Evening star., 1946-07-07
This Anthology
OfCrine Will
Haunt You
IURDER WITHOUT TEARS
Edited by Will Cuppy. (Sheri
Id77 uonoo. ed

CutLeU w w bL Cuppy. fSHeTI-
dan House; $4J
Following the annual summer
practice of seeking chills by soaring
myself, I took home last week this
thick volume of murder stories. 1t
killed an evening. l can give about
two evenings a year to such reading
matter and enjoy myself heartily.
Murder Without Tears" is a COL
lection of murder stories which are
for the most part true. 1t contains
section of fiction but that fills no
more than fifth of the book. The
significance of the title is that the
stories are selected for humor. The
collection, says Mr.. Cuppy, tends
to include pieces which may make
you smile for one reason or an
other; in a few instances, because
of the matter set down, but more
often by some grace of manner in
the doing thereof" The fact that
this standard was applied largely
to accounts of real crimes is, I think,
somewhat on the unique side.
What are funny murders? And
what makes murder story funny?
These are the questions which Mr..
Cuppy has had to keep in mind. He
has found variety of answers.
The Belle Guinness case is funny
because the husky Scandinavian
widow mingled matrimonial lures
with killings and was superbly
prodigal with both. Her story, told
by Stewart H. Holbrook is something
Of classic. The BALKAN mystery,
in which a prominent London lawyer
was poisoned at his own dinner table
and for which none of the neces
sarily guilty people were ever
brought to trial, has its element of
humor in the contradictions of the
testimony and the bland Indifference
of the judges to what now seems
convincing evidence. 1t is told by
William Roughead, a specialist in
this kind of writing. The Landru
case reported by Frederick A. Mac
kenZie) and the Burke and Hare
case (William Roughead) have
something of the Guinness humor-!
the incongruity of dreary and stupid
people killing scores of their fellow
men for the most petty rewards.
To me, however, the best of the
true murder tales in the group
was the summing up of Willie Ste
Vens (of the Hall-Mills case) byl
James Thurber. 1t is one more
example of Mr.. Thurbers brilliant
versatility and the humor of it has
nothing to do with the crime which
made Willie famous. 1t lies in the
exquisite delicacy with which Mr..
Thurber portrayed a strange, proud
personality. In fact, 1 would not
call it humor at all. Though Willie
did a number of funny things, his
story comes much closer to being
pathos.
Richly funny, however. are the
anonymous reports taken from the
NeWgate Calendar, describing the
characters of prisoners condemned
for murder and the crimes which
they committed. The Newgate Cal
endar, founded in the late 18th
century, was devoted to the in
mates of the infamous old London
jail and its purpose was to hold
up the moral-not so much that
crime doesn't pay as that drink,
neglect of religion and disorderly
conduct lead to crime and hence,
in those days, to the gallows.
There is, for instance, the case
of Thomas Cook who killed con-
stable in a riot. Cook was a boxer.
The Calendars comment is this
unfortunate man seems to have
fallen a sacrifice to the low passion
he had imbibed for the life of a |
prize fighter" Then there is the
sad end of Grace Trip, servant
girl whose burglar sweetheart per-
suaded her to help him rob her en-
ployers, with the result that she was
executed at Tyburn at the
age of 10 years" Says the Calendar
let all young women be taught
that there is no prospect of that
person making a good husband who
is not first of all an honest man"
And so on.
Why are these moralizations
funny? Simply because they are
out of date, as we'll as l can de-
.ermine. They do not fit the shape
of crime as we think of it today.
Intimations of omniscience on our
part may we'll be checked by the
obvious reflections. Certainly the
Calendar was soberly enough
written.
Among the fictional murders in
the collection we have works of
Aldous Huxley, G. K. Chesterton,
Agatha Christie, Isak Dinesen,
Dashiell Hammett, Stephen Lea
cock and others-a broad sampling
for many tastes. from the plain
crime solution tale to the elaborate
work of irony.
Yes, I think You can read this
book with satisfaction. If you like
crime reading at all, you are apt