Show f td ff V 1 adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Fl 1 murder on the loose by FLOYD flom GIBBONS famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY well sir heres an adventurer who had it coming to him its the first case ive seen in a long time where a bird went out looking for a thrill and actually found one and at that the thrill that ben cohn of new york city met up with in the murdered womans comans bedroom was not at all the sort of thrill he had gone there looking for but it seems that old lady adventure covered his initial bet and raised him ten big blue chip goose pimples ben is a newspaper reporter so looking for trouble is no more than part of the days work for him in january 1932 he was just a cub helping out the police reporter on a cleveland ohio news paper all the small routine assignments fell to bens lot he was kept busy all day chasing around to dinky one alarm fires and listening to the sorry tale of joe doakes who had his hat stolen while eating in a one arm lunch room ben was bored stiff with that sort of thing he wanted to get that news nose of his into something exciting for a change there was a maniac killer running around town at the time he had killed half a dozen women hacked them to pieces as they lay in their beds what ben have given for a chance to cover that story boy just lead him to it about the way ben was feeling one friday afternoon when suddenly the police radio began booming out a message number one me reserve squad and detective cruiser D 2 the loudspeaker cried go to nineteenth and chester red brick apartment house you will find the body of a young woman who has been murdered bens chance at a big story ben was beside himself with excitement nineteenth and chester was only a block away from police headquarters where they were sitting and ben began to plead with his boss to let him cover that story he was the most surprised kid in the world when he heard the boss say all right kid go to it but he waste any time getting out of the station he set out on a dead run for the apartment house a block away the reserve squad had to go down in the basement to get their car before they started so ben on foot beat the cops to the scene by a full two men both fighting for their lives three minutes A small crowd had collected in front of the apartment house as ben ran in ashes upstairs a woman shouted and in a few leaps ben had made the second floor he burst into the room and there on the bed lay a blonde girl beautiful even in death except for her blood drenched throat from which a pair of six inch paper shears protruded ben closed the door while he looked over the room the first question that popped into his mind was where is the murderer and the next thought that occurred to him was not such a pleasant one suppose ben thought the murderer is still hers her aidin hiding somewhere in the room the thought had no more than occurred to ben when it actually literally came true ben was standing before the dresser looking for a picture of the slain woman when he glanced into the mirror and saw something that made the cold shivers gallop up and down his spine in that mirror he could see the door of the clothes closet behind him AND THAT DOOR WAS SLOWLY OPENING battling the murderer derer for his life ben stiffened the door swung wide open and a big heavyset heavy set colored man came tiptoeing in bens direction he had a huge club in his hand and as he be came close to ben he raised it to strike ben wait for any more he wheeled and dived to get inside the are arc of that swinging club ile he grappled with the negro as the club came down and the negro dropped the club to grapple with ben then came a battle like the roman gladiatorial contests of old two men going at it barehanded bare hare handed both fighting for their lives the colored man was much lar larger 9 er and much stronger than ben he pushed ben backward by sheer weight alone before he realized what was happening he was thrown back onto the bed and found himself rolling over the blood drenched body of the dead girl it was horrible but what was more horrible still were the fingers of the big negro which were fastening themselves tightly around bens throat police got there just in time before that ben had been too surprised to cry out now as the negros fingers closed over his windpipe he wished he had when he had the chance with his own hands he fought vainly to dislodge those tightening fingers but it was no use he kicked and heaved desperately trying to throw the negro off of him but that any use either the negros body was heavier than his own bens head began to spin things began to go black in front of his eyes then just as he was about to give up and relax the door burst open and the room was full of policemen the reserve squad had corne come at last ben had not been working long around police headquarters and not many of the cops knew him even if they had they would never have recognized him for his clothing was disheveled and he was blood from head to foot he looked like a mighty suspicious customer to those cops and ben had to admit that being caught fighting over the body of a murdered woman was a mighty suspicious circumstance the cops arrested both ben and the colored man and dragged them back to the police station but there ben was identified by his boss and the negro admitted the killing he was electrocuted in july of that same year and well ben has felt a lot safer ever since well sir that yarn makes ben cohn a distinguished adventurer as well as a distinguished newspaper man service |