Carroll John Daly

Pseudonyms include John D. Carroll
(1889–1958)

“(Throughout his career) Daly remained an artificial, awkward, self-conscious pulpster, endlessly repetitious, hopelessly melodramatic. He had absolutely no ability for three dimensional characterization, nor did he posess a feel for language or mood. Additionally, he was cursed with a tin ear. His dialogue was impossibly stilted… and totally lacked the rhythm and bite of such gifted contemporaries as Hammett and Chandler… Yet, despite all this, Carroll John Daly stands, historically, as the father of the hard-boiled private eye.”
— William F. Nolan, Black Mask Boys (1985)

“I am a sucker for Daly. He is crude to the edge of literacy but he is also funny, some of it intentionally. And whether the story was written in 1924 or 1944, the style didn’t change.”
— Richard Moore, Rara-Avis

“My life is my own, and the opinions of others don’t interest me…”
— Carroll John Daly

Poor CARROLL JOHN DALY. One of the most pivotal figures in the development of the private eye sub-genre, but even now, all these years later, he still can’t get no respect. Hell, some people even blame him for Mickey Spillane, another critical “darling.”

Sure, in some circles (very small circles, admittedly) he’s credited with being the father of the hard-boiled private eye. Or the tough detective story. Or a “pioneer” of the whole genre.

But far more often often he’s totally slagged for being a horrible writer, an unimaginative hack with the artistic reach of an earthworm–in short, of not being Dashiell Hammett, who he was (and is) invariably compared to.

And the audacity! How dare he muddy the waters of detective fiction at exactly the same time as Hammett, but to do it in the very same pages of Black Mask where Saint Dash’s first efforts were also being published?

So who created the first hard-boiled private eye? Daly or Hammett?

It all boils down to a handful of stories in a handful of issues of The Black Mask, all appearing within a few months of each other. Daly’s story, “The False Burton Combs,” which appeared in the December 1922 issue, is often credited with being the first to feature such a protagonist, although the nameless hero identifies himself as more of an “adventurer” than a detective.

Another school of thought posits that Hammett’s “The Road Home” was the first hard-boiled detective story, which appeared in the exact same December 1922 issue. Although the hero of that yarn doesn’t call himself as a detective either, but rather as a manhunter. Reading the two stories back-to-back (and that’s exactly how they appeared) it’s obvious the detective genre is going through a monumental shift. Almost all the tropes of a new sub-genre are present or suggested in one or both stories.

Granted, it’s true that Daly was no Hammett. But then, who was?

Or is?

* * * * *

Daly was born in Yonkers, New York in 1889 and was the kind of kid who was probably bullied a lot. He was almost certainly a little peculiar–allegedly quite shy, and suffered throughout his life from agoraphobia and odontophobia (the fear of dentists).

He was educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and managed theatres in Atlantic City, and got married to Margaret G. Blakley in 1913. But what he really wanted to do was write.

Fortunately, he had a kindly (and wealthy) uncle who encouraged his early literary efforts. And so Daly kept plugging away, and by the early twenties, when Daly was in his early thirties, he had sold a few stories to various nickel and dime pulps. But his first significant sale (at the age of 33) was to a then-new pulp, The Black Mask, which was then still struggling to find an audience. The story was the afore-mentioned “The False Burton Combs.”

Make no mistake — Hammett was the better writer. Daly’s characterizations were pretty crude, and his plotting was shaky at best, swimming in cheesy melodrama, although he sure knew how to pack in the action. And attract readers.

Inspired by the story’s reception, he set about creating a series character in the same vein, and came up with Three Gun Terry, whom most consider the first hard-boiled private eye.

Unfortunately, Terry didn’t quite do it for readers, but Daly’s next attempt, essentially the same character with a different monicker, caught on in a big way. Race Williams was the prototypical hard-boiled, tough-talking detective made of equal doses of single-minded fury and quick thinking action, armed with twin forty-fives. In Race’s world, he was the Hammer and anything in his way–man, woman or child– was a nail. And yet somehow, Williams always managed to escape impossible situations, usually by shooting his way out, and his aim was always true.

The public loved Race, and he went on to appear in over fifty stories. In one poll, Daly was named Black Mask‘s most popular writer by readers (Erle Stanley Gardner came in second; Hammett third), and it was said that Daly’s name on the cover could jack up sales by a whopping fifteen percent.

