The Liberace of Polka

I won't spoil this for you, because it has some great plot twists (rigged beauty pageants! The Pope!) and it's available on youtube in its entirety and Netflix Streaming. If I post any more videos of Jan, I'll give away the ending.

Horror!

See here.

SEX is a four letter word ... and so is KILL!

Attitude and suave-ness make this. Education makes this. And you'll order?
(via Percy)

Not Groovy Music, Hip Fun, or Cool Images

Lex11 has written a spectacular post about the visceral effect crime scene cleanup can have on a person capable of normal human emotion. Read it - it's a horrific mind-blower, from a talented auteur.

Must be his DNA.

And yes I AM exploiting PCL I guess... but it doesn't make it not good.

"Hey lady, wanna buy some rope. It's good rope."

Such Defiance!

"F__k you, coppers!"

The Lennon Sisters

Think celeb stalking murders only happen to the say, talented or famous? I know that's harsh, but I bet you didn't know about this one.

Henry Mancini "cop show theme" (1976)

Henry Mancini's interpretations of hit themes to TV police shows of the '70s. Contains eight tracks, all recorded in RCA Victor's Music Center Of The World in Hollywood, 1976.

01. Mystery movie theme (from the Universal TV Series)
02. The streets of San Francisco (from the Quinn Martin production)
03. Bumper's theme (from the Lorimar production The blue knight)
04. Medley (Kojak (from the Universal TV Series) S.W.A.T. (from the ABC TV Series)
05. Baretta's theme (Keep your eye on the sparrow)
06. The Rockford files (from the Universal TV Series)
07. Hawaii five-0 (from the CBS TV Series)
08. Police woman (from the NBC TV Series)
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get it here

Crime Does Not Pay

Stephen Worth over at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has something hardboiled to share with us:
" ... A copy of Crime Does Not Pay from June of 1947. This particular comic book is not for the faint of heart. It's grusome and extreme. In fact, it marks the absolute peak of comic book sadism that led to the Publishers' Code of 1948 and the condemning of crime and horror comics by psychiatrist, Frederic Wertham in the book, Seduction of the Innocent. ..."
Crime Does Not Pay No. 52


Oh man, those stubborn-headed broads ...

What Did you Do ?!?!? What Did You Do ?!?!?

Guess My Crime. Stupidly fun. What strikes me most is the happy expressions on the faces of the folks in many of the mugshots. Police photographers must be, like, super funny or charming. But no, I don't think so. Via My Life In Reno

The Red Queen Kills 7 Times (o.s.t.)

Bruno Nicolai , a friend and co-worker of Ennio Morricone scored in 1972 Emilio Maraglia's giallo exploitation film : La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte.
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Made available HERE by 52Z&1B

History of Hell's Kitchen

A sentimental trip through NYC's Hell's Kitchen from today's New York Times:

The Hell’s Kitchen Gang, whom Herbert Asbury called “a collection of the most desperate ruffians in the city” in his 1927 book “The Gangs of New York” (inspiration for the Martin Scorsese film), fought constantly with the police and with rivals like the Gorillas, the Parlor Mob, and the Gophers. Members had names like Stumpy Malarkey, Goo Goo Knox, Happy Jack Mulraney, and One Lung Curran, who, when his girlfriend complained of the cold, walked out to the street, “blackjacked the first policeman he encountered,” according to Asbury, and stole his coat.

Two generations of Irish gangsters, nicknamed the Westies by the police and the press, operated in the neighborhood into the late 1980s. Murder, theft, arson, extortion, gambling, loan-sharking, liquor, drugs, nightclubs — the Westies did it all.
...(M)acabre stories about the 596 Club still float around Hell’s Kitchen. Old-timers remember jars behind the bar that held the severed fingers of guys who had crossed the Westies. There’s the one about gangsters rolling a severed head down the bar.

“I’ve heard a lot of that kind of stuff,” T. J. English, author of “The Westies,” said in a recent interview. “Normally you’d dismiss it as absurd, but since it was the Westies, who knows? That place was certainly the proverbial bucket of blood.”

I wish I had friends named Stumpy Malarkey. Goo Goo Knox, and One Lung Curran.....

ACE Double Mystery

ACE Double Mystery Series - cover scans (via The Groovy Age of Horror)

Forgotten Faces

From 19th century Australian prison registers, “Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law” shows some of the tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants who came to labor in the gold fields of Victoria, and landed on the wrong side of the law.

Found via The Jaf Project

1940's Paperback Mysteries

"The Dell Mysteries had the juicy cover art and a 'crime map' on the back cover to aid the reader in tracking clues and postulating their 'whodunnit' theories. I love the little 'eye in the keyhole' logo, too.
Most of the Dells in this set are from the first half of the '40's. Towards the end there's also a few Popular Library covers from the same period, with cover art in a very similar style. ..."
Cover Gallery: 1940's Paperback Mysteries, set at Flickr uploaded by jl.incrowd (via I'm Learning To Share!)

Update: Farmirin D. Dell tells us: "These books are most commonly referred to as the "Dell Mapbacks." A full history of the series is in "Putting Dell on the Map" by William Lyles. If you really love these, though, get a copy of Piet Schreuders "Dell Mapbacks," which was printed as a 1998 diary and features wonderful reproductions of the front and back covers of 52 titles. Or, if you want to see more Mapbacks (all of them, I think!) go here."