Crime SuspenStories #8

Credits:
Cover dated December 1951/January 1952
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Out of the Frying Pan..." - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"A Trace of Murder!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Escaped Maniac! - Art by George Roussos/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Partnership Dissolved!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines (hosted by the Old Witch)

"Out of the Frying Pan" - A man named Hank commits murder when he finds another man with his wife. The man he kills hits him in the head with a garbage can prior to getting shot, causing Hank to go temporarily blind. Hank is brought to a hospital until his blindness is cured, but is expected to go to trial and get the electric chair once he gets better. One of the fellow patients, an old man named Charlie is constantly telling the other patients of the goings on of the park that he can see from the window next to his bed. Hank, with his eyes slowly getting better knows he has to make a run for it soon and plans to steal the car of a man that Charlie says always parks across the street at 9:00. The night before he is set to be taken to jail, Hank jumps out of the window and tries to make a run for it, only to realize that Charlie was lying the whole time, and there was nothing but a brick wall outside the window. He is immediately captured and taken off to jail. The inspiration for this story was an anecdote from Bennett Cerf's book "Try and Stop Me!" I've never read the original anecdote but found another, superior telling in the book "More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark", a book that most horror fans who grew up in the 80s and 90s like I did have probably read. In that version an old man grows jealous of his roommate who is always talking about the things happening that he can see out the window. The protagonist ends up murdering his roommate by causing him to misplace his medicine, but when he is moved next to the window all he sees is a brick wall.

"A Trace of Murder!" - A man, Irving Fenwick, murders his wife Muriel by poisoning her with arsenic when she tells him she wants a divorce. He then kills himself. Across the other side of town another man, Felix Morley, plots to murder his older wife Emma such that he can be with his girlfriend Helen while still having Emma's money. Felix does research and discovers an untraceable way to poison Emma by mixing 2 ordinary, everyday items which he purchases. Felix successfully poisons Emma and gets away with it. After she's buried, a couple of local boys decide to have some fun and switch the gravestones of Muriel and Emma. Felix goes away on a trip with Helen and upon his return they get into an argument over money during which Felix reveals he poisoned Emma. Helen, afraid after he threatens to do the same to her, goes to the police. Felix is confident they won't trace the poison but the police dig up Muriel's grave due to the mixed gravestones. Upon being charged with murder Felix mistakenly blurts out that he used untraceable poison on Emma, confessing to the crime. This story shares some similarities to the other Kamen drawn story I've reviewed thus far and a great many more stories share similar themes. This story is ultimately a bit of a weak effort though, and the weakest story of the issue. Felix and Helen are described as husband and wife after very a short period of time, and Felix describes being set for life with Emma's money on one page then talks about running out of her money on the next after a single trip. That Felix was able to look up an untraceable way to poison someone at the library without much effort also came off as rather unbelievable.

"The Escaped Maniac!" - A man named Bert driving down the road in a rainstorm comes across a dishelved, unshaved hitchiker whom he lets in his car. Listening to the radio, they hear about an escaped maniac who broke out of a local mental hospital and is said to be hitchiking. The hitchhiker, Charlie, shows Bert his ID to prove he's not the maniac, although the radio later says that the maniac killed someone and stole their clothes and ID. Bert is further worried when Charlie turns off the radio in the middle of describing the maniac. Eventually they come across a farm house when the car dies and head inside. Bert, nervous that Charlie is going to kill him pulls out a knife and stabs him. Soon afterwards men from the mental hospital arrive and imprison Bert, as it ends up he was the maniac and Charlie was just some innocent hitchiker. The mysterious hitchhiker, a common horror story trope made a rare appearance here; infact this and "The Giggling Killer" from Crime SuspenStories #3 might have been the only hitchhiker stories EC ever did. Roussos did nearly 10 stories for EC during the new trend and along with Harry Harrison was the most prolific of those artists who never became EC regulars. His art is characterized by thick outlines and while a decent artist he was never really on the level of the EC regulars in my eyes.

"Partnership Dissolved!" - Herman Winkler, a meat wholesaler is approached by Dr. Paul Merrick, who shows him a solution made of papaya and a secret catalyst that partially digests meat. Due to the solution, they are able to buy cheap, tough meat and sell it as high grade meat, making a lot of money. Eventually Merrick is able to concentrate the solution and prepares a three month supply of the solution. Winkler, desiring to get Merrick's share of the profits, convinces him to go on vacation then locks him in a refridgerator the night he is to leave, causing him to freeze to death. Winkler then uses the solution on Merrick, dissolving his body. He tries to get the solution analyzed to find out the secret catalyst, with no luck. One day Winkler slips on his rug, which Merrick had slipped on before and told him to move, to no avail. Winkler's secretary gives him a glass of the solution, mistakening it for water, and Winkler's body dissolves into a putrid mess. For issues 3 through 16 of Crime SuspenStories, the Old Witch appeared with a horror story to end the issue. Its appearance was probably to help sales, since the horror comics were EC's best sellers, although the feature was eventually removed. Typically these stories would be less supernatural in vein than those appearing in the 3 regular horror comics, despite Graham Ingels, EC's best artist at gothic horror often being used.