COMICS SUCK! - Werewolf By Night #27 (March 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - March 1975

Cover artwork by Gil Kane.

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #27 (Marvel Comics)

"The Amazing Doctor Glitternight"

By Doug Moench (w); Don Perlin (a); Karen Pocock (l); Phil Rachelson (c) & Len Wein (e)

This is what I'm talking about. You don't see him on the cover, but Doctor Glitternight has got to be the eeriest Marvel villain of all-time. He reminds me of the Tall Man from Phantasm, only Glitternight came first. He's evil incarnate, a stone-faced, pupil-less hypnotic sorcerer who steals souls and turns the once beautiful Topaz into the horrible creature you do see on the cover, He floats like a manta ray overhead and projects black light onto his victims, stealing their very life-force. Unfortunately he's pretty much forgotten today, but I think he's the best unused Marvel villain there is.

Oddly, there is a 1938 crime film called The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse (which has an amazing resemblance to the word clitoris, but nevermind), it's probable that Glitternight was at least partly inspired by it.

Glitternight was created by Doug Moench who took over the series at issue #20 and stayed on til the series ended with #43. I first came to deeply respect him after reading his run on Batman from the early '90's. For my money, he remains one of thee great Batman writers. For what it's worth he co-authored the famous Knightfall storyline that Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises is partially based on. By that time he was a master craftsman who easily balanced words with pictures and allowed the characters to dictate the story. At this early stage in his career, he was out of his mind, and I mean that in the best way possible. 

He came up in comics through the skinflint Warren Publishing company where he penned numerous tales of the bizarre and the macabre in the pages of Eerie and Creepy magazines before finding a home at Marvel and subsequently pigeonholed there as "the horror guy". One supposes he felt the pressure or the need to keep upping the stakes in his increasingly weird tales. After the invention of Doctor Glitternight, those stakes would never get higher, not on Werewolf By Night anyway. The series wasn't long for this world after this point though.

It was 1975, the horror fad at Marvel was dying down to a quiet murmur and I imagine Moench was looking for a way out of his typecast anyway. He had just been given the keys to the new Inhumans series with new artist George Perez and it seems he was focusing more on that. By the time Inhumans hit the shelves this storyline was already in the bag and though the Glitternight story is arguably the pinnacle of this series, the fall that came after was precipitous indeed. Unfortunately, both the Inhumans and Werewolf By Night series would peter out within the course of the next two years.

But it turned out, he had already given himself a way out of the horror zone and found a way in to more mainstream superhero comics to increase the longevity of his career. Five issues after this one, Moench introduced a superhero into the pages of Werewolf, his name was Moon Knight and he was a corporate sponsored vigilante. By the time he was given his own series just a few years later, he was a Lamont Cranston / The Shadow inspired multiple personality with ties to ancient Egypt and enhanced with werewolf infected blood. He remains one of the more intriguing heroes in Marvel's pantheon, but few, if any, writers have gotten him right since Moench left for DC to join the Bat-team.

When the Comics Code Authority eased its restrictions against depicting horror tropes such as vampires, werewolves, zombies and monsters, Marvel Comics jumped in with four feet. Though the trend didn't last long, the company managed to produce some great stories, especially on this series and in the pages of Frankenstein's Monster. This issue in particular is a true highlight of their efforts.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After getting the creeps from reading Werewolf By Night it was time for a breather. It was time for something uplifting. Savvy audiences might then have turned to this album:



RUSH - FLY BY NIGHT
Rush's second album is a bit of a transition. They were about half a year away from releasing the 'Caress of Steel' album which featured a bit of more of what would come to be recognized as the Rush sound with moodier numbers and the ubiquitous side-long prog suites. 'Fly By Night' is a straight up hard rock album with mostly short, fast-moving numbers and is arguably more focused in its aims. The inclusion of the 8-minute mini-suite "By Tor and the Snowdog" announced that this was a transitional record in many ways.

[Image source]

Rush released their first album the previous summer with original drummer John Rutsey. It sunk with little trace. Part Budgie, part UFO the band appeared destined to fail commercially. Though the rockin' "In The Mood" and somewhat doom-y closing track "Working Man" are among the band's best numbers and with an incentive laced Canadian Content (MAPL) system in place, Canadian radio stations found it easy to ignore their native sons. It took a DJ from Cleveland named Donna Halper to discover the band and help them re-write the history of Canadian rock music. 'Fly By Night' was drummer / lyricist Neil Peart's first outing with the band giving Rush their signature pausiness. It was also Peart's love of fantasy and sci-fi that lent the band their trademark lyrical mysticism.