No fool he, Daly would play the Race card again and again. Almost all of his other trigger-happy heroes–no matter their occupation–were cut from the same cloth, with minor alterations. Somehow, they almost always shot first (and, of course, never missed), and no matter who they shot and killed, the targets deserved it. Who needed judge or jury, when Race or one of his facsimiles was around?

Subtle? Not by a long shot.

Satan Hall was another one of Daly’s other popular characters. He was a New York homicide dick who bore a striking facial resemblance to ol’ Beezlebub himself, and had a knack for shooting his victims right between the eyes while they were “resisting arrest” — at least according to the police reports. By the way, Satan appeared a couple of years after Hammett’s similarly visaged Sam Spade.

Vee Brown, also known as “The Crime Machine,” was another of Daly’s longer-running characters. He may have seemed like a mild-mannered musician, but that was just a cover for his real gig as a special op for the Manhattan District Attorney, almost as gun crazy and prone to brutal, bloody violence as Race and Satan. He appeared in a couple of novels and several short stories, and his real first name was Vivian.

Meanwhile, down-and-out former millionaire Marty Day becomes a lead-spitting avenger of sorts after he hooks up with the mysterious Reckoner in a handful of stories that were published between 1933 and 34 in the pages of Dime Detective. Then there’s Doc Fay, whom Evan Lewis refers to as Daly’s “Christ figure;” Clay Holt, a Race-like private eye who appeared in several stories and accounts for Daly’s sole screen credit, bodyguard Pete Hines and fast-shooting vigilante Mr. Strang.

* * * * *

Daly was soon a regular contributor to Black Mask. There was always be a market for his fast-paced, action packed stories and colourful storytelling. His plots may not have always made much sense, and his style often bordered on melodramatic bombast, but he sure kept the pages turning. The editors may have sneered, but they knew how popular Daly’s stories were.

And then Black Mask hired a new, ambitious editor, Joseph “Cap” Shaw, in 1926, who had ideas of his own about what type of writing he wanted– and it wasn’t the type Daly was offering. Shaw held his nose, and kept buying stories from him, but–inspired by Hammett–he was also building up a shadow roster of better, more dimensional writers who better evoked what he saw as the Black Mask style; writers like Raymond Chandler, Raoul Whitfield, John K. Butler and Norbert Davis.

More and more often, Daly’s stories started appearing in other pulps, while back at Black Mask, Daly and Shaw squabbled on a regular basis about writing, money and Lord knows what else. Eventually Daly stormed out in late 1934, and his fiction wouldn’t return to Black Mask until Shaw himself was let go in 1936.

Through most of his career, Daly lived quietly in White Plains, New York, regularly selling to the pulps. Unfortunately, by the late forties, his slam-bang style (“crude to the edge of literacy,” as one “fan” put it) was losing its popularity. Daly moved out to California, with visions of Hollywood perhaps dancing in his head, but it didn’t pan out.

He died on January 16, 1958 in Los Angeles. He was 68 years old, almost completely forgotten and unappreciated by the genre he largely helped create–even as Mickey Spillane was riding the bestseller lists with Mike Hammer, a character very much in the Race Williams mold.

But as much as anyone, with Three Gun Terry and especially Race Williams, laid the foundation for what we now think of as the classic hard-boiled American private eye, while his The Snarl of the Beast (1927) gets the credit for being the first private eye novel ever published–at least as we understand the term.

UNDER OATH

“There is a misconception that has long existed among critics and scholars of hard-boiled detective fiction that is in sore need of clearing up. Namely, that Dashiell Hammett was a far better writer of detective fiction, and far more influential, than Carroll John Daly…. At the risk of being found guilty of blasphemy by my colleagues, I submit that Daly and Hammett rank neck-and-neck as detective story writers. Further, I submit that Hammett’s stylistic influence was severely restricted to one decade and one immediate group of disciples. Today, Daly’s influence is still splattered across every paperback rack in the country.”
— Stephen Mertz (May 1978, The MYSTERY FANcier)
“In small doses this stuff is still terrific fun…”
— Chris Ward, Amazon
“Mr. Daly knows how to furnish a higher percentage of thrills to the chapter than any other writer on crime.”
— William Lyon Phelps, on the dust jacket of Mr. Strang.
“I certainly don’t consider Daly a “good” writer, but he sure is fun to read.”
— Evan Lewis

SHORT STORIES

Incomplete. I doubt even Daly could have provided a complete list.

