Thrilling Mystery was one of Leo Marguiles’ Pulps for Beacon Magazines. It ran from October 1935 to Summer 1944 (when it changed to Thrilling Mystery Novel). Monthly only for the year 1936, the rest of its run was largely bi-monthly. Jumping on the Shudder Pulp bandwagon, the magazine offered horrific mystery stories that appeared to be fantastic in nature but had a logical or explainable ending. Who better to write such tales than the best of the Science Fiction and Horror Pulps like Weird Tales? Appearing five times a year, the covers presented horrific scenes of torture and murder.
I won’t attempt to define every story here. There are too many but Edmond Hamilton’s “Beasts That Once Were Men” will serve nicely as an example. Any one familiar with Hamilton will know he found evolution fascinating. From “The Evolved Man”, “Evolution Island”, “Devolution” and even the first Captain Future novel, he explored this idea again and again. Well, here it is again.
A couple rushes to the wilderness in search of the girl’s brother, who called mysteriously about becoming a beast and committing suicide. When they arrive at the cabin they find it empty except for the body of an ape wearing the brother’s clothes. The scientist has been working on a ray that can reverse evolution. The brother has been paying for the experiment.
The couple is attacked by the scientist’s assistant who has been turned into a caveman. The monster knocks out the fiancee and takes the girl into the woods. The scientist returns and the two men split up to search for the girl. The young man finds a cave in the woods then hears a gunshot. He rushes to the spot to find his fiancee naked and in the hands of the beast. They fight. The doctor knocks the beast out.
They return to the cabin. The doctor wants to destroy the machine that reverses the ray. The young man says don’t bother. He knows the whole thing is a scam. He found the dead body of the brother in the cave. The doctor admits he mutated his assistant using drugs not the ray.
This story is so typical of both Hamilton and the Shudder Pulps. Hamilton expounds on his usual “devolution” ideas though not at length as he would in his SF. The tone is action not Science. Hamilton uses all the accepted Shudder Pulp devices: a fake horror, a naked girl lovingly describes, a desperate fight and a Mystery style resolution ala Ann Radcliffe.
Authors often recycled themes from their SF to use here. For example, Jack Williamson and Robert Bloch both wrote robot stories. The robots, of course, turn out to be men in suits or mundane devices. It is always the evil master mind behind things that brings on the evil.
Sadly most of the illustrators are unknown, though Paul Orban is identifiable.
Weird Tales
Some of the Thrilling Mystery authors, like O. M. Cabral, are better known for other publications such as Weird Tales. Thrilling Mystery was no doubt a new competitor for WT, and Farnsworth Wright attempted to counter the new Shudder Pulps by adding similar material by Hugh B. Cave and Paul Ernst. WT readers let him know they did not see their magazine in the same light at all.
Conan the Barbarian’s Robert E. Howard, who wrote “detective stories” for other Pulps.
Thorp McClusky who made a hit with “Loot of the Vampire” in Weird Tales.
Mary Elizabeth Counselman, best know for milder ghost stories.
Seabury Quinn, the man who created Jules de Grandin, but liked to write something else once in a while.
Ronald Kayser (as Dale Clark) author of “The Unborn” in Weird Tales.
Editors
A number of authors in Thrilling Mystery were sub-editors, whether they worked for the chain or not.
Oscar J. Friend wrote filler stories under his own name and as Frank Johnson and Owen Fox Jerome.
As Leo Marguiles’ assistant, Mort Weisinger and Samuel Mines penned one-page fillers and other features.
Sam Merwin Jr., gave up editing for a short time and pursued life as a writer. He later went back to editing.
Doc Savage
A small group of authors were ghost writers for Doc Savage magazine. Writers like William G. Bogart and Laurence Donovan were Kenneth Robeson and joined by Doc illustrator Paul Orban.
Laurence Donovan wrote Murder Melody, a Doc Savage novel set in Vancouver, BC. Donovan would later become a Canadian. His son was a prof at the University of BC.
Shudder Pulp Specialists
A group of these writers either were already or going to be big authors in the Shudder Pulps. Some were lured away from Terror Tales and Horror Stories, while others got a taste here first. Shudder Pulps paid far better than most Science Fiction or Horror magazines.