Rush wouldn't come to international prominence until a year and two albums later with '2112'.

But after absorbing the latest album from this emerging Canadian prog trio, it was time to watch a little TV. Flipping through the channels, the savvy viewer would have landed on ABC's Movie of the Week. Tuesday March 4, 1975 the movie was Trilogy of Terror, a three-part anthology of Richard Matheson stories, all starring Karen Black and directed by Dan Curtis.

Richard Matheson is most remembered as a writer for the original Twilight Zone television show and as the writer of such novels as I Am Legend (a personal favorite and partial inspiration for Night of the Living Dead), Hell House and The Shrinking Man. He was also an elite short story writer, his Shock series alone (4 volumes) is a must-read for genre fans. While his novels were often dark and poignant, his stories were crisp, sharp and sardonic, sometimes even silly. The stories featured in Trilogy of Terror were of the latter variety, though you wouldn't notice at first glance through director Curtis's dark interpretation.

This made-for-TV movie is best known for the third and final segment, "Amelia", which was an adaptation of Matheson's "Prey" (found in the Shockwaves or Shock IV collection). The story is about a woman who buys a Zuni fetish doll as a gift. When the doll comes to life and attacks her with spear, razor-sharp teeth and crazed, but fixed expression it is truly frightening. Jon Niccum of the Lawrence Journal-World wrote that this segment was "arguably the scariest piece ever crafted under the made-for-TV label." Trilogy of Terror deserves a special place among made-for-TV horror lore, along with the original Don't Be Afraid of the Dark for having memorable, possibly even traumatizing scenes of a totally supernatural origin.

The first two segments aren't nearly as memorable as "Amelia", though they're quite good. However, they are opening acts at best, the headliner is well worth the wait. You can watch the whole film below:

BLACK RAINBOWS - Hawkdope (Album Review)

If you don't know by know, then 'Hawkdope' should cement things for you: Black Rainbows are one of the best rock bands in the world. The consistently high level of artistry of the band's output over the course of eight years, four albums, one E.P. and a highly regarded 4-way split album is staggering. I wrote about them once before, for the 'Holy Moon' E.P. which you can find at this location, but I'm not sure I drove the above point home enough in that one. This is the band's first full-length album since 2011's 'Supermuthafuzzalicious!!' and in that time some things have changed and some have stayed the same. Let's get into it ...

I caught on to Black Rainbows very early on in my discover of the underground stoner rock world. Before facebook, before the Paranoid blog, way back when I was deep down the wormhole of youtube suggested video links. I heard a song off of the band's 2010 album 'Carmina Diabola' and it blew my tiny, insignificant mind. When I finally tracked the album down I wasn't disappointed, it was a masterpiece. It's just a collection of 10 straight forward scorchers with some proggy elements. The same can be said of the above-mentioned follow-up from 2011. I saw 2013's 'Holy Moon' EP as somewhat of a departure. The band was spreading their psychedelic wings to a certain extent, with songs like "Chakra Temple" and the title track, it was an experimental effort. The band has always had a touch of Hawkwind in them, but I don't think anybody could have expected the "sound paintings" sections found on the EP.

'Hawkdope' is classic Black Rainbows, but they've retained more than just a hint of those psychedelic tendencies to stay true to their label name (Heavy Psych Sounds). For the most part, the new album is stuffed full with head-down rockers, but room is made for smoke-blown sections and ripping solos. This is Black Rainbows gone cosmic, but staying within the lines of their established boundaries. The Italian trio subtly deviates from the formula here, musically and structurally and the result is a more dynamic album. Though the pausey rhythms that characterized earlier albums have largely been jettisoned here, the stripped down approach acts as a stage II rocket, propelling the band into the cosmos. Musical boundaries have been eliminated, this is the band's apotheosis. Black Rainbows can go anywhere from this point, the nine-minute title track is proof of that.

'Hawkdope' will be released this Saturday, March 14 by Heavy Psych Sounds, but you can stream the entire album right now over at The Obelisk website.