“Sticker Wilson” (March 10, 1922, People’s Story Magazine)
“Dolly” (October 1922, Black Mask)
“The False Burton Combs” (December 1922, Black Mask; Burton Combs)
A Gift of the Gods” (January 1, 1923, People’s Story Magazine)
“Not Reel Life” (March 3, 1923, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“It’s All in the Game” (April 15, 1923, Black Mask)
“Paying an Old Debt” (April 1923, The American Magazine)
“Three Gun Terry” (May 15, 1923, Black Mask; Three Gun Terry)
“The Lexicon of Youth” (June 16 1923, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“Passing of the Deacon (June 1923, Action Stories)
“Knights of the Open Palm” (June 1923, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Three Thousand to the Good” (July 15, 1923, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Kiss-the-Canvas Crowley” (September 1, 1923, Black Mask)
“Two-Gun Gerta (Part One)” (October 1, People’s Story Magazine; with C. C. Waddell)
“Two-Gun Gerta (Part Two)” (October 15, People’s Story Magazine; with C. C. Waddell)
“That Crude Idea” (December 15, 1923, Top-Notch)
“Question of Ethics” (December 22 1923, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“Action! Action!” (January 1, 1924, Black Mask; Three Gun Terry)
“The Brute” (January 15, 1924, Black Mask)
“That Irish Tongue of His” (January 26 1924, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“Modest Terry” (February 1924, Detective Tales)
“Creatures of the Night” (February 1924, Action Stories)
“Marty from Arizona” (March 29 1924, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“Golf is Golf” (April 8, 1924, Sport Story Magazine)
“One Night of Frenzy” (April 15 1924, Black Mask)
“The Red Peril” (June 1924, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Fingers of Mohammed” (June 1924, Action Stories)
“Them That Lives By Their Guns” (August 1924, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Buried Treasure” (October 1924, Illustrated Novelets)
“Cupid the Cracksman” (November 29, 1924, Flynn’s)
“Devil Cat” (November 1924, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Behind the Curtain” (December 20, 1924, Flynn’s)
Not the same story in the August 10, 1935 issue.
“The Gentleman from Hell” (January 31 1925, Argosy All-Story Weekly)
“The Face Behind the Mask” (February 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Conceited, Maybe” (April 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Say it with Lead!” (June 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Man with the Twisted Face (Part One)” (July 10, 1925, Western Story Magazine)
“The Man with the Twisted Face (Part Two)” (July 17, 1925, Western Story Magazine)
“The Man with the Twisted Face (Part Three)” (July 24, 1925, Western Story Magazine)
“The Man with the Twisted Face (Part Four)” (July 31, 1925, Western Story Magazine)
“I’ll Tell the World” (August 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The White Champion” (August 15, 1925, Flynn’s)
“While the Bowery Sleeps” (August 25, 1925, Complete Story Magazine)
“No Man’s Island” (September 1925, Action Stories)
“Alias Buttercup” (October 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Game Guy” (October 8, 1925, Sport Story Magazine; football)
“The Honor of the Force” (November 1925, Triple-X)
“Under Cover (Part 1)” (December 1925, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Under Cover (Part 2)” (January 1926, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“From Darkness to Dawn” (February 2, 1926, North West Stories)
“Weak Sister” (April 10, 1926, Detective Story Magazine)
“The Tiger’s Girl” (April 24, 1926, Detective Story Magazine)
“South Sea Steel (May 1926, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Lurking Shadows” (May 1926, Triple-X)
“The False Clara Burkhart” (July 1926, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Super Devil” (August 1926, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Code of the House (October 2, 1926, Detective Story Magazine)
“Out of the Night (October 1926, Black Mask)
“Half-Breed” (November 1926, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Twenty Grand (January 1927, Black Mask)
“Blind Alleys (April 1927, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Snarl of the Beast” (Part 1) (June 1927, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Snarl of the Beast” (Part 2) (July 1927, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Snarl of the Beast” (Part 3) (August 1927, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Street of Whispering Shadows (August 19, 1927, Crime Mysteries)
“The Snarl of the Beast” (Part 4) (September 1927, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“Law of the Night” (December 1927, Crime Mysteries; Doc Fay)
“The Last of the Dunlaps” (February 18 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
“The Egyptian Lure” (March 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Law of Silence” (April 1928, Black Mask)
“The Hidden Hand — Creeping Death” (June 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Hidden Hand — Wanted For Murder” (July 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Hidden Hand — Rough Stuff” (August 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Hidden Hand — The Last Chance” (September 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Hidden Hand — The Last Shot” (October 1928, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Bad Man” (October 2, 1928, Complete Stories)
