Robert Leslie Bellem

Pseudonyms include John Archer, Reeves L. Black, Walter Bronson, Walt Bruce, Ellery Watson Calder, Harley L. Court, Rex Daly, John Grange, Allan Henry, Fred Horton, Jerome Hyams, Nelson Kent, Richard Lyle, Lee Martin, James W. Marvin, Hugh McKnight, R. L. Morris, Kenneth A. Nelson, Jerome Severs Perry, Ben Proctor, Frank Roberts, John A. Saxon, L. N. Snyder, Richard Lathrop Steed, Hamilton Washburn, L. W. Watson, Perry Watson & Harcourt Weems
(1902-68)

“And then, from an open window, a roscoe coughed Ka-Chow…”

The hard-boiled private eye, born in the low-rent pages of the pulps way back in twenties, has become a remarkably resilient mainstay of American popular culture, evolving with the times, popping up not just in literature, but film, radio, television, comics, the internet and undoubtedly whatever lies beyond. He’s also proven to be quite fertile ground for all kinds of writers, from brain-dead hacks pounding out the most clichéd and purplish of prose just to pay the rent, to those who sweated and struggled over every single comma, taking themselves very, very seriously. You only have to read the innumerable letters and essays by high-faluting hard-boiled pen-pushers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald to know that these men (commonly referred to, almost in awe, as “The Big Three” of detective fiction) took themselves very seriously indeed.

But it’s a pretty safe bet that ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM (1902-1968), the creator of legendary Hollywood eye Dan Turner, never took himself that seriously. Or expected his readers to.

He seemed to effortlessly churn out the stuff, and it’s estimated he wrote an astounding 3000 or so pulp stories, with Turner starring in at least 300 of them, not to mention 60 or 70 comic book stories. In his prime, it was said that Bellem was pumping out a million words annually, and selling almost every single one of them to the pulps. But he was more than merely prolific.

He was a riot.

The question, though, is did he know it? Was he was trying to parody the hard-boiled detective genre, barely ten years after its birth, with his stories of Turner, or (and this is even scarier) was he simply, completely unaware of how funny and original his style was?

Bellem was born in 1902 in Philadelphia, and worked in Los Angeles as a newspaper reporter, radio announcer and film extra. But it was as a writer for the pulps that he truly made his mark.

Most of his worked was published by the notorious Culture Publications, home of the “spicy” line of pulps: Spicy Detective, Spicy Adventure, Spicy Western and Spicy Mystery. He wrote in a variety of genres, under numerous pen and house names, including John Grange, Victor Rousseau, Walt Bruce and Jerome Severs Perry. He wrote vampire stories, weird menace stories, and of course, tons of detective stories. He may have been about the only pulp writer of detective fiction who never cracked Black Mask, although if Black Mask editor Cap Shaw could only begrudgingly accept Norbert Davis‘ screwball-tinged stories, there’s no way he could have swallowed Bellem’s full-tilt lickety-split worldview.

Not that Bellem was suffering from viable markets…

He created Dr. Zarkov, the mysterious Surgeon of Souls, who would appear “phantasmagorically to those who found themselves at a moral crossroads, offering an alternative ethical and healthy course of action… to remove the cancerous tumors of hate, envy, lust, greed from their souls so they may find peace . . . and redemption.”

With his pal. fellow pulpser W.T. Ballard, with whom he once shared an office, Bellem wrote ten stories featuring Jim Anthony, a half-Comanche, half-Irish crimefighter created by Victor Rousseau Emanuel. Anthony evolved over the course of his brief career from a kind of Doc Savage superhero to a more traditional hard-boiled dick, which was when Ballard and Bellem, writing together as John Grange, came in.

Ballard and Bellem also teamed up, this time as Walt Bruce, to write several stories featuring Doctor Zeng, originally written by E. Hoffman Price. Zeng was a white man from San Francisco of rather impressive skills posing as a Chinese scholar, all the better to fight crime.

He was also the man behind such two-fisted eyes as Jeff Quinlan, Sam Welpton, Cliff Downey, Little Jack Horner, Rusty Regan, Nick Ransom and Duke Pizzatello.

But of course, by far his most famous creation was Dan Turner, whose stories were written in the first person in a racy, slangy bangy style that the public apparently never tired of. Turner was a “private skulk,” an “orb for hire,” working the weird and wacky streets of Hollywood. His cases seemed to always involve the film world, and its tyranical film directors, jealous husbands, amourous starlets, treacherous stuntmen and back-stabbing co-stars. But it wasn’t the outlandish, albeit predictable, plots or the cardboard characters that made the stories so funny, although some of the methods of murder were certainly pretty high on the Quirk-O-Meter.

