Sunday, June 29, 2008

Wild Spree of the Laughing Sadist

If you’ve got a thing about cruelty to animals you may want to skip this post, (or at least the first couple pages), in fact our subject today makes the killer in that Zebra story from a few months back look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. And as the level of brutality displayed here reaches almost cartoonish proportions, you can’t help but laugh at the excessive picture they’re attempting to paint of this lovely chap. But guess what? It’s all based on a “TRUE” story! Check the link after the story below...

From the November 1947 issue of Crime Does Not Pay #57






In 1949, Maryland adopted a pioneering “defective delinquent” law when a young legislator was moved by a series of senseless, violent Baltimore murders. The 19-year-old son of a wealthy family, Herman Duker, held up a milkman, father of two, and without provocation shot him dead. As a small child Duker exhibited appalling cruelty to animals and deviant sexual behaviors, both of which persisted for years. Arrests for thefts and burglaries began at an early age. At 16 he was diagnosed as a psychopathic personality, and two years later committed his sensational murder.The judge sentenced Duker to hang because, he said, if given a life sentence the violent young man would be a lifelong danger even to the prison guards.

Click HERE for the full article.
+++++++++++++++++++++++

Vintage 50's ad

And don't forget to head over to Chuck's Comic Book Catacombs today for another look at the "lighter side of crime", this time an Atlas spoof on Gang Busters and Crime Does Not Pay. It's a silly classic illustrated by future MAD Magazine legend Dave Berg!

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm glad the comic left out the deviant sexual behaviors.

Anonymous said...

According to the Chicago Tribune, it was Duker himself who wrote and drew the story: “The Laughling Sadist”, from cartoonist Herman Duker, who wrote the comic book Crime Does Not Pay. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) :-O

silvano said...

If it wasn't based on a true story ,it would be great unintentional humor , stuff like these filled the lurid pocket sized comics in Italy when I was a brat ...

Unknown said...

I like the linked article as much as or more than the comic. Thanks for the bonus!

Tim Tylor said...

"Bill! He's taking the sugar bowl!" That cracks me up every time.

Anonymous said...

GOD IF THAT BRUTAL SPLASH DIDNT GRAB YOU FROM THE GET GO NOTHING CAN! GREAT ART AND NICELY WRITTEN, ALTHOUGH BEING A TRUE STORY I GUESS THERE WASN'T MUCH EXTRA THEY OBVIOUSLY NEEDED TO DO.

THE ARTICLE AFTERWARDS WAS ALSO A FASCINATING READ, BUT DID THEY HANG DUKER OR SEND HIM TO THE CHAIR?

Mr. Karswell said...

>I'm glad the comic left out the deviant sexual behaviors.

You are?

>“The Laughling Sadist”, from cartoonist Herman Duker, who wrote the comic book Crime Does Not Pay. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Ha ha! That's some hysterically shoddy reporting.

>BUT DID THEY HANG DUKER OR SEND HIM TO THE CHAIR?

That all depends on weither you believe a fact based article or a comic book adaptation. Maybe they hanged him first and then put his corpse in an electric chair (or vice versa) you know, to really seal the deal?

Unintentional humor and stolen sugar bowls aside, I think tomorrow we'll wrap up June with a softer, more traditional look at crime comics. That means lots of satanism. See ya's tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

That was just...damn...just...damn..that splash was so ott it was scary,and the animal scenes..shit.as for the sugar bowl thing,yeah that was unnecessarily stupid,and so was the contention that Duker wrote and drew this himself,was that rumor based on Bob Wood,or did it predate him?

Maurizio Ercole said...

Love these ads... the comic reminds me Reefer Madness movie... the fist panel is a piece of art!

Chuck Wells said...

My pug, Bandit, was offended by the animal cruelty so I let him read some Richie Rich books to get over it.

Anonymous said...

>>BUT DID THEY HANG DUKER OR SEND HIM TO THE CHAIR?

>>That all depends on weither you believe a fact based article or a comic book adaptation. Maybe they hanged him first and then put his corpse in an electric chair (or vice versa) you know, to really seal the deal?

According to the article, the governor commuted the sentence.

Mr. Karswell said...

>According to the article, the governor commuted the sentence.

Right. So he was commuted to a lesser sentence of being executed in the electric chair in a comic book.

Anonymous said...

>the contention that Duker wrote and drew this himself,was that rumor based on Bob Wood,or did it predate him?

That was just lazy or stupid journalists not parsing the splash page correctly.

Anonymous said...

>a lesser sentence of being executed in the electric chair in a comic book.

Well, I ask you, karswell, if you were offered the chance to be executed in the electric chair in a comic book, would you say no? The governor could unleash a wave of crime perpetrated by comic book fans!

Kitty LeClaw said...

"Look at that cat burn!" Uproarious.

On a much darker note, I think my neighbours' kids are Sadists in Training.

Unknown said...

Right. So he was commuted to a lesser sentence of being executed in the electric chair in a comic book.

I wish that were my governor.

The Vicar of VHS said...

Holy crap.

So wait, I'm a little fuzzy here...

Crime--it pays, right?