Early to Death

Originally Aired: April 12, 1951 Suspense #424, "Early to Death," follows Evie Weston and her lover Ben Faber as they execute an elaborate scheme to steal a $300,000 company payroll during a flight over Mexico. The pair stages a plane crash, deliberately leaving their pilot Duke to die while they parachute to safety with the money, which they bury in the mountains. After convincing investigators that the payroll burned in the wreckage, they separate and wait for things to cool down before retrieving their fortune. Evie returns to New Orleans while Ben continues flying, and their plan seems foolproof. Their carefully constructed scheme unravels when Rico Sebastian, a mysterious man in a dirty Panama suit, approaches them with a chilling revelation: he witnessed their parachute jump and knows exactly what they did. Rico demands a quarter of the stolen money, forcing Ben and Evie into an impossible position. When Ben goes to negotiate with their blackmailer, the situation turns deadly. Evie arrives at Rico's apartment to find police waiting and Ben's bullet-riddled body, leaving her facing murder charges while the cunning Rico positions himself as her unlikely ally.