Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: Encyclopedia Brown Creator, Donald Sobol

If you are a kid in Idaville and you have a mystery that needs to be solved, you didn’t turn to the police. Instead you headed 13 Rover Avenue, knocked on the clubhouse door in the backyard and asked to speak with Leroy Brown, better known as “Encyclopedia” Brown. Son of Idaville’s police chief, Encyclopedia, along with his trusty sidekick - and muscle - Sally Kimball, solved hundreds of mysteries for the pre-teen set, for “only 25¢ per day plus expenses.”

The world of Encyclopedia Brown was created by Donald Sobol in 1963. Sobol, who had already dabbled in the world of mysteries, authoring the weekly column Two-Minute Mysteries in the New York Daily News, decided that a child detective would be the next big thing. He was right. (Brown was younger even that his predecessors The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe, and Nancy Drew. Encylopedia Brown would also serve as the template for dozens of other kid detectives including Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, the A-Z Mysteries, and John Grisham’s Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer.)

Sobol would publish over 80 books during his career, including 28 “Encyclopedia Brown” collections, the most recent of which Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime was published in 2011.

Donald Sobol died at the age of 87.

Random note: There was an Encyclopedia Brown comic strip that ran daily from December 1978 until September 1980.

Sources: The Washington Post, indiebookspot.com, and wikipedia.org

(Image of the sign that hung on the door of Encyclopedia Brown’s clubhouse is courtesy of ken-jennings.com - the most successful Jeopardy champion of all time.)

Obit of the Day: Son of Sam’s Downfall

The summer of 1977 in New York was dominated by two events the New York Yankees’ “Bronx Zoo” team quest for a second straight World Series and, more importantly, the rampage of serial killer, Son of Sam.

Son of Sam eventually killed six people and wounded seven others. Using a .44 revolver “Sam” attacked single women and couple without much pattern. Over fifty NYPD detectives were investigating the murders. Edward Vigo was put on the case after the murder of Sam’s final victim.

“Sam” was eventually caught because of a parking ticket (too close to a fire hydrant). Vigo was the lead detective at suspect David Berkowitz’s apartment. Vigo found Berkowitz’s Ford Galaxie, the ticketed vehicle, and found a duffle bag with a rifle and note that matched letters “Sam” had sent to the NYPD. When Berkowitz got into his car Vigo and several other detectives pulled their guns and arrested him. Berkowtiz immediately told the detectives, “You got me. I’m the Son of Sam.”

Vigo, pictured above on the right, died at age 84. Some accnts still credit him for figuring out the parking ticket lead (it was Det. James Justus) and create an apocryphal encnter where Vigo introduces himself to Berkowitz, “Hi I’m Edward.” Then Berkowitz replied with his own introduction and confession. Good stories, both untrue.

(Image from time.com, courtesy UPI/Bettman/Corbis)

Obit of the Day (Historical): Bob Kane (1998) Only 18(!) when he and Bill Finger created the Batman. Inspired by Zorro, The Shadow and, “Leonardo da Vinci: ‘I remember when I was 12 or 13 I was an ardent reader of books on how things began … and I came across a book about Leonardo da Vinci. This had a picture of a flying machine with huge bat wings … . It looked like a bat man to me.’” Obit writer also had a nice sense of humor: “He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Sanders Kane, an actress; a daughter, Deborah Majeski of New Jersey; a sister, Doris Atlas of New York; a grandson, Matthew Alderman, and, of course, Batman, Robin, the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and the Catwoman.”