True Detective Mysteries


 

One of the most successful periodicals in magazine history was True Detective Mysteries. An offshoot of publisher Bernarr Macfadden’s True Story magazine, True Detective specialized in semi-fictionalizing real-life crime cases taken from police blotters and making them riveting reading, illustrated by posed photographs, newspaper morgue pix and police mug shots. The concept was a natural. Circulation soared into the millions. Before long, imitators followed in droves, leading to a new breed of entertainment that survives to this day under the catchall phrase of “true crime” magazines.

 

The secret of True Detective Mysteries’ success was simple. The same appetite that caused people to flock to tabloid newspapers back in the day when they sensationalized sordid crime stories compelled Americans snap up copies every month to see how police and federal investigators solved actual crime nationwide. A lurid immediacy infused these timeless tales. They were short, punchy, and set in the big cities and small towns scattered throughout the nation. If you were a regular reader, you might discover in the magazine’s graphic pages that one of your own neighbors was either wanted or had been apprehended by your very own Police Department.

 

True Detective Mysteries ran from 1924 into the 1995––a tremendous achievement. So it was a natural in 1929 that the emerging medium of radio turned to the popular Macfadden magazine for inspiration. Built around contemporary articles from the magazine’s voluminous files, True Detective Mysteries dramatized the most notorious cases in 30 minute installments, employing the same staccato style offered up by editor John Shuttleworth and his seasoned staff of writers. Charles Schenck directed a closed cast of regulars, while Richard Keith voiced editor Shuttleworth.

 

For our collection, we’ve selected eight exciting episodes dating from 1937. They range from murder mysteries to crime puzzles so baffling that in one instance, it took the vast resources of True Detective Mysteries magazine itself to crack a tough case! Today, reality television dominates the airwaves. True Detective Mysteries launched the genre with its own brand of reality radio!