Dick Stodghill

  I could say an American Idol for octogenarians, but modesty forbids. Or you might check my profile, which informs you that I graduated summa cum laude from the School of Hard Knocks. Actually I earned a G.E.D. diploma from Cuyahoga Falls High School after finally getting out of the Army following World War II. Spent much of that war as a rifleman in the 4th Infantry Division during the Normandy Invasion and what came later. Earned the Combat Infantryman's Badge and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.  Followed that up by enrolling in television repair school in order to collect 90 bucks a month under the G.I. Bill of Rights.  Thought about college, even spent a few days at Rio Grande (pronounced RYE-O in Ohio) and a month or so at Kent State.  Left when I became aware they were teaching the same stuff I had learned in sixth grade.  Did a little writing, but not much, while handling the night sports copy desk at the Akron Beacon Journal for a couple of years. Found myself back in the Army infantry when my National Guard outfit was federalized during the Korean War. While earning a living repairing radios and TV sets I wrote a sports column for a weekly paper, then in the late 1950s spent a couple of years as a Pinkerton detective at a time when the agency had offices in 33 cities and investigated many major cases.  Then full-time work at a large weekly paper, a stint as a bureau chief for the Ashtabula Star-Beacon and finally 20 years (aside from two spent in Cooperstown, N.Y.) as a reporter, sportswriter and daily columnist at the Muncie Evening Press in Indiana. The column won a United Press International (UPI) award as Best in Indiana.  Covered the criminal courts, civil rights activities and the Cincinnati Reds during the days of the Big Red Machine. Just about everything else you could name as well. Along with  my wife Jackie, an excellent researcher, I wrote three books on high school sports. Took up writing mystery short stories and novellas and have had many dozens published.  You might say it has been a long, exciting, adventurous ride. Yes indeed.

email: dstodghill6071@juno.com

           Normandy 1944 – A Young Rifleman’s War - This is the Battle of Normandy, neither glamorized nor sanitized, as seen from ground level during the bloody summer of 1944—the personal experiences of an 18-year-old 4th Infantry Division rifleman who joined his company shortly after D-Day. He quickly came to admire and respect the men of G Company, then was close by as one by one many of them died during the horrific fighting in the fields and streets of a normally beautiful and tranquil land. Here are the realities of that war: opening the casualty blanket rolls, seeing the dead being buried in mattress covers, the sounds, the smells and the fears of men in infantry combat. A glimpse, too, of the boys who fought the battles of World War II as they grew up or matured during the Great Depression, the rigors of infantry basic training, life in England in the weeks leading up to D-Day.  The book may be ordered from bookstores or by clicking on Barnes & Noble, Buy.com and other online sites.

 For 49 cents you can read four chapters omitted from the book in order to keep it under 300 pages. Included are A Stroll At Daybreak, Roadblock!, Alabama On Patrol and The Infantry, a look at military life during and between WWII and the Korean War.  To order this Amazon Short click on title: The Killing Fields of Normandy   

Picture a group of professional musicians walking into a small Indiana high school at 11 a.m., talking to the administrators and a short time later walking out again with a student in tow, a young fellow who would never return to a classroom.  That was what happened to Otto Ward, soon to be known as Gabe.  Rather than continuing his education he spent the next six years on the vaudeville circuits, appearing on stage from New York to Seattle, Chicago to New Orleans.  When vaudeville went bust, he and two friends from the band, Ken and Paul (Hezzie) Trietsch, spent a few years selling washing machines and other merchandise for Montgomery Ward.  At the same time they worked up a routine for performing as a small group.  It worked out big time.  Before it all ended they had made hundreds of phonograph records, appeared in 22 movies and had their own coast-to-coast radio show. The opening line for many of their records - Ken turning to his brother and saying, "Are you ready, Hezzie?" - became a part of the American lexicon.  Here is their story with more than eighty photographs, letters written to me by Gabe, a discography and more.  Also read about the causes of the Great Depression and other Hoosiers of the era including writer Ernie Pyle and outlaw John Dillinger and his gang.  Available for $14.95.         To order click on title below:

The Hoosier Hot Shots - And My Friend Gabe

Hezzie, Gabe and Ken, The Hoosier Hot Shots, in 1934.  They were just becoming familiar to a nationwide audience.

FROM DEVOUT CATHOLIC TO COMMUNIST AGITATOR - THE HELEN LYNCH STORY

ISBN: 978-1-4241-8183-4    $19.95

Why did Helen Lynch, a devout young Catholic woman, abruptly break all ties with her family?  For decades that question puzzled her friends and relations. As a girl she was close to her four siblings, attended mass faithfully, even spent a year at St. Mary's Academy in South Bend.  She later graduated from the University of Michigan, where she was thought of as a gifted writer, and then went to New York expecting to make a major impact on the literary world.  It was soon after arriving that she suddenly broke all ties with her family in Indiana.  Her greatly anticipated writing career never got off the ground.  Seven years later an incident in which she was injured led her to join the Communist Party at the beginning of the Great Depression.  She did outstanding work in assisting the unemployed but her activities on their behalf led to at least thirty arrests.  When she died of pneumonia in 1938 more than 5,000 people attended her funeral.  This true account, which includes a diary kept by Helen Lynch in 1916 while at St. Mary's and another by her sister Mary in 1914, seeks to answer many questions about this unusual young woman. 

See photos of Helen Lynch (left) and her family by clicking on LYNCH BOOK PICTURES on navigation bar.  

