GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #26

THATCHER COLT

Creator Anthony Abbott claimed that Colt was a composite of Grover Whalen and Theodore Roosevelt, both of whom were Police Commissioners of New York City.  Born to a wealthy family of high social position Thatcher Colt had ambitions of a career in either poetry or music, but he became interested in the study of criminology instead while attending college.  After serving with distinction in WWI he turned to police work as a career and rising to the rank of Police Commissioner of the NYPD.  Often called the best dressed man in public life, Colt is a striking figure with his huge, powerful-looking body and soldier's face.  Although he is in his early forties, his crisp and closely cut hair is still black.  His brown eyes are somber and his firm features reflect action and authority.  He lives in a five-story gray-stone mansion on West 70th Street that includes an elaborate gym, a library containing 15,000 volumes on the subject of crime, and a connoisseur's collection of fine wines.

He is regarded by those who do not know him as a rich dilettante playing at police work, but his colleagues consider him to be the best commissioner since Teddy Roosevelt and is noted for his strength, courage, and decision.  He has been responsible for solving twelve major mysteries (several of which have remained unchronicled) during his term of office.  After several romances he married Florence Dunbar and retired from his position.  Colt's keen intelligence, vast knowledge of criminology, and thorough use of the resources of the police department are responsible for his success in solving bizarre and often seemingly impossible crimes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1930 "About the Murder of Geraldine Foster" (Triple Detective Fall 1948)/  1931 "About the Murder of the Clergyman's Mistress"/  1931 "About the Murder of the Night Club Lady"/  1932 "About the Murder of the Circus Queen" (Liberty Sept. 24 - Nov. 26, 1932)/  1935 "About the Murder of a Startled Lady"/  1937 "About the Murder of a Man Afraid of Women" (Pictorial Review April 1937)/  1939 "The Creeps" (Cosmopolitan Nov. 1939)/  1943 "The Shudders".

There were also two short stories:  "About the Disappearance of Agatha King" (Cosmopolitan June 1932)/  "About the Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry" (Cosmopolitan Oct. 1940).

Anthony Abbott was the pseudonym of Charles Fulton Oursler (1893-1952).  He was a playwright, journalist, and detective novelist born in Baltimore.  Both of his parents were descendants of the earliest families to settle in Baltimore.  Oursler left school before he finished the 8th grade and went to work.  He was a water boy for a construction gang, an assistant on a butter and egg route, a packer in a department store, and clerked in a law office for two years at $3 a week.  He supplemented his income by performing as a magician in clubs and lodges.  His family assumed that he would study law in his spare time, but he was determined to become a writer instead.

He worked as a cub reporter on the Baltimore American and then in 1918 left for New York to become a news editor.  Two days later he was appointed managing editor.  He spent the next several years turning out stories and articles for many periodicals including pulp magazines.  In 1920 he joined the staff of MacFadden Publications and two weeks later was given full editorial power.  For 20 years he served as supervising editor of all MacFadden publications including Physical Culture, True Story, and True Detective.  Oursler became interested in crime detection and started to write mystery novels as Anthony Abbott.  In the years roughly paralleling his mystery writing career he served as editor-in-chief of Liberty (1931-1942).

Thatcher Colt's first appearance in "About the Murder of Geraldine Foster" details the disappearance and ax murder of a doctor's secretary and was loosely based on the Lizzie Borden - Fall River case.  "About the Murder of the Clergyman's Mistress" starts with the discovery of a highly respectable minister and a choir singer - both dead - in a row boat on the East River.  Based on the true crime Hall-Mills Case it has a complex formal problem that will delight admirers of Ellery Queen novels.  "About the Murder of the Night Club Lady" deals with the murder of a wealthy socialite by unknown means on New Year's morning.  "About the Murder of the Circus Queen" uses the circus at Madison Square Garden as the background for a series of accidents that culminate in the death of an aerialist.

Oursler's interest in psychic phenomena is displayed in "About the Murder of a Startled Lady" in which a medium reveals a murder by means of the victim's voice.  The sequence in which a molder reconstructs the face of the unknown victim from her skull is fascinating and unique.  "About the Murder of a Man Afraid of Women" starts with the disappearance of one man while stark naked in freezing weather and the murder of another who had much to fear from the fair sex.  "The Creeps" concerns murder at a house party in Buzzard's Bay during a snowstorm.  The mystery is solved by a retired and newly married Thatcher Colt.  In the last novel "The Shudders" a mad scientist claims to have discovered an untraceable method of murder.  He predicts his successes will culminate in the death of Commissioner Colt.

Oursler spent much of his time during WWII as a radio broadcaster and in 1944 became senior editor of The Reader's Digest.  During his literary career he wrote or collaborated on 30 books, the most famous being the highly successful "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1949) a modern retelling of the New Testament.  The book was acclaimed by all religions and sold over 2 million copies.  He also wrote "Why I Know There Is a God" (1950), "A Child's Life of Jesus" (1951), "The Greatest Book Ever Written" (1951), and the posthumously published "The Greatest Faith Ever Known" (1953).  Oursler was also a screenwriter, ventriloquist, critic, psychic investigator, and undercover agent of the FBI.  His article "The Perfect Case" that he wrote for The Reader's Digest concerned the true-crime murder of a Connecticut priest in 1920 that involved Homer Cummings as district attorney who used his office to determine the innocence of the man accused of the crime.  Cummings went to become Attorney General under FDR and the story was filmed by Elia Kazan as "Boomerang" with Dana Andrews, Lee J. Cobb, and Jane Wyatt.  Oursler died in NYC in 1952 of a heart attack.  He'd been married twice and one of his four children, Will Oursler, wrote mystery novels during the 1940s.

FILMS

"The Night Club Lady" Columbia, 1932.  Adolphe Menjou (Colt), Skeets Gallagher, Ruth Stevens, Nat Pendleton.  Director: Irving Cummings.  The young woman owner of a nightclub receives a death threat that she will die a minute after midnight.  And she does, surrounded by police.

"The Circus Queen Murder" Columbia, 1933.  Menjou, Greta Nissen, Donald Woods, Dwight Frye.  Director: Roy William Neill.  On vacation in a small circus town, Colt cannot prevent the death of a trapeze artist when she is shot by a poisoned arrow while on the high wire.

"The Panther's Claw" PRC, 1942.  Sidney Blackmer (Colt), Byron Foulger, Gerta Rozen, Barry Bernard.  Director: William Beaudine.  Based on an original story by Abbott.  Members of an operatic troupe receive mysterious notes directing them to large sums of money in a cemetery.

RADIO

Hanley Stafford, with his gravelly voice, played the Police Commissioner in the series "Thatcher Colt" heard on NBC from September 27, 1936 through April 3, 1938.  The half-hour drama was sponsored by Packer Soap.  Unfortunately, no known episodes still exist.

"Murder Clinic" was an anthology series aired on the Mutual Broadcasting Service, and each week a different mystery story would be dramatized.  "The Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry" was aired on November 24, 1942.