(Detective-)Dragnet Magazine/Ten Detective Aces
Ten Detective Aces was probably the most successful of the many magazines that Harold Hersey launched, and certainly one of the longest running, but it took a while to find its mark. For the first 16 issues (to April 1930) it was called The Dragnet Magazine and initially focussed on stories about gangsters and organised crime. However, by 1930 public interest in gangsters was fading and the magazine became more of a detective pulp, initially (for 24 issues) under the hybrid name Detective-Dragnet Magazine and then finally, from March 1933, under the name Ten Detective Aces under which it ran for an impressive 16 years.
A Canadian reprint edition of Ten Detective Aces ran briefly in the 1930s as a direct reprint of the US edition, and then throughout the 1940s typically reprinting a US issue from 9-12 months previously. There was also an abridged British reprint edition under the "abridged" title of Detective Aces.
THE SCALPEL OF DOOM—RAY CUMMINGS
A doctor is not supposed to use his knowledge to slay. Yet there came a time when this small-town medico had to operate with . . . The Scalpel of Doom.
MANY UNHAPPY RETURNS—NORMAN A. DANIELS
Matt Stanford’s wealthy grandmother made her heirs go through hell every time she had a birthday. But when someone added a gift of murder to the old gal’s party, Matt won that door prize as the target for tonight.
BLUE COAT GAMBLE—NEIL MORAN
When the wrong kind of cops raid a gambling joint, the odds may not always ride with the blue coats.
THE BELLE TOLD—JOE ARCHIBALD
Snooty and Scoop, those Beantown newshounds, scented something strange about that landlady’s rub-out. But before they could nose out the culprit’s trail, their old menace, Iron Jaw, put the bite on them.
DISPATCH TO DOOM—EDWARD WILLIAM MURPHY
Stan Tremaine, postal dick, had another one of his hunches about the mail truck shipment. He’d figured skulduggery of some kind, but he hadn’t counted on his own. . .Dispatch to Doom.
THE EYES HAVE IT—JOSEPH F. HOOK
He didn’t seem much like a dick, this mild, soft-spoken little man. But he knew that to ferret out larceny, not a loudmouth but . . .The Eyes Have It.
HAYSEED HOMICIDE—JOE ARCHIBALD
Snooty Piper and Scoop Binney, those sappy Beantown news-sleuths, Get slated for early planting when they dig into a . . .Hayseed Homicide.
MURDER BY MAGIC—JULIAN DAGGETT
Everybody, including the victim, had been warned about Lunk O’Slaughtery’s slaying. But nobody would believe in . . .Murder by Magic
SIX TRICKS MAKE A CORPSE—V. E. THIESSEN
In that seemingly harmless bridge game, the last hand was stacked with cold-decked disaster.
MAN ABOUT TO DIE—NORMAN A. DANIELS
Detective Steve Murdoch started his strangest assignment on his back—for he had to track down a killer from a hospital bed!
THE TWISTED ALIBI—NICHOLAS ZOOK
The plan of even the most cunning murder is no stronger than the hangman’s rope.