Gang Pulp

Gangster Stories, June-July 1930

Word comes to me that some editorial writer in a distant state, has referred to GANGSTER STORIES as the house organ of the gangster industry, or some such sarcastic phrase.

Although I did not read this editorial in a great newspaper, I am willing to bet that the writer failed to realize one thing. Did he take note of the moral value of this magazine? Surely he would admit that knowledge is power. And knowledge of the dangers that beset our paths in life can do no harm. Particularly is this so when we know and realize that these stories and the characters therein are but figments of the imagination.

It is true that even the front page of the stately New York Times is often filled with gangster news: deaths on the spot: trials with lurid details; executions, and jailbreaks. But these are only snatches out of the whole system of gangland. Whereas in this magazine we tell the stories of gangsters for your entertainment in complete form. We follow them from their beginnings to their crimson deaths. We know that what we read is not true, but we know it teaches us as well as entertains.

Knowledge is power — the power to give us strength to combat these forces of evil.

Faithfully yours,

Harold Hersey