The Crime Machine: The Jack Ritchie Stories from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (1957-61)

Jack Ritchie’s stories appeared in 117 issues of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and in 57 Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. Three television episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Hour were based on his stories and five episodes of Tales of the Unexpected, as well one episode of the Canadian television show The Unforeseen. His story “The Green Heart,” which appeared in AHMM, was filmed as A New Leaf, an Elaine May film starring Walter Matthau. Jack Ritchie was nominated for three Edgar Awards, winning for his Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine story “The Absence of Emily.” His stories were selected in Best Detective Stories of Year anthologies 21 times over a period of 21 years, beginning in 1961 with his story “Shatter Proof” for Manhunt until his death in 1983. This collection of thirty-eight stories represents Ritchie’s earliest appearances in AHMM, sixteen of which have never been reprinted since their original publication.

John George Reitci was born February 26, 1922, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the back of his father’s tailor shop. After high school, he became a student at the Milwaukee State Teachers College, then enlisted in the U.S. army during WWII. After unsuccessfully trying to go back to college under the G.I. Bill, he worked for a while in his father’s shop but decided to pursue a career as a writer instead. Using the pseudonym Jack Ritchie, he sold his first story, "Always the Season," to the New York Daily News in 1953. He went on to publish over 500 stories in a variety of genres during his lifetime. Shortly after completing his only novel, Tiger Island, Ritchie died of a heart attack at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Milwaukee on April 25, 1983.