Gang Pulp

Gangster Stories, March 1930

The glittering people about whom you read in these rapid-action stories are a weird lot. Many of them might have easily stepped out of the pages of Charles Dickens.

A forlorn yet fantastic army of the underworld!

To believe in their reality would be stupid. After all, they are creatures of our writers’ imagination and nothing else. The test of a writer lies in his ability to make them seem real, but for us to believe all we see or even half of what we hear, would be permitting ourselves of but a fractional part of the brains given us by a wise Deity.

If we are shrewd we can read a great lesson from these pages, as well as be entertained by the machine-gun plots, the hair-trigger situations.

These characters are along the fringe of things. They live in shining splendor for a short time. They appear healthy. However behind them always are shadows sinister and weird: Death, Disease and Retribution!

Sooner or later, mostly sooner, their fantastic hours are over. They go forth to rot in prison cells. They are shot down by their enemies, their bodies left in alleyways and open lots. Their wealth is lost by gambling and reckless living. The haunts they once knew, no longer know them — in fact they are completely forgotten.

They pay dearly for their moments of high speed. Let us read of them but bear in mind that this army of the underworld is only a shell that glitters under the spotlight, but which is being crushed like a giant worm as it winds through the spotted darkness.

Faithfully yours,

Harold Hersey