Satan Hall 5: Satan's Creed

It's Dec. 17, 1932, and Detective Frank "Satan" Hall makes his fifth appearance, his fourth in the pages of Detective Fiction Weekly. Gangster August Saprillo has a gun to forehead of a little girl. Saprillo's finger tightens on the trigger, but . . .

A low voice spoke from the open door.

"I wouldn't do that Augie," the voice said.

The gangster raised his black eyes and looked straight into the green ones of Detective Satan Hall.

August Saprillo's first thought was that a gun covered him and that he was about to die. He'd take the kid with him. Then his eyes opened wide and his lips curled evilly. Satan Hall was standing there with both his hands at his sides, and both his hands empty.

August Saprillo didn't think any more. He just jerked his gun from that little curly head. Almost the moment he raised it he wished that he hadn't. While he held it against the child's head he had some chance to bargain with Satan. Now he knew the truth; knew it the very moment that right hand of Satan moved, for that hand which had been empty a split sceond before, now held a gun. Satan had been afraid that he would kill the kid. Satan had trapped him into raising his gun.

They fired together. Just a single deafening roar. Satan's right arm dropped to his side; his right hand opened and his gun pounded to the floor.

But his left hand shot between his right armpit, and stayed there.

Saprillo clicked his heels together, spun around and crashed forward on his face.

Yep, Satan allowed Augie a clear shot at him, seeing that as his only hope of saving the girl. Augie's shot took Satan in the right side of the chest, putting him in the hospital. But Satan's shot put Augie in the grave. Though we're not told where his bullet hit Augie, Satan always hits the mark, and he always aims right between the eyes.

Satan Hall 4: Satan's Kill

A word of advice. Don't ever sneak into Satan Hall's apartment and try to kill him in his sleep. Johnny tried it, here in this 1932 issue of DFW.

He stepped two spaces forward; he pressed the button of the flash; he laid the nose of the heavy automatic almost against Satan’s head. But he held the flash so that Satan would see the gun.

Green eyes opened and seemed to stare straight into Johnny’s eyes, and there was nothing of fear in them. Just the same cold, cruel, sinister eyes that had looked at Johnny down at Hickey Moran’s place. And for the first time in his life, Johnny knew fear. The hand that held the gun trembled. He thought only of firing that gun, killing Satan - blotting out those sinister deadly eyes and getting away.

His right hand moved; his right index finger flexed, and there was the single roar of the gun. A roar that vibrated through the room. But there was no sudden dart of orange blue flame; no smell of burning powder, just the roar of a heavy automatic. And a man died.

Guess who died? Guess who sleeps with a .45 under the covers?

More illustrated adventures of Satan Hall coming soon.

Satan Hall 3: Satan's Law

My favorite pointy-eared detective is on the job again, this time from August 8, 1932. Here’s the scene: the bad guys, Rattigan and Joe, are interrogating a fence about the whereabouts of his daughter - a young woman Satan happens to admire. Then there’s an interruption.

The shade shot up with a snap, an arm came through the broken pane in the window - and Satan spoke, his gun moving slowly.

“I think that will be about all of that, Mr. Rattigan. Unlock the window and open it, Joe.”

Three pairs of eyes sought that window at once. The little fence dropped back in the chair and buried his head in his hands. Three hands hesitated, half moving to armpits when Satan spoke again.

“I think you’re making a mistake, boys. It’s Satan talking. Now, Joe - open the window.”

There was no order of “hands up!” There was nothing melodramatic in Satan’s words. Yet three pairs of hands shot into the air. Joe walked toward the window. The name of Satan had been enough. Rattigan and his bodyguard knew that Satan shot first and explained afterward.

“Keep a little to the side, Joe.” Satan’s voice was soft and low. “I like to look at your friends. You wouldn’t want me to shoot a hole in you to look through.”

Needless to say, this does not bode well for Rattigan and Joe.

This story was collected in the Mysterious Press volume, The Adventures of Satan Hall.