Nope, it was the high-octane use of every slang word known to man (and more than a few Bellem must have coined himself) that fueled the tales. Women were wrens or frills, and their breasts were pretty-pretties or tiddlywinks, something that Dan, “as human as the next gazabo,” always took the time to notice. Cars were chariots, money was geetus and no one ever got killed in the stories, they were croaked, cooled, iced, de-lifed or had an act of killery performed upon them. Guns didn’t go bang – they were roscoes and they spat, coughed and belched. Or somtimes they just sneezed, though the end result was the same — people ended up dead. Dead as a fried oyster. As vaudeville. As an iced catfish. In fact, just knowing Turner seemed to be dangerous. Years before TV’s Jessica Fletcher watched the citizens of Cabot’s Cove drop like flies, Dan was cutting a wide swath through the population of Hollywood. The only other recurring character in the series was his pal, and sometime-rival, Lieutenant Dave Donaldson of the homicide squad, whose chief purpose seemed to be to get the bodies hauled away.

Set against the background of the Hollywood film industry (of which Bellem had personal knowledge), the first stories were published in the pages of Spicy Detective, a pulp that specialized in “racy” subject matter. Turner subsequently appeared in each issue from June 1934 to 1947. Eventually, the magazine was re-christened Speed Detective (and supposedly cleaned up), but the Turner stories continued, with Bellen often recyling older stories, toning down the “spiciness.” But even that didn’t seem to stop his output.

By 1942, Turner was so popular, Culture Publications had given him his own pulp, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (later just Hollywood Detective), which lasted for eight years. Not only would there be a Turner story (or two or three) in each issue, but sometimes Bellem would write the entire issue, using a variety of pen names (and, okay, occasionally, slyly retitling or reworking a previously published story).

Turner also appeared in a film, 1947’s Blackmail, adapted from a July 1944 Speed Detective story, starring Richard Cortez as a blackmailed playboy who asks Turner (William Marshall) for help. Strictly B, from all reports. And more than forty years later, Turner fanatic John Wooley scripted an original story for The Raven Red Kiss-Off (1990) wherein Turner (Marc Singer) gets involved with a movie mogul, a beautiful starlet named Vala DuValle (Tracy Scoggins) and, as usual, blackmail. Apparently, this went straight to VHS, that era’s equivalent of a B film.

You ask me, though, film’s the wrong medium for Turner anyway. With its breakneck pace, and bursts of rat-a-tat chatter, a half-hour TV show might be better, but let’s face it – nothing compares to simply reading this stuff. Often hackneyed and predictable, yes, but also hilarious as hell. His work may have been, as some have suggested,  “uninspired formula hack work,” but the gink sure knew how to fling those words around–you don’t sell that many stories without pleasing readers, or knowing your way around a typewriter.

In fact, he was a writing machine, cranking out everything from detective fiction to porn. And his writing did improve, with the slapdash early Dan Turners becoming longer and, according to writer and pulp fan Stephen Mertz, “hands down brilliant.” Mertz goes on to admit that much of Bellem’s writing was disappointing, but goes on say say “a most notable exception are the superb Little Jack Horner stories.”

Certainly, even back then, Bellem had his defenders. In a now-classic New Yorker piece, “Somewhere a Roscoe,” humourist S.J. Perelman, an unabashed fan, lauded Bellem and called Turner “the apotheosis of all private detectives…out of Ma Barker by Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade.”

He was also good friends with Cleve F. Adams, with whom he collaborated often. In fact, when Adams was ill and after he passed away in 1949, it was Bellem who edited and sold some of Adams work, most notably No Wings on a Cop (1950), which Bellem had expanded from a story by Adams. And fellow pulpster Frank Gruber allowed, in his memoirs, that Bellem was a rather eccentric character himself, so let’s just assume he knew what he was doing.

Even when the the pulp market finally sputtered to an end in the fifties, Bellem kept writing. He just dusted himself off and switched to writing for television. He penned numerous scripts, most notably for The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Superman, Perry Mason and 77 Sunset Strip.

So maybe Bellem didn’t take himself very seriously, or at least not the Dan Turner stories. But who cares? Let’s just enjoy him. I mean, “dead as six buckets of fish bait”?

You have to be one sad sack of a gazabo not to get a chuckle out of that one.

THE EVIDENCE

• “She was a hell of a sweet number. Her skin was as warm and smooth as new cream, and she had what it takes to drive a man utsnay.”
  — “Dead Man’s Head”

SHORT STORIES

Incomplete. I bet even Bellem couldn’t provide a complete list.

