The Crime Fighters

Page 11

Michael Grant

Stories of Michael Grant by Roland Daniel are told in the first person, and Grant tells us that he rents a flat on the fourth floor of 120, West Twenty-Second Street. He’s a private investigator whose office, ably managed by his secretary Jeanne, is in the Eureka Buildings at the corner of Tenth and Main Street. Some years back, before he had married and later lost his wife through an illness, Jeanne had been in love with him and he fond of her. She had been very upset when she learned that he was to marry a wealthy woman, and she went off to Florida. She returned after the death of his wife and took up her old position as secretary. Though Michael Grant was in the game for the money and wasn’t averse to a killing if necessary, he was a very determined lawman. And Lieutenant Jolson of the official police often had reason to thank Grant for handing him the solution to a case, though he suspected Grant’s methods. Michael Grant books included Women—Dope—and Murder (1962), Death by the Lake (1963) and Murder in Ocean Drive (1964).

Thomas Grant

Force of circumstance rather than his own inclination had Thomas Grant daily occupying the driver’s seat of a taxi cab, with his rank in busy Crane Street, London, instead of a comfortable office within the hallowed precincts of New Scotland Yard. Nature had intended him to be a crime investigator, through his gift of observation, but inexorable fate had decreed otherwise. Grant, with his friend Detective Inspector North of the C.I.D., appeared in the Boy’s Friend in 1920 in a short series entitled “The Adventures of Grant, Chauffeur Detective” by Edmund Burton.

Joe Grattan. See: Peach Blossom.

Graveyard Jack. See: Nimble Nat.

Gauntley Gray

Gauntley Gray was far ahead of his time, for he wore an eyeglass that contained a mysterious ingredient that acted as a kind of crystal ball. How the “great” detectives of fiction would have fared with such an invention is an intriguing thought. Gray, a solver of secrets in the service of the law, appeared in Puck in 1907 in a story entitled “The Man with the Mystic Eyeglass.”

Gordon Gray

Maxwell Scott’s creation Gordon Gray made his appearances in Pluck, Marvel, Union Jack and later Detective Library. He was a brilliant London detective, with chambers in Holborn. It was said that he never returned to his offices, once away on a case, until he had solved it. Typical reprints in Detective Library were “The Ordeal of Robert Ismay” and “The Girl Without a Memory.” At times Gray appeared in adventures with the great Nelson Lee.

Matt Gray

Featured in Sydney Horler’s The 13th Hour (1928), Matt Gray was a keen detective, with original ideas. He had a valuable assistant in his Alsatian dog Rex, who Matt described as a dog with a human brain. Matt worked at times as a free-lance with his friend Detective Inspector William Shaw, who was also prominent in the story.

Percy Gray. See: Invisible Ivan.

Panther Grayle

Gordon “Panther” Grayle of Russell Square, London, had keen, half-lidded eyes, framed by a masterly and powerful face. Grayle had earned himself the sobriquet of “Panther” because of his stealth of movement, his inscrutable methods, and his swift and deadly strokes. His assistant was a pert-faced boy of seventeen years called Dusty, a leading light in a gang of young criminals until he had been reformed by Panther Grayle. Grayle was created for the 1910 Empire Library by Jack Lancaster and subsequently resurrected by Howard Steele for the Champion and its yearly annual in the twenties.

Gregory George Gordon Green

He was an amusing, almost flippant, private detective who was the proprietor of the Gees Detective Agency of 37, little Oakfield Street in Haymarket, London. This agency, run with the aid of his secretary, derived its name from the four G’s of his name. Green, a lanky, awkward looking man with very large hands, was well suited to the job, having spent two years in the police force. Jack Mann was the author, and Green first appeared in Gees’ First Case (1936). Most of his cases seemed to involve supernatural happenings.

Anthony Grek

Anthony Grek, the Human Bloodhound, and his assistant Breezer were created by Netley Lucas and appeared in Golden Penny Comic in 1930.

