Mister Maddox

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Created by T.T. Flynn
Pseudonym of Thomas Theodore Flynn
(1902-78)

“When Joe Maddox tells you it’s all right, it’s all right. You can lay money on it.”

MISTER JOE MADDOX, almost always referred to as “Mister Maddox,” earned the nickname “The Bland Buddha of the Bangtail Circuit,”  for hanging around racetracks all over the States and even venturing as far south as Mexico. He worked as a bookie, playing the horses, and dabbling in detective work. He appeared in thirty-five stories, some of them pretty lengthy, that ran in the pages of Dime Detective from 1938 to 1950.

Maddox was a big guy, getting on in years but cocky, confident, and well-respected in the racing community. He knew his horses, and his skill as a bookie allowed him to enjoy all the good things in life: flashy jewelry, top shelf scotch, cigars, staying in fine hotels and eating in fine dining establishments.

He only “dabbled” in detective work, because he wasn’t officially any kind of detective, and yet somehow, he was always stepping in some sort of shit —and around race tracks, there was always plenty of it to be found. According to the intro to his very first story, “Dead Man’s Debt,” he knew all “the ins and outs of the race-racket, the wise-money, machinations of the harpies that follow the bangtails, and the tricks of the vultures on the chisel-fringe of the underworld.”

Fortunately, his heavyset buddy, Oscar, a handicapper, had his back.

And to balance things out, he had a cop nemesis, Cassidy, who was always on his case.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author T.T. Flynn was born in Indiana and lived for a while in Hyattsville, Maryland. He was a prolific writer of stories for the pulps, pounding out at least 250 of the suckers, many of them westerns, according to Michael Cook’s Mystery, Detective and Espionage Fiction. Besides the Mr. Maddox stories, he also wrote a slew of stories about

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author T.T. Flynn was born in Indiana and lived for a while in Hyattsville, Maryland. He was a prolific writer of stories for the pulps, pounding out at least 250 of the suckers, many of them westerns, according to Michael Cook’s Mystery, Detective and Espionage Fiction. Besides the Trixie and Mike stories, her also wrote about wrote a series of stories for Detective Fiction Weekly about Trixie Meehan and Mike Harris, ops for the Miami-based Blaine Private Detective Agency. One of Flynn’s westerns, The Man from Laramie, was made into a successful movie, starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Anthony Mann.

SHORT FICTION

  • “Dead Man’s Debt” (February 1938, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox and the Gray Ghost” (July 1938, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Death Rides the Favorite” (October 1938, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “The Devil’s Derby” (April 1939, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Saratoga Slay-Ride” (September 1939, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Blood on the Book” (January 1940, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Kentucky Kickback” (May 1940, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “The Bookie and the Blonde” (July 1940, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Blood on the Blue-Grass” (November 1940, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Trot Out Your Murder!” (April 1941, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Post-Mortem at Pimlico” (August 1941, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “The Devil in the Horse Van” (December 1941, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Happy Murder to You!” (April 1942, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Tijuana Kill-Trap” (August 1942, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Ride and Die” (October 1942, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Murder in a Dead Heat” (January 1943, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “A Horse of Another Killer” (April 1943, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox Bites the Dog” (July 1943, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Weather Fair—Track Bloody” (November 1943, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Hayseed Homicide” (March 1944, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “The Sooner the Deader” (May 1944, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Puss and the Coroner” (July 1944, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Dead Man’s Dough” (August 1944, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Calamity Lou” (December 1944, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Win, Place and Kill!” (April 1945, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Murder on the Bounce” (June 1945, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Murder in the Saddle” (November 1945, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Gee-Gee Doublecross” (May 1946, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “My Kingdom for a Corpse” ( September 1946, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Live and Let Die” (March 1947, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “I’ll Bet Your Life!” (September 1948, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox’ Phony-Finish” (December 1948, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox’ Murder Parlay” (March 1949, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox Tips a Homicide” (August 1949, Dime Detective Magazine)
  • “Mr. Maddox’ Haunted Horse” (March 1950, Dime Detective Magazine)

COLLECTIONS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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