As the old-school strippers tell a young Rose Louise Hovick in GYPSY, “You gotta have a gimmick.” A catchy name helps, too. Salvatore Lucania? Nope. Charles Luciano? Nuh-uh. Lucky Luciano? “Lucky” because he once took a three-layered ass-kicking from the cops and didn’t die. Alliterative and provocative. That’ll work.
In BOARDWALK GANGSTER: THE REAL LUCKY LUCIANO, you do get a sense from author Tim Newark that Luciano’s posthumous reputation needed some kind of boost. For the first half of his criminal life, he was a smart guy, rising through the mob ranks as a hitman and body guard for Joe Masseria. But by the end of the 1920s and the retirement of Johnny Torrio in Chicago, who handed the Outfit over to Al Capone, Luciano had been wooed from the old way of doing things.
[click to continue…]
Under the general heading of THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, England’s Titan Books has been bringing back into print some of the more worthwhile Holmes pastiches. They call it “a new series of handsomely designed, long out-of-print detective stories.” The series is new; the books are not, so if you’re already a Holmesiana collector, but can’t afford different editions of the same titles, beware.
The FURTHER ADVENTURE I just finished reading is THE VEILED DETECTIVE by David Stuart Davies, who’s lately been editing a series of vintage crime and supernatural anthologies for Wordsworth Editions. (Another digression, this one shorter: If you don’t know Wordsworth Editions Ltd., you should.)
[click to continue…]
Unearthing buried treasures from pulp literature’s yesteryear!
Most pulp fans agree that WEIRD TALES’ most significant rival in the realm of dark fantasy was the short-lived STRANGE TALES OF MYSTERY AND TERROR, which lasted only 10 issues from 1931 to 1933. Perhaps the strongest novelette published in STRANGE TALES was Jack Williamson’s always-fascinating WOLVES OF DARKNESS in the January 1932 issue.
[click to continue…]
Just a quick glance at the cover of Mike Dash’s THE FIRST FAMILY: TERROR, EXTORTION, REVENGE, MURDER, AND THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN MAFIA should be enough to tell anyone that this is no glorification of the mob. The guy in the picture thought he was about to enjoy a tasty meal. Just look at the poor bastard. He’s seated at a restaurant dining table, still wearing his top coat, slumped forward, with his face in the pasta. Blood splatters the tablecloth, or maybe it’s spaghetti sauce. To tell you the truth, at this point, he couldn’t care less.
A little deeper in the book is a photo that’s as sad and dreary as the event it chronicles. In the background, dozens of civilians are standing behind a police line. In the foreground is a barrel, lying on its side and with the open end facing us. All of the barrel’s contents we can make out clearly are a pair of shoes with legs still in them. Actually, the whole body’s there, too.
[click to continue…]
Unearthing buried treasures from pulp literature’s yesteryear!
“It’s The Man Who Rides Alone Who Meets Danger In The Most Dramatic Fashion … The Lone Rider Carries Excitement Wherever He Goes! Follow The Adventures Of The Lone Ranger In Every Thrilling Issue Of This Magazine.”
Well, it wouldn’t take you long to read “Every Thrilling Issue of This Magazine,” because THE LONE RANGER MAGAZINE lasted only eight issues before morphing into ROMANTIC WESTERN. Because of its short run, it’s a tough pulp to track down. Recently, a copy sold for almost $800 on eBay. I wonder how many silver bullets you’d have to melt down to raise that kind of cash?
[click to continue…]