• “Murder By Proxy” (June 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Diamonds of Death” (July 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Scoop!” (July 1934, Spicy Detective; Ted McFarland; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Dead Man’s Bed” (August 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death by Telephone” (September 1934, ; Spicy DetectiveDan Turner)
• “The Waterloo of Willie the Dip” (September 1934; Spicy Detective; as Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Sleeping Dogs” (September 1934, Spicy Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Murder at Malibu” (October 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Bracelets for a Lady” (October 1934, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder for Fame” (November 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Fifty Grand in Rubies” (November 1934, Spicy Detective; John Allison; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Girl With Green Eyes” “December 1934, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death On Location” (February 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Fog Over Limehouse” (February 1935, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Horoscope Case” (March 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cop Trap” (March 1935, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Bullet From Nowhere” (April 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Temporary Corpse” (May 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Night Scene” (May 1935, Spicy Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Corpse Without a Face” (May 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “The Cache Car” (May 1935, Spicy Detective; Ted McFarland; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder Masquerade” (June 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Fangs of the Bat” (June 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “Five-Grand Fee” (July 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Peacock Clue” (July 1935, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Executioner” (August 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “Dead Legs Walk” (August 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Cats of Cassandra” (August 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka as “Eyes of the Cat;” by R. L. Morris)
• “Mistress of Serpents” (September 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Voice from Beyond” (September 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Master of Death” (September 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “The Blood Drinkers” (September 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Death’s Bright Halo” (October 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Command to Kill” (October 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “The Belled Rat” (October 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Castle Sinister” (October 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Too Many Diamonds” (November 1935, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Beyond Justice” (November 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Man Who Was Not” (November 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “Murder from Nowhere” (November 1935, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “The Fall of Frisco Freddie” (November 1935, Spicy Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Murder’s Messenger” (December 1935, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Crimson Crone” (December 1935, Spicy Mystery)
• “A Comet Passes” (January 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Labyrinth of Souls” (January 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Portrait of Terror” (January 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Shadows Pass” (February 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Graveyard Honeymoon” (February 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Murder Takes an Alibi” (February 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Beyond the Veil” (March 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Dark Splendor” (March 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Taupoo Dance” (April 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Smuggler’s Subterfuge” (April 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Trick of the Trade” by Richard Lathrop Steed)
• “Cooked” (May 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cavern of the Faceless” (May 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “You Can’t Try a Corpse” (May 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “She Who Was Dead” (May 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “The Million Buck Snatch” (June 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Surgeon of Souls” (June 1936, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Fate of the Faulains” (June 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Death’s Chrysalis” (June 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Death, Advanced Stage” by Walter Cook)
• “The Second Dagger” (July 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Nocturne” (July 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Numbers” (July 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Pineapple Policy” by Perry Watson)
• “Code of Valor” (August 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Gold Code” by Richard Lathrop Steed)
• “Dead Man’s Head” (August 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Reunion Beyond” (August 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Falling Star” (September 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Flowers of Desire” (September 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Fatal Make-Up” (October 3, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly; Buck Whalen)
• “Silverscreen Spectre” (October 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Bullets at Bledsoe’s” (October 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “I Must Have Five Corpse” (November 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Jerome Severs Perry)
• “Crooner’s Caress” (November 1936, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “From the Sea” (December 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “Death Orchids” (December 1936, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Dog of Death” by L. N. Snyder)
• “Death’s Passenger” (December 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Hell’s Dark Fragrance” (December 1936, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Moon God Takes” (December 1936, Spicy Mystery)
• “A Deal for Denver Dave” (January 1937, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Death’s Diary” (February 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Bitter Reckoning” (March 1937, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Death for a Name” (April 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sacrifice Rap” (April 1937, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “When the Dead Awaken” (April 1937, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder Debt” (May 1937, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder Claws” (May 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder on the Sound Stage” (June 1937, Private Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Corpse in the Closet” (July 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Thirty Seconds” (July 1937, Spicy Mystery; aka “30 Seconds Death;” Dr. Zarkov)
• “Star Chamber” (August 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Detour” (August 1937, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Frozen Fire” (September 1937, Spicy Adventure; Johnnie Piper)
• “The Corpse Screams Twice” (September 1937, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Veiled Lady” (October 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Find That Corpse” (November 1937, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Gallows Heritage” (December 1937, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Dark Star of Death” (January 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Duty and the Beast” (January 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Silverscreen Shakedown” (April 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Method” (April 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Fifty Percent True” by Max Neilson)
• “Brunette Bump-Off” (May 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Color Scheme” (June 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Ghost Cavalcade” (June 1938, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “Burn Witch Burn;” by Clark Nelson)
• “Killer’s Harvest” (July 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Front for a Killer” (July 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Appointment with a Corpse” (September 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Alimony League” (September 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Strange Journey” (October 1938, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Drums in the Distance” (October 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Payroll Pay-Off” (November 1938, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Blackmail From Beyond” (November 1938, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Dark Eyes of Hell” (December 1938, Spicy Mystery; Dr. Zarkov)
