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The Spider #63 Audiobook
The Withering Death
by Wayne Rogers writing as Grant Stockbridge
Read by Nick Santa Maria
Sere, ghastly, the Severed Hand brought its grisly warning to New York. Its citizens must pay the extortioner’s price or die, their living bodies slowly, agonizingly transformed into rigid mummies! The police were helpless, and only Richard Wentworth, in the Spider’s weird garb, could wage battle — against the master murder-chemist who killed to corral a fortune!
Author and former crime reporter Norvell W. Page, who penned the majority of the Spider’s exploits as Grant Stockbridge in Popular Publications’ infamous pulp magazine, The Spider, once described his hero in gigantic but unflinching terms: “His exploits had raised him to the proportions of a legendary hero. In ancient times, Rome would have made him an emperor-god. Salem might have burned him as a sorcerer. The modern world—well, the police had offered rewards totaling thousands of dollars for his capture ‘dead or alive.’ And the Underworld hated him and plotted his destruction with a fierceness bred of abject terror.
“Yes, Richard Wentworth was a murderer in the eyes of the law—a butcher who had slain a hundred, a thousand of his fellow men. They took no account of the fact he killed only those who richly deserved to die, that he alone had prevented a score of master criminals from overwhelming the forces of law and order.”
“There’s a madness that gets in me when the Spider walks....” Wentworth once admitted.
Once more,the incomparable Nick Santa Maria reads another thrilling Spider exploit. The Withering Death originally published in The Spider magazine, December, 1938.
Chapter 1: Grisly Rendezvous
Chapter 2: Hands of Death
Chapter 3: The Hidden Guest
Chapter 4: Death Scoop
Chapter 5: Master of Murder
Chapter 6: Reward of Failure
Chapter 7: Terror’s Death Trap
Chapter 8: Raid of the Doomed
Chapter 9: For All to See
Chapter 10: A Spider Dies
Chapter 11: Horror Hunt
Chapter 12: Village of Death
Chapter 13: Beyond the Panel
Chapter 14: Hell’s Bath
Nick Santa Maria Nick was born early in life in Brooklyn, NY. His theatrical background is based in Comedy Improv. He was a long standing member of the late lamented Miami based, Mental Floss, where he served as head writer/composer. From there he began his career in commercials, voice-overs, TV, Film, and theatre. He has performed in many roles on the stage including his award winning turn as Nick in Over The River And Through The Woods, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, in The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee as Mr. Panch (3-D Theatricals), Mr. Bromhead in No Sex Please, We’re British at The Norris, and as Pseudolus in, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Norris Theatre. Television: The Buffalo Bill Show, B.J. Stryker, and two Disney Christmas Specials. Off Broadway: Writer/Composer/Performer on Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, Soundtrack on RCA Victor. Broadway: Vince Fontaine in Tommy Tune’s production of Grease. He also appeared in every domestic company of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, understudying everyone from Nathan Lane and Jason Alexander, to Tony Danza and David Hassellhoff. He was the original Genie in Disney’s Aladdin, a Musical Spectacular, soundtrack on Disney Records. Nick is a resident of Los Angeles and is currently writing a book about classic film comedians, Nick’s been a long time film historian, and has written several articles on the topic.
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