First, be much, much more careful who you summon to help you.
Second, avoid soundproof rooms.
Surprisingly, we don't start with Kid and Keeper lazing about. No, we go to death row, where Bruiser Malloy is awaiting execution.
Until he escapes, that is!
It's also nice to know that Keeper functions as an early version of "Dead or Alive." Who needs the internet? Just ask Keeper!!
As our heroes vow to track Bruiser down, he goes to hide out with his Dad. Dad, however, in not sympathetic!
Bruiser, by the way, is not a good son:
And he's good, up to a point...
The Kid has an inspiration!
As near as anyone can tell, writer Bill Woolfolk just created the guy out of thin air for this story.
Which is odd, because there were plenty of actual dead "notorious criminals" from the 1920s and 1930s whom Kid could have called upon.
Were they afraid of offending gangsters who may have been friends with Capone or Dillinger? Was Cronson really real, and the letterer just screwed up the name somehow? We'll never know...
Anyway, Keeper reminds Kid that "it takes a thief to catch a thief" only works with Cary Grant or Robert Wagner, not vicious murdering gangsters. So...
Meanwhile, Bruiser goes to visit the old girlfriend he believes ratted him out!
Uh, Kid, you know he didn't really solve the Rue Morgue murders, right? You know he's just fictional?!?
Rustum?!?
Man, I should be charging you guys for the education you're getting here every week!!
Meanwhile, the bad guys have a plan...
But what about Cronson?!?
OK, OK, "mixed" or "dual-powered" railways systems weren't uncommon, especially in the New York area. So we'll let that slide.
Hey--we haven't checked in with Her Highness and Silk for a while. What are they up to?!?
After 24 stories, the standings are...
| Achilles | 2 |
| Antony, Marc | 1 |
| Atlas | 2 |
| Attila The Hun | 1 |
| Attucks, Crispin | 1 |
| Barry's father | 1 |
| Bernhardt, Sarah | 1 |
| Bertillon, Alphonse | 1 |
| Blackhawk | 1 |
| Boone, Daniel | 1 |
| Breitbart, Zishe | 1 |
| Bucephalus | 1 |
| Bunyan, Paul | 2 |
| Byron, George Gordon | 1 |
| Caesar, Octavian | 1 |
| Canary, Martha “Calamity” | 1 |
| Cannon, John W. | 1 |
| Carden, Foster | 1 |
| Cherry Sisters | 1 |
| Clancy, Patrick | 1 |
| Cody, “Buffalo” Bill | 1 |
| Columbus | 1 |
| Corbett, Jim | 2 |
| Cronson, Gerald | 1 |
| Custer, George Armstrong | 1 |
| D'artagnan | 1 |
| de Leon, Ponce | 1 |
| Decatur, Stephen | 1 |
| Dockstader, Lew | 1 |
| Don Quixote | 1 |
| Drake, Sir Francis | 1 |
| Dupin, C. Auguste | 1 |
| Emery | 1 |
| Ericson, Leif | 1 |
| Galahad | 1 |
| Gotch, Frank | 1 |
| Grant, Ulysses S. | 1 |
| Greb, Harry | 1 |
| Griffiths, Albert | 1 |
| Hercules | 1 |
| Hickok, Wild Bill | 1 |
| Holmes, Sherlock | 1 |
| Houdini | 2 |
| Hyer, Tom | 1 |
| Jackson, Andrew | 1 |
| Jeffries, Jim | 1 |
| Jones, John Paul | 1 |
| Khan, Genghis | 1 |
| Kidd, William | 1 |
| King Arthur | 1 |
| Leander | 1 |
| Lee, Robert E. | 1 |
| Leonidas | 1 |
| Lincoln, Abraham | 1 |
| Marable, Fate | 1 |
| Mercury | 3 |
| Murphy, Charles | 1 |
| Napoleon | 1 |
| Nation, Carrie | 1 |
| Nightingale, Florence | 1 |
| Noah | 1 |
| Nobody | 1 |
| Osceola | 1 |
| Paddock, Charley | 1 |
| Pheidippides | 1 |
| Pinkerton, Allan | 1 |
| Plastic Man | 1 |
| Porthos | 1 |
| Prometheus | 1 |
| Robin Hood | 2 |
| Russell, Lillian | 1 |
| Rustum | 1 |
| Samson | 2 |
| Sandow, Eugen | 1 |
| Schleyer, Johann | 1 |
| Siegfried | 1 |
| Solomon | 1 |
| Sullivan, John L. | 1 |
| Tell, William | 1 |
| Thor | 1 |
| Thurston, Howard | 1 |
| Tiglath IV | 1 |
| Tut-ankh-amen | 1 |
| Twain, Mark | 1 |
| Vercingetorix | 1 |
| Washington, George | 1 |
| Webster, Daniel | 1 |
| Zbyzko, Stanislaus | 1 |
NEXT--The Kid may not know art, but he knows what he likes!!
From Hit Comics #42 (1946)