Carson Grey

Carson Grey was a celebrated London detective and an associate of Frank Kingston, q.v., in his fight against “The Brotherhood of Iron.” The stories featuring him appeared as serials in the Gem in 1910-1911 and were entitled “Iron Island” and “The Brotherhood of Iron.” They were published under the name Robert W. Comrade, a pen name of Edwy Searles Brooks.

Colwin Grey

Keen-eyed, thin-faced Colwin Grey had offices in Gables Court, an alleyway off Grays Inn Road. He was cared for by a manservant named Thorpe. He appeared in The Threshold of Fear (1925), Simon of Hangletree (1926; published in the U.S. as The Unquenchable Flame), Greymarsh (1927) and a collection of short stories, Investigations of Colwyn Grey (1932) by Arthur John Rees. The stories were related by Grey’s friend Richard Haldham, a modern, and rather more intelligent, “Doctor Watson,” who shared his triumphs and perils.

Cyriack Skinner Grey

A modern scientific sleuth created by Arthur Porges, Cyriack Grey was a former research scientist but now a wheelchair case for life. He was featured in several short stories including “The Scientist and the Vanished Weapon” (1966).

Gabrielle Grey

Twenty-eight-year-old Gabrielle Grey was divinely fair, with large lustrous blue eyes and a tiny mouth with small white teeth. She had a retrousse nose with clear-cut nostrils, giving piquancy to her face. Gabrielle was extravagant in dress, partly for pleasure and partly for business. In temperament she was sanguine and self-reliant. She had the sly, downcast eye of a bashful maiden, certainly the direct opposite of the sleuthhound face and piercing glance of the usual detective. Grey was featured in a series of short stories entitled “Leaves from the Diary of Gabrielle Grey (The Dainty Detective).”

Maxwell Grey

This detective appeared in Union Jack No. 420 in a story entitled “The Sea Detective,” but little can be said of him since details are scarce. Nevertheless the story is strikingly descriptive, portraying an area of London in the early days of the twentieth century, an area with dense, yellow, choking fog and wet cobbled streets-usually so true in the month of November.

Griff

He was a grotesque creature, half man, half beast, who could only utter strange guttural sounds. He was an early assistant of Sexton Blake and appeared in the Union Jack in 1901 in a serial by Christopher Stevens entitled “Griff, the Man Tracker.”

Lester Griffith

Lester Griffith, late of Oxford and Cambridge, a well-known club man and sometime big game shooter, was also an amateur detective. He had a reputation for solving the supernatural type of mystery and was featured in the 1912 issues of Cheer Boys Cheer under the title “Griffith the Ghost Layer.” Later stories featured an assistant named Jack Marsh, a keen and bright-faced boy.

Doc Grip

Doc Grip, an ex-army man of Arkansas, appeared in Aldine Detective Tales No. 33, Doc Grip, the Sport Detective. He was a born rider and jockey, a muscular fellow with the brawn and sinews of a prize fighter and yet as supple as a cat. His hair was dark brown in colour and worn clubbed after the prevailing fashion of the southwest. He had a rather long face, smoothly shaven, with regular features. His eyes were keen and grey, though when he was excited they would appear more black than their natural colour. The story reprinted Doc Grip, the Sporting Detective by Albert W. Aiken from Beadle’s New York Dime Library No. 408 (1886).

Gideon Grip

This detective appeared in Aldine Half Holiday No. 105, an early American fiction reprint.

Gripp

He was a New York detective with the nickname “Lightning Grip” who appeared in Aldine Detective Tales No. 231, A Maze of Crime. Gripp was a tall, splendidly proportioned fellow, with a pair of magnificent eyes. The story is certainly a reprint from an American dime novel, possibly Lightning Gripp, the Cautious Detective; or, “Piping” the Nathan Murder Mystery from Old Cap Collier Library No. 13 (1883), anonymously penned by W. I. James.

