Approved Comics #8

A drunken drifter named Michael Malloy seems like an easy mark when five small-time crooks—speakeasy owner Tony Marino, bartender Joe Murphy, taxi driver Harry Green, undertaker Frank Pasqua, and former robber Dan Kreisberg—devise a scheme to take out life insurance policies on him and collect the payout. What they don't expect is that Malloy proves nearly impossible to kill, surviving everything from poisoned drinks to exposure to a hit-and-run. As their increasingly desperate attempts fail and their investment in keeping him alive mounts, the "Murder Trust" finds themselves outmatched by a man who just won't stay down.

When three small-time crooks kill a shop owner during a bungled robbery, detective work and a clever interrogation scheme put pressure on the ringleader Joe Ashly to crack—especially when Captain Mike Farrow reveals that his partners Red Hogan and Gus Hall may have already turned on him. Detective Willy Rose and the New York police must use everything from a recovered murder weapon to psychological tactics to expose the killers before the truth gets buried.

On July 22, 1934, the greatest manhunt in American history reaches its climax as Melvin Purvis and his fellow F.B.I. agents close in on "Kill-Crazy John Dillinger"—a man whose path from baseball-playing teenager to Public Enemy Number One is marked by increasingly violent bank robberies, daring prison breaks, and a trail of dead lawmen. Traced across the country from the Midwest to Arizona and back to Chicago, Dillinger outsmarts his captors at every turn, even fashioning a wooden gun that allows him to escape custody and reignite the federal manhunt. With $200,000 in stolen cash, a $75,000 reward on his head, and the F.B.I. closing in, the stage is set for a final confrontation that will test whether even the most ruthless criminal can outrun the law.

Rick Fraser's horseplaying luck takes a wild turn when his brother Horace discovers he can dream winning races—and suddenly Rick and his bookie partner Handle are cleaning up against the town's biggest operator, Sleet Higgins. But when a fixed race and a jockey's desperation collide, Rick's dream streak becomes entangled in a dangerous web of betrayal and violence that spirals far beyond the betting parlor. Will Rick's lucky streak survive the fallout, or has his brother's gift cursed them both?