[The Shadow 258] • The Murdering Ghost

THE MURDERING GHOST was originally published in the November 15, 1942 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Ghosts. Seances. Spirit cabinets. Floating bells and tambourines. Glowing hands suspended in the dark. Seers. Mind readers. Mystics. Mediums. And death. Like the mystics themselves, The Shadow gazed into the future and saw - crime and murder! If you like spooky seances with fake mediums, this is the story for you. We're not talking about a single scene. Rather, the whole story contains multiple scenes taking place in the seance parlor. And along with that comes the requisite exposing of the mediums' secrets. It's always fun to see how they did it, back then. In fact, the whole story is fun. It doesn't take long to read, and there's plenty of action. And author Walter Gibson gets to show off his knowledge of fake spiritualism and magic. All in all, you'll find it an easy way to spend your reading hours. It all starts at the psychic laboratory conducted by Professor Hayne, a very dapper man. He's trying to prove if, or not, there are ghosts, psychic materializations, telekinesis, or other strange phenomena. One way or the other. He neither believes or disbelieves. He's neutral; he just wants to know the truth. He's going to test old Leander Hobgood. Hobgood is the inventor of many queer devices that resemble perpetual-motion machines. Such machines have been proven scientifically to be impossible, except that in Hobgood's case they actually work. At least, they work whenever Hobgood is around, but they have a way of bogging down when investors buy them and take them over. Leander Hobgood has been called a defaulter, embezzler and swindler. Others think that he has some mysterious psychic power that powers his strange machines when he's present. That would explain why the machines fail to work outside his presence. Professor Hayne is going to test Hobgood in his laboratory for any such psychic power. That's just the beginning of the story. During the seance, Hobgood is electrocuted but survives. Gangsters attack his house to steal his inventions, but Hobgood ends up dead and the house and all its contents go up in flames. Professor Hayne rounds up true-believers to fund a three-hundred-thousand-dollar prize to anyone who can prove their psychic powers. A list of mediums, seers, and other psychics grows, as they are drawn to the immense reward. Test seances are scheduled. During one such seance, Don Tarkingham, the famed psychic investigator is killed by a shot in the dark. The murder could only have been committed by a ghost - a murdering ghost. Another seance is scheduled. This time, the medium Kalvah, in the middle of the seance, is killed by a knife thrust deep into his back. Everyone was holding hands; the only possible suspect is the murdering ghost. Only The Shadow can unravel this mystery. Only The Shadow can peer beneath the trickery of the seance parlor. Only The Shadow can solve the riddle of the perpetual-motion machines. Only The Shadow can trap the murdering ghost. And so he does in the grand style to which we've become accustomed. Everybody's here in this tale. Police Commissioner Ralph Weston and Inspector Joe Cardona are present representing law and order. Representing The Shadow are his agents: Clyde Burke, Rutledge Mann, Harry Vincent, Moe Shrevnitz, Cliff Marsland, Hawkeye, Jericho Druke, and Margo Lane. Only Burbank is missing, and that's probably because Rutledge Mann is handling his duties. The Shadow appears as his "other self," Lamont Cranston. Whew! The gang's all here! Margo shows up sipping on her favorite, a Mirage cocktail. When she made her first appearance in the 1941 story "The Thunder King," she was nursing one of those pinkish drinks, as well. As explained here, the drink looks potent, but actually contains nothing alcoholic. All so that she could keep a clear head, as all good agents of The Shadow should. It should be pointed out that Margo's preference for this drink was mentioned in only three stories. This was the last one. In the early Shadow novels, Commissioner Weston didn't believe that The Shadow really existed. He considered him to be a myth. But as the years went on, Weston gradually began to accept The Shadow as real. How could he do otherwise? Too many times Weston actually saw The Shadow; heard the voice of The Shadow; was saved by The Shadow. In this story, Weston has apparently reverted to his old belief that The Shadow is a myth. It's not logical, considering how many times he's actually seen him, but we're told he doesn't believe in The Shadow's existence any more than he does spiritualism. If he doesn't believe at the beginning of this story, he should have no doubt by the end. As our story ends, Weston is again in the presence of The Shadow as The Shadow explains the solution