“Border Law” (November 2, 1928, Complete Stories)
“The House of Crime” (November 10, 1928, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“Gun Law” (February 2, 1929, Complete Stories)
“Tags of Death” (March 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
“The Killer Instinct” (March 1929, Fight Stories)
“A Pretty Bit of Shooting” (April 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Get Race Williams” (May 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Race Williams Never Bluffs” (June 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Amateur Gunman” (June #2, 1929, Complete Stories)
“The Right to Silence” (August 10, 1929, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“The Silver Eagle” (October 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Last Shot” (November #2, 1929, Complete Stories)
“The Death Trap” (November 1929, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Tainted Power” (June 1930, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Framed” (July 1930, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Black Turns White” (August 16, 1930, Detective Story Magazine)
“The Crime Book” (August 1930, Detective Classics)
“The Final Shot” (August 1930, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Shooting Out of Turn” (October 1930, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Murder by Mail” (March 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Murder By Mail” (March 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Flame and Race Williams (Part 1”) (June 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Flame and Race Williams (Part 2)” (July 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Satan’s Lash” (August 8, 1931, Detective Story Magazine; Satan Hall)
“The Flame and Race Williams (Part 3)” (August 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Death for Two” (September 1931, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Murder Mansion” (December 1931, Action Novels)
“The Crime Machine” (January 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Dead Men Do Tell” (February 1932, Black Aces; Marty O’Day)
“The Sixth Bullet” (February 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Blackmail Boss” (March 1932, Black Aces; Marty O’Day)
“The Curtain of Frost” (March 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Law of Man” (March 1932, Detective Action Stories; Doc Fay)
“The Amateur Murder (Part 1)” (April 1932, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Call to Kill” (April 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Amateur Murder (Part 2)” (May 1932, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Death Master” (May 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Mock Duck” (May 1932, Black Aces; Marty O’Day)
“The Amateur Murder (Part 3)” (June 1932, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Satan Sees Red” (June 25, 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“The Amateur Murder (Part 4)” (July 1932, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Satan’s Law” (August 6, 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Murder at Midnight (August 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“As Midnight Strikes” (October 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Satan’s Kill” (November 19, 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“The Red Death” (November 1932, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Satan’s Creed” (December 17, 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Merger With Death” (December 1932, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Curtain of Steel” (February 1933; Dime Detective; Marty Day)
“The Man from San Quentin” (March 1933, Clues)
“Silence” (March 10, 1933, Detective Story Magazine)
“The Price of Silence” (March 15, 1933, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Death by Appointment” (March 25, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Mark” (April 22 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“The Death Drop” (May 1933, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Drawn in Blood” (June 1, 1933, Dime Detective; The Reckoner & Marty Day)
“If It Is Murder” (June 3, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“If Death Is Respectable” (July 1933, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Satan Strikes” (August 12, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“The Black Warning (September 1, 1933, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Sign of the Rat” September 2, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Twist Sullivan)
“Murder in the Open” (October 1933, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Death Mask” (November 1, 1933, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Satan’s Threat” (November 11, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Death Follows the Rat” (November 25, 1933, Detective Fiction Weekly; Twist Sullivan)
“Blood on the Curtain” (December 1, 1933, Dime Detective; The Reckoner & Marty Day)
