Master Pulp writer Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of the very popular Perry Mason, was an interesting guy. He passed the California Bar exam by studying on his own. He did go to law school but was suspended after about a month. As a lawyer his practice mostly involved defending Mexican and Chinese immigrants, and other people who couldn’t get a fair trial.
Hugely prolific, Gardner created dozens of characters and wrote under numerous pseudonyms. Gardner’s work ethic and output were so immense that at one point he kept a team of secretaries to whom he would dictate his stories. One of my favorites of his characters was the amiable conman and thief Lester Leith.
Leith was a crook but he only stole from criminals or wealthy people who’d gotten their money in predatory ways. The cops knew Leith was a criminal but he was too clever to get caught, so they sent an officer undercover to work as Leith’s valet/butler. Leith, of course, was aware of this situation. Leith’s adventures were light-hearted and amusing.
His schemes were always incredibly complex and pretty screwball. He’d send his duplicitous butler out to acquire a strange assortment of nutty things he needed for his plan: packs of cards, a huge amount of chewing gum, a dozen showgirls, a chimpanzee, etc. as part of his baroque scheme, all of which drove the undercover cop insane.
The cop always believed he was on the verge of getting the evidence to nail Leith, but when the plan was revealed to the reader it turned out Leith had been too clever for everyone. In the end the cops were befuddled and frustrated, the bad guys were poorer, and Leith was richer, with a large portion of the stolen funds going to charity. They were amusing fantasies that still hold up and are worth your time to find.
