No man could explain that death which struck from the stratosphere, turning men into statues, stripping the United States of defenses. Operator #5 — Ace of the American Secret Service — uncovered an espionage organization which was working against our country when Washington recaptured Yorktown, in 1781!... But now, a madman with limitless ambition headed the Secret Loyalists, determined to make himself Emperor of America, and Operator #5 takes a million-to-one gamble which brings him face to face with disgrace and death!
Jimmy Christopher was the star of the most audacious pulp magazine ever conceived. With the rise of European fascism in the form of Benito Mussolini of Italy, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany and General Francisco Franco of Spain—not to mention myriad lesser despots and dictators—Americans began to fear for their future. The dread of being drawn into a second World War became a topic of grave concern in that Depression year of 1934.
At pulp magazine publisher Popular Publications, they took note of this isolationist trend. Pulp publisher Harry Steeger commissioned writer Frederick C. Davis to help develop a hero for their new monthly magazine, entitled Secret Service Operator #5.
“The basic concept of Operator 5 came from Harry Steeger, the publisher, or Rogers Terrill, the editor, or both,” Davis recalled. “It was that Operator 5 must save the United States from total destruction in every story, every month. When I was called in to start the series Terrill already had a cover illustration—the White House being blown up. I did the first Operator 5 around this picture.”
Into this unprecedented crisis plunged Jimmy Christopher. Only one man, but a man who embodied the American spirit — and stands prepared to perish to protect his country.
Scourge of the Invisible Death is read with stirring intensity by Milton Bagby. Originally published in the November, 1935 issue of Operator #5 magazine.
