The Advantages of Having a Brain Tumor

 

The Thrilling Detective website refers to the short story "Prognosis Negative," by Floyd Mahannah, as a "quick mean blast of nastiness." That's an accurate description of the tale. And that's a good thing.

The story appeared in the March 1953 issue of Manhunt, the source for some of the best hard-boiled short fiction ever written. It's narrated by a private detective named Jim Makin. Makin is sad, because he's just found out he has an inoperable brain tumor. 

He's also working on a tough case, looking for the husband of a Mexican woman who is, in turn, being looked for by a local mobster. She worked as a housemaid for the guy, but when she found out that some of her expected duties were rather... intimate, she grabbed sixty grand in cash and ran for it.

A thug shows up in Makin's office, looking for the woman. Under normal circumstances, Makin would have been terrified and tried to talk his way out of trouble. But now... well, his prognosis is negative. He has nothing to lose.

That leads to a beaten, unconscious thug. Later, when the woman is found by the mobster, that negative prognosis leads to Makin charging into the mobster's home. That plan doesn't work out well, but as long as Makin has nothing to lose, he might still find a way to dig himself and the woman out of trouble. If he gets killed, he only loses a year at the most. He might as well go for broke--even if there are four armed bad guys and he no longer has a gun...

It's a brutal story, but that's a strength. Hard-boiled detective tales normally take place in a brutal, cynical universe, often reflecting the worst aspects of human nature. But the good guys in this universe fight back--heroism exists side-by-side with corruption. Makin fights back because he no longer has a reason not to fight--but he does fight. 

You can read the story online HERE. 

Old Willie

 

"Old Willie," by William P. McGivern was published in the May 1953 issue of Manhunt, a wonderful magazine that regularly published superb hard-boiled fiction. 

"Old Willie" is indeed superb. I love the way it grabs you in the first paragraph:

This is a story I've heard told by the old-times around the Chicago newpaper offices. They don't insist it's true, of course, since it hands chiefly on the word of a reporter who was far more at home in speakeasies than he ever was at a typewriter. Still, parts of the tale can't be explained away as the splintered dream of a drunk. Maybe that's why the old-timers go on telling the story...

I defy anyone to read that paragraph and NOT want to find out what happens next.

The tale told by the old-timers goes back to 1927. There was an "amiable little man" called Willie who worked as a handyman/janitor at a boarding house. A young woman named Inger arrives from Minnesota with hopes of becoming an opera singer. Willie becomes a sort of surrogate father to her.

So he worries when she gets a job at a hotel used as a headquarters by the Capone mob. And when one of Capone's more brutal men--Blackie Cardina--get Inger pregnant and then dumps her.

Well, Willie isn't going to let that stand. He goes to the hotel and confronts Blackie, demanding money for Inger. But what is an amiable and elderly little man going to do against one of Capone's hired guns?

I don't want to give the ending away. Read it yourself HERE. And remember that in 1927 the Wild West wasn't all that long ago.

[The old-timers] don't insist that it's true, of course--but they keep on telling it. As well they should.