George Grodman

George Grodman appeared only once, and that was in The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill. This was in 1891, and he is included here only for historical reasons: it is debatable whether he could be viewed as a genuine detective since though his powers of deduction are evident he is in fact the criminal in the story. Grodman, formerly a detective with Scotland Yard, was a bachelor living at Glover Street, Bow, in London. He was a fleshy-faced man with small beady eyes and side whiskers. When he retired from Scotland Yard he found he had left it too late to marry, and with time hanging heavy on his hands he spent his time writing a book entitled Criminals I Have Caught. Even then he could not occupy his spare time fully, and he hit on the diabolical plan of committing a crime that would baffle detection. After confessing his scientific explanation to the Home Secretary, he found that he had somehow become unstable and shot himself dead while alone in his office. Edward Wimp of Scotland Yard was the real detective in the story, but his role was insignificant compared to Grodman.

Detective Inspector Grogan

Detective Inspector Grogan of the Sydney Police Department was smooth and sleek and extremely dark. He had blue grey eyes and was always accompanied by his assistant, the ever grumbling Sergeant Manning. They were featured by Margot Neville in some nineteen novels, including The Flame of Murder (1958) and Drop Dead (1962).

Dr. Grundt. See: Clubfoot.

Ebenezer Gryce

Anna Katharine Green first introduced Ebenezer Gryce in The Leavenworth Case in 1878 and featured him in several other melodramas, including Behind Closed Doors (1888) and The Circular Study (1900). This New York City detective, who lived in a neat three storey brick house, was resolute and thus not a man to forsake a case while anything of importance connected with it remained unexplained.

Inspector Percival Guntrip

A big burly inspector at Scotland Yard, A. Eric Bayly’s Percival Guntrip was unique in his profession in that he attributed his success to luck, Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe! Guntrip had seen service in the army as well as on the streets of London, and he often discussed cases with his wife, a small pale-faced woman with very high intelligence. Guntrip was introduced in The Man with the Parrots (1901).

Tubby Haig

Tubby Haig and his clever assistant Raggles were detectives that starred in the Newnes Bulldog Adventure Library. Both were masters of disguise and basically action-type detectives as their market demanded. Such was Haig’s importance that in The Trail of the Purple Ace Sir Michael Drew, chief among world detectives, desired to collaborate with Haig on a case. Haig was a cool, self-possessed fellow, spruce and clean-limbed. He had a luxurious flat in London, just off Piccadilly. He played the violin and was fond of cheroots and stumpy black cigars. Raggles, whom Haig called “Rags,” was a slim, good-looking youth of about sixteen, with a freckled face and hair that verged on the colour of sand.

Dr. Eustace Hailey

Robert McNair Wilson, writing as Anthony Wynne, penned a series of stories about Dr. Eustace Hailey, who could be described as a pseudo-psychological criminologist. Hailey was a specialist in mental diseases, with a practice in Harley Street and the luxury of a butler named Jenkins. This snuff-taking doctor had a kindly face and a great head. Some of the 28 Hailey books were The Mystery of the Evil Eye (1925; The Sign of Evil in the U.S.), The Silver Arrow (1931; published in the U.S. in 1932 as The White Arrow, and Sinners Go Secretly, a collection of short stories (1927).

Dr. Auh Hakim

Hakim, a Balinese detective, was a creation of Cornelius Conyn and Jon C. Martyn, who featured him in a book with the clever title of The Bali Ballet Murder (1961).

Tubby Hale. See: Tubby Martin.

Clifford Hall

The famous detective Clifford Hall was featured in the Union Jack by Alec G. Pearson. A keen-eyed, sunburnt, wiry-looking man, he was good-looking, clean-shaven and pleasantly mannered, though reserved. Hall’s father was in the Chinese Custom Service, and Hall was born in that country, speaking the language like a native. He smoked a briar pipe and was a member of the famous London “Shadow” detective club.