• “Crimson Quest” (February 1939, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Ghost of the Sea” (February 1939, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder Car” (February 1939, Private Detective Stories; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Kill That Deadline” (February 1939, Romantic Detective; Ken Fitch, City Editor)
• “Snow Flight” (March 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Merely Murder” (April 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Design for Dying” (April 1939, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Muggles Mess-Up” (May 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Dead Lips Can’t Talk” (July 1939, Spicy Detective; John Allison; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Bullet Pay-Off” (August 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder; aka “For the Murderer;” by John Phillips)
• “Photograph Finish” (August 1939, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Rifle Mike” (September 1939, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Ringside Seat for Murder” (September 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Corpse Accuses” (October 1939, Spicy Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Murder from the Grave” (October 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Killers Running Wild” (November 1939, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Badger Bump” (February 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Peril for Sale” (April 1940, Detective Dime Novels; Nick Ransom)
• “Drunk, Disorderly and Dead” (June 1940, Private Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Thug’s Threshold” (June 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Diamond Fingerprints” (June 1940, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Danger’s Delegate” (June 1940, Red Star Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Pinball Pay-Off” (July 1940, Private Detective Stories; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Death Dubbed In” (July 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Crimson Ritual” (August 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Hazard’s Harvest” (August 1940, Red Star Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Study in Copper” (August 1940, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Death’s Blue Discs” (September 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Jeopardy’s Jackpot” (October 1940, Red Star Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Premiere in Purgatory” (November 1940, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Passport” (December 1940, Spicy Detective; also in The Pulps [1970]; Dan Turner)
• “Angel in Hell” (December 1940, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Cat Act” (February 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Reckoning in Red” (March 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Killer’s Cue” (April 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Future Book” (May 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death by Arrangement” (July 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Witch Hunt” (August 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Boomerang Blunder” (August 1941, Spicy Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Risks Redoubled” (August 1941, Double Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Barmecide Bride” (September 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Melody of Vengeance” (October 1941, Spicy Mystery)
• “Murder’s Ten Percent” (October 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Picture Frame” (November 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Sign of the Song” (November 1941, Spicy Mystery)
• “Crimson Comedy” (December 1941, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder On The Sound Stage” (January 1942, Hollywood Detective, Dan Turner; Dan Turner)
• “Death Dance” (January 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “A Comet Passes” (January 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder on the Sound Stage” (January 1942; Dan Turner)
• “Bullet From Nowhere” (January 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death in the Doghouse” (February 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Corpse Cross” (March 1942, Private Detective Stories)
• “Shouldn’t Happen to a Dog” (March 1942, Spicy Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Crimson Reckoning” (April 1942, Super-Detective)
• “Forever Vengeance” (April 1942, Spicy Mystery Stories)
• “Gas-House Still” (April 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Done Twice” (April 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Payoff on Peril” (April 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Skyrocket Copper” (May 1942, Mammoth Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Ace in the Hole” (May 1942, Spicy Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Murder’s Remake” (May 1942, Private Detective Stories; Bill Brody)
• “No Questions” (May 1942, Mammoth Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Keepsake” (June 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Blood Cargo (June 1942, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Blackmail Book” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Blizzard in August” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Blonde Motive” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Drop” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Pocket” (July 1942, Private Detective Stories)
• “Lady Scarface” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Puzzle in Purple” (July 1942, Spicy Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Ransomed Remainders” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Spur of the Moment” (July 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Forgery’s Foil” (August 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death in the Draft” (September 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Hot Skins” (September 1942, Mammoth Detective)
• “Death’s Dark Star” (October 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Four Minutes Past Nine” (October 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Haunt” (October 1942, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sinister House (October 1942, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Hell’s Ice-Box” (October 1942, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Judas Jewels” (October 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Last Round” (October 1942, Spicy Mystery)
• “Phantom Fangs” (October 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Telephone Tangle” (October 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Days of Death” (November 1942, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Riddle in Red” (November 1942, Spicy Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Broken Melody” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Color of Murder” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Corpse by Mistake” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Daughter of Murder” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Union” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “League of Leeches” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Malibu Mess” (December 1942, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Petticoat Payoff” (December 1942, Spicy Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “The Caribbean Cask” (December 1942, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Dark Miracle” (January 1943, Speed Mystery)
• “Eyes of the Dead” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Glittering Clue” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Headed for Nowhere” (January 1943, Mammoth Detective)
• “Headlines in Hell” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Parallel” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder in Yellow” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Murdered Mummy” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Riddle in the Rain” (January 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Snake Tangle” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sleeping Dogs” (January 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Between Shifts” (January 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Arrow from Nowhere” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Case of the Vanishing Limousine” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Dame Dies Twice” (February 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Feature Snatch” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Heads You Lose” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Hunch” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder’s Blue Motive” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Phony Shakedown” (February 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cauldron of Death” (February 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Camelback Kill (February 1943, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Murder’s Migrants” (March 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Russian Run-Around” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dead Man’s Shakedown” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner).
