Crimes for a Penny (America's Greatest Comics #2)

Our latest tale involving the Crimson Crusaders of another world's Gotham opens in a courtroom, where special prosecutor Brian Butler is wrapping up an "airtight" case against a hapless defendant charges with the murder of John D. Rokkafeller. Yep, this wealthy magnate spells his name a bit differently on Earth-S, and apparently is also a magnet of malice directed towards him.

However, when the defendants' daughter Vera Brown (or Hobson, her father's name... the story can't seem to decide what to call her) protests as to her father's innocence, Butler suddenly withdraws his concluding statements pending further investigation, to the bafflement of a clearly bias judge presiding over this legal matter. Concerned, Judge Peabody orders an assistant to follow up with him as to Butler's whereabouts and such. Something is fishy about this guy's jurisprudence, or lack thereof.

Following up on the private investigator which the daughter hired, Mister Scarlet is too late to save the man's life but come across some rent-a-thugs and their hankerchief masked mastermind who evades capture.

Pinky soon learns of what  has transpired and joins his adopted father in following the trail of a mysterious coin which the masked man's hoods tried to steal from the dying detective. However, during the scrimmage with the criminals, the penny is lost.

Butler interviews Mister Hobson in his jail cell, and learns that he and Rokkafeller were business partners which left their joint venture in the alleged murderer's sole possession which gave Hobson motive. It would seem that Mister Butler, Esquire built up his criminal case based solely on circumstantial evidence! In any event, mention is again made of the coin.

Still nervous about the penny for some reason, the "White Hankerchief" (for lack of a better name) decides to kidnap Vera, although he leaves a trails which Scarlet and Pinky are able to track. Rescuing the distressed damsel, she reveals to our heroes that she reconifzes the voice of the malevolent masked man. 

Although not having the coin, with which the true murderer's name was etched upon, Butler is able to bluff to the court the next day that he obtained the coin which reveals the true culprit. Judge Peabody, it would seem, about the inject the councilor with lead from his hidden revolver before a bailiff restrains him. Turns out, the judge moonlit as a counterfeiter, which Rokkafeller discovered leading to his demise. Guess they don't pay Gotham magistrates the going rate afforded their social status as elsewhere!

• Supporting Scarlet: Pinky is ever ready to evade his ever present arch-enemy, the over-mothering Miss Wade.

• Red Romance: Those days of implied romantic undertones between Butler and Miss Cherry Wade seem a distance memory.

• Menacing the Mister: At this point, the biggest adversary in this series is the corrupt establishment of Gotham City elites, moreso then blue collar crooks.

• Crimson Capabilities: More athletic feats though most this time unseen. Some nice full body tackles.

• Fawcett Facts: Despite the image of a giant coin which Pinky was chasing, this is not their version of the Penny Plunderer's giant penny which became a prominent souvenir of another Gotham City Dynamic Duo.