OLD-TIME RADIO: GOODBYE, MISS LIZZIE BORDEN

From the time I was a teenager I had an interest in the Lizzie Borden case.  The month I was born, Weird Tales published Robert Bloch's classic tale "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax."  In 1961 I read Edward D. Radin's persuasive (and Edgar-nominated) study Lizzie Borden:  the Untold Story.  (Interestingly, Lillian de la Torre called Radin "the soundest crime expert of our generation.")  I waited for months for a copy of Evan Hunter's Lizzie to be available at my local library.  I've sung along to the Chad Mitchell Trio's song many, many times.  I sat through an excruciating performance of the opera when it appeared on PBS.  (My interest in Lizzie Border has no relation to the fact that one of my six most favorite nieces is named Lizzie.)

A few weeks ago I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Walter Satterthwait's latest novel New York Nocturne:  The Return of Miss Lizzie.  And so I thought it was time to reacquaint myself with Lillian de la Torre's marvelous play Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden.

Lillian de la Torre (1902-1993) was best known for her historical mysteries about Dr. Sam: Johnson -- 33 marvelous detective short stories (collected in four books) that helped usher in the historical detective story as a popular sub-genre.  Her 1955 book The Truth About Belle Guinness was nominated for an Edgar in  the Best Fact Crime category.  She also served as President of the Mystery Writers of America.

Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden was first aired as a radio play on CBS Radio's Suspense on October 4, 1955, featuring Irene Tedrow, Paula Winslowe, and Virginia Gregg.  It was later adapted as a television episode (as "The Older Sister") on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with Carmen Matthews playing Lizzie.

Over the decades there have been many theories about who killed Andrew and Abby Borden on August 4, 1892 in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home.

Enjoy this one possible explanation by Miss de la Torre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUQsq0d-AI&index=28&list=PLJm2etPj4-MZe448obwCpovv_3oi2qod4

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW

Jimmy Cliff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3xbQZZ5_E

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

"I cannot stand people who disagree with on the issue of Roe v. Wade...which I believe is about the proper way to cross a lake." -- Stephen Colbert

MUSIC FROM THE PAST BUT MEANINGFUL FOR TODAY

This might be how you are feeling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQOsERzr2c

Or you might be feeling like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuoY_OLalhk

But I fervently wish that this is how we, hand in hand, will end up feeling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbQQtmyo2Q

FORGOTTEN CARTOON: FUNNY FACE

Okay.  So you've voted and now you are anxiously (fearfully?) awaiting the results.  Why not take a few minutes and cleanse your mind of politics?

Here's a 1933 Flip the Frog cartoon from Ub Iwerks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XEgv89mMmA

