Number 2332: “. . . a not uncommon perversion . . .”

I am always happy to present a story recognized in the infamous anti-comics book Seduction of the Innocent, by Fredric Wertham, MD, published in 1954. The panel I used today as a teaser at the top of the page was squeezed onto a page in that book, with no explanation, just that killing people in lovers lane is a not uncommon perversion. There have been some famous real-life cases of killers preying on victims in so-called lovers lane, including the Phantom in the late '40s in Texarkana, Texas, and the Zodiac killer of California. But “a not uncommon perversion”? All right, any of you who have fantasies about killing people in lovers lane, raise your hand. I see by peering through the cameras in your phones, laptops and other devices that one guy is waving his hand, but maybe he is just asking permission to go to the bathroom. (Go, but then come right back.) I imagine there may be other perverts out there, since a lovers lane is a good spot for voyeurism, and especially now that most drive-in movies are closed. But killing, I just don’t know.

Anyway, the story, “Crimson Trail of the Lipstick Slayer” is about a Navy man who kills a woman and puts a lipstick mark on her forehead, something shared by the couple in lovers lane. I don’t know if this is based on a true story, or if it is a mashup based on the Texarkana killings and the killings of William Heirins in Chicago, also in the mid-'40s. Heirins was known as “the Lipstick Killer” in newspapers, for a message on a mirror written in lipstick, “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself”...a hair-raising note that caught the public’s attention.

The artwork is by L.B. Cole, who does an excellent job, both with the story and the cover. Cole was known for designing poster-like covers, and this one is a beauty for grabbing attention on crowded newsstands.

As for the contents of Law Against Crime #3 (1948), it is a mixed bag: two violent crime stories bookending two crudely drawn funny stories, which look more at home in a child’s comic book. They were obviously filler, but how disappointed did they leave the readers of the sordid crime stories? Dr Wertham didn’t mention them. Once again I opine that comic books published in 1948, unless they were laying around in stacks of old comics, would be unavailable to most readers at the time Wertham’s book was published. He did that with many of the other illustrations, also, leaving the reader of 1954 horrified at the images which hadn’t been seen for several years. No matter...many comic books in 1954 were just as sordid. Maybe he didn’t think anyone would know that his material was mostly outdated and years later be the subject of scrutiny by people he could not have dreamed at the time would ever exist, fans of the very books he put under attack!

Posted in: Pappy Comics