SKELETON KEY #8

24. Dr. Trepan

25. Kuna ~ The Wild Girl of Yosemite

26. Mr. Murmur

24. Dr. Trepan

Once a respected surgeon, Dr. Trepan had his medical license revoked due to some questionable operations and experiments on the human brain.

Eventually he became the director of a private asylum where he was able to secretly continue his forbidden research.

It was Dr Trepan who was chiefly responsible for reviving the utilization of a banned psychological test known only as "The Examination."  The notorious test was developed during the earliest days of psychological research but eventually outlawed due to the distressing effects it seemed to have on anyone who took it.

In The Examination, the subject is shown a series of four photographs taken over a century ago in the caves of Mt. Diablo by the explorer Gustuvas Nacht.  Viewed individually the photos appear quite mundane, but when placed side by side in a very specific arrangement, they reveal something ~ something extraordinary.  

So extraordinary, in fact, that once the average subject gazes at the arrangement, they are suddenly struck with what can only be described as an overwhelming sense of terror - followed by a quick descent into writhing, gibbering psychosis.

However, it has been proven that certain individuals are able to view the arrangement with little or no ill effects.  The purpose of the test is to find those special individuals.

Dr Trepan and his assistant, Nurse Christina, have themselves never actually seen the pictures in the proper arrangement - they have never dared, having witnessed the unfortunate effects on the average subject, many of whom go on to reside permanently in the dank cellar of the Doctor's  private asylum, locked away and heavily guarded, due to their propensity for ferocious violence.

(See: Peculia)

25. Kuna ~ The Wild Girl of Yosemite

A young runaway named Karla is camping in the giant, dense forests of Yosemite National Park when she stumbles onto a murderous moonlight ritual being performed by a coven of satanists.  In her flight from the pursuing killers, the young girl falls down a rocky hillside and hits her head, resulting in total amnesia.  

The dazed and injured girl is discovered by an old survivalist hermit - a somewhat eccentric former park ranger, who has gone "off the grid" to live peacefully deep in the woods, unknown to park officials.  He nurses the girl back to health and takes a kind, fatherly interest in young Karla, who he names Kuna after the majestic Kuna Crest.  The girl can't remember anything before witnessing the murderous satanic ritual.  The hermit, who is also aware of the presence of devil-worshiping covens in the woods, teaches Kuna how to survive and defend herself.

When the satanists discover that the witness to their crime still lives, they murder the old hermit and Kuna finds herself on her own in the woods, with only her loyal companion, Gulo Gulo the wolverine, for company.

 Meanwhile a friendly female park ranger, residing in an isolated station, has seen Kuna, but can't get her supervisors to believe her.  Park officials warn her she will be fired if she insists on reporting the existence of a wild girl in the forest.  The young ranger becomes obsessed with capturing Kuna herself.  The two engage in a cat and mouse game as adversaries before eventually being thrown together in mutual danger and, as a result, becoming friends.  

Kuna has variety of adventures and often has to use her wits and survival skills to fight off wild creatures, blood-thirsty devil-worshipers and various rude and belligerent campers.

26. Mr. Murmur

On a street with no name sits a house with no number.  Inside, the enigmatic figure of the night known only as Mr. Murmur sits at his desk under a lone green lamp and sorts through a stack of mail.  The letters have been delivered to him through a variety of messengers or means (a one-eyed street dweller, a trained night jay, a special unmarked drop box located at the back of Dr. Erdling's Crime Museum) and each one is a request for his assistance.  

To many, Mr. Murmur is a fairy tale, "twaddle" or "balderdash".  Some say he simply doesn't exist.  But to those who believe, and who are desperate enough to write to him, he is very real indeed!

He takes on those cases the police can't - or won't - solve.  He specializes in investigations that involve elements of the weird or uncanny.  His often merely observes, waiting patiently, allowing events to unfold and only intervening at the precise moment when he is needed.  He is the deus ex machine, swooping in suddenly, out of the shadows, to rain down justice or vengeance, and perhaps offer some hope to the hopeless.

Occasionally, special cases are sent his way by the elusive individual known only as "The Man on the Phone" or Mr. Upstairs.