“The Swinging Corpse” (December 15, 1933, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Answered in Blood” (March 1, 1934, Dime Detective; The Reckoner & Marty Day)
“The Killer in the Hood (April 14 1934, Detective Fiction Weekly; Twist Sullivan)
“Make Your Own Corpse!” (April 15, 1934, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Six Have Died” (May 1934, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Flaming Death” (June 1934, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“The Shadow of Holy Joe” (June 15, 1934, Dime Detective)
“The Shadow of Holy Joe” (June 15, 1934, Dime Detective)
“Behind the Black Hood” (June 23, 1934, Dime Detective; The Reckoner & Marty Day)
“Flaming Death” (June 1934, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Death Drops In” (July 1, 1934, Dime Detective; Clay Holt)
“The Murder Syndicate” (July 15, 1934, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Mexican Legion” (July 1934, Frontier Stories)
“Murder Book” (August 1934, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Red Friday” (September 1, 1934, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Satan Returns” (September 8 1934, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Dump Cop” (September 10, 1934, Detective Story Magazine)
“Ticket to Murder” (October 1 1934, Dime Detective; Clay Holt)
“The Clawed Killer” (October 15, 1934, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“The Eyes Have It” (November 1934, Black Mask; Race Williams)
“Excuse to Kill” (December 15, 1934, Dime Detective; Clay Holt)
“Satan Laughed” (December 15, 1934, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Ready to Burn” (February 16, 1935, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Parole” (April 6, 1935, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“The Bridal Bullet” (May 1, 1935, Dime Detective; Clay Holt)
“Lady of Death” (June 1, 1935, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“Behind the Curtain” (August 10 1935, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
Not the same as the story of the same title in the December 20, 1924 issue.
“Some Die Hard” (September 1935, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Dead Hands Reaching” (November 1935, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Mark of the Raven” (January 1936, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Corpse & Co.” (February 1936, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part One)” (March 7, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Two)” (March 14, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Three)” (March 21, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Four)” (March 28, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Just Another Stiff” (April 1936, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Five)” (April 4, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Six)” (April 11, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Seven)” (April 18, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Satan’s Vengeance (Part Eight)” (April 25, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Satan Hall)
“Red Dynamite” (July 1936, Dime Detective; Vee Brown)
“Fiend in False-Face” (September 1936, Ace-High Detective)
“City of Blood” (October 1936, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Broken Bank” (November 1936, Dime Detective)
“The Morgue’s Our Home” (December 1936, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Sergeant Shay” (December 1936, Pocket Detective Magazine)
“Murder Maze” (January 1937, Pocket Detective Magazine)
“The Man without a Face” (January 1937, Clues Detective Stories)
“Monogram in Lead” (February 1937, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Legion of the Living Dead (Part One)” (April 24, 1937, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“The Legion of the Living Dead (Part Two)” (May 1, 1937, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“The Legion of the Living Dead (Part Three)” (May 8, 1937, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“The Legion of the Living Dead (Part Four)” (May 15, 1937, Detective Fiction Weekly; Mr. Strang)
“The Girl in the Yellow Mask” (May 1937, Clues Detective Stories)
“Where Killers Meet” (May 1937, Top-Notch)
“The Girl in the Yellow Mask” (May 1937, Clues Detective Stories)
“Pistols in Paris” (May 1937, Pocket Detective Magazine)
“Dead Men Don’t Kill” (August 1937, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Single Clew” (August 1937, Pocket Detective Magazine)
“Anyone’s Corpse” (October 1937, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The $1,000,000 Corpse” (December 1937, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Book of the Dead” (January 1938, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“A Corpse on the House” (March 1938, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“I Am the Law” (March 1938, Black Mask; Satan Hall)
Not the same as the story of the same title in the November 1948 issue of Black Book Detective.
“Wrong Street” (May 1938, Black Mask; Satan Hall)
“A Corpse for a Corpse” (July 1938, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Dead Men Don’t Sign Checks” (October 1938, Crime Busters; Clay Holt)