Rating: «««« / 5

Black Rainbows on facebook
Heavy Psych Sounds on facebook

BRETUS - The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Album Review)

I've been sitting on this potboiler for about three months now, keeping mum about it and it's been killing me. I wanted to hold off on talking about this album until there was a solid timetable for its release. Well, I still haven't seen an exact date for its release from Blood Rock Records, but the band said March, so that's close enough.

Bretus's new album is riffier and probably better than its predecessor, 'In Onirica' which I happened to like a great deal (two years ago this month I posted the review at this location). While the new album has lost some the prog appeal of the last one, it aligns more closely with throwback metal bands like Devil or Demon Eye, whose albums made the top three in my best of lists for 2013 and 2014 respectively, so you know I'm biased towards this kind of sound to begin with. But why wouldn't I be? This is exactly what I'm looking for: it's heavy, riffy, sounds like the kinds of albums I'd heard in my uncle's basement suite in the mid-80's and isn't alienatingly overproduced.

The first bit of info about the album I'll arm you with is that it's a concept album. As your inner Sherlock Holmes can surmise 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is about the seminal H.P. Lovecraft tale of the same name. The story is broken down here, quite well actually, with each song title breaking down the story in chronological order. Interestingly, I was in the middle of reading this story when the album was sent to me. Still am in fact because as a pure piece of writing, it's not one of Lovecraft's best. But the story resonates. It's about "otherness" and true alien-ness, and perhaps in a bout of self-awareness, Lovecraft turned the tables on himself, to see his xenophobia through the other side of the lens. Or maybe he was just trying to shock. None if which is here nor there really.

'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is full with riffs the way a mother shark is full with shark babies. The crispest example is third track "Captain Obed Marsh". I put it on a podcast weeks ago and I still haven't gotten over this song. The whole first half of the album is a gallery of riffs, the Italian band puts on a clinic here.

On the second half of the album, the mood darkens considerably, starting with "The Oath of Dagon" as narrator Robert Olmstead runs into increasing danger. The atmosphere grows darker and increasingly frantic and claustrophobic. The listener loses some of "easy-listening" nature of those bright, memorable side one riffs on side two, but by then you're already knee deep in the story of the album and pulled along compulsively. That said, the darker side isn't without its thrills. "The Horrible Hunt" stands alone, musically with its cycle of almost black metal riffing, near thrash tempo and doom metal bridge. It's a tour de force.

If the idea of adapting Lovecraft's famous tale appeals to you, you should check out the 2001 film Dagon from director Stuart Gordon (the best interpreter of Lovecraft's stories). It's a loose adaptation of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" that plays a bit like Night of the Living Dead with horribly deformed fish people in the place of zombies. I recommend it as highly as I do this album.

It was incredibly difficult not to put this album in my top 2014 list, but I wanted to play by the rules, this album being destined for a 2015 release, it didn't belong on a 2014 list. But I can tell you right now, that this album is best of 2015 list bound. Three months after first hearing it, I haven't stopped listening to it and I'm sure that this album will take its place among the two albums mentioned above along with Magister Templi's 'Lucifer Leviathan Logos' as timeless metal albums that will never grow old.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Bretus on facebook

QUEEN CRESCENT - Self-Titled (Album Review)

This is great stuff.

Queen Crescent is an all woman band from the Bay Area of California who make heavy, dark and punky stoner doom rock with flute. Comparisons will be made to Blood Ceremony and maybe even Jethro Tull, but should be avoided. These ladies do their own thing, and that thing is spectacular. These heavy ladies will also be lumped in with the occult rock label and there's some truth to that if you look at the song "Majic Moonjynuh", but this album is no more occult related than any other rock n roll album to emerge since Bill Haley & the Comets told the world what time it is.

Main vocalist Andrea Genevieve automatically brings to mind Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, especially on the album's best song, "Culture Vulture". But we're only talking tone of voice here, because she's singing from a low register. As far as what's going on musically, Queen Crescent are in a class of their own. It's hard to imagine flute as a blunt object for instance. It's used almost as a percussion instrument in this standout track, but if it can be done flautist / vocalist Melissa Vu will find a way to do it.

