PULP HEROES – THE MOON MAN: STORIES 19-21

I’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic pistol plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals –  both white collar and blue collar – and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

19. BADGE OF BLOOD – No, not Blood On The Badge, Badge of Blood. We are at the mid-way point of the Moon Man’s adventures, with 19 tales down and 19 to go! The opening teaser in this story finds our hero and his sidekick Angel burgling the mansion of tycoon Van Zant Latham. No that’s NOT a typo, and yes, the Moon Man succeeds, making off with jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars IN 1930’s MONEY! Unfortunately during their escape from the horde of cops who arrive on the scene corrupt cop Mike Becker spots the Moon Man switching from his costume into his secret identity of Stephen Thatcher.

Becker blackmails our hero, wanting criminal wealth and the continuation of his own dirty protection racket free from interference by the Moon Man. In the end our hero, as Stephen Thatcher, plants some of the jewels from the Latham haul on Becker then shoots him down when Becker resists arrest. Stephen’s fiancee Sue McEwen comes through again, recovering the sealed letter Becker prepared revealing the Moon Man’s identity in the event of his death.

20. GHOUL’S GAMBLE – While fleeing the cops after burgling yet another millionaire’s home the Moon Man hides out at a neighboring estate where he stumbles onto the kidnapping of the wealthy Clayton Kennard. When Angel is nabbed on the grounds by Lt Gil McEwen, the tireless pursuer of the Moon Man, our hero has no choice but to mount a hijacking to free Angel at gunpoint before the squad car can get him to the police station. Stephen keeps Angel at his side throughout the dark night disguised as a plainclothes officer.

The crime-fighting duo trail the $100,000 ransom paid by Kennard’s brother to the site of the drop – the massive Kennard Family Mausoleum. Inside that crypt the Moon Man and Angel discover death traps, secret passageways and the fact that Clayton Kennard faked his own kidnapping to get $100,000 to pay his gambling debts. MM turns Clayton over to the arriving cops and then he and Angel escape the mausoleum with the $100,000 ready to be distributed to the suffering poor of Great City.

21. THE SILVER SNARE – Raymond Harte embezzles $20,000 from the Great City National Bank and has hidden the loot while he plots his escape. The Moon Man recovers the twenty grand and uses it for his usual missions of mercy, but in the aftermath of this latest daring escapade Lt Gil McEwen winds up accused of secretly being the Moon Man!

His accuser is Detective Sergeant Mark Keanan, who feels his accusation solves how the Moon Man has been able to elude arrest all these months. With Gil in custody Stephen Thatcher has no choice but to clear his future father-in- law by pulling a spectacular public robbery of rich pigs at the Stratosphere Club. He does so, narrowly escapes capture of course, and McEwen and Keanan are reconciled and jointly vow to some day arrest the Moon Man and send him to the electric chair.

MORE MOON MAN STORIES COMING SOON   

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