Ben Jardinn
Created by Raoul Whitfield

One of the all-time great hardboiled eyes! BEN JARDINN first appeared in the pages of Black Mask in 1930 in the first of three stories that would later be published collectively as the hardboiled classic Death in a Bowl (1931).

Ben's runs a small Los Angeles detective agency on Hollywood Boulevard, a couple of blocks from Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and he's a pretty tough, cynical character, "cold as hell," hard through and through, although he does seem to have a soft spot for "Irish," the nickname's he's given his head secretary/receptionist, Carol Torney. Jardinn likes money, and he suspects everyone and trusts no one, even his own employeees. He may have been a cop once -- he certainly seems to know a lot of people on the force.

He may occasionally seem soft-spoken, and may even display an unexpected fondness for classical music (although he admits he doesn't "know much about it") but make no mistake -- Jardinn's the real deal.

As is his creator, pulpster Raoul Whitfield, often considered one of the truly great Black Mask boys, only a fraction behind contemporaries Chandler or Hammett. Whitfield also created disgraced spy/ eye Donald Free, and, under the pen name of Ramon DeCorta, Island detective Jo Gar.

EVIDENCE

• "I hate a rat--male or female! I'll break your damned, white neck--"
  (Jardinn shows how well he's overcome the gender bias so prevalent in the genre...)
  
  
• "Business is business...and pleasure is pleasure."
  
  
• Suspect: "Do I look like a killer?"
  Jardinn: "I never saw a man who looked like one...You look like a liar to me--I've seen them before."
  
  
• "You're too damned good-looking to hang."
  
  
• "So many humans like to tell lies...It's hell finding out what really happens."

UNDER OATH

• "A hard-boiled tale capitally told"
  (The Saturday Review of Literature)

SHORT STORIES

• "Death in a Bowl, Part One" (September 1930, Black Mask)
• "Death in a Bowl, Part Two" (October 1930, Black Mask)
• "Death in a Bowl, Part Three" (November 1930, Black Mask)
• "Murder by Request" (January 1933, Black Mask)
• "Dark Death" (August 1933, Black Mask)

NOVELS

• Death in a Bowl (1931) .. Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, with a special thanks to Jim Doherty for his help.