Tubby Hall. See: Tubby Martin.

Jack Hallard

Jack Hallard, a young river detective, was featured in a series in Comic Cuts in 1925.

Superintendent Hallick

In The Terror (1929) by Edgar Wallace, Superintendent Hallick is the most prominently named police officer, although the man who makes the action go is Inspector Bradley of Scotland Yard, who plays the part of the drunken Ferdie Fane throughout the story until the denouement. A brief appearance is also made by Wallace’s more famous sleuth, Inspector Elk. An Inspector Bradley is also featured in Wallace’s The Flying Squad (1928), but whether it is the same character is unclear.

Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon

Tommy Hambledon, a former schoolmaster, is a member of the Foreign Office, British Intelligence Department. His old friend and ally is Chief Inspector Bagshott of Scotland Yard. At times Bagshott is given special duty with the Security Police, so coming into closer contact with Hambledon, whose methods he is accustomed to and which he sometimes depreciates and sometimes envies. Hambledon himself is a hard and precise operator and interrogator. He has appeared in stories in popular magazines such as The Saint Magazine and Suspense, as well as in some twenty-five novels, including Pray Silence (1940; published in the U.S. in 1941 as A Toast to Tomorrow) and No Entry (1958), all by Manning Coles.

Jane Hamish. See: Dagobert Brown.

Mike Hammer

Mickey Spillane’s private eye is of the hard school-in fact, Mike has all the earmarks of a violent psychopath. For instance, in The Girl Hunters (1962) Hammer thinks: “I could bury the axe in his belly. That would be fun!” Hammer finally nails the man to the floor by the hands with 20 penny nails. Hammer is a private investigator with a license to kill, and he tells the stories himself. It is difficult to see why he is allowed to do half the things he does, and it is almost as hard a task to find a place for him in this compilation alongside true detectives and policemen, and even alongside other hard school private eyes. The novels featuring Hammer are riddled with his episodes of violence. However, his occupation is that of a private detective, and at times he has worked undercover for the top people and for his country, America. In his office he employs a secretary, the beautiful (of course) Velda, with whom he is in love. The first Hammer novel was My Gun Is Quick in 1950, followed by many others, such as Vengeance Is Mine, also in 1950, and Kiss Me, Deadly (1952). Such was the popularity of Mike Hammer that a comic was brought out with that title, but it did not have much success.

Lieutenant George Hammond. See: Jane Amanda Edwards.

Inspector Hanaud

Inspector Hanaud of the Surete, A. E. W. Mason’s character, was a stout, broad-shouldered bourgeois who looked like a prosperous comedian. His very distinctive “Watson” was an over-fastidious dilettantish bachelor named Ricardo, who had made a fortune in Mincing Lane and felt it a point of honour to keep himself thoroughly up-to-date both in his knowledge of red wine and in the criminal affairs of his friend Hanaud. The first Hanaud novel was At the Villa Rose in 1910; this had appeared earlier in the same year in the Strand Magazine under the title The Murder at the Villa Rose. The second novel was The House of the Arrow, which did not appear until fourteen years later. Some thirty years after the first Hanaud story was published both novels were turned into successful films under their original book titles.

David Hannace

Hannace was manager of the famous Waddington Detective Agency in New York. He appeared in No. 23 of Aldine Mystery Novels under the title In the Last Act (1927) by Richard Goyne.

Richard Hannay

John Buchan’s Richard Hannay is probably remembered mainly for his appearance in the famous classic novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), and in the films of the same title. At age thirty seven he had enough money to have a good time and live in a rented flat near Portland Place in London. Later he joined the army at the start of the first world war, and was given the rank of captain immediately upon enlisting. He was the narrator of The Thirty-Nine Steps and also appeared in Greenmantle (1916), Mr. Standfast (1919) and The Three Hostages (1924).

Superintendent Hanslet. See: Dr. Priestley.

