Forged in war, The Phantom Detective wages a one-man battle on crime! Solving impossible mysteries and delivering his own justice, he is the underworld’s masked nightmare!
The brand of murder is burned in gilded letters on the foreheads of the fated Corbin family — guardians of a buried secret that has left a grim heritage of slaughter and crime!
Ned Pines was the man behind a publishing company that went under many names during its existence. Known at different times as Better, Standard, and Thrilling Publications, it’s the company’s tenure as Thrilling that saw the birth of one of Pulp’s greatest heroes-The Phantom Detective! Taking a cue from the success of Street & Smith’s The Shadow magazine, the first such magazine to feature a hero as its title and lead feature, Pines imagined that following suit might prove lucrative for his own endeavor. Putting this intent into action, Thrilling Publications released the first issue of The Phantom Detective magazine in February 1933, just a scant thirty or so days before Street & Smith delivered another soon to be legend - Doc Savage - in his own magazine. Keeping up with both his predecessor and the hero that followed him by a month, The Phantom Detective ran in his own magazine for 170 issues, just behind the other two characters’ achievements. Pines’ masked sleuth also set a record the other two did not, his magazine being published for a total of twenty years!
Although similarities can be drawn between The Phantom Detective and The Shadow and Doc Savage, readers found it easy to relate to the characters presented in The Phantom Detective with its usually more realistic crime driven stories. The simplicity of the idea, a normal man dedicated to crimefighting, likely increased the long-term appeal of the character to many fans.
‘The Golden Killer’ was originally published in the April 1937 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
Chapter 1: Whispering Death
Chapter 2: The Phantom Comes
Chapter 3: Silent Wires
Chapter 4: Mystery Room
Chapter 5: Moaning Walls
Chapter 6: The Phantom’s Bluff
Chapter 7: The Killer Speaks
Chapter 8: Invisible Doom
Chapter 9: Jumbled Clues
Chapter 10: Kismet!
Chapter 11: Speeding Death
Chapter 12: Satan’s Secret
Chapter 13: Hissing Hell
Chapter 14: Killer’s Last Stand
Milton Bagby is a veteran radio announcer and voiceover specialist who first turned to audiobooks in 2010. Since then, Milton has worked on several hundred audiobook projects and is a 2017 Audie Awards winner, the audiobook industry's highest award. Drawing upon years of stage acting and the occasional bit part in films, Milton uses his experience to create characters that stand out in the ear of the listener.
“I am very much aware that a perfect stranger is going to invest many hours listening to me tell a story. I do my best to give the listener an experience in which the characters in that story come alive and sound real.”
When not behind a microphone, Milton is a writer. In addition to the well-received Rick Burkhart crime novels, Milton writes a line of 1950s style pulp stories, and is the author of dozens of magazine articles and two non-fiction books. Milton and his wife live in Nashville.
