Detective magazines

reviews & recommendations

Newsstand Magazines

Detective Magazines Michael H. Randall UCLA

This column reviews periodicals known for their widespread availability at newsstands and magazine racks, although they are also available on subscription. The titles covered range from general mass circulation magazines to special interest publications. Some of the periodicals included will be unfamiliar to librarians who may not have considered them for library collections. Individuals interested in reviewing for this column or in suggesting selections are invited to contact Michael H. Randall, Serials Department, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

In a nether region of the publishing world, little noticed by librarians or their patrons, detective magazines flourish, providing their loyal readers with accounts of true crimes and police investigations. Detective magazines are distinct from mystery magazines, which publish fictional accounts of crime and criminal detection. Although true accounts of crime and criminals have been published for mass audiences for centuries, the detective magazine as it exists today in the United States stems from the founding of True Detective Mysteries in 1924 by publishing magnate Bernarr Macfadden. This first detective magazine became an instant success and inspired scores of imitations. Detective magazines reached their peak of popularity in the 1930s. Since then their numbers have lessened, and today there are 15-20 detective titles published. Detective magazines deal with true accounts of detection and crime, but not just any crime. Each 60--80 page detective magazine contains articles that recount chiefly the details of murder cases. In many of these cases the victims are female and often rape is associated with the case. The crimes described are usually recent (within the past two years) and the cases have progressed to the point that enables the author to report in t h e last paragraph that the suspect has been convicted and sentenced. Some of the articles do not report a conviction for one of two reasons. In some of these stories the suspect has been found to be not guilty, but this is extremely rare: detective magazine editors are reluctant to lead their readers through cases with tortuous investigations, followed by arrests and complicated trials, only to end in acquittal. The other reason that a story does not end in a conviction is that the case has not come to a conclusion. In cases where a suspect has not yet been apprehended, the story is usually accompanied by an appeal to readers to be on the lookout for the suspect and to report any leads to the appropriate law enforcement agency. In fact, numerous detective magazines stories

have led to the apprehension of suspects. In addition to seven to ten accounts of recent criminal cases in each issue of a detective magazine, there is usually at least one article on a famous case or criminal from the past, and there may also be an article presenting a general treatment of a crime--related topic such as self--defense techniques or plea-bargaining. Most detective magazines have regular features which may include crime photo pages, crime news notices, letters to the editor, puzzles and cartoons. The writing style in detective magazines is the result of relating a factual event as a fictional narrative. The sources of the facts are police and court records, and possibly interviews with persons involved in a case. A free-lance writer takes these facts and fashions a story, providing action and fabricating dialog as appropriate. The product is a story based on a true crime that progresses in most cases from the discovery of the crime, through the police investigation, culminating in the arrest, trial and conviction of the criminal. Detective magazine stories are almost always told in the third person, from the point of view of police investigators and prosecuting attorneys. The stories never cast a bad light on the police. Police may occasionally make mistakes, but no misconduct, negligence or other grounds for serious criticism of the police are present in detective magazine stories. Although detective writers borrow techniques from fiction, their work will never be confused with great literature. As a rule detective magazine stories are cliche--ridden, plodding and simplistic. The only area in which detective writers' excel is in setting down detail. One of the chief appeals of detective magazines is that they provide details and facts not covered elsewhere. Usually the details cover one of two areas. One is the process of criminal investigation. Detective articles usually cover or allude to a wealth of details concerning the techniques, procedures and decisions involved in the investiga-

