Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Fox Feature Syndicate
The real-life Crime Castle sounds like something out of a comic book, which makes it a good choice for the feature story of Murder Incorporated #5.
Article Summary
- Murder Incorporated #5 turns bootlegger Carl Rettich’s real Rhode Island Crime Castle into a lurid Fox true-crime feature.
- The issue ties the Fall River mail robbery to secret rooms, hidden weapons, false plates, and a widening criminal web.
- The Murder Incorporated story reworks the Danny Walsh case, adding a cement-foot drowning that heightens its grim drama.
- The comic contrasts sensational Fox storytelling with records on Rettich, his gang, the 1935 investigation, and Alcatraz.
A gangster’s fortified mansion with secret rooms and an arsenal sounds more like something from a tv or movie plot than it does something from real life. But as we saw in the wild air raid attack shown in Murder Incorporated #1, true crime does have its fantastically true moments. Notorious bootlegger Carl Rettich‘s Rhode Island headquarters, known as Crime Castle, had made the newspaper headlines over a decade before Fox published Murder Incorporated #5 in 1948. The issue turns Rettich’s career into a succession of robberies, betrayals, and killings, ending with postal inspectors breaking through the gang’s defenses, written and drawn by unknown creators. There’s a significant amount of real history beneath the comic book’s liberties here, but the difference between what Fox shows and the historical record is still noteworthy.
The Real Crime Castle
The case came to public attention through the 1935 investigation of a mail robbery in Fall River, Massachusetts. In May 1935, a United Press report connected the $129,000 theft with Rettich’s mansion, the death of associate Andino Merola, and the disappearance of Danny Walsh. Walsh had been another well-known bootlegger and partner of Rettich, who had gone missing in 1933. The press avidly followed the ongoing excavations of the mansion and its grounds, as money was recovered and many more secrets were suspected to be hidden within. Rettich v. United States, the 1936 appellate opinion, clarifies several particulars behind the mail-robbery case, including details about several men who also appear in this comic story, including McGlone, Dugan, Harrigan, and Fisher. Rettich’s eventual imprisonment at Alcatraz is also a matter of record. Following the lead of sensational newspaper reports, the Fox version gives the headquarters an important role in the story. Concealed weapons and a secret conference room make the mansion seem like a supervillain’s lair, but the story eventually shifts to the evidence found there, including a false license plate associated with the Fall River robbery. While Danny Walsh’s body was never found, the story here shows his murder by drowning with his feet encased in cement, and the cover scene of a bound woman being thrown into water from a pier may be generally inspired by this moment from the story.
The CGC census lists 24 Universal copies, with one at 8.0 and one higher. The incredible real-life Crime Castle saga gives this issue a historical hook beyond its cover, and for collectors interested in tough-to-get high-grade Fox, there’s a Murder Incorporated #5 (Fox, 1948) CGC VF 8.0 copy with tan to off-white pages up for auction at the September 24-26, 2026 Comic Books Signature Auction #7469.
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