“The Men in Black” (October 1938, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“The Quick and the Dead” (December 1938, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Hell with the Lid Lifted” (March 1939, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Murder Made Easy” (May 1939, Black Mask; Clay Holt)
“A Corpse in the Hand” (June 1939, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Gangman’s Gallows” (August 1939, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Mr. Sinister (Part One)” (November 11, 1939, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“Mr. Sinister (Part Two)” (November 18, 1939, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“Mr. Sinister (Part Three)” (November 25, 1939, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“The White-Headed Corpse” (November 1939, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Cash for a Killer” (February 1940, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Beauty and the Feast” (May 25, 1940, Argosy)
“Securities Exchanged for Death” (August 1940, Detective Tales; Satan Hall)
“Victim for Vengeance” (September 1940, Clues Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“Murder Plays Hooky” (October 1940, Detective Tales)
“Gun for Hire” (November 10, 1940, Short Stories)
“No Sap for Murder” (November 1940, Black Mask; Pete Hines)
“The Strange Case of Iva Grey” (December 1940, Dime Detective)
“Five Minutes for Murder” (January 1941, Black Mask; Pete Hines)
“Too Dead to Pay” (March 1941, Clues Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“The Hand of Satan” (May 1941, Detective Tales; Satan Hall)
“Clay Holt, Detective” (February 1942, Detective Story Magazine; Clay Holt)
“Johnny Was a Hero” (March 1944, Argosy)
“Little Murder Has Big Ears” (April 1944, Detective Tales)
“Mr. Sinister” (April 1944, Flynn’s Detective Fiction; Satan Hall)
Not the same story that appeared in the November 11 to November 25, 1939 issues.
“City of the Dead” (June 1944, Flynn’s Detective Fiction)
“Asking Price–Murder” (July 1944, New Detective Magazine)
“Murder Theme” (July 1944, Black Mask)
“Body, Body–Who’s Got the Body?” (October 1944, Detective Story Magazine)
“A Corpse Loses Its Head” (March 1945, Detective Story Magazine)
“I’ll Be Killing You” (September 1945, New Detective Magazine; Satan Hall)
“The Seventh Murder” (November 1945, Detective Story Magazine)
“Name Your Stiff” (February 1946, New Detective Magazine; Satan Hall)
“You’ll Remember Me” (March 1946, Mammoth Detective)
“The Giant Has Fleas” (February 1947, Detective Story Magazine)
“Unremembered Murder” (March 1947, Detective Story Magazine)
“This Corpse on Me” (June 1947, Thrilling Detective; Race Williams)
“Dead Man’s Street” (September 1947, New Detective Magazine; Doc Fay)
“I’ll Feel Better When You’re Dead” (December 1947, Thrilling Detective; Race Williams)
“Not My Corpse” (June 1948, Thrilling Detective; Race Williams)
“Race Williams’ Double Date” (August 1948, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“I Am the Law (November 1948; Black Book Detective; Satan Hall)
Not the same story as the one in the March 1938 issue of Black Mask.
“The Wrong Corpse” (February 1949, Thrilling Detective)
“Bury Me in the Same Grave” (March 1949, Black Book Detective; Satan Hall)
“I’ll Kill You, I Suppose” (Spring 1949, Triple Detective)
“Half a Corpse” (May 1949, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Big Boss” (Summer 1949, The Shadow)
“Race Williams Cooks a Goose” (October 1949, Dime Detective; Race Williams)
“Outside of Time” (January 1950, Weird Tales)
“The $100,000 Corpse” (March 1950, Popular Detective)
“The Strange Case of Alta May” (April 1950, Thrilling Detective; Race Williams)
“If I Go in a Hearse” (Spring 1950, The Phantom Detective)
“In the Bag” (Fall 1950, Black Book Detective)
“Murder in the Wind” (Winter 1951, Giant Detective)
“Part of the Night” (Winter 1951, Black Book Detective)
“Part of the Night” (Winter 1951, Black Book Detective)
“Lorraine” (May 1951, Detective Fiction)
“A Bullet Marked Benny” (October 1951, Dime Detective)
“Murder in the Mind” (Winter 1951, Giant Detective)
“The Importance of Being Ernie” (June 1952, Thrilling Detective)
“Little Miss Murder” (June 1952, Smashing Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“This Corpse Is Free!” (September 1952, Smashing Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“Death Rehearsal” (October 1952, Dime Detective)
“Jackpot” (Winter 1953, Thrilling Detective)
“House by the River” (February 1953, Famous Detective Stories)
“The Corpse in the Picture” (May 1953, Famous Detective Stories)
“Gas” (June 1953, Smashing Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“The Cops Came at Seven” (August 1953, Famous Detective Stories)
“Homicide” (Winter 1953, The Phantom Detective)
“Avenging Angel” (February 1954, Famous Detective Stories; Satan Hall)
“The Children’s Gun” (March 1954, Smashing Detective Stories; as by John D. Carroll)
“Manhunter” (August 1954, Famous Detective Stories)
“Murder by the Book” (September 1954, Smashing Detective Stories)
“Experiment in Murder” (October 1954, Famous Detective Stories)
“Murder Yet to Come” (December 1954, Famous Detective Stories)
“With a Bullet in You” (March 1955, Smashing Detective Stories)
“Head Over Homicide” (May 1955, Smashing Detective Stories; Race Williams)
“Aunt Betsy’s Arch Fiend” (1956, Double-Action Detective Stories #4; as by John D. Carroll)

