Spinner ReCord was a record store owner in Dick Tracy's city. He was a slim man, with light, wavy hair and pointed features. He typically wore a flower in his lapel.
ReCord worked with a corrupt police custodian to steal money and goods from the police evidence storage. ReCord would then arrange for the sale of the stolen items.
The Tracy Plot[]
Shortly after the kidnapping and recovery of Bonnie Tracy, Dick Tracy found himself the subject of an investigation about his personal finances. Tracy was accused of stealing $400,000 worth of money and jewels from the police evidence storage. Given the opportunity to clear his name, Tracy began to investigate Charlie, the Police Custodian.
When Charlie began to suspect that Tracy had discovered the theft he had committed, he met with his confederate Spinner ReCord. ReCord was holding the stolen goods in his store, where Charlie confronted him. When Charlie showed signs of weakening, ReCord shot and killed him. ReCord then hid the body in his store's basement.
Disposing of the Custodian[]
Tracy discovered a connection between Charlie and Spinner ReCord, and came to ReCord's store to question him. ReCord claimed that he only knew Charlie as a customer, and they had no other dealings. After Tracy left, ReCord used an elaborate scheme to dispose of Charlie's body. Record hid himself and the body in a large packing crate, which he had arranged to be collected from his store and shipped out on a freight train.
While the train was in transit, ReCord opened the crate from the inside, and left Charlie's body in the freight car. ReCord then left the train and, posing as the addressee, signed for the delivered (now empty) crate. He then returned to the city, confident that the dead police custodian's body could not be traced to him.
The ReCord Recovery[]
While ReCord was away disposing of the body, his shop was still open for business. Tracy and Sam Catchem arrived to question him further, and when they learned he was not present, they searched his office. They discovered evidence of ReCord's involvement with the police theft and left to confirm their findings.
One of ReCord's regular customers was Ginny, the police custodian's daughter. Ginny asked Spinner's assistant for a copy of "Cocktails for Two" a popular novelty song recorded by Spike Dyke. The only available recording was one that Spinner had been keeping in his office, which the assistant sold to Ginny.
When ReCord arrived back at his store, he was stunned to learn that his assistant had sold the record. While one side was pressed with "Cocktails for Two", the other side held a recording of a conversation between ReCord and Charlie, in which they discussed their plot. Spinner had been keeping the recording as a potential means of blackmail against the custodian.
Spinner demanded to know who had bought the record. When his assistant told him, he became enraged and hit her, knocking her unconscious. ReCord then traced Ginny to her friend Marge's home, where he knew that Ginny kept all her records. Ginny and Marge had heard the recorded conversation, and Ginny told Marge to keep the record safe. Ginny had left when ReCord burst in on Marge, demanding to be given the record.
The Hunt for Spinner ReCord []
By this time, Charlie's body had been discovered, and Tracy had become convinced of ReCord's involvement in his death. At the home of Charlie's family, Ginny told Tracy about the mysterious recording. They rushed to Marge's home, where they found the girl had been tied up and assaulted. ReCord fled just as Tracy arrived, and was shot through the shoulder while escaping. Tracy took Marge to a hospital while Sam pursued ReCord.
ReCord fled to a construction site, where he attempted to hide from the police. He had gotten wet while escaping through a ditch, and the winter cold froze his clothes to the metal roof of a shack at the site. He was able to free himself, but the delay gave the police enough time to catch up with him. When he tried to hide in a vertical pipe, the vapor coming off his clothes revealed his location and he was taken into custody.
Confession []
Spinner ReCord revealed the full details of his arrangement with Charlie. The two men had plotted several years earlier to defraud the police evidence system. It was successful, and when Charlie devised the scheme to frame Tracy for a major theft, ReCord went along with it, gathering evidence to use against Charlie in case the custodian lost his nerve. ReCord faced charges of theft, fraud, assault, conspiracy, and murder.
Notes[]
- The Spinner ReCord storyline was reprinted twice by Harvey Comics, first in August 1954 and again in November 1957. In the second printing (issue #117, after the institution of the Comics Code Authority), the text and pictures are altered to make ReCord's assaults on his assistant and Marge less graphic. Examples of this became a feature in IDW's The Complete Dick Tracy Vol. 14.
- ReCord's last name has sometimes been presented as "Record".
- Spinner ReCord was planned to be featured in the un-produced novel Dick Tracy on the Beat, which would have focused on crime and corruption in the music business.
- A later Rogues' Gallery entry on ReCord indicated that he had received a life sentence.
