A woman from Boston Blackie's past comes to him for help. Her son is sitting on death row for a murder she knows he did not commit. Quickly getting himself some short time for a job any fool could sleepwalk through, Blackie finds that the rotten warden may have a hand in the man's execution. What is he hiding, and why does he fear the work of the nebbish criminologist? Painted cover by Dave Dorman!