Commit Murder by Ahearn Danny, First Edition (3 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 8vo, 254pp. Hardcover, bound in original red cloth. In very good condition. Firm binding and crisp, clean, interior. No markings or signs of prior ownership. Minor shelf-wear or rubbing to extremities, else fine. The book is now protected in a new custom-made clear archival wrapper.

First Edition. An uncommon title by known gangster and jailbird describing ways to commit various crimes, includes drug dealing. Very Good, tiny cloth break at top spine end, in Very Good dustjacket, shallow loss at lower spine end and flap corners, centimeter deep chipping at top spine end.

First Edition. First edition. Signed by Danny Ahearn, inscribed on the bottom half of the title page to Hollywood columnist Jimmy Starr, "Best of Good-Luck in[?] anything you ever [?] take to. May our friendship go on for decades to come, from one Human guy to another. Sincerest regards [signed] Danny Ahearn." Hollywood bookstore (The Satyr Book Shop) ticket on rear endpaper. 254 pp. with photo frontispiece. Bound in publisher's red cloth with yellow lettering. Fine in Good pictorial dust jacket with chip to bottom of front panel, interior chip to spine panel, head chipped as well, tape mends to verso, unclipped ($2.50). Back in print in 2022, scarce signed.One career criminal's how to guide for the uninitiated, crimes certainly not limited to murder. The chapter titles tell it all: "How to Rob a Jewelry Store" (classic), "How to Stick Up a Fur Joint" (nowadays not so easy to do), "Straight Stickups," "How to Run a Crap Game" paired with its logical rejoinder "Taking a Crap Game" (heads I win, tails you lose), "Pulling a Phony Pinch," "Easy Money," "The Political Racket" (another timeless classic), "The Automobile Racket," "Beating a Frameup," and lastly the titular "How to Commit a Murder--" with the all-important next chapter "-- And Get Away with It." All told in '20s hoodlum slang. This is one Ahearns guide with an appeal to a much broader audience than book collectors and sellers, basically to anyone with an id.