did have a war with beer rivals, the Shelton brothers, in Illinois during Prohibition. They did use armored cars, and did use a plane for an aerial attack. Something not told in the story (nor told in another version in Atlas' All True Crime #28, from later in 1948, either) is that before they went to war, Birger and Shelton were partners in the beer biz during a time the Ku Klux Klan was heavily involved in the area. The KKK had decided Prohibition was a good thing. It was so lawless there that KKK members would go into private homes looking for alcohol, and take offenders to a special Klan jail! Between Birger and Shelton they managed to push the Klan out of the area, maybe the only time in the sorry history of the sorry-ass Klan that the tables were turned.

The cover of Murder Incorporated #1, artwork attributed to John Forte, has a cover slug that says For Adults Only. How much do you think that mattered when a kid handed over his dime?