to the mystery and traps the culprits. He certainly can't deny The Shadow's existence now! In the early Shadow stories, agents of The Shadow didn't know that their master disguised himself as Lamont Cranston. They knew there was some connection between the two, but usually assumed that Cranston was just another agent like themselves. Over time, this changed. In this story, readers are specifically told that Clyde Burke knows that the man who looks like Cranston is really The Shadow. "He was watching the door for a certain gentleman named Lamont Cranston, who happened to be The Shadow's other self." The Shadow's suction cups are in constant use in this story. Those concave rubber disks are used by The Shadow on four separate occasions to help him ascend the outside walls of buildings. They're a pretty nifty gadget, and it's always good to see them in use. Another of The Shadow's gadgets that we see in use, is his explosive powder, sometimes referred to as "The Devil's Whisper." The concoction actually exists in real life, but the formula isn't revealed in the pulp story because of its extremely dangerous nature. Scotty Phillips, a magician for over 40 years, wrote me the following information about his experiences with "The Devil's Whisper" in 2002: "I performed with it last August for a special performance for magicians only that I did. It is rare and dangerous to use. If not done correctly, it can be very painful. It is two chemicals that when rubbed together explode (friction, not snapping causes the burst). One is white and one is red. The red is the power in the blast and the white sets it off. Just the smallest dab of red and double the white will do it. You must keep the chemicals separated. I keep mine in a contact lens holder. Any way, you can get it on the web; it is called "fingertip flash" these days, and its very rare that anyone uses it. It got a very bad rep after some silly lad lost several digits playing with it. But it is real and still made today. Several times I have done it, and it jarred my body so that it ached for the rest of the day. It feels like it rattles your very frame." He included a picture of himself with "The Devil's Whisper" exploding at his fingertips, with the comment, "Boy was that blast loud and powerful! Amazing stuff!" But in this pulp story, "The Devil's Whisper" doesn't work out exactly as planned. The whole thing backfires on The Shadow. You'll have to read the story to get the details, but this is the first time I recall seeing that happen! Another fire-related gizmo mentioned in this story is flash paper. In real life, this is something used by magicians. It burns with a bright light, but very little heat. And it is easily combustible. In the fictional story, Walter Gibson had Leander Hobgood using it to fool victims of his swindling schemes. He would give them documents -- stocks, contracts, cash -- which would later mysteriously disappear. The way he would accomplish this, according to the tale, was that he had the documents printed on flash paper. Later, as they sat in a dry drawer, they would spontaneously combust, leaving other papers undamaged and leaving no trace of ash. The truth behind flash paper was stretched, here. Again, calling upon my magic consultant Scotty Phillips, I found that there was a nugget of truth in what Walter Gibson wrote. But as was so often the case, he took plenty of literary license and a healthy dose of exaggeration. There really is such a thing as flash paper, and it does burn at a low temperature leaving no ash behind. But it is generally pretty flimsy stuff, more like tissue paper. No one receiving cash printed on this paper would be fooled. LIkewise, stock certificates and other documents wouldn't pass the test. And in real life, it wouldn't self-combust just by sitting in a dry place like a desk drawer. But it would disappear with no trace of ash, and its low burning temperature would likely leave other normal papers unscorched. So as was so often the case with Walter Gibson, he wove a clever bit of fiction about something that had basis in fact. The sign of a good writer! When Walter Gibson submitted this story to Smith Street Publications, he had given it the title "The Ghost Murders." The editors changed it to "The Murdering Ghost" probably because they remembered that the other title had already been used for a 1936 story. They didn't always catch duplicate titles, which explains why readers got two different stories with the title "Alibi Trail." The same thing happened with the titles "Wizard of Crime" and "The Shadow Meets The Mask." But we'll give them credit for catching the duplicate title, this time around. Here we have a really cool story that takes a closer look into the spiritualism that was so popular at the time. A fun adventure with The Shadow that fans should enjoy. I know I did!