Flute is a huge part of what shapes Queen Crescent's sound, it's treated as a lead instrument. This allows the incredibly low-tuned guitars to slide under the radar and hit the listener on an almost subconscious level. This is what gives the music its dark and mysterious overtone. Some might hear it and read the sound as "occult", but what they're hearing is the contrast that springs from the interplay. The light tones of the flute, playing a darkened melody with that basso rumble underneath has a somewhat hypnotic effect. The musical mysticism expressed on this album is more attuned to the true magical experience of psychedelics than the often overblown imagery of the stirring of cauldrons and the riding of broomsticks.

What really matters is the music itself and this 7-song, 33-minute debut is potent stuff. Powerful vocals, solid melodies, heavy riffs and killer flute are all driven along at a solid pace from the back end by drummer Amy Martinez. You get an easy sense of the tongue-in-cheek sensibilities of the band with song titles like the above-mentioned "Majic Moonjynuh" and the short warm-up of "In the Court of the Crescent Queen". Also, any outfit that gives a respectful nod to the iron-fisted musical gymnastics of Mr. Fripp and company are alright in my book.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

You can find out more about this hard-working, up-and-coming band at the following links:

Queen Crescent official website
Queen Crescent on bandcamp
Queen Crescent on facebook
Queen Crescent on twitter
Queen Crescent on instagram

'Queen Crescent' is now available on LP and digitally. Check out the album on the player below

COMICS SUCK! - Fantastic Four #36 (March 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - March 1965

Cover artwork by Jack Kirby

FANTASTIC FOUR #36 (Marvel Comics)

"The Frightful Four"

By Stan Lee (w,e); Jack Kirby (p); Chic Stone (i) & Artie Simek (l)

The crisp bold line at the top of the cover reads "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" and for four or five years, it was true.

This issue marks the beginning of the greatest sequence of issues in superhero comics history. The standard of excellence established by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby on this peak era has never been matched. This is the issue where the Fantastic Four first meets Medusa the Inhuman, as a member of the team's newest, truest rivals, the Frightful Four. As plots and subplots develop, Medusa leads to the discovery of the Inhumans, which leads into Silver Surfer and the Galactus saga, which leads to Wakanda and the Black Panther, all three of which, it's worth pointing out have been or are being developed for the silver screen. The reign of excellence continued for another 50 issues after that, but this particular period is the one everybody remembers. This is where it started really cooking.

Medusa's First Appearance.

Jack Kirby transcends the medium of comics. Even non-comic book fans have come across his creations if not his artwork, there's just no getting around it. All comic fans know what Kirby hands are, what a Kirby crackle looks like and what Kirby-esque feels like. He's the greatest storyteller in superhero comics, this run on Fantastic Four is his finest hour and this issue begins his absolute pinnacle. Though he'd been Fantastic Four artist since issue #1, it took him about two years to truly find his voice on the book. There's no shame in it, it was a new series with a new approach to characters at what was essentially an all-new publisher (of superhero comics). It wasn't until around about this issue or just a couple issues before it that The Thing really starts to look like The Thing the way we remember him today. He'd gone through several "drafts" of doughy, craggy and angular before Kirby finally settled on the distinctive look he still carries to this day. Kirby's trademark Manhattan backgrounds started to look like Kirby backgrounds, detailed with clean lines (see bottom left corner of cover image above). It seemed that after three years of playing wait-and-see, it was safe to consider Fantastic Four a success and therefore, something to invest the full power of his talent into.

The Frightful Four.

In this story we meet the Frightful Four, a motley crew of chagrined and defeated villains from F.F. member Human Torch's solo adventures in Strange Tales magazine, opportunistic crooks and a mysterious new female baddie on the scene. Attention to detail in the continuity between issues is something that Marvel fans have always loved about the publisher, they were the first to take it seriously. One of the joys of reading Marvel comics was watching characters develop over the course of years and eventually, generations. When I was very, very young there was a comic called Marvel Saga which retold the whole history of Marvel Comics from the 1960's, issue by issue, including this one. So it took me years, decades even to trust Medusa as the heroine she has become. She was just so thoroughly evil in her early appearances. I guess first impressions really are important. I mean, she ran with a group called the Frightful Four, they knew who and what they were, they were the bad guys and proud of it. Strangely, Frightful Four member Sandman would go through a similar switch in allegiance, albeit much later.

