The Phantom Detective fights single-handedly against a ruthless king of criminals, who plans a reign of wholesale death and destruction. Only the masked sleuth known as The Phantom can play a lone hand of justice against this mad genius!
Richard Curtis Van Loan — The Phantom Detective. The greatest sleuth of all time, his casebook is filled with tales of his courageous “Lone Wolf” campaign to rid the nation of organized crime and big time racketeers, his single-handed war against rampant banditry in America.
His identity known to only one person, this masked enemy of crime is a product of the cataclysmic World War. Born wealthy beyond all avarice, the war made playboy Richard Curtis Van Loan realize the futility of his pampered life. Daily facing death on the flaming Eastern Front, peace-time activities seemed too tame for him after his high flying career as a war pilot was over. Others, seeking readjustment vainly, took to other fields — many, to crime. Van Loan instead dedicated himself to fighting the criminal forces that sought to hold America in their grip.
Intent on his new mission, Van Loan taught himself every skill it required. Equipped with a knowledge of criminology second to none on earth as well a master of make-up, the actor’s art, mimicry, ventriloquism and hypnotist, he embarked on his perilous career. Sacrificing those things that the ordinary man may have for the asking — the simple pleasures of home and hearth — Van Loan prepared to gamble desperately against gangdom’s strangle-hold on humanity. Donning a mask, Van Loan took his fight to criminals face to face as The Phantom Detective!
The Emperor of Death was originally published in the February 1933 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
