[The Shadow 164] • Double Death

DOUBLE DEATH was originally published in the December 15, 1938 issue of The Shadow Magazine. A corpse is "murdered" twenty-four hours after his actual death. The Shadow enters the case to discover the strange secret and rip away the sinister mask of double death. This story wasn't written by long-time Shadow author Walter Gibson. It was written by relief author Theodore Tinsley; the eighth of his twenty-seven Shadow pulp adventures. He wrote those stories between 1936 and 1943, giving Gibson a little respite from the constant publishing deadlines. And as with nearly all of his stories, this one starts off with a bang. Theodore Tinsley liked to begin his pulp stories with some fantastic event taking place. Something that defied explanation and immediately pulled in the reader. Like, for example, people frozen into immobility by a strange green light, as happened in "The Green Terror." Human beings instantly turned into a small pile of blue-gray soot, from "Death's Bright Finger." Yes, Tinsley liked to grab the reader with the fantastic, much like author Lester Dent did with the "Doc Savage" pulp stories. And Tinsley doesn't let us down in "Double Death," either. This story finds a strange masked figure staging a murder. The murder of a corpse! High atop a rooming house, the mysterious figure lays a wooden plank across the yawning chasm that forms the alley between two buildings. He drags a large sack across that plank to the adjoining building. The sack contains rubberized bags of ice... and the dead body of George Clifford. Once through the window of the adjoining rooming house, the sinister black figure begins to set the stage for murder. A recording is played of an argument and a gunshot. Neighbors investigate and discover the body. All believe they actually heard the murder; none is the wiser that the George Clifford had been killed twenty-four hours earlier. Yes, it's a double murder. A man killed secretly once. And publicly killed a second time. It's a strange case that Acting Inspector Joe Cardona investigates. But he had no idea that prominent and wealthy George Clifford, a well-known capitalist and investor, had been actually lying dead while the neighbors heard his murder. But... The Shadow knows! The Shadow is on the scene early. In his guise as Lamont Cranston, he had been approached by George Clifford regarding an investment. So when Clifford strangely disappeared, the day previously, The Shadow began to investigate. George Clifford had made an investment in a new invention designed by Doctor Jasper Logan. Dr. Logan's black-ray machine was designed to melt steel. The nation that controlled the black-ray machine would be invulnerable to attack. If it could melt steel at a distance of six miles, that would mean the end of battleships, fortresses, tanks - all the modern means of warfare. If the ray machine worked. And that was the problem. Doctor Logan claimed that machine was a failure. He claimed it was all a total waste. George Clifford, who had invested $25,000 in the project, was suspicious. He suspected fraud. Perhaps the invention was a success and the doctor intended to keep the invention completely for himself. But now Clifford is dead, and The Shadow is going to find out what's going on. The Shadow gets to use several disguises in this story. He begins in disguise as Lamont Cranston. Then, as the story unfolds, he allows the gang of murderers behind the double deaths to believe they have killed him. So Cranston disappears and The Shadow next shows up as Kent Allard. This, of course, isn't an actual disguise. Allard is his true identity. He also appears in disguise as a typical tenement thug, and later rents a room under the fictitious identity of one Albert Robinson. The old make-up kit gets a real workout in this story. The Shadow also receives assistance from several of his agents. Burbank continues to keep The Shadow in contact with his other agents. Clyde Burke helps out by interviewing suspects under his cover as reporter for the New York Classic. Moe Shrevnitz keeps his taxi at The Shadow's disposal. And support from the law comes in the form of Commissioner Weston and Inspector Cardona. This story has that special pulpy intensity that is identified with Theodore Tinsley. The prose is a little more lurid. The action is a little more over-the-top. The Shadow is a little more powerful, but he also gets wounded more frequently. And there's a female criminal, something Walter Gibson was loath to write. The female is not the master villain, but she's not just simply his moll, either. She's a willing, eager, participant in crime. She's the gorgeously beautiful young lady who lures men to their deaths. She appears in different guises. She's the shapely, red-haired girl who calls herself Peggy Madison. She's the honey-colored blonde art model known as Pearl Crawford. And at various times, she's also Rita Munson and Betty Gaylord. But beneath those identities, she's cruel and murderous... and beautiful. When you read a description of Peggy Madison, you can immediately recognize the Theodore Tinsley touch: "She had changed into a negligee. It was sheer and lacy, with wide sleeves that fell away from the girl's smooth arms. The deep throat of the garment allowed Cranston a glimpse of Pearl's half-concealed bosom." That's certainly not the way Walter Gibson wrote. His females were innocent and chaste. No hint of sex. Tinsley, on the other hand, often tossed in little spicy tidbits to titillate the reader. His stories offered a hint of sex and violence that Gibson's lacked. The antagonists in Theodore Tinsley's stories often had masochistic tendencies. They loved to torture, especially when the victim was of the fairer sex. As Tinsley describes a thug named Bump: "He anticipated a torture job. That pleased Bump, especially when the victim was a pretty girl." It wasn't just the male villains that loved torture. No, bad-girl Peggy Madison did, too! Take, for example, the scene where The Shadow is lying helpless after stepping on a steel plate and being electrocuted. Just the thought of being able to torture The Shadow brings her to a state of near sexual release. In Tinsley's words: "The capture of The Shadow, the prospect of witnessing his immediate torture and death, had brought the blond art model close to the pitch of hysteria." The Shadow stories written by Theodore Tinsley reveled in mild depravity. Although certainly tame by today's standards, and mild even by 1930's standards, it still really sold the pulps. Those loving descriptions of a hypodermic needle. The visit to a Harlem night spot where marijuana smokers congregated. The view as Peggy undresses. All those were the identifying marks of a Theodore Tinsley story. Another thing about Tinsley's women. They could die. In Walter Gibson's stories, women were innocent and never were killed. In Tinsley's, women could be bad, and they could die. Yes, Peggy Madison is shot and killed at this story's end. And, surprisingly enough, it's The Shadow's bullet that does her in! Not intentionally, of course. The Shadow is aiming for the masked mastermind when Peggy dashes in front and takes the bullet instead. But it's still rather shocking to see The Shadow kill a woman, even if she was a member of the crime mob, and even if it was an accident. There are lots of nice touches in this story, things that I don't remember seeing in Walter Gibson's stories. For example, in Cranston's left coat sleeve, there is a concealed zipper. Inside the small pouch is a hidden knife, which The Shadow can use to release himself, if bound. He also has a small portable microphone with a suction cup, which he uses with earphones to listen in on conversations in an adjoining room. There's also a queer-looking gun which spits out a strange vapor. I envision something like that used by The Green Hornet. The Green Hornet gets credit for its first use, however, since the Green Hornet appeared on radio several years before this story was written. There are a few minor things that Tinsley gets wrong in this story. Both Cranston and Allard smile. In fact, he has Cranston giving a cheery smile. Long-time Shadow readers know that this is just plain wrong. At most, a slight smile might cross his "masklike countenance." When The Shadow was disguised as Lamont Cranston, he was incapable of much facial movement, due to the gauze-like mask upon his face. Or so we were told in many of the early stories. But I'm sure long-time readers could forgive these minor inconsistencies. Especially when they were offered a black-ray machine that could melt steel, death traps like exploding bombs and electrified steel plates, international spies with luxurious hidden lairs deep underground, beautiful damsels in distress, and evil vixens as cruel as they are beautiful. Theodore Tinsley really gave readers their money's worth. Read this story, if you get a chance. I know you'll enjoy it. Tinsley continues to give you your money's worth, even today.