After the Frightful Four crash the Fantastic Four's headquarters, the Baxter Building, a battle royal ensues. The action is intense, the wide-angle staging is classic Kirby and the bad guys nearly win. In the grand early Marvel style, only an incredible effort saves Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny from certain death, when they turn the tables the bad guys, they escape cleanly to return but two issues later and three issues after that for what would be the team's greatest story yet up to that point. The Thing, feeling depressed about his appearance quits the team and ends up a member of the Frightful Four. The fact that his conversion continues for more than one issue is a perfect example of what made Marvel great in those early years, readers truly didn't know what to expect, but the seeds had been planted for them expect any changes to be long term.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After being blown away by Stan and Jack the hipper of British audiences didn't walk, but ran to pick up the debut album of a band that were to the Rolling Stones, what the Rolling Stones were to the Beatles in terms of raunchiness:



THE PRETTY THINGS - SELF-TITLED
If you have the world's most impressive memory or something close to it, you'll notice that both albums from 1965 featured in Comics Suck! so far (the first was The Zombies 'Begin Here') have kicked off with a cover of the Bo Diddley classic "Roadrunner". The difference is The Zombies album landed on shelves then sunk like a stone in their home territory while The Pretties debut placed a tidy #6 on the album chart.

Pretty Things on tour in New Zealand 1965 [Source]

I have an idea of why that may be. By the end of 1964 The Rolling Stones had established themselves as a dominant force in British music. Blues guitar standout Eric Clapton and his band The Yardbirds were making a name for themselves with a "heavier", rawer style of pop music, their seminal "For Your Love" was also released this month (more on that on a future edition). The world of British pop music was beginning to cycle in a gravitationally challenged direction. The Zombies, as high quality as their album was, represented old news. Those early Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Dave Clark Five sounds were so last year's scene.

For one shining, brilliant moment the rough and ready Pretty Things were on the cutting edge.

But they would never enjoy the same level of chart success in their careers again. Unlike most of their early peers however, they're still going. It was only two years ago that they appeared at the massive Roadburn Festival. Listen to the album above and re-discover why buzz remains so high for this band 50 years on.

But after devouring the Fantastic Four and Pretty Things it was time for some real gone retinal input, it was time for Die, Die My Darling.

I know the title from the Metallica song, which was a cover of a Misfits song, which was taken from this movie. Actually, the film was originally titled Fanatic in the UK, but given the campier title for the U.S. audience. The film was part of Hammer Films seeming monopoly on British horror of the time (Amicus was only just emerging and Tigon was years away from appearing on the scene). It was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Tallulah Bankhead in an unforgettable performance as the fantical Mrs. Trefoile buffeted and abetted by the equally wonderful performance of Stefanie Powers as Patricia Carroll. It also co-stars a young Donald Sutherland (that's two 1965 films in a row co-starring Sutherland, including the Amicus Productions's Dr. Terror's House of Horrors from last month) as the simple-minded Joseph.

In it, Patricia visits the mother of her now deceased former boyfriend (Steven Trefoile) against her current fiancee's wishes. Upon arrival she finds Mrs. Trefoile to be a critical, dogmatic tyrant. Mrs. Trefoile does her best to "correct" Ms. Carroll's behavior because she considers her to be Steven's wife and can't stand the thought of his memory being tainted. When Patricia has finally had enough and decides to leave, Mrs. Trefoile produces a gun and locks her in the attic.

It's an excellent film that captured the zeitgeist of the times swiftly a-changing and inter-generational tension, although it can be a tad preachy in its own right. You can watch it in all its over-zealous glory below:


Die Die My Darling aka Fanatic 1965 full movie by ursula-strauss

LK Ultra's Top Albums for 03/07/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

Lord of Doubts - 'Into the Occult'

1. Lord of Doubts - Into the Occult†
2. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
3. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
4. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
5. Queen Crescent - Self-Titled***
6. Alucarda - Raw Howls
7. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
8. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah††
9. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
10. Acid King - Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere***
11. Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
12. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo†††
13. Strange Broue - Various EP's
14. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
15. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
16. Doomraiser - Reverse
17. Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House
18. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
19. Stoned Jesus - The Harvest
20. Saturnalia Temple - To The Other
21. Bretus - The Shadow Over Innsmouth☠
22. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
23. Phantomass - Self-Titled
24. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
25. Evil Invaders - Pulses of Pleasure*

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order only
† Available on cassette only
†† Available on vinyl and cassette only
††† Available on vinyl only

☠No release available yet

• Last Chart
• About the Doom Charts

ALBUM Spotlight on:

STONED JESUS – ‘The Harvest’

Stoned Jesus released their third full-length album on February 24 and it already has some long-time followers scratching their heads. If you're a fan of the band and haven't checked out this latest one, be prepared to hear a slightly different side of the band. I stop short at calling it a more "popular" sounding album, but I would argue it is more accessible to the average stoner or doom head and the six songs on the album seem to fit a little more comfortably into each of those two subgenres, much moreso than on previous efforts.

