Mike Gold, another Chicagoan who is a Chicago history buff with an eye for detail, provided his usual help and support. My friend John W. McRae, a Marine through and through, was kind enough to read the Guadalcanal section and make some suggestions, all of which I took. My friend and frequent collaborator, cartoonist Terry Beatty, also lent his support and editor’s eye to this project. And I would like especially to thank Dominick Abel, my agent, who has done more for me than these few words can indicate. Ruptured Duck awards for combat duty are due Tom Dunne, my editor, who has believed in Heller from the beginning; and his associate Susannah Driver, whose hard work on these books was well above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks also to editorial assistants Susan Patterson and Pam Hoenig. And a big thanks to Ed Gorman and Connie Sisson of Media Consultations. Thanks also to Jane Crawford, of AAA Travel Agency, Muscatine, Iowa; and Chris Dobson, American Airlines historian. Thanks to Chicago’s Bob Cromie for sharing his Pacific experiences in an interview (and whose original Tribune articles were invaluable). And a tip of the fedora to three suspense masters: Andrew M. Greeley, Howard Browne and Mickey Spillane, for help, suggestions, and support.
A special thanks to my aunt and uncle, Beth and Paul Povlsen, who shared with me their wartime experiences as nurse and corpsman, respectively, at St. Elizabeth’s. Some of the medical treatment described herein (including the use of hypnosis in treatment of amnesia) derives from John Huston’s classic documentary Let There Be Light (1948).
Photos selected by the author for use in this edition are courtesy AP/World Wide Photos and the Chicago Tribune; the rest have been selected from the personal collections of George Hagenauer and the author, the bulk of them having been culled from long out-of-print “true detective” magazines of the late thirties and early forties—a few others are U.S. Marine Corps photos. Efforts to track the sources of certain photos have been unsuccessful; upon notification these sources will be listed in subsequent editions.
Hundreds of books, and magazine and newspaper articles (from the Tribune, Daily News, Herald-American, and other Chicago papers of the day), have been consulted in researching The Million-Dollar Wound; among the magazines are issues of This Week in Chicago, a publication that provided background on Rinella’s Brown Derby (where Sally Rand did indeed appear in 1943), the Barney Ross Cocktail Lounge and the Rialto Theater. I am particularly indebted to the anonymous authors of the Federal Writers Project volumes on the states of California and Illinois, both of which appeared in 1939. A few other books deserve singling out: Hollywood Babylon II (1984), Kenneth Anger; Maxwell Street (1977), Ira Berkow; Cleveland: The Best Kept Secret (1967), George E. Condon; This Was Burlesque (1968), Ann Corio (with Joseph DiMona); Captive City (1969), Ovid Demaris; Time Capsule: History of the War Years 1939–1945 (1972), John Dille; Pacific Victory 1945 (1944), Joseph Driscoll; Dining in Chicago (1931), John Drury; Gone Hollywood (1979), Christopher Finch and Linda Rosenkrantz; The Art of Detection (1948), Jacob Fisher; Mafia USA (1972), Nicholas Gage, editor; The Battle for Guadalcanal (1963), Samuel B. Griffith II; The Homefront: America During World War II (1984), Mark Jonathan Harris, Franklin Mitchell, and Steven Schechter; WW II (1975), James Jones; Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone (1971), John Kobler; Chicago Confidential (1950), Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer; World War II Super Facts (1983), Don McCombs and Fred L. Worth; Guadalcanal Remembered (1982), Herbert Christian Merillat; The Mob in Show Business (1973), Hank Messick; People to See (1981), Jay Robert Nash; The Untouchables (1957), Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley; The Great Battles of World War II, Volume I: The Pacific Island Battles (1985), Charles E. Pfannes and Victor A. Salamone; The Green Felt Jungle (1963), Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris; Since You Went Away (1973), Donald I. Rogers; The Man Who Got Capone (1976), Frank Spiering; The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time (1984), Bert Randolph Sugar; Encyclopedia of American Crime (1982), Carl Sifakis; Syndicate City (1954), Alson J. Smith; The Good War (1984), Studs Terkel; Guadalcanal Diary (1943), Richard Tregaskis; Yank: The Story of World War II as Written by the Soldiers (1984), Yank editors; and The Guadalcanal Campaign (1949), Major John L. Zimmerman, USMCR.
When all the debts have been paid, or at least acknowledged, one remains: this book could not have been written without the love, help and support of my wife, Barbara Collins—Nate’s mother.
Photo Credit: Bamford Studio
Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed four feature films and two documentaries. His other produced screenplays include “The Expert,” an HBO World Premiere. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries.
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