 | #062 "The Garaucan Swindle"
Vol. 11, No. 2 Published: 09/15/34 Submitted: 12/08/33 as "Heirs to Death" Author: Walter Gibson Review date: July 27, 2001 |
THE GARAUCAN SWINDLE was originally published in the September 15, 1934 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This is the pulp the relates the story of why Police Commissioner Ralph Weston left Manhattan for South America. If you've read some of the early stories, you know that for a period of time, Commissioner Weston was replaced by Wainwright Barth. And if you're like me, you've wondered why. What were the details which motivated Weston to leave? Now it can be told!
There was a massive swindle in the small South American country of Garauca. The president and virtual dictator of the country was a devious and evil man by the name of Birafel. President Birafel was looting his country's treasury. One of his schemes was to float a huge bond issue... bonds that weren't backed by anything and were worthless. Many millions of dollars worth of these bonds found their way to America where they were snapped up by innocent investors who thought they had great value.
President Birafel's entire scheme collapsed when his regime was overthrown, and he fled office. The country of Garauca was unsettled. Cabinet members took over the government after the flight of President Birafel. To bring stability to the country, the new government looked outside the country for a new Chief of the National Police. They looked to America to find someone above reproach who the local citizenry could finally trust. Someone who could track down and prosecute those involved in the massive swindle.
The government of Garauca selected Ralph Weston as their new Chief of National Police. He was honored and flattered, and could hardly say no. So he left the country for Garauca for an unspecified time, so as to put the country of Garauca in order. In his place, he left Wainwright Barth, the new commissioner of New York Police.
It's in this new Shadow mystery novel that we first meet tall and stoop-shouldered, Wainwright Barth. He had the face and beak of a bald eagle. His head seemed to project upward and forward from his body. His eyes glistened through the lenses of pince-nez spectacles. His bald pate shone from above a fringe of gray hair. This, then, was the new commissioner and Joe Cardona's new boss.
Wainwright Barth was selected partly because he was an ex-banker of repute. Also, he was an administrator who had been passed over for the job when Weston had been appointed. It was his turn. But now it was his job to solve the case of the bogus Garaucan bonds in New York, while Weston worked on the other side of the case in South America.
Even before his appointment to the position of the new Police Commissioner, Barth had been a member of the Cobalt Club, and knew Lamont Cranston. In this story, he and Cranston become closer friends. He takes Weston's advice and harkens to the advice given by Cranston. But we know, of course, that the real Cranston is somewhere else about the globe, and the Cranston whose advice Barth seeks is really The Shadow.
Barth gets the facts misinterpreted to the point of arresting the wrong persons. It's only The Shadow who can set things straight. It's only The Shadow who can reveal the master brain in America who has profited hugely from the fake bonds. It's only The Shadow who can track down the vague leads to their source, and bring justice to those swindles out of their life's savings.
There's murder. There's action. There's gun-battles aplenty! It's a key story in the history of The Shadow!