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: LONG BLACK VEIL

Lefty Frizzell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50k18gL76AU

INCOMING

• Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2003.  Stories by Steven Bratman, Ken Wharton, Larry Niven, John  C. Bodin & Ron Collins, Don D'Ammassa, and Ian Randall Strock; the conclusion of a serial by Rajnar Vajra; and an article by Richard A. Lovett.  I had given up a regular diet of Analog years ago, but sometimes it's just fun to pick up a random copy.
• "Alex Archer" (Jon Mertz this time), Rogue Angel:  The Oracle's Message.  Men's action adventure series with a fantasy slant. This is the 32nd in the series about archaeologist Annja Creed.  While scuba diving in the Philippines and having a close encounter with a tiger shark, "Annja Creed finds herself drawn into a group of German divers.  They are treasure hunters searching for a fabled pearl...The race is on to possess the pearl.  But no one realizes the true nature of the artifact, or the danger it poses to them all."
• Burl Barer, Broken Doll.  True crime.  Tough, disturbing reading here.  Richard Clark, a convicted pedophile, kidnapped 7-year-old Roxanne Doll from her Everett, Washington, bedroom and murdered her.  Clark, a trusted friend of the family, had previously been convicted of the 1988 kidnapping of 4-year-old Feather Rahier; luckily in that case, Feather was rescued just as Clark was beginning to remover her clothing.  Barer is the author of a number of true crime books and an Edgar winner for his comprehensive The Saint:  A Complete History in Print, Radio, Television, and Film.  He's also a long-time radio personality and the host of True Crime Uncensored,  Barer is the uncle of writers Lee Goldberg and Todd Goldberg and a distant relation of the man who composed the Mighty Mouse theme song. 
• "M. V. Carey" (Mary Virginia Carey), The Mystery of the Wandering Cave Man.  A Three Investigators juvenile mystery.  Someone has stolen the cave man's bones from Newt McAfee's museum.  Or did they?  The night watchman swears he saw the cave man just walk away!  Enter Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews -- young detectives extraordinaire.  This is the 34th book in the long-running series, following books by Robert Arthur, "William Arden" (Dennis Lynds), and  "Nick West" (Kin Platt); three of the later books in the original series were written by Marc Brandel.  I've read all the books by Robert Arthur and several by "William Arden" and have enjoyed them.
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1982.  Stories by Isaac Asimove (Black Widowers), Patricia Moyes, John F. Suter (Uncle Abner), Patricia McGerr, Cornell Woolrich, George Baxt, and Edward D. Hoch (Nick Velvet, plus another under his "R. L. Stevens" by-line), among others.  EQMM is always guaranteed to give you pleasure.
• Philip Jose Farmer, More Than Fire.  Science Fiction, the seventh and final volume in the World of Tiers series.  "Across myriad universes, Kickaha, the roguish adventurer from Earth has wandered, always fighting the decadent Lords in their domains.  Now the time has come for the ultimate battle with the most powerful Lord of all, Red Orc.  Welcome again to the World of Tiers, where the fate of universes depends on the strength of one strong man."
• Katherine V. Forrest, Daughters of a Coral Dawn.  Lesbian science fiction novel, the first of a trilogy.  Generations of descendants of a woman from Verna III have grown too large and may enflame the wrath of unwitting males, forcing the women to consider finding a new home away from Earth.  The writing appears to be smooth and easy in the few chapters I have already read.  (So far the book is very entertaining but the politics behind the story seems over-simplified.  We'll see.)  Forrest is a pioneering and award-winning lesbian author perhaps best known for her popular books about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield.  I have several of the Delafield books on Mount TBR.
• "Alfred Hitchcock" (Peter Haining this time, probably), ed., Alfred Hitchcock Presents:  This One Will Kill You.  Anthology of 14 stories, dating from 1962 to 1969, taken from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.  This is the 1971 Dell edition.  The Hitchcock Zone wiki does not name an editor for this edition, but there is a 1972 New English Library (British) edition with the truncated title This One Will Kill You credited to Hitchcock -- the Hitchcock Zone wiki does list Haining as the ghost editor of this one.  The content of both the Dell and the New English Library editions are the same.  So...
• Charlie Huston, Already Dead.  Vampire P.I. novel, the first in the Joe Pitt series.  "There's a shambler on the loose.  Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to much on folks' brains.  Joe hates shamblers, but he's still the one who has to deal with them.  That's just the kind of life he has.  Except afterlife might be a better word."
• Brandon Keith, I Spy:  Message from Moscow.  TV tie-in juvenile novel, a Whitman "authorized" book.  I know nothing about Brandon Keith except that he wrote at least four Whitman tv tie-ins -- this one, two Man from U.N.C.L.E.s, and a Green Hornet.  I have the two U.N.C.L.E.s and may one day read the three books in a BrandonKeithathon.
• Stanislaw Lem, A Perfect Vacuum.  Satire, subtitled Perfect Reviews of Nonexistent Books, in which Lem dissects 16 books that don't exist.  Sounds like fun.
• Frank Miller, Sin City, Volume 1:  The Hard Goodbye.  Graphic Novel.  Gritty.  Gritty.  Grittty.
• E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Treasure House of Martin Hews.  A 1928 thriller by the prolific (over 100 books between 1887 and 1943) Mr. Oppenheim.  At least sixty-five of his early books are available to read on the internet but not this one, which I got for a buck at a thrift store.
• Tom Piccirilli, The Last Whisper in the Dark.  Thriller, a follow-up to The Last Kind Words.  Prodigal thief Terrier Rand has returned home to his law-breaking family.  Terry's old friend Chub hasn't been seen since he supplied a getaway car for a heist the went wrong.  "Terry just wants to bring Chub home to his wife.  Instead, he's dodging mobsters, moguls, and murderers...and the truth about one crime of his own."  Piccirilli was an amazing writer, struck down by cancer at a far too early age.
• Kit Reed, Fort Privilege.  Science fiction.  New York has become a city under siege with uncounted riots, murders, fires, and disasters.  Most decent people have fled but the privileged upper crust are safe in their barricaded luxury apartment building, the Parkhurst.  As the residents gather to celebrate the centennial of the Parkhurst, they feel secure.  But are they?