To order click on my name below:

Dick Stodghill  for Barnes & Noble

I apologize for the increase imposed by the publisher and the resulting ridiculously high price. It is regrettable, too, that Amazon chose to delete the "buy" button from many of this publisher's books. I also apologize to anyone who buys the book and finds ads in the back for books on totally unrelated topics. This would have been done without my consent.

If you haven't met Jack Eddy you can find him in a book listed below or in various issues of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine published during the past twenty years.  He is described as follows by Kevin Burton Smith in his thrillingdetective.com, web site, an excellent one for those who enjoy the mystery genre:

JACK EDDY                                                                                   

Created by Dick Stodghill

WHO SAYS THEY DON'T WRITE THEM LIKE THEY USED TO? 

Twenty-six years old, with a receding hairline and a fistful of ambition, JACK EDDY is an op for the Akron, Ohio branch of Wellington's National Detective Agency, circa 1937.  He's slick, brash, and prone to cutting corners, much to the dismay of young, and at times surprisingly naive crime beat reporter Bram Geary, the narrator of this series of short stories. Both Jack and Bram live at Mrs. Bauer's boardinghouse.  Poor ol' Bram usually ends up far more involved in Jack's cases than he would like.  The "aw shucks" narration style, and the very real violence of the times give these tales a rather unique flavor, as though John Boy was writing for Black Mask.  Now there's a concept for you. // "Wait for the law to do something and we'll all be dead and buried. The agency doesn't clown around like that." (Jack explains the rules)

THE CASE FILES OF JACK EDDY - Volume 1  (My favorite series.)

ISBN: 978-0-6151-3508-3  $18.95

Volume 1 Jack Eddy Stories (Paperback)  Click on my name to order from Amazon.
Dick Stodghill

 Click on title to order from Barnes & Noble: Volume 1 Jack Eddy Stories

This is a 234 page collection of the first eight stories in the Jack Eddy series first published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine as well as an introduction that explains something about the characters, the changes that have taken place in Akron since 1937-39 (when the stories took place) and the writer's view of the people found on the pages.  Titles included in this Volume 1 are: Blowup, The Old Squad, Seven Dollar Death, A Deceitful Way of Dying, Pictures In a Book, Deadly Money, Cast a Final Ballot, and A Clinical Interest In Murder. 

It's all in fun, just as everything at thrillingdetective.com is fun, but now this book received a Cheap Thrill Award, or Thrillie, in the Best P.I. Short Story Collection category for 2006.  It reads: "The Jack Eddy Stories by Dick Stodghill.  Good old-fashioned P.I. tales with finely rendered period details and a working class sensibility that rings true."

VOLUME 2 - JACK EDDY STORIES

THE ROUGH OLD STUFF

ISBN: 978-0-6151-5364-3     $12.95

Sixteen stories originally published in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE from 1979 to 1985, when MSMM quit publication.  I did not - at least I hope not - run it out of business.  There is a variety of stories ranging from protagonists who are private eyes and hardened criminals to an old dog named Blackie and a sweet young girl who commits her first murder at age six.  Mama's Darling, her mother called the little killer. You can read about her here. 

Dick Stodghill    Click on my name to order from Amazon

Dick Stodghill   Click on my name to order from Barnes & Noble

MIDLAND MURDERS

ISBN: 978-0-6151-3604-2   $16.95.

 Dick, Stodghill   Click on my name to order from Amazon

 Dick Stodghill  Click on my name to order from Barnes&Noble

This is a 204 page collection of eight stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and one from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.  Included is the complete series of Hal Blinn-Grady Driscoll stories.  Titles are:  Driscoll's Box Score, Driscoll's Big Story, Class Reunion, Meaningless Murder, Missing Melinda, Kickback, The Town Club Murders, and Vigilante Law. The story from EQMM is A Debt to Be Paid.

AMAZON SHORTS - Enjoy them for a mere 49 cents!

For the princely sum of 49 cents you can download any of these Amazon Shorts stories.  "The Old School Yell" is a favorite of mine and I highly recommend it. See reviews on Navigation Bar.)
In my opinion "The Old School Yell" is one of the better stories I have written.  It doesn't really fit any genre, though, so finding someone to publish it proved difficult.  So, again in my opinion, Amazon Shorts proved to have good taste.  A word of warning: while there is no profanity in the story itself, the yell (which was a real one given by the local high school boys when I was just a kid) does contain a few words that might be offensive to certain people.  Most would not find them so, but I don't want to mislead anyone.  That aside, this story featuring a couple of quirky characters is one I believe the majority of people will find enjoyable.  To order it click on my name: Dick Stodghill

Dressed For Death is not for either the faint of heart or those who prefer happy stories with happy endings.  This one isn't that way, but those who don't mind a look at life as it is lived on the city streets or enjoy a surprise ending should find it worth 49 cents.  To order click on my name:  Dick Stodghill

If you missed Jack Eddy a little higher up on this page you can learn a lot about him and his friends - although he often said he had none - by reading this Amazon Short for only 49 cents.  To order click on my name: Dick Stodghill   The Crime of Loving Someone is the story of an Indiana couple who retired to Florida. It proved to be a great experience for the wife but after a year it turned sour for her husband. Each took steps to make it better for the other but it didn't work out quite the way either anticipated.   To order click on my name: Dick Stodghill    Dunivant's Christmas is a fictionalized account of a true story, a personal experience in Germany shortly after the end of World War II.  Dunivant was not expecting Christmas to be merry, but an unexpected event made it so.  To order click on my name: Dick Stodghill    The Killing Fields of Normandy is described above. To order click my name: Dick Stodghill

Member since 1979 when my first mystery was published. 

Charter member of PWA, having attended the first organizational meeting in 1981 at Bogie's in New York.

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