The reading room
Police Trap #18
Police Trap #18 This issue contains at least two stories. "Shanghaied!" follows Johnny Devine and his associates as they smuggle ninety men aboard ships at the waterfront in 1859, with plans to transport them to the city of Frisco, but the Shanghai Chicken becomes an unreliable accomplice and is eventually shanghaied himself aboard the steamer Wilson Guthrie. In a second story, escaped convicts disguise themselves in old prison outfits and hide at a hotel; police set a trap, surrounding the building and attempting to capture them without bloodshed, though the criminals attempt to flee. A third story involves a warehouse heist where a replica of the Tylerville Bank is constructed to practice the timing of a theft, but the criminals' plan falls apart when an alarm is triggered and police close in on the operation.