The Best of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes: Mortimer Death.

Death, Mortimer. Mortimer Death was created by “Bennett Barlay,” the pseudonym of Ken Crossen (Green Lama, Chin Kwang Kham, Necessary Smith), and appeared in at least four stories in Detective Fiction Weekly in 1940 and 1941, beginning with “The Case of the Happy Undertaker” (Detective Fiction Weekly, Feb. 3, 1940). Mortimer Death is a mortician and is half owner of the Enchanted Vale Crematorium. Death is “a little, short, fat man with the most cheerful puss I ever see on a guy.” His cheerful expression does his business no good, but it disarms those who might otherwise take him seriously. He is intelligent and has a taste for crime and violence which came from reading Sherlock Holmes stories. Death is assisted by the rough-and-ready Sgt. George Stuart and Detective Matson of the Santa Monica Police Department.