• “Killer’s Investment” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Satan’s Shrine” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sing Me a Song of Murder” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Case of the Slain Gorilla” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Water Cooled” (March 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death For a Flying Dutchman” (April 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Three Blonde Mice” (April 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dead Man’s Guilt” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Escorts” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dissolve Shot” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Kiss the Corpse Goodbye” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Monster’s Malice” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Shakedown Sham” (May 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Star Dice” (May 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Heiress” (June 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Lion’s Loot (June 1943, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Home Is the Hunter” (June 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “Hurry with the Hearse” (June 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Bund Bump” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cast for Killing” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Check Tangle” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Blind Date” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Bite” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Dodge” (July 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “Murder Tank” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder with Music” (July 1943, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Shooting Schedule” (July 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder on Furlough” (August 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “Sisterhood of Fear” (August 1943,Mammoth Detective; Jed Britt)
• “Taps for a Trumpeter” (August 1943,Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Curse of the Masters” (August 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Homicide House” (August 1943, Speed Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Black Light Payoff” (September 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “Corpse on Ice” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Begins at Forty” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dump the Jackpot” (September 1943, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Harvest of Hate” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder in Wax” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Keeper of the Frame” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Homicide Plum” (September 1943, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Dead Man’s Code” (October 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Highball” (October 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “King-Size Kill” (October 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Off the Record” (October 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Pipeline to Murder” (October 1943, Super-Detective; by John Grange*; Jim Anthony)
• “Roman Holiday Murders” (October 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Copper’s Comeback” (November 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “Death’s Dress Rehearsal” (November 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Half-Size Homicide” (November 1943, Hollywood Homicide; Dan Turner)
• “Murder in Miniature” (November 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cat Act” (November 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Coffin Bait” (November 1943, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Case of the Homicide Dive” (December 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “A Corpse Can’t Croon” (December 1943, Private Detective Stories)
• “The Lake of the Left-Hand Moon” (December 1943, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Slice of Murder” (December 1943, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “The Seer Sees Death” (December 1943, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Blackmail Clinic (December 1943, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Focus On Death” (January 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Widow By Proxy” (January 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Coffin Frame” (January 1944, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dead Heat” (January 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Focus on Death” (January 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Credentials” (January 1944, Speed Mystery; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Stunt Men Die Hard” (February 1944, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder, Sam Devlin)
• “Killer’s Legacy” (February 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Over the Hill to the Death House” (February 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Vanishing Vampire” (February 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Cure” (March 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Odds on the Eight-Ball” (March 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder at Auction” (March 1944, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Killer, Come Back to Me” (April 1944, Private Detective Stories)
• “Pistol-Packing Premiere” (April 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “5 O’Clock Shadow” (May 1944, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Heel’s Blood” (May 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Contract” (May 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder in the Air” (May 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Special Effect” (May 1944, Private Detective Stories)
• “Killer’s Chord” (June 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sleep for a Dreamer” (June 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Tree of the Pointing Finger” (June 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sleep for a Dreamer” (June 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dan Turner Deals an Ace” (July 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Buys Black Gas” (July 1944, Private Detective Stories; Dan Turner)
• “Kidnap Ticket” (July 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Robot Killer” (July 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Stock Shot” (July 1944, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Corpse Cargo” (August 1944, Popular Detective; by Walt Bruce**; Dr. Zeng)
• “Murder’s Mouthpiece” (August 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Pyramid of Death” (August 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death in the Risk Racket” (September 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder at the Mike” (September 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Home Is the Killer” (October 1944, Hollywood Detective ; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Clue” (October 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder on Wings” (October 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Sinister Santa Claus” (October 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Stars Die at Night” (October 1944, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Big Fix” (October 1944, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Clever Corpse” (November 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Remake for Death” (November 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cue for a Killing” (December 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Leap” (December 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Deathbed Caper” (December 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Heel’s Heritage” (December 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder by the Book” (December 1944, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Trump for the Ace” (December 1944, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “A Corpse Comes Home” (January 1945, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Murder Stunt” (January 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Legacy” (February 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killer’s Cross-Up” (February 1945, Private Detective Stories)
• “Morgue Case” (February 1945, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Has Four Letters” (February 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Has Four Letters” (February 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death in the Cast” (March 1945, Hollywood Detective ; Dan Turner)
• “Death Is Where You Find It” (March 1945, Hollywood Detective ; Dan Turner)
• “Cameo Code” (April 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Comet’s Consor” (April 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Die, Witch, Die!” (April 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Screen-Test Kill” (April 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Snatch Buster” (April 1945, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Suicide Stunt” (April 1945,Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Big Cut” (May 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cure for a Quisling” (May 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dead Ringer” (May 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dead Mike” (June 1945, Super-Detective)