Previously, the Ukrainian power trio has been known for expansive 10+ minute-long suites. The longest of the first four tracks on 'The Harvest' reaches a mere fingertip past the seven minute mark. The trade-off here with a slight detour in direction is a renewed sense of focus. If nothing else the band proves that they can smash, grab the loot and run with the best of them. It should be noted here that while it may be easier for those taxonomically inclined to point at each song and label it as stoner rock or doom metal, nothing on this album really sounds like anything else anybody else is doing. First and foremost Stoned Jesus is still a prog band, and that sensibility will out by the nine-minute long "Silkworm Confessions" (see the official video at this location).

'Seven Thunders Roar'

The first inkling that I saw that the band was hankering for a repertoire of shorter material was when they released the four-minute edited version of "Electric Mistress" from their last album, 2012's 'Seven Thunders Roar'. It's impossible to get a nine minute song onto 7 inches of etched vinyl and maintain a high fidelity, and thus the edit. But when Stoned Jesus released "Here Come the Robots" on their bandcamp page in January, the first song off their then unreleased new album, it was obvious that the band had a change in philosophy in store. It was hard to imagine when the song came out how this rollicking three minute barn-burner was going to fit in between a pair of expansive 10 minute monoliths, for example.

Now that 'The Harvest' is here, everything falls into the place, the pieces match, and there's a logic behind the sequencing of the album. It's not to everyone's taste and that seems to be par for the course this year. It's been difficult, if not impossible to find a bigger-name band in this underground niche of heavy music with a new album out that isn't dividing opinion. That may not be what makes it out there in the reviews, but we reviewers talk behind the scenes and initial impressions of the stuff that's been coming out has been largely mixed. I think it has to do with bands redefining their territory and finding their own niche in an ever-expanding circle of competition.

Judge for yourself by clicking the link to the album at the #19 spot.

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Patterson Disappearance

EL PASO, TX - William, 52 and Margaret Patterson, 42 were last seen on the night of March 5/6, 1957 at their home in the 3000 block of Piedmont Avenue in Kern Place, El Paso, Texas. Nobody knows what happened to them, they simply vanished from one day to the next. Their car was left in the driveway and the family cat was left to fend for itself. William owned a photography shop in town (Patterson Photo Supply)and it must have been an eerie sight for those that knew the couple had disappeared to see the shop sitting empty and unopened day after day.

Early on, a “business associate” claimed that the couple had gone on a sudden extended vacation to Florida. When the Pattersons still hadn’t returned after five months Cecil Ward, a friend and neighbor filed a missing persons report with the police.

A neighbor, Jeri Cash told police that she had been by the Patterson place the night they disappeared. She didn’t know the couple very well, but she said that Margaret seemed upset to her and William made it clear that he was annoyed that Mrs. Cash was there. Jeri and her family noticed “unusual activity” at the house later that night, but when Mrs. Cash told the police about what she had seen, they didn’t seem to care very much about her story.

Later, a letter appeared, alleged to be from a W.D. Patterson arranged to have William’s properties divided between Doyle Kirkland, a friend and manager at Doyle’s Photo Supply, his business auditor Herb Roth and a 24-year old employee at Patterson Photo Supply named Art Moreno. The letter seems strange because William had at least two known relatives, including his father and a sister. The signature on the letter was challenged. It’s unknown whether the letter was authenticated and honored.

Kirkland was also seen at the house the night the couple disappeared. He was in the garage with William working on a boat. In 1984, a man named Reynaldo Nangaray came forward claiming he had washed blood out of the Patterson’s  garage soon after the couple disappeared and that he’d found pieces of scalp on the propeller of the boat’s motor. In 1957 he was an illegal immigrant, he hadn’t come forward sooner because he’d feared deportation.

It wasn’t enough to take to a Grand Jury, however and the case remains open to this day.

Sources:

El Paso Times

El Paso Times II

The Doe Network

The Charley Project