Although the authorities will never admit it, Mr. Murmur is responsible for bringing down a number of evil-doers, fiends and creeps.  His rogues gallery of villains includes:  Captain Squab, the Pirate Emperor of Carnival Island;  Klorimandus, The Mad Mummy; Equinoxious, The Crocodile King; The Devil Damsels; Mongor, The Snow Gremlin; the murderous knife-throwing team of Eyeless Jack and Linda; the living head of Zolok, the mesmerist; and that inhuman creature responsible for "The Corkscrew Murders" known only as The Wheezer.

(See; Thirteen O'Clock and The Diabolical Dr. Q in the book MANIAC KILLER STRIKES AGAIN)

SKELETON KEY #7

21. Mother Claude

22. Professor Sovac ~ aka The Iguana ~ and The Brain of Cagliostro

23. Phoebe Duprey

21. Mother Claude

The vile, black-hearted, monstrous Mother Claude was a high-ranking member of a secret organization of criminals known as The Obtainers.  She ran one of their largest orphanages ~ which were actually schools where children were raised from infancy to be expert thieves, pickpockets and cat burglars.  The children were terrified of disobeying her and those who did learned that she took a sadistic glee in their punishment.  She promised those who longed to escape that they never could because The Obtainers were everywhere and would catch up with them eventually.

When a great fire consumed the orphanage, Mother Claude was officially declared dead.  However, many of the children refuse to believe she really died in the fire and swear they have seen her peering in their windows at night.

(See: Cat Burglar Black)

22. Professor Sovac ~ aka The Iguana ~ and The Brain of Cagliostro

While on a research expedition on a remote mountain village, Professor Egon Sovac discovers the ancient hiding place containing the living brain of the dark sorcerer Cagliostro.  The brain's powerful thoughts easily  overwhelm the professor who becomes a slave to the brain's evil desires and schemes.

Eventually, The Brain of Cagliostro succeeds in sucking all the personality and memory from the professor, turning him into an empty shell, a mere puppet doomed to do the brain's bidding.

Together they spend years traveling the endless Red Desert Valley in search of a cave that, legend has it, contains the doorway to another dimension.  Sovac survives the journey by eating insects and becomes known to local tribesmen as "The Iguana."

The pair eventually return to civilization. and the brain, more powerful than ever, embarks on a campaign of crime and terror.  They are finally defeated and captured due to the efforts of telekinetic teenager, Phillipa Knicely.  The two are confined to a single padded cell in an isolated asylum, which is tragically washed away when a nearby dam bursts, for reasons still being investigated.

23. Phoebe Duprey

The story goes that a kindly traveling surgeon, Dr. Vogardus, rescued young waif Phoebe Duprey from a life on the streets of Paris, and brought her back to the village of Crow's Creek were he raised her to be a well-adjusted and proper young lady.  The truth is ~ a bit more complicated.

(See:  The Chuckling Whatsit)

SKELETON KEY #6

18. Nicola

19. Judy Drood ~ "Girl Detective"

20. The Black Provost

18. Nicola Karnstein  

Nicola is a new student at the local high school, having recently moved into town with her two sisters and her Grandmama from a small village in the Carpathian Mountains.

Dislikes:  sunlight, Hawthorne trees, nosy little boys, girls who are too clever for their own good, gypsies.

(See: Peculia and the Groon Grove Vampires)

19. Judy Drood ~ "Girl Detective"

The entire town is in shock when Judy's father, lovable old Colonel Drood, a leading member of the community, is arrested for a series of unusually vicious murders.  Though the evidence against him is strong, Judy, a student at the local high school, believes he is innocent and sets out to prove it.  However, the more her investigations uncover, the more Judy inadvertently proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her father was actually a fiendish master criminal!

But Judy is blinded by loyalty and does everything she can to prove him innocent, including tampering with evidence and harassing witnesses.  Eventually, however, her father is sent to prison for life, leaving Judy somewhat psychologically scarred and jaded, with a cynical distrust of law enforcement and some rather severe anger issues.

