There is some good advice in the Science Fiction writing business: never put a date in your title. Examples include George Allan England’s “June 6, 2016” (Collier’s, April 22, 1916), “The Rocket of 1955” by C. M. Kornbluth from Stirring Stories, April 1941 and Philip Wylie’s Los Angeles AD 2017 (1971). Even the classic 1984 by George Orwell has come and gone. These visions of the future almost always turn out to be incorrect. And often too futuristic (and sadly, not futuristic enough.) Warren magazines learned this the hard way when they had to change their comic 1984 to 1994 because that year came and went.
Another writer who might have taken that advice was C. B. Gilford. Never heard of him? I’m not surprised. He isn’t usually an SF writer but a regular in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. But there was that one time back in 1960 when old Charlie Bernard Gilford played predictor with “Murder 1990”. Published in AHMM, October 1960, Gilford tells a tale of a world of number-names and cubicles. Of course, there’s also some crime in there to keep the Mystery fans happy.
The hero of our story is Paul 2473. He lives in Complex 55 along with all the numbered people. The Mating Assignments are coming up. Paul 2473 will be matched with a woman for the next five years. He knows the computer is logical so he must be matched with Carol 7427. But she isn’t. She is paired with Richard 3833. Paul gets the dumpy and bland Laura 6356. How could the computer make such a mistake?
One Thursday, while doing his obligatory exercising with his Exercise Platoon, Paul 2473 stumbles upon an old book. It was written before the atomic war. Such things are to be reported immediately. But Paul doesn’t turn the book in. He takes it home. It is called The Logic of Murder. He hides it behind the daily News of Progress, for sometimes the television screen on his wall can be used as a spying device.
From the book, Paul learns that people used to kill each other. Before the assignments come out, Paul almost tells Carol 7427 about it, but only hints about it. Now that Paul is to be with Laura 2473, he hatches a plan to get Carol after all. He will kill Richard 3833 and Laura 2473. Since there are no police in this new world, he does not fear detection or imprisonment. Murder is unheard of. He expects the authorities will be stymied.
Paul’s job is tech repair. This allows him to be in the vicinity of his victims without causing suspicion. He takes a sharp knife and goes to Richard’s lab. There he cuts Richard’s throat. Next he goes to Mathematical Calculation where Laura works alone on a giant switchboard.When he stabs her, Laura falls onto the switchboard causing a problem. Paul flees but remains undetected.
Now Paul 2473 waits. He is expecting news of the killings but there is none. He expects to be reassigned to Carol 7427 but that doesn’t happen either. What does happen is all the men of Complex 55 are taken to a location and subjected to some test. Paul has to wait but eventually he is given a drug just like all the others. Paul can not help himself. He admits to the entire thing.
This is a world without prisons, so a new kind of punishment is required. Paul 2473 is placed inside a glass cage outside Complex 55. All citizens are required, when passing by, to press a button. This zaps Paul with a furious, painful shock. Everyone is required to do this but:
“One of the most frequent visitors to the cage, and one of the most enthusiastic button-pushers, was Carol 7427.”
Well, most of us were around for 1990 and it wasn’t anything like the bleak world CBG predicts here. His inspiration is fairly obvious to fans of Science Fiction. The first is 1984 with Big Brother watching you. Paul 2473 is no Winston Smith in that he is not crippled by fear. Like any criminal in an AHMM story, he is a cold-bloodied killer. There are tons of SF stories where characters have number-names. I suspect Gilford hasn’t read any of these. The social insurance number is enough to suggest a world where we are all numbers. (“I am not a number! I am a free man! Well, that one is still seven years away when CBG wrote this story.)
I should say that I don’t think Gilford is seriously suggesting any of these prediction will happen by 1990. He simply did what most of these Science Fiction writers do, add a few decades. Back in 1960, the idea of the world being transformed by nuclear war was prominent in everybody’s mind. What would come after that, is a blank slate upon which the writer can create any scenario.
In conclusion, I have to ask if this story is more Science Fiction or more a crime story? C. B. Gilford has sixteen entries at ISFDB so this is not a one-off for him. I think the story leans a little more to the crime side, thus why it was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, but isn’t devoid of SF elements either. Unlike Isaac Asimov’s SF mysteries, this is a crime story not a detective story. The rules of fair play are irrelevant. There is no detective, no trail of clues, just a crime and its consequences (thus not being in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.) I could see this story appearing any of the early issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, especially those edited by Anthony Boucher.
