Crime, Mystery, & Gangster Fiction Magazine Index

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    Special Detective    (about)
    Launched by the then editor of Detective Fiction Weekly, Special Detective featured a blend of fiction (mainly by authors familiar from Detective Fiction Weekly) and factual articles. After the third issue the former were phased out and the magazine continued as a true crime magazine.

    • Publishers:
      • Haig-Kostka Publications, Inc.; 434 Main Street, Mount Morris, IL: Special Detective

    Spicy Detective Stories:
    Spicy Detective Stories was one of the notorious Spicy pulps published by Culture Publications in the late 1930s which concentrated on a simple formula—fast action stories laced with sex. It ran for nine years under that title before the forces of reform forced it to change to the rather more sedate Speed Detective. Note that from late 1935 through late 1937, most issues appeared in two different versions—one uncensored and the other self-censored. The censored version was identifiable by a star within a box located at the top of the cover. The interior illustrations were typically “toned down” in the censored versions and some even had variant contents. Also in 1941 & 1942, most of the stories were retitled stories, attributed to “fake” authors, from earlier issues (or from other Culture magazines) apparently as part of a fraud by the editors. Details on these retitled reprints supplied by Ben Chapman and Kenneth R. Johnson.

    Spicy Detective Stories

    • Publishers:
      • Culture Publications, Inc.; 900 Market Street, Wilmington, DE: Spicy Detective Stories

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