• “Dolly Shot” (June 1945, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Flash” (June 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Dead Don’t Dream” (July 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Funeral Fade-Out” (August 1945, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Pin-Up Corpse” (August 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Crazy for the Kill” (October 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Frame Around a Fall Guy” (October 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Lady Regrets” (October 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Bury the Badger” (October 1945, Speed Detective Oct 1945; Dan Turner)
• “Double Switch” (November 1945, Private Detective Stories)
• “The Book of the Phantom Bullet” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Coffin for a Coward” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dog’s Life” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Poison Payoff” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Ruby Ransom” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Green Heat” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective;Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Surprise” (February 1946, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Hot Rock” (February 1946, Private Detective Stories)
• “Kill Me Again!” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder—N.S.F.” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Red Night” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Syndicate Snatch” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Don’t Change Hearses” (March 1946, Super-Detective)
• Homicide’s Partner”(April 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Arrangement for Murder” (April 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Fangs for the Memory” (April 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Freak Show” (April 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder from Music” (April 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Gold-Badge of Courage”(May 1946, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Dirge for a Phony”(July 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Half-Past Dead” (July 1946, Super-Detective)
• “Key to the Kill” (July 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Queen Was in Her Coffin” (July 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Reunion with Murder” (July 1946, Private Detective Stories)
• “Serial Kill” (July 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Corpse for a Day” (July 1946, Super-Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Graveyard Serenade” (July 1946, Private Detective Stories; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Latin Blood” (August 1946, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• The Bride Wore Black” (September 1946, Super-Detective)
• “Fall Guy for a Forgery” (September 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Hotfoot” (September 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Slow Burn” (September 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Spare the Rod” (September 1946, Private Detective Stories Sep 1946
• “Island of Doom” (September 1946, Super-Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Gallows Dance” (October 1946, Speed Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Wolf Trap” (October 1946, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Careless Corpse” (November 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Shakes the Dice” (November 1946, Private Detective Stories)
• “Murder’s Monogram” (November 1946, Super-Detective)
• “The Riddle Thumbs a Ride” (November 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Treachery Pulls the Trigger” (November 1946, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Come Die For Me” (December 1946, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Killery in the Card” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; by Jerome Severs Perry; Little Jack Horner)
• “Hair of the Dog” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death’s Autograph” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Hair of the Dog” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Strikes Back” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Slay It isn’t So!” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Honeymoon” (February 1947, Speed Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death Watch” (March 1947, Super-Detective)
• “Encore for Death” (June 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “You’re So Dead” (June 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Don’t Go Near the Slaughter” (September 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Lethal Lullaby” (September 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Follows Me!” (September 1947, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “I’ll Take That Rap” (January 1948, Popular Detective)
• “Suicide Scenario” (February 1948, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Hang My Killer High (nv) Detective Mystery Novel Magazine Spr 1948
• “Mahatma of Mayhem” (April 1948, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Death Ends the Scene” (May 1948, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Wired Alibi” (May 1948, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Hanging Framei” (May 1948, G-Men Detective)
• “Killer’s Diseasei” (May 1948,  Private Detective Stories)
• “Badge of Valor” (June 1948, Thrilling Detective)
• “No Reprieve for the Killer” (June 1948, Black Book Detective)
• “Happy Doomsday to You” (July 1948, Popular Detective)
• “Cinema Corps” (August 1948, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Points” (August 1948, Private Detective Stories)
• “The 9th Doll” (August 1948, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Secret Circuit” (September 1948, Super-Detective)
• “Death Draws a Picture” (November 1948, The Phantom Detective)
• “Off-Stage Murder” (November 1948, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide Spike” (November 1948, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Serenade with Slugs” (December 1948, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Knife in the Dark” (January 1949, G-Men Detective, Don Palmer)
• “Keys to a Killer” (February 1949, Thrilling Detective)
• “Make with the Mayhem” (February 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Muscles In” (February 1949, Hollywood Detective ; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Tune” (March 1949, Super-Detective)
• “Gray Steel ” (Spring 1949, The Phantom Detective)
• “Homicide Shaft” (April 1949, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Body in the Closet” (June 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Homicide’s Hallmark” (June 1949, Detective Novel Magazine)
• “Killer’s Ruse” (June 1949, Super-Detective)
• “Murder on the Meter” (June 1949, Private Detective Stories)
• “Preview of Murder” (June 1949, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Slayer’s Serenade” (June 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Reefer Reel” (June 1949, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Kill with a Kiss!” (October 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Wire Trap” (October 1949, Super-Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Puzzle in Peril” (October 1949, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Triple-Edged Murder” (October 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Music of Doom” (December 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Starring—Death!” (December 1949, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Quickie Kill” (January 1950, Hollywood Detective ; Dan Turner)
• “Terror on the Doorstep” (January 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Terror on the Doorstep” (January 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Blind Man’s Fluff” (February 1950, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Death on the Set” (February 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Model for a Corpse” (February 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Gambling Corpse” (February 1950, Super-Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Any Number Can Slay” (March 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Doom on File” (March 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Headline to Kill” (March 1950, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Action! Camera!—Drop Dead!” (April 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Movie Mad—Murder Mad” (April 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Shakedown Legacy” (April 1950, Super-Detective)
• “Cast as a Corpse” (May 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Screen Test for Murder” (May 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Avenger in Red” (May 1950, Hollywood Detective; by Ellery Watson Calder)
• “Cast For Murder” (June 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Cutie in a Coffin” (June 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Murder Steals the Scene” (August 1950, Thrilling Detective; Nick Ransom)
• “Murder Wears Makeup” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Curtains for a Corpse” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Diamonds of Death” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Death in the Spotlight” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “The Doomed Quartet” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective; Dan Turner)
• “Shells of Justice” (October 1950, Thrilling Detective)
• “Too Fair to Die!” (March 1951,  Two Complete Detective Books; with Cleve F. Adams & W. T. Ballard, as by Cleve F. Adams; Rex McBride)
  Later published in a different form as Shady Lady, 1955)
• “The Glass Noose” (Winter 1952, The Phantom Detective)