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tion of a crime. The other area of detail in detective magazine writing concerns the commission of the crime and its aftermath. Readers can usually expect to find abundant and precise descriptions of violence or sex or both in a detective magazine story. It is possible that some people would find detective magazine writing to be highly objectionable, and view it as sensationalistic, salacious and sexist. Detective magazine covers are designed to be arresting in order to enhance newsstand sales. Almost without exception the brightly-colored detective magazine cover features a posed photograph of an attractive young woman who is being threatened physically by a man; she is usually about to be knifed, shot or strangled. Variations on covers include the arrest of a woman by a policeman, and, rarely, a woman wielding a weapon against a man. No specific connection between the cover photograph and the contents of the magazine is evident. The cover also bears the titles of some of the stories in the magazine. Titles like "Pretty Art Student Slain on Her Doorstep," and "Fiery Death for a Frigid Wife," give hints about the hideous crimes described within. It is u n d e r standable, and probably need not be stated here, that somepeople would find detective magazine covers to be highly offensive. A different type of illustrative matter is inside the detective magazines. Black--and--white illustrations accompany all articles, and usually consist of photographs from news agencies or free-lance photographers. The quality of these photographs vanes considerably, and some of them do not reproduce well on the newsprint which makes up the magazines. The subject matter includes views of the crime scene, some-times grisly pictures of bodies of murder victims, pictures of suspects, law officers, attorneys and judges. From time to time there will be photographs of murder weapons. A few magazines employ posed photographs similar to the cover pictures to illustrate articles. The effect of seeing a posed pic-ture on a page next to an unposed crime photograph is ludi-crous. Other types of illustrative matter include maps, floor plans and sketches, including police composites. Some photo-graphs are masked, i.e. patches cover significant parts of ex-posed anatomy or cover the faces of the innocent. The advertisements in detective magazines are notable for an almost total lack of representation by major producers of consumer goods. While advertisements for major consumer products fill most popular U.S. magazines, they are largely absent from detective magazines. Presumably these absent advertisers have little interest in reaching detective magazine readers because they do not have great purchasing power. As a consequence the reader is faced with advertisements for pellet guns, weight reducers, nostrums and zany items like x--ray spectacles. Detective magazines have traditionally appealed to males with average or less-than--average education and income. One publisher estimates detective magazine readership to be 65% male, with emphasis on age groups from 22--32 and 45--65 years of age. Types of readers include skilled and unskilled workers, servicemen and retirees, as well as housewives. Persons who habitually read detective magazines are probably not otherwise well-read. Detective magazines convey a number of biases and pie-conceptions. The most apparent one, mentioned earlier, is the favorable police bias. In almost every case reported as a story in a detective magazine the suspect is apprehended and convicted, thanks to the competent, perhaps brilliant detective work of the investigating officers. The facts of such stories may be accurate as far as they go, but in aggregate they do not fully represent the law enforcement process. A fuller depiction would require reporting on a broader and more complex spectrum of activities than the detective magazines' readers want.

Other biases recur throughout detective magazines. The permissiveness rampant in modern society comes in for much blame. Lenient sentencing, early paroles, plea bargaining, disuse of capital punishment and reliance on penal rehabilitation of criminals are phenomena that detective magazines point to as factors contributing to the growth of crime. Some detective writers relay prejudices through the choice of words used in a seemingly objective narration. "Longhair," "homo" and '"shrink" (the kind who works in a "bughouse") are exam-ples of this kind of usage in detective magazine stories. Detective magazines present an interesting juxtaposition of values. Criminals are exposed, the vileness of their deeds is described for all to see, law officers do their duty and punishment is meted out to the malefactors. And yet while decrying violent crime detective magazines profitably package it as entertainment. If there were no murders and rapes to exploit, detective magazines would be out of business. Despite all that has been said, librarians may still want to consider detective magazines for their collections. The usual reasons can be advanced in favor of detective magazines in libraries: entertainment value, ability to attract patrons who read nothing else, and use in support of sociological and popular culture studies. One library puts detective magazines to another use. The research library of a major motion picture studio in Los Angeles collects and indexes detective magazines in order to retrieve photographs of specific criminals and law officers and details of particular crimes. As might be expected, the bibliographic control of detective magazines is inadequate. The titles reviewed below represent the current major publishers of detective magazines and include titles of long standing or high circulation. In the absence of reliable information from the traditional bibliographic sources, the best information on detective magazines can be obtained during a visit to a large newsstand. Detective Cases. Bi--M. $10.00/2 yrs. Globe C o m m u n i cations Corp., P.O. Box O, Pittsford, NY 14534. Editor: Dominick Merle. [Detective and mystery stories] "This magazine is published in the interests of law en-forcement, so that the fights of each citizen can be fully pro-tected," is a statement that appears in each issue. The issues of Detective Cases for 1980 are numbered as volume 30, but there is no information on this title in any of the usual bibliog-raphic sources, so it is not certain how long this title has been protecting citizens' rights. A reader can easily infer from the titIes printed on the cover of Detective Cases what types of articles are inside: "The Night Mr. Sex Gadgets Went Too Far," "Prince Lust & His Sleeping Beauties," "Welcome to Murder Motel Ladies . . . Your Tomb Is Ready." Aside from the stories on detective cases, features include pages of captioned photographs of suspects or others involved in recent criminal cases, and "Death Row Watch" which presents pictures of convicts who have been sentenced to execution. Front Page Detective. 1936- . M. $9.00. RGH Pub. Corp., 235 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003. Editor: Diana Lurvey. Circ. 175,000. ISSN 0016-2043. [Detective and mystery stories] Each issue of this magazine contains stories on violent crimes in the United States and, to a lesser extent, other c o u n tries. The reader can expect to encounter startling character insights such as the following description from a June 1980 story of a man who has just murdered three people: "He sat there until darkness had set in. He contemplated suicide. He thought of notifying the authorities. But these thoughts had no real appeal to the man who bore a striking resemblance to .Henry Kissinger." Issues also include regular features. "Front Page Casebook" presents captioned photographs of recently notable criminals and scenes of crime and violence.

