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Weird Menace: The 1930s rise of the Shudder Pulps followed by the rise of the forces that ended them and transformed horror on the newsstand.
Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Crimes by Women, Fox Features, golden age, victor fox
Notorious Serial Killer Hell's Belle in Crimes by Women, at Auction
Victor Fox's Crimes by Women is one of the most notorious titles that the infamous publisher ever put out, and that is saying something. Two different issues of the title were mentioned by Fredric Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent, while various other issues, described as "openly sensational" and beyond, were singled out in newspapers of the era. Crimes by Women #2 is a typically lurid issue of the series, featuring the shocking story of Belle Gunness, "The Monster of La Porte" as its featured story. A saga that has also been the subject of novels and film, including the 2004 movie Method which starred Elizabeth Hurley, there's a Crimes by Women #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD/VG up for auction in the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 from Heritage Auctions.
The lead feature of Crimes by Women #2 tells the sordid tale of Belle Gunness, nicknamed "Hell's Belle", who was a Norwegian-American serial killer active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. It is believed that she killed at least fourteen people, mostly men whom she lured to her rural Indiana property on the promise of marriage. Some sources speculate that her body count could be as high as forty murders. Gunness was based in La Porte, Indiana during the later part of her activity. As the Crimes by Women #2 story tells it, she seemingly died in the fire of her farmhouse there in 1908, but many people believe that she staged her own death. Her actual fate is still unknown. A notorious comic book that features a sensational true-crime saga, there's a Crimes by Women #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD/VG up for auction in the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 from Heritage Auctions.
Crimes by Women #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD/VG. Decapitation, electrocution, and lingerie panels. A. C. Hollingsworth art. Small piece missing from top left corner of cover. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $81; VG 4.0 value = $162.
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