Gang Pulp

Gangster Stories, February 1930

Life is like a great canvas, framed by Birth and Death, on which each writer portrays his vision of “things as they are.” We judge his stories by his nearness to truth. If they are unreal, and their characters merely stuffed images that move automatically against false backgrounds, then we know them to be useless extravagances of the mind. But if they are stories written out of the raw of experience, so to speak, with human people in accurate surroundings, our conclusion is that such stories are worth while. And not only worth while because they are entertaining to read, but because they convey life as it is, and contain deep object lessons of true experience. Seeing how others have suffered; how the “other half lives”; how complex are the dangers that beset our journeys day by day, we gain a vicarious experience of our own that aids us in fighting the great battle.

Stories of the West and cowboys would indeed be tame and without value were they not written by those who know the frontier. Stories of the air and the bird men would be dull and uninstructive if they were written by those ignorant of the science of aviation. The same holds true with detective and gangster stories.

In the pages of this magazine you meet a cruel race of humans; people who move through the dark alleys of crime and terror. They arc but the creations of the writers’ minds, however, and are only reflections of actuality. One has but to pick up any newspaper in order to read the actual accounts of gangsters and racketeers. This magazine would indeed be of little worth were it to portray the racketeer as “he isn’t.” We must show him in his true colors, in his real environment. We must go to the depths of his twisted heart and soul. Yet, in spite of all this, these pages are but figments of the imagination. They are only true in their balance of actuality and fancy. The characters you meet are only a continuation of the imaginative line of literature produced by such masters of underworld life as Balzac and Charles Dickens.

You can gain much from these pages in truth; you can guard your own hearthstone from these modern brigands by understanding them and their ways. Knowledge is power, power is truth, and the truth will set you free. Knowing of these crooked byways of crime, and the people who walk there in darkness, you will be forearmed and forewarned about the pitfalls that are on all sides. But look only upon these pages as stories — the creations of our writers’ fancies — and if you gain valuable know ledge through entertaining reading, then indeed we have fulfilled a real purpose in publishing this periodical.