Johnny Mayhem was a space opera hero, a galactic secret agent who could be anyone, anywhere, and at any time! He was written by Milton Lesser (Stephen Marlowe) during the 1950’s. The eleven Johnny Mayhem stories ran from 1955-1958 in AMAZING STORIES and were published under the pen names of C.H. Thames and Darius John Granger. AMAZING’s editors claimed that Johnny Mayhem was one of the most popular series characters ever to appear in AMAZING.
“…That guy Mayhem! He’s so blasted busy we can’t make him stand still long enough to give us his autograph.” — editorial comment from the letters column of AMAZING STORIES.
Johnny Mayhem was a man of a thousand faces—an immortal being who’s nonetheless living under the constant shadow of death.
Mayhem’s story begins on Earth of the future when his name was Johnny Marlow. Five years before the first story begins Johnny assassinated the President of Earth. He was the only one to recognize that the president’s mind had been possessed by an alien sentience. After his possession, the president’s values suddenly changed and he began shifting Earth away from democracy and towards an iron-fisted oligarchy. Johnny feels sure that without the alien’s interference the oligarchical movement will quickly collapse. He tries to convince others of the alien possession but is not successful. In a last desperate attempt to save Earth, he kills the president hoping that the alien will die with him. But it does not.
Johnny Marlow then flees the solar system and eventually into the Sagittarian swarm. That’s where the space patrol catches up to him. His ship is hit hard and crashes onto the planet of Knurr. Johnny is mortally wounded when the inhabitants find him. Then “with science unknown to mankind, with an ancient wisdom which has been lost with the ages…[they] save Johnny’s life.”
Johnny’s broken body is found by the posse and taken back to Earth to be exhibited to the populace. Meanwhile, Johnny himself is slowly healing amongst the Knurr in a dead man’s body. They’ve saved his essence, which they refer to as “elan.” Mayhem is now a bodiless entity who can exist physically in dead bodies, but only for 30 days before the body dies again and his elan is destroyed. At first, the realization of how he must spend eternity nearly drives Johnny mad. “His sentience, his elan, would not grow old, only bodies grow old. Thus Johnny Marlow—Johnny Mayhem, as he came to be called—was barred from all phases of normal human existence.” He’d become a disembodied gypsy. To make his strange life worth something he offers his services to the Galactic League and becomes their troubleshooter. Thereafter, every Galactic League colony is mandated to have a dead human body on ice for Johnny Mayhem’s use. It is a fantastic arrangement that benefits both.
The first story is called, “My Name is Mayhem” and in it, he’s already a legend in the Galactic League worlds. He never knows what body he’ll be entering into, the only rules are that it’s healthy, young, and strong. During the course of the stories we see him possess a variety of bodies including a young boy and a woman. At other times he’s a prisoner, a slave, and a madman in an asylum. More than once he must share a body with a living soul when no dead body can be found for him. After each assignment a high tech device at Galactic Command beams his elan to the next assignment.
According to the letter columns— “This Planet is Mine” and “World Beyond Pluto” were fan favorites. “Mayhem Enslaved” and “Think Yourself to Death” were also mentioned by name. I found fifteen letters with votes of confidence for Johnny Mayhem’s wild adventures.
I agree that “This Planet Is Mine” is something special. I also liked “My Name is Mayhem,” “A Place in the Sun” and “A Coward Named Mayhem.” For me, the weakest story in the run was “Get Out of My World” although it was still enjoyable.
Here’s a list of the Johnny Mayhem stories with a morsel of plot, just enough to whet your appetite.
My Name Is Mayhem, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, September 1955. Mayhem’s first adventure takes place on the one planet he never wanted to return to — Earth! To make matters worse, he finds himself inhabiting his own long dead body.
They Sent a Boy, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, November 1955. Mayhem is used to switching bodies. As long as it’s young and healthy, he doesn’t really care what it looks like. But what happens when the only body available is that of a ten-year-old boy?
The Burning Man, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, January 1956. There’s trouble on Mercury’s penal colony and Mayhem’s talents are called for. What he discovers is a lose-lose scenario. He only has thirty days in which to accomplish his mission but he’s in an escape-proof prison in the body of a man whose sentence is for life!
Magellan Was a Piker, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, June 1956. On a far-flung colony in the Magellanic Cloud, Mayhem must stop an alien invasion. But how can he do it while wearing the body of a tottering old man?
This Planet Is Mine, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, July 1956. Dreamworld is a very special sort of mental hospital, it’s an entire world! Mayhem has had his memory wiped, like all the other inmates. How can he complete his mission now?
A Place in the Sun, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, October 1956. The starship, Glory of the Galaxy, is in big trouble. The crippled starliner is falling into the sun’s corona. Aboard her is the President of the Galactic Federation who must be saved at all costs. But there are no dead bodies for Mayhem to inhabit…only living ones!
Think Yourself to Death, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, March 1957. On a planet where all outsiders have a nasty habit of committing suicide, Mayhem must discover the real cause of the deaths while inhabiting the body of a beautiful woman.
Get Out of My World, Milton Lesser as by Darius John Granger, AMAZING STORIES, June 1957. Mayhem awakens in the body of a folk hero who died 400 hundred years before. His assignment…? To get an entire population of xenophobes to leave their dying world before it’s too late.
A Coward Named Mayhem, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, January 1958. The Starship, Oberon, has been hulled by meteors. Once more Mayhem must share a body with a living soul, but this time the man is a shivering coward.
Mayhem Enslaved, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES June 1958. A brain-washed genius must be rescued from a planet where humans are slaves of unhuman masters. What’s more, he must stop a slave uprising before the genius is killed!
World Beyond Pluto, Milton Lesser as by C.H. Thames, AMAZING STORIES, November 1958. Mayhem chases a hijacked spaceship carrying one hundred beautiful girls and one desperate killer. He’s got to wrap up the job in less than six days or he’s dead!
If you’d like to read the Mayhem stories without hunting through old issues of AMAZING STORIES (as I did) you can find some of them in the following collection:
The Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack #8, Wildside Press, 2014. (Includes three “Johnny Mayhem” stories.) ISBN: 978-1-4794-0344-8
This is the Rocketeer signing off for today.
WEIRD but intriguing.
I wonder what Robert Monroe thought of those stories?...
Or if he ever tried to enter into another person?...