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"The Blotter" is a letters-to-the--editor page wherein readers relay their opinions about the magazine and their often extreme views on society's problems. "Human Touch" provides short, humorous notes on the lighter side of crime and criminals. "Front Page Extra" presents brief news notices on general crime-related matters. "Detective Scramble" is a simple word puzzle whose object is to rearrange letters to create crime-related words and a relevant phrase. This feature is popular with at least one reader who wrote in the August 1980 issue that "the puzzle adds a great deal of fun especially in a magazine that contains grief, murder and mutilation."

6 6...aJ~ewarding source of informa~tion for academic research and for the community at large .... Highlyl" Q recommended for any library. ~" ~" Choice, Mar., 76.

CONSUMERS INDEX

911 Detective. 1 9 7 8 ? - . Bi-~M. $7.50. CharltonPublications, Inc., Charlton Bldg., Derby, CT 06418. Editor: Joe Gill. [Detective and mystery stories] This is a straightforward, unpretentious magazine that limits itself to crime stories, with no other features to clutter up the magazine. Graphic descriptions of the aftermaths of violence abound, and there are many photographs of corpses. 911 Detective has a higher proportion than most detective magazines of articles dealing with subjects other than specific crime cases. Some articles chronicle the careers of famous crime figures like Alvin Karpis and Carmine Galante. Other articles deal with general topics such as the smuggling of nar-cotics into the United States and court conditions in New York City. Official Detective Stories. 1 9 3 4 - . M. $9.00. RGHPub. Corp., 235 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003. Editor: A.P. Govoni. Circ. 265,000. ISSN 0030-0306. [Detective and mystery stories] "Every issue brings you thrilling, suspenseful, authentic stories from police and court files -- the little known facts behind the cases that made headlines - written by the world's foremost crime writers!" So claims advertising copy for Official Detective Stories. Consistent with this air of authenticity, almost every b y - l i n e in the magazine credits the writer as a "special investigator." The articles are strong on describing details and techniques of the police investigations undertaken to solve the crime cases covered. The means of identifying and apprehending the criminal are emphasized rather than playing up bizarre aspects of the crime. Features included in some issues are a letters-to--the-editor page and a "Crime Crossword" puzzle.

Consumers Index to Product Evaluations and Information Sources cites articles, product tests, and evaluations from more than 100 periodicals. Since

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Annual $59.00. Quarterlies, $59.00. Combined subscription, $98.00. PIERIAN PRESS 5000 Washtenaw Ave. ~ n n Arbor, Michigan 4 8 1 0 4 j / / it's a bargain that rips off society." A feature unique to True Detective among detective magazines is the editorial column, a sure sign that this magazine takes itself seriously. Arguments for such issues as capital punishment or against issues like gun control are usual topics. Keeping in mind that some terms can be used in a relative sense, True Detective could be described as one of the classier and more tasteful detective magazines.

True Detective. 1924- . M. $9.00. RGH Pub. Corl~., 235 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003. Editor: A.P. Govoni. Circ. 300,000. LC 33-22497. ISSN 0041-350X. [Detective and mystery stories] Founded in 1924 by Bernarr Macfadden as True Detective Mysteries, this is the oldest factual detective publication. Perhaps that is the reason why True Detective labels itself "the authentic magazine of crime detection." A point in favor of True Detective is that the mix of crimes reported is not so Ill heavily inclined toward female victims and rapes as is some / of the other detective magazines. In addition, grisly details, ~ l while present, are not played up with the lip--smacking delight / that is found in other publications. Instead, the emphasis is on the detailed pursuit of an investigation to its conclusion. ~--'=:-In addition to stories of cases, features include "Back Talk," a letters-to-the-editor column. In the June 1980 issue c o n victed killer David ("Son of Sam") Berkowitz, 'writing from Attica State Prison, used "Back Talk" as a forum to inveigh against the commercial use of crime stories as entertainment. He concluded, "In all honesty, I prefer to stay here in prison. Why? Well, while this place is full of convicts, they aren't hypocrites. They tell it just like it is!" Another feature is the "Cryptogram" puzzle whose solution yields apothegms such as, "If a plea bargain puts a criminal back on the street,

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