Arthur J. Burks was one of the million words a year fiction factories. He had been a military officer but ended up a psychic.
Ray Cummings (also as Ray King) was an early SF writer who also wrote Mysteries.
Hugh B. Cave made his reputation in the Shudder Pulps though he later wrote horror novels and books about Haiti.
Paul Ernst was an all-round Pulpster, writing in many genres. He transitioned into magazine writing after the Pulps ended.
Arthur Leo Zagat was the king of the Shudders. His lead novella was a regular feature on Horror Stories.
Hal K. Wells was an early SF writer who transitioned into other Pulps. I guess he liked the better money.
Science Fiction Writers
Here are many other writers, Pulpsters in many case who worked in a lot of different magazines. some like Jack Williamson and Henry Kuttner would be remembered for their Science Fiction. Frank Belknap Long and Carl Jacobi for their horror fiction. Writers like Fredric Brown and Robert Bloch would straddle the Mystery/SF line with duo careers.
Jack Williamson wrote Shudders for Thrilling Mystery and also Weird Tales. He tried to write for the Shudders, made it here but one of his failures became a cover story for Weird Tales.
D. L. James is an obscure SF writer. he appeared in Thrilling Wonder, Comet and Planet Stories.
Frank Belknap Long made himself famous as a pal of H. P. Lovecraft and a Weird Tales writer. He is often forgotten as one of Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction golden-agers.
Carl Jacobi wrote for SF, Horror and other Pulps as the mood and opportunity allowed. He is best remembered for his Weird Tales stuff.
Henry Kuttner was the most prolific of Thrilling Mystery Pulpsters. He appeared as Kelvin Kent and K. H. Maepen when he had two stories in an issue.
Richard Tooker got his start in Weird Tales but wrote mostly for Hugo Gernsback’s Wonder Stories and later Thrilling Wonder.
John Russell Fearn was a very prolific Science Fiction writer who also wrote some Mystery fiction. He was British.
Joseph J. Millard wrote for Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories as well as Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories.
David V. Reed is best remembered for “The Return of the Whispering Gorilla” in Palmer’s Fantastic Adventures.
E. Hoffman Price was a big-time adventure writer, but he liked to do horror stories for Weird Tales as well. He created the occult detective Pierre D’Artois.
Noel Loomis wrote SF but also Westerns. He appeared in Weird Tales with “City of Glass”. He appeared in most of the smaller SF mags too.
Robert Bloch would become famous as the author of Psycho, but in this period he was just beginning to stretch. He had sent the first years of his career mimicking H. P. Lovecraft but now was branching out into Science Fiction and Mystery fiction.
Arthur K. Barnes is remembered for the Gerry Carlylse series at Thrilling Wonder. Same boss, different magazine.
John Coleman Burroughs and Jane Ralston Burroughs were Edgar Rice Burroughs’ son and daughter-in-law. They wrote a handful of pieces including the novel, Treasure of the Black Falcon (1967).
John and Ward Hawkins were brothers. John wrote a story for Unknown. Ward wrote more for Thrilling Wonder, Startling Stories and Amazing Stories.
Fritz Leiber would go on to become one of the most honored of Science Fiction and Horror authors. Before the Hugos and Grandmaster status, he just wanted to make it as a working writer.
Fredric Brown was one of the later Thrilling Mystery writers when the tide had turned and the Shudder Pulps were on the way out. The magazine also reflected war material after 1941.
Allan K. Echols wrote for Thrilling Wonder but later would sell to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
William Morrison wrote for many 1950s magazines including Captain Future, penning some of the adventures under the name Bret Sterling.
Will Garth was not a real person but a frequently used house name. Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton and henry Kuttner all used it at one time or another. No one has claimed “Cellar of Skulls” so far.
In case I am giving the impression no Mystery writers were in the magazine, that is not true. John H. Knox, William Campbell Gault (who also wrote SF), D. L. Champion, C. S. Montayne, W. T. Ballard, Donald Bayne Hobart, G. T. Fleming-Roberts, John L. Benton, Joe Archibald and others filled in the rest of the slots. It was about fifty-fifty.
A big thanks to PulpScan group for all their great work!