COLLECTIONS

The Adventures of Satan Hall (1988; Satan Hall) | Buy this book
The Adventures of Race Williams (1989; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Collects five of the stories Daly did for Dime Detective.
The Complete Cases of Vee Brown, Volume 1 (2014; Vee Brown) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
Race Williams’ Double Date and Other Stories (2014; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Them That Lives By Their Guns (2015; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Contains the first 16 Race Williams stories, all from 1923-26 issues of Black Mask
The Complete Cases of The Reckoner (2015) | Buy this book
The Snarl of the Beast (2017) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume Two
Shooting Out of Turn (2017; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume Three
If Death Is Respectable (2018; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume Four
The Complete Cases of Vee Brown, Volume 2 (2019; Vee Brown) | Buy this book
Just Another Stiff (2019; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume Five
Gang Man’s Gallows (2020; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume Six
Satan’s Vengeance (2020; Satan Hall) | Buy this book
The Casebook of Satan Hall
The Man in the Shadows: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Terry Mack (2021; Terry Mack) | Buy this book
Contains both short stories, plus The Man in the Shadows and an all-new introduction by Evan Lewis.
Unremembered Murder (2022, Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams Volume Seven.
Lady of Death: The Complete Cases of Mr. Strang, Volume 1 (2022, Mr. Strang) | Buy this book
Satan’s Lash: The Complete Cases of Satan Hall, Vol. 1 (2022, Satan Hall) | Buy this book
The Complete Cases of Vee Brown, Vol. 3 (2023; Vee Brown) | Buy this book
The Complete Cases of Race Williams, Volume 1 (Deluxe Edition) (2023; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Fancy hardcover edition rings in at a whopping 710 pages, including 19 of Daly’s earliest stories, including non-Race tales “Dolly,” “Paying an Old Debt,” and the pivotal “The False Burton Combs,” plus a scholarly intro by Brooks E. Hefner, and some of Daly’s personal insights.
Satan’s Mark: The Complete Cases of Satan Hall, Vol. 2 (2024, Satan Hall) | Buy this book

NOVELS

The White Circle (1926)
The Snarl of fhe Beast (1927; Race Williams) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
The Man in the Shadows (1928) | Buy this book
The Hidden Hand (1929; Race Williams) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
The Tag Murders (1930; Race Williams) | Kindle it!
Tainted Power (1931; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Third Murderer (1933; Race Williams) | Buy this book
The Amateur Murderer (1933; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Murder Won’t Wait (1933; Vee Brown)
Murder From the East (1935; Race Williams) | Buy this book
Mr. Strang (1936; Mr. Strang) | Buy this book
The Mystery of the Smoking Gun (1936; aka “Death’s Juggler”; Satan Hall)
Emperor of Evil (1936; Vee Brown)
Better Corpses (1940; Race Williams) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
The Legion of Our Living Dead (1947; Mr. Strang)
Murder at Our House (1950)
Ready To Burn (1951; Satan Hall)
Two-Gun Gerta (with C. C. Waddell)

FILMS

TICKET TO A CRIME | Buy this DVD
(1934, Beacon Productions)
67 minutes
Premiere: December 15, 1934
Based on the story “Ticket to a Crime” by Carroll John Daly
Adapted by Jack Neville
Screenplay by Charles A. Logue
Directed by Lewis D. Collins
Produced by Max Alexander
Starring Ralph Graves as CLAY HOLT
Also starring Lola Lane, Lois Wilson, James Burke, Charles Ray, Edward Earle, Hy Hoover, John Elliott, John Webb Dillon
Daly’s sole film credit, based on a story featuring Clay Holt, a Race Williams clone, as far as I can tell.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

The Vintage Library: Carroll John Daly
A brief bio and a collection of links to downloadable pdf stories and novels featuring Race Williams.
Carroll John Daly Bibliography
A Russian site (I think), featuring an impressive but frustratingly incomplete bibliography (no magazines are listed). Parts of the list were apparently taken — misspellings intact– from this site.
The Orth-Daly Case
Turns out Daly, the guy often credited with inventing the hard-boiled detective story, lived in White Plains around the same time Eugene Orth, a real-life private eye, did. Was Orth the inspiration for Race Williams? Turns out the answer is “No,” but it’s still fascinating bit of detective work by Ben Himmelfarb. (September 2018, Retreats from Oblivion)

Carroll John Daly