The Ghost Makers

This is the 16th pulp story, appearing originally on October 15th, 1932.

In order to appreciate this story it helps to know a little about the spiritualist movement of the times. In today’s New Age movement we have people who “channel” other “entities”. Various programs are on TV about ghost hunting, communicating with the dead, etc.

Back in the Shadow’s time, though, there was no TV. There were people doing the same types of things they do now, but in a more “primitive” fashion. These people who claimed psychic ability would hold seances at their homes. They would claim to be able to communicate with departed spirits and sometimes would produce things like floating trumpets or even a “materialization,” where a spirit, or part of one, would physically appear to those at the seance.

The main problem was that a very large proportion of that group were really con artists. There were various tricks they would use, and people of the times were not quite as aware of the possible tricks as they are today, so they were fooled much easier.

This is the basis of this story. A group of criminals has set up a ring of phoney mediums in various cities. They obtain information on potential clients, then dupe the clients and eventually get them to turn over money, diamonds, etc. to them. In this story, of course, these crooks are not at all above using much more serious methods to get what they want, including killing those who get in their way.

What they don’t count on is the involvement of the Shadow, this time sending messages to Joe Cardona on where to check since it’s a multi-city operation and even the Shadow can’t be everywhere at once.

It’s a major racket the crooks have going and it’s interesting to read how they plan their crimes and what kinds of tricks they are using to fool the people attending the seances. This is a really good Shadow story, definitely one that should be high up on priority to read.

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