Jim Hanvey

James “Jim” H. Hanvey had a negative appearance, with a handclasp that was limp and clammy. He was a large man with round shoulders who wore a cheaply made ready-to-wear tweed suit which hung on him like a smoking jacket. Above his thick red neck rose a large head, fat and shapeless, with three sloppy chins and an apoplectic expression. He had a wide loose-lipped mouth and large, fishlike, passive grey eyes that opened and closed with maddening slowness. His whole image was finished off with unkempt hair and floppy ears. Hanvey’s speech was not in the least grammatical, and he had the habit of using a golden toothpick. Nevertheless, beneath this unimpressive exterior was one of the keenest brains among American detectives. Octavus Roy Cohen wrote of this character for the Saturday Evening Post, and he also appeared in book form in, for example, Jim Hanvey, Detective (1923).

Nelson Hardbake. See: Kenneth Mugg.

Peter Hardcastle

Detective Peter Hardcastle of New Scotland Yard had begun at the bottom of the force and reached the top through real skill and initiative. He had won real fame when he was responsible for the capture of a German secret agent. He was age forty and the son of a small shopkeeper. He was also a brilliant actor and could disguise his voice in the most expert manner. He appeared in The Grey Room by Eden Phillpotts in 1921, in which he made plans to leave Scotland Yard and set up alone as a private enquiry agent.

Ralph Hardcastle

This detective appeared in “Leagued Against Europe” by Ellis Ellison, which appeared in the first series of Union Jack No. 492. He was a tall, lithe, active man with light brown hair, clear steel grey eyes, a prominent chin, a squarish jaw, and a mouth large and firm that could speak forcefully.

Bart Hardin

Bart Hardin, created by David Alexander, was a detective and editor of a sports and theatrical paper called The Broadway Times. He was tall and lean, with hair so extremely blonde that it was almost snowy, even though he was only in his thirties. His face was surprisingly dark, with a queer copperish tint. His features were strong, and his nose looked as if it had been broken once, making a slight curve at the bridge that relieved the hard and angular pattern of his bone structure. He dressed conservatively except for a fancy loud floral vest. His official contact was Lieutenant Romano. He was featured in eight books, including Hush-a-Bye Murder (1957) and Dead, Man, Dead (1959).

Joseph Vincent Harding. See: Gentleman Joe.

Superintendent Clive Hardy

Hardy was featured in a series of stories in the Wizard in 1946 entitled “The Voice on the Wire,” which dealt with a mysterious character who helps Hardy and his assistant, Sergeant Venning, both of the Rodingham Police Department. This character provided help by telephone, never appearing in person, and even at the end of the series he was still unknown to Hardy. The first series concerned several murder cases in which all the victims died from downing, with an added element of mystery coming from the fact that only their lungs were filled with water, while the rest of their bodies were dry. With no water within a mile or two of the site where the bodies were found, and no trace of how the bodies got there, Supt. Hardy was completely baffled. Only the mystery voice gave him the answers.

Frank and Joe Hardy

Frank and Joe, the sons of the internationally famous private detective Fenton Hardy, inherited their father’s zeal for bringing criminals to justice. Frank was tall, dark-haired, and sixteen years old, while Joe, two years his junior, was a curly light-haired lad. They both attended Bayport High School in America. They had a favourite aunt, Gertrude, a portly woman of uncertain years and a warm heart. Their friend Chet Morton, a fat red-cheeked lad with a great appetite for fun and food, is also featured in the series of more than 30 books written by Franklin W. Dixon. Examples included The Sinister Sign Post (1936), A Figure in Hiding (1937), The Secret Warning (1938) and The Twisted Claw (1939).

