This week's guest blogger is Edson Stanley, distinguished assistant professor of letters at the University of South Dubuque at Dubuque, whose research into the authenticity of the Rocky Stone notebooks has proved invaluable to those who are interested in such things:
Good evening.
The previous story, Special Delivery, appeared under the same name in shortened form in the May 1949 edition of True Real Detective Magazine. In that version, the action is focused upon the character of Jessica Weller, who, although in a relationship with the wealthy Frank Weller, is unmarried and named “Jessica Bell,” in what was probably an editorial decision. The character of James Wong does not appear in any form.
A few details are not covered in the full story as they appear in the notebooks, but later entries reveal the rest of the story. For instance, the identities of Jesse Weller's associates, truck driver Dave and the tall, sharp-faced man who poses as Rollo Betancourt, are given in an entry dated August 14th:
Read the paper while I waited. On page 3, a story that wouldn't interest many people, but it spoke volumes to me. A couple of characters named Sam Smith and Bertram Cowper were picked up for trying to run a con job on a private investigator. Just so happens they took a picture of them. Turns out, they had run a similar scam on me, under the names Dave and Rollo. Sent me right back to that day when I was caught inside the Weller mansion...
Dorothy Edwards, who was seen in earlier scenes with James Wong, is never mentioned again, but the secretary and mistress of Frank Weller, Eloise Grant, appears much later, in entries beginning October 5, 1952. She becomes a client of Rocky and Rocky's subsequent partner, Angel:
Something familiar about the woman who Angel was talking to in my office that afternoon. I have a pretty good eye for faces, and I had seen this one before. She was blond and shapely and clung to a handkerchief so tight she might have ripped it to shreds. Angel asked her when she saw her husband last and when she spoke I knew who she was “Eloise, isn't it?” She dabbed at her nose with the handkerchief and blurted out, “That's right. I didn't think you would remember. I remember you, though. You saved my life.” “That usually sticks in your memory.”
In the subsequent entries, Rocky tracks down Eloise's husband, who is a dangerous mob boss masquerading in everyday life as Patrick Harwood, telephone repairman. Perhaps this story will one day appear in these pages.
Finally, within the Special Delivery story, the ultimate fate of the radioactive “Black Thumb” is never mentioned. Another follow-up was dated a few days after the landslide, reveals this event:
A friend of mine on the police force gave me a call, just for my information. He said the Weller Mansion was damaged beyond repair by the landslide. I asked him if they found that thumb that did in Frank Weller and a host of others and he said some boys from the labs down at Diablos University got first crack at it. He said they're still not sure what kind of material it's made of, but with a bit of luck and research it might make a bigger and better bomb. Just what we need, I thought.
In the weeks ahead, Mr. Sanders and myself will continue with more entries from the Rocky Stone notebooks, but before then, next week, we will make an announcement of a recent discovery made by me and my colleagues at the University of South Dubuque at Dubuque.
Good evening.
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