"I KILLED MARY"

While one could say that it is a simple tale of irony, "I Killed Mary" in WEIRD MYSTERIES #8 (Stanley Morse/Gillmor, January 1954) is nevertheless one of the most disturbing stories ever published in a Pre-Code horror comic. Underneath the irony, though, is a story of the ultimate acts of teen angst -- murder and suicide.

Scripted by an unknown writer and drawn by Sal Trapani and Sal Finocchiaro, it tells the tale of Robby, a "slow, awkward child" who, as an adolescent, has fallen for Mary, a bit of a nasty tart.

In a barn during a rainstorm, Robby makes his move, saying, "Everybody knows what kind of girl you are. Mary rejects him and tells him he's "just a weak-kneed sissy, and wouldn't kiss him is he were the last boy on Earth!" Unfortunately for Mary, Robby finds a hatchet in the barn and proceeds to hack her to death.

When he gets home, his conscience is overcome with guilt and he confesses to his parents, who ignore him! His father goes so far as to tell him he doesn't have the nerve. Devastated, Robby returns to the barn and hangs himself.

The irony comes in after Robby kills himself; the police conclude the case is a result of someone else murdering Mary and Robby hangs himself in grief, believing to the end that Robby wasn't capable of such a heinous crime.

One point where the story doesn't connect is that, while claims he chopped Mary into little pieces, when the body is discovered, it is clearly intact, at least from the waist down. Trapani also judiciously withheld depicting any body parts or blood, which would have surely put this story near the top of the heap for gruesome Pre-Code horror stories!