Dr. John Hardy

He was a leading character in the BBC TV series “The Expert”, in which he was played by Marius Goring. Hardy was a forensic scientist whose dedicated search for truth was pursued with intellectual unworldliness. The series was devised by producer Gerald Glaister, who achieved a convincing atmosphere—not surprising since one of the chief advisors to the series was his uncle, Dr. John Glaister, Professor of Forensic Science at Glasgow University from 1931 to 1962. Writers such as N. J. Crisp, Robert Barr, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln helped bring realism to this splendid series.

Frank Harker

Frank Harker appeared in a series of complete stories in the Jolly Comic just before the second world war. Harker was a tall, keen-eyed young man, while his assistant Spike was a thick-set, red-headed giant with a genial rugged face and a bulldog jaw. The pair was known as “The Fighting Tecs.”

Paul Harley

Sax Rohmer created this private detective, who was tropically bronzed, with an air of eager vitality. Harley was slightly grey at the temples but young in mind and body, physically fit and possessing an intellectual keenness. He was a member of the English Bar, although the fact was unknown to the general public, and he occupied something of an unofficial field-marshal position in the forces arrayed against evildoers. His work in Constantinople during the feverish months preceding hostilities with Turkey had been of a most extraordinary nature. His recommendations were unfortunately never adopted, or the tragedy of the Dardanelles might have been averted. Harley was notable because of that strength of mind which does not strike one immediately, since it is purely temperamental, but nevertheless invests its possessor with an aura of distinction. He had a private office in Chancery Lane and a secretary named Innes. Harley appeared in such novels as Bat-Wingand Fire-Tongue (both 1921).

Inspector Harris

Inspector Harris, a huge man at six foot four, was featured in Out, Brief Candle in 1959 by the authors John and Elizabeth Rosenberg.

Dick Hart

Dick Hart, Douglas Banks and “Dinkie” Doone were the three surviving members of “The Tecs Club.” They were featured in issues of Comic Cuts in 1919 in a serial entitled “Tecs All Three” by H. B. Richmond. Resigning their positions in the police force, they set out for Mexico to avenge the murder of Ross Chalmers, a former chum of theirs.

Jefferson Hart

Jefferson Y. Hart of Lefferton’s Crime Detection Agency of New York City worked with Sexton Blake in a story in the Union Jack Library in 1901. The tale was entitled “10,000 Pounds Reward, or, Tracked Across the Ocean,” and although the story was published anonymously it was actually written by J. H. Thomson. Hart, a calm man with a keen sense of humour, wore a goatee, as was somewhat typical of his era and country.

Rex Hart

This good-looking young fellow with a clean-cut face and grey eyes was featured in the Butterfly in the late 1920s along with Don, the wonderful dog detective. Hart, who drove what was in those days a fast two-seater, took second billing to Don, a splendid specimen of a dog. Don was broad-chested, strong-limbed and graceful, and could be gentle as a kitten or fearless as a lion, as the occasion demanded.

Cyrus Hatch

Cyrus Hatch was a criminologist and the son of Mark Hatch, a New York City police commissioner whose father and father before him were all police officials. Cyrus was actually an assistant professor of sociology at Knickerbocker College, and he had a bodyguard/companion named Danny Delevan. Cyrus Hatch appeared in a number of novels by Frederick C. Davis, including Coffin for Three (1938; published in England as One Murder Too Many) and Poor, Poor Yorick (1939; published in England as Murder Doesn’t Always Out). Hatch himself penned a text book entitled Modern Crime Detection for his students.

Mark Hatch. See: Cyrus Hatch.

Hawaii Five-O. See: Steve McGarrett.

Inspector Joseph Hawes

Inspector Hawes of Scotland Yard was a round, red-faced little man with stubble on his chin and two little wisps of red hair like horns brushed up over each temple. These wisps were plastered down with the most powerfully aromatic pomade money could buy. Hawes looked like a sporting butcher on holiday, and he was accompanied by Mr. Verriter, an agent of the Secret Service. Verriter was a short, stout, pleasant-faced gentleman with piercing eyes. These two were featured in The Accused Princess by Allen Upward (1900).