MUCH LIKE the word “genius,” the term “Renaissance Man” has been over-used through the years, but it is entirely reasonable to use that appellation for William Anthony Parker White (1911-1968), better known under the pseudonyms he used for his career as a writer of both mystery and science fiction, Anthony Boucher and H. H. Holmes. Under his real name, as well as under his pseudonyms, he established a reputation as a first-rate critic of opera and literature, including general fiction, mystery, and science fiction. He also was an accomplished editor, anthologist, playwright, and an eminent translator of French, Spanish, and Portuguese, becoming the first to translate Jorge Luis Borges into English.

He wrote prolifically in the 1940s, producing at least three scripts a week for such popular radio programs as Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Ellery Queen, and The Case Book of Gregory Hood. He also wrote numerous science fiction and fantasy stories, reviewed books in those genres as H. H. Holmes for the San Francisco Chronicle and Chicago Sun-Times, and produced notable anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy, and mystery genres.

All of Boucher’s mystery novels were published in the 1930s and 1940s, beginning with The Case of the Seven of Calvary (1937), which was followed by four novels featuring Los Angeles private detective Fergus O’Breen, including The Case of the Crumpled Knave (1939) and The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (1940). As H. H. Holmes, he wrote two novels in which an unlikely detective, Sister Ursula of the Sisters of Martha Bethany, assists Lieutenant Marshall of the Los Angeles Police Department: Nine Times Nine (1940) and Rocket to the Morgue (1942), which was selected for the Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Detective-Crime Mystery Fiction.

As Boucher (rhymes with “voucher”), he served as the long-time mystery reviewer of The New York Times (1951-1968, with eight hundred fifty-two columns to his credit) and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (1957-1968). He was one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America in 1946. The annual World Mystery Convention is familiarly known as the Bouchercon in his honor, and the Anthony Awards are also named for him.

“The Stripper” was originally published under his H. H. Holmes pseudonym in the January 1947 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

The Stripper

by Anthony Boucher

HE WAS called Jack the Stripper because the only witness who had seen him and lived (J. F. Flugelbach, 1463 N. Edgemont) had described the glint of moonlight on bare skin. The nickname was inevitable.

Mr. Flugelbach had stumbled upon the fourth of the murders, the one in the grounds of City College. He had not seen enough to be of any help to the police; but at least he had furnished a name for the killer heretofore known by such routine cognomens as “butcher,” “were-wolf,” and “vampire.”