The Satan Hall Archives:
Satan’s Lash
Satan Sees Red

Satan Hall 2 : Satan Sees Red

Here's the setup for this cover from June 25, 1932: Satan is out to get a murderer named Bowers. Bowers has a classy nightclub, political influence and cops in his pocket. To intimidate visitors to his office, Bowers sits them under a hot light across from his desk. Satan pays Bowers a visit, making it clear he's carrying a rod but has no intention of using it - and sits in the chair under the light. Later, after things have escalated, Satan returns. Bowers now has reason to fear him. Before allowing Satan into his office, he takes away Satan's gun and places it in the open drawer of his desk. Bower's bodyguard remains in the room, keeping a gun on Satan. Here's what happens next:

Satan's hands dug deep down at his sides. His fingers seemed to clutch spasmodically at the heavy upholstery of the chair. At least, it seemed that way to Bowers, who couldn't see that far down from his desk . . . 

"You misundertand me, Bowers. I'm not threatening to watch for an opportunity to kill you - hunt you down in some alley. When I say I'm going to kill you, I mean just that. On the open street - in the lobby of a hotel - at Forty-second Street and Broadway. In plain words, the first time I see you, no matter what the place. Even in this room here . . . That's why I came to see you. I wanted to let you know. It will be the first time I ever shot a man down in cold blood, but it's fact just the same. I'll give you time to talk - while I count ten."

Bowers draws Satan's gun from the desk and points it at his chest. Satan explains the gun is not loaded, then thrusts himself out of the chair. As Bowers claws at his armpit for his own rod, Satan shoots the bodyguard between the eyes and pistol whips Bowers across the face. Satan, you see, had stuffed a snub-nose revolver into the chair cushions on his earlier visit. And his real goal, rather than killing Bowers, was to make him burn in the electric chair.

This story was included in The Adventures of Satan Hall, published by Mysterious Press in 1988.

For the Almanack's lowdown on the first Satan Hall story, click here: Satan Hall 1: Satan's Lash.

SATAN HALL in "Satan's Lash" (1931)

Carroll John Daly is acknowledged (often grudgingly and sometimes with embarrassment) as the author of the first hardboiled detective story. He beat Hammett to the punch by a few months, and many mystery historians wish he hadn’t. Sure, Hammett was a far better writer. He deserves his status as a hardboiled icon. But Daly didn’t just write that first story and fade in obscurity. He kept at it well into the 50s and was one of the most popular writers of his day. Daly’s most famous creation was Race Williams, a two-gun lead-slinging P.I. who pretty much formed the mold for the hardboiled detective.

But Daly created other heroes too, and the one I find the most intriguing is Satan Hall. The earliest Satan story I've seen (thanks to Mr. Steve Mertz) was "Black Turns White" in the August 16, 1930 issue of Detective Story. This adventures, from the August 8, 1931 issue of Detective Story appears to be his second. This is a couple of years after Sam Spade appeared in Black Mask, and after The Maltese Falcon was published as a novel. So I have to wonder: was Satan Hall Daly’s answer to Sam Spade?

Here are the opening lines of The Maltese Falcon:
Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down - from high flat temples - in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.

And here’s our first look at Satan Hall:
The patrolman wet his lips, tried to speak and failed as he stared at the man before him. He knew him, of course. Everyone knew “Satan” Hall, the hardest, cruelest, and most sinister detective on the city’s force. The officer looked at the features again, studied them almost as if for the first time, although he knew them well: that peculiar head with its features all seeming to come to points, starting at the chin and making one great capital letter V, ending in the brim of his gray slouch hat. And though he couldn’t see it, the officer knew that the jet-black hair began in a single thin line down by his forehead, widening as the hair thickened, to make that same V again. Even the ears, just visible below the hat, were tapering at the ends; and the curve of the lips, in tune with the slanting eyebrows, gave a satanic expression to the entire face.

In Daly’s hands, the small v and small s satan motif became big capital Vs and Satan with a capital S. Unlike Spade, Satan Hall is a police detective, but in another parallel, this story is about Satan’s unrelenting crusade to avenge the death of his partner.

Satan made his next appearance in Detective Fiction Weekly, holding court for several years, and was the subject of many more great pulp covers. You’ll see them here as the Almanack rolls along, and I’ll do a lot more yapping about the life and times of Satan Hall.