While still in high school, Judy becomes obsessed with solving mysteries and uncovering crimes - often where none exist.  Her unorthodox (not to mention illegal) methods annoy and antagonize the local police.  However, she does manage to solve enough real crimes that the local papers refer to her as the "teen girl detective"  - a label Judy despises, but which, unfortunately, sticks, even after she graduates from high school and becomes a student at Lone Mountain College.  Judy is a loner who doesn't trust anyone, except perhaps her hapless childhood friend, Kasper Keene, who often finds himself, against his better judgement, assisting Judy on one of her "cases".

(See:  MAD NIGHT and THE GRAVE ROBBER'S DAUGHTER.  Judy's first appearance was in 1993 in the book BLACK CAT CROSSING, in a story reprinted in MANIAC KILLER STRIKES AGAIN)

20. The Black Provost

In the late 1800's, shortly after Lone Mountain College was established, the original board of regents, reacting to the rowdiness of the post-Civil War student body, appointed one of their own to administer discipline.

Known as The Black Provost, he soon began abusing his power, delighting in sadistic torture in his hidden chamber of horrors, assisted by six tongueless nuns.  He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of over a dozen students.  His reign of terror ended when the truth was discovered and he was hung for his crimes.

Since then, it has been said that his spirit still haunts the campus and many people over the years have reported seeing The Ghost of The Black Provost,  stealing across the quad in the moonlight, a bloody hatchet in his hand.

More seriously, authorities suspect that the same deranged individual who stole the hood and robes of The Black Provost from the Anthropology Museum, may have been responsible for the recent rash of violent murders on and around the Lone Mountain campus.

(See: MAD NIGHT)

SKELETON KEY #5

15. Mr. Ixnay

16. Peculia

17 The Twinge



15. Mr. Ixnay

Those of you who have heard the name of Mr. Ixnay believe him to be a tall tale or urban myth, a bogeyman invented to frighten children.  But there is another world - an underground world of lowlifes, scoundrels and crooks - and to those people, he is terrifyingly real - a phantom avenger who has returned from hell, who appears out of nowhere and kills quickly and without mercy and who then vanishes in a puff of smoke to the echoes of hollow, mocking laughter.

The dwellers of the underworld know that, years ago,  a man named Aldo Ixnay was a founding member of the Global Association for Sabotage and Homicide (G.A.S.H. ) ~ a league of professional killers ~ and was both respected and feared.  They know that when he announced his intentions to leave G.A.S.H. and retire from the assassination game, the other members held a secret vote and conspired to do away with him.  But he proved a difficult person to kill.  Many attempts were made, and all failed, until he seemed to finally meet his doom in the spectacular Harrisville train wreck, an abominable act of G.A.S.H. sabotage.  

But then, five years later, there were whispers that he was back, that he'd been seen lurking in alleyways, peering in windows.  No one really believed it, of course, ~ or at least not until the remaining members of G.A.S.H. were all suddenly sent to hell themselves in a single bloody night.

(See: The Chuckling Whatsit)

16. Peculia

Little is known about Peculia, other than what the local gossips and busybodies say.  They say that although she appears to be a street urchin or waif, she actually lives in a big house behind tall iron gates and thick thorn bushes.  They say that she lives there all by herself, with only the company of a loyal (and remarkably resourceful) butler named Ambrose.  They also say she went to the infamous "school for weird kids" called Reynardine, which, according to someone who knows someone who knows, has since burned down.

She can often be seen strolling through some of the more out-of-the-way villages that dot the hilly countryside, dreamily humming to herself and leaving bread crumbs for birds.  

But some mutter darker things about her, saying she is bad luck, an ill omen and that trouble, heartache and death seem to follow her wherever she goes…

(See: Peculia and Peculia and the Groon Grove Vampires)

17 The Twinge

The loathsome creature known only as "The Twinge" is a notorious fiend, a mysterious demented super crook who haunts the city nights.  

He is a master of disguise, and a twisted romantic who often leaves dead flowers at the scene of his crimes.

After one of his most notorious murder sprees ~ eliminating a number of local art critics ~ he mysteriously vanishes.  But is he really gone ~ or merely in hiding, waiting for the right moment to strike?

A woman known as Penelope X claims to have met The Twinge and writes several paperback romances which portray him as a rather dashing and heroic figure, resulting in ladies everywhere swooning at the mention of his name.

(See: The End Of The Street in the book MANIAC KILLER STRIKES AGAIN)