NOVELS

• Blue Murder (1938; Duke Pizzatello) | Buy this book
• Half-Past Mortem (1947, Sam Welpton; as by John A. Saxon)
• Liability Limited (1947, as by John A. Saxon; aka “This Was No Accident;” Sam Welpton)
• The Window with the Sleeping Nude (1950)
• No Wings on a Cop (1950; with Cleve F. Adams)
  Expanded by Bellem from a pulp story by Adams.

COLLECTIONS

I’m pretty sure Bellem’s stories are public domain, or at least people think they are, because there certainly are a lot of dodgy collections and facsimile reprints by a lot of questionable, fly-by-night publishers who seem to be ripping off the estate–and each other. While some are quite presentable, others are shoddy, poorly produced POD jobs that look like they were spat out by an aging photocopy machine that needs a new toner cartridge, or ebooks that are only slightly less decipherable than an insurance policy written on an Etch-a-Sketch. Buyer beware.

• God’s Gift to the Sherlock Business: Two Adventures of Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (1981, Air Pirates; Dan Turner).
• Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (1983; edited by John Wooley; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• Spicy Detective Encores No. 1: Three Dan Turner Stories (1986; Dan Turner)
• Spicy Detective Encores No. 5: Three More Dan Turner Stories (1987; Dan Turner)
• Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective: Lights! Camera! Murder! (1990, Eternity Comics/Malibu Graphics; edited by Tom Mason) | Buy this book
  Movie tie-in with several reprints of Turner stories, both prose and comics.
• Reckoning in Red: From the Case Files of Dan Turner, P.I., Volume 1 (2001; Dan Turner).
• High Adventure Number 60: Dan Turner Hollywood Detective (2001, edited by John Gunnison; Dan Turner).
  Reprints the entire contents (7 stories) of Dan Turner Hollywood Detective, January 1943.
• Reckoning in Red: From the Case Files of Dan Turner, P.I., Volume 1 (2001, Black Dog Books; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• Corpse on Ice: From the Case Files of Dan Turner, P.I., Volume 1I (2003; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• Roscoes in the Night (2003; intro by John Wooley; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective No. 1 (2003, Girasol Collectables; Dan Turner)
  Includes seven stories.
• Killer’s Ruse (2005, edited by Jerry L. Schneider)
  Reprints from Private Detective, Super-Detective and Fifth Column Stories.
• Knife in the Dark and Other Stories (2005, edited by Jerry L. Schneider)
  Reprints from Gay Parisienne, Snappy, Spicy Detective and others.
• The Cock Crows Murder & Other Tales from the Pulps (2008) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
  Seven Bellem tales from pulp magazines such as Spicy Mystery Stories, Fifth Column Stories, and The Ghost — Super-Detective. Intro by Darrell Schweitzer.
• The Robert Leslie Bellem Reader (2008, Oak Grove; Dan Turner) | Kindle it!
  Includes several Dan Turner stories.
• Deja Vue! I’ve Read That Before! (2008, CreateSpace) | Buy this book
• Bellem was not above recycling his work, as evidenced by these six pairs of stories (the original plus the revised version), five featuring Dan Turner.
• The Case Files of Dan Turner (2009, CreateSpace; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• The Case Files of Dan Turner Hollywood Detective. Volume 1: The Spicy Years (2009, Pulpville Press; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
• The Case Files of Dan Turner Hollywood Detective. Volume 2: The Middle Years (2009, Pulpville Press; Dan Turner).
• The Case Files of Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Volume 3: The Turner Years (2009, Pulpville Press; Dan Turner)
• Little Jack Horner (2009; Little Jack Horner) | Buy this book
  Contains all six stories.
• The Robert Leslie Bellem Magazine (Pulp Tales Press, 2009; Dan Turner) | Buy this book
  Collection of non-fiction articles on and by Bellem.

THE DAN TURNER COMIC STORIES

Besides the more than 300 short stories, Dan Turner also appeared in over 50 (and possibly as many as 100) comic stories. The four-page comic strip stories, all black and white, and frequently untitled, and all scripted by Bellem, most drawn by Adolphe Barreaux, originally appeared as backup features, alongside prose stories, in Spicy Detective, Hollywood Detective and Spicy Detective. They were later reprinted, in full colour, in Crime Smashers, in the 1950’s. And finally, they were reprinted, restored to their original black and white glory, in Spicy Tales: A Naughty Anthology, a 1980’s bi-monthly that featured reprints of comic stories from the pulps. And in 1991, Turner fan and pulp historian John Wooley unleashed an all-new, original Turner comic book that lasted only four issues, and called (what else?) Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective. Some older comic reprints appeared as back-up.

• HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE
  Written by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Art by Adolphe Barreaux
  • “Corpse from the Sky” (April 1934, Hollywood Detective; rep: March 1991, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective)
  • “The Murdered Mummy” (January 1943, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #1)
  • “Murder With Music” (July 1943, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #2)
  • “Zoot Suit Killers” (January 1943, Hollywood Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #3)
  • “Killer’s Foil” (March 1944, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #4)
  • “Corpse from the Sky” (April 1944, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective” (June 1944, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Sinister Santa Claus” (October 1944, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #5)
  • “Trap for a Booby” (November 1944, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death of a Cave-Man” (February 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death for a Matador” (March 1945,Hollywood Detective)
  • “Quicksand Caper” (April 1945, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #6)
  • “Lighthouse Snatch” (May 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Murder Pane” (April 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Slave Market Murder” (July 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “The Devil’s Ballet” (August 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death for the Loser” (October 1945,  Hollywood Detective)
  • “Homicide Double” (December 1945, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Killer in Clay” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective)
  • “High Homicide” (February 1946, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death on the Needle” (July 1946, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death’s Magnet” (September 1946, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Alibi Policy” (November 1946, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Crash Kill” (January 1947, Hollywood Detective; rep: March 1991, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective)
  • “The Big Shiv” (June 1947, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Murder Mine” (September 1947, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Models for Murder” (May 1948, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Strangler’s Ballet” (February 1949, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Blackmail Bump Off” (June 1949, Hollywood Detective; rep: May 1991, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective #1)
  • “Murder Mine” (September 1947, Spicy Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #7)
  • “Mysto-Magic Murder” (August 1948, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Pictures for Framing” (November 1948, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Televised Frame” (October 1949, Hollywood Detective; rep: Spicy Tales #8)
  • “Off-Stage Kill” (January 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Make-up for Murder” (February 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Dive to Death” (March 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Bellyboard Bump-Of” (April 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death Trumps the Joker” (May 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Bear-Trap Kill” (June 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “The Corpse in Lower Nile” (August 1950, Hollywood Detective)
  • “Bullwhip Bump-Off” (December 1950, Crime Smashers; rep: Spicy Tales #19)
  • “Make-Up for Murder” (April 1951, Crime Smashers #4; rep: Spicy Tales #18)
  • “Bellyboard Bump-Off” (July 1951, Crime Smashers #5; rep: Spicy Tales #14)
  • “Bear-Trap Kill” (January 1952, Crime Smashers #8; rep: Spicy Tales #8)
  • “Death Trumps The Joker” (May 1952, Crime Smashers #10; rep: Spicy Tales #17)
  • “Strangler’s Ballet” (November 1952, Crime Smashers #13)
  • “The Poisoned Puppet” (March 1953, Crime Smashers #15; rep: Spicy Tales #15)
  • “Murder in Wax” (Hollywood Detective)
  • “Roman Holiday Murders” (Hollywood Detective)
  • “Murder in Miniature” (Hollywood Detective)
  • “The Case of the Homicide Dive” (Hollywood Detective)
  • “Death Crusade” (Hollywood Detective)
• DAN TURNER, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE
  (1991, Eternity Comics)
  Four issues
  Written by John Wooley
  Adapted from stories by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Art by Kevin Tuma, Gary Dumm
  • “The Dark Star of Death” (March 1991)
  • “Ace in the Hole” (May 1991)
  • “Homicide Hunch” (July 1991)
  • “The Star Chamber” (September 1991)

COMIC COLLECTIONS

• THE HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVES | Buy this book
  (1991, Malibu)
  Reprints several stories featuring Queenie Starr and Dan Turner. Unfortunately, not together. And the cover sucks.
• DAN TURNER HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE COMICS
  (2005, Pulpville Press)
  Written by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Art by Adolphe Barreaux
  Reprints eight comic stories from the pages of Hollywood Detective.

FILMS

• BLACKMAIL | YouTube it!
  (1947, Republic)
  Based on the short story “Stock Shot” by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Screenplay by Royal B. Cole
  Directed by Lesley Selander
  Starring William Marshall as DAN TURNER
  and Grant Withers as Inspector Donaldson
  Also starring Adele Mara, Ricardo Cortez, Stephanie Bachelor, Roy Barcroft, Tristram Coffin, Richard Fraser, Gregory Gaye, George J. Lewis, Eva Novak, Grant Withers, Bud Wolfe
  Arthur Lyons, in his Death on the Cheap, says this one’s “in the running for the worst tough-guy private eye movie ever made.”
• THE RAVEN RED KISS-OFF | Buy this on VHS(
  1990, fries Entertainment)
  Based on characters created by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Screenplay by John Wooley
  Directed by Christopher Lewis
  Produced by Linda and Christopher Lewis
  Starring Marc Singer as DAN TURNER, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE
  Also starring Tracy Scoggins, Nicholas Worth, Arte Johnson

REFERENCE

• “Somewhere a Roscoe” (October 15, 1938, The New Yorker; by S.J. Perelman)
  The humourist’s affectionate tribute to Bellem and Turner. Required reading.
• “Introducing The Author (July, 1941, Fantastic Adventures)
• “A Letter from Robert Leslie Bellem (June, 1943, Writer’s Digest)
• “Break It Up!” (July 1944, Writer’s Digest)

RELATED LINKS

• Robert Leslie Bellem Bibliography
  A Russian site (I think), featuring an impressive partial bibliography, parts of which were apparently taken — misspellings intact– from this site
• Davy Crockett’s Almanack: Introducing the Author
  A great swipe from the July 1941 issue of Fantasy Adventures, written by Bellem himself, and featuring the only photo I’ve found of him.

** John Grange was the house name used by R.L.Bellem & W.T.Ballard for their Jim Anthony stories.
** Walt Bruce was the house name used by R.L.Bellem & W.T.Ballard for their Dr. Zeng stories.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Portions of this bio and bibliography were originally published in WordWrights Magazine as “His Typewriter Spat Ka-Chow! Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner,” with additional bibliographical information generously submitted by Monte Herridge.

Sorry for the poor quality author’s photo, but apparently Bellem was one shy fella. The photo I used was nicked from Davy Crockett’s Almanack. The photo used by Amazon on their Bellem page and plastered all over the internet is actually that of David Goodis, another pulpster, albeit one not exactly known for his screwball capers. Thanks to my homey, Peter “Hawkeye” Rozovsky of Detectives Without Borders, for the tip.