House of Mystery #256 is an issue of the series House of Mystery (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1978.
Synopsis for "Blood of the Vampire!"
A man thinks he may be the source of a rash of vampire killings due to the curse a staked Dracula once laid upon his family line, so he goes to the police and confesses. The police do not believe him, however, so they tail him home where he surprises his wife, who is in cahoots with the family doctor to frame the husband for the killings. After a scuffle, the police arrest the pair and leave, unaware that the man has transformed into a hideous vampire, which leaves through the window in order to seek another victim.
Appearing in "Blood of the Vampire!"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Perfect Poison"
A wife enlists the aid of a voodoo practicing servant, in order to do away with her snake-hunting husband. She tells the servant that she wants two poisons, one which will be fatal and the other that can be reversed. She intends to poison her husband with the fatal one while she takes the one that can be reversed so that she will not be suspected, but the servant betrays her, because she likes the kind-hearted man and hates the wife. The man returns to his wife's bedroom with a constrictor in a basket large enough to swallow an ape before he collapses. The wife is overjoyed when he's taken away because she thinks he's dead, but the servant reveals she gave the husband a potion which only simulates death and has given the wife a potion which induces paralysis. The husband recovers at his friend's place and panics because he remembers leaving the snake in his wife's bedroom and asks the friend to drive him back to his house. Meanwhile, the snake has already gotten free and is hungrily approaching the paralyzed woman lying on the bed.
Appearing in "Perfect Poison"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Satan's Child"
A cruel man marries a homely girl only because he desires that she provide him with a son to make his life easier. He abandons her at the charity clinic to give birth and returns to his hovel in the swamp. Previously he had forced her to ingest a potion that he obtained from a witch, and so the baby is born dead, but the wife returns to the hovel with her doll swaddled in a blanket in the forlorn hope that her husband's heart will lighten. When she realizes the man just wants to be as cruel to the child as he has been to her, she attempts to flee and falls off the pier and breaks her neck. The sheriff arrives and accuses the man of bringing about his wife's death and reveals to him the doll that he has killed for.
Appearing in "Satan's Child"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Raise the Devil"
Two crooked mediums fleece clients as one of them poses as a devil and then they proceed to extort cash from their victims. Their proceedings run afoul of real devils when they told by a genuine denizen of the underworld that their doings are making real devils look bad. The devil drags the two con men down to Hell.
Appearing in "Raise the Devil"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Museum of Murder!"
A painter is given the power to enter and leave his paintings, and he uses it to slay a patron he feels isn't paying him what he's worth, and a girl and her lover when she doesn't return his affection. The local police inspector begins to suspect him after he observes that the painter's work was found at both of the crime scenes. The inspector begins to hound the painter in an effort to get him to confess to the murders, and when he knocks on the painter's apartment door late in the evening, the painter flees into one of his canvases. The inspector enters, and unfortunately for the painter, the man is somewhat of an art critic. The inspector declares that the abominable paintings ought to be destroyed, and slices thru the painting the artist is hiding in, killing him.
Appearing in "Museum of Murder!"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "The Worm Turns!"
The owner of a bait and tackle store is murdered by his brother when he refuses to shield him from the law. The owner's body is hidden in the bait container and the brother assumes proprietorship of the store with the story that the owner had to leave town for a couple weeks. When he sees two kids standing in the large bait container to acquire earthworms for fishing he yells at them to get lost. In turn they place some earthworms in the sandwich that he has left on the counter as he is distracted by a customer. When he comes back to finish his lunch the kids from a hiding spot are startled to see that he eats the whole sandwich. Later that evening he develops severe stomach pain and attempts to reach the phone and summon help but collapses. In morning his corpse is discovered by customers with a truly huge earthworm extruding from his mouth.
Appearing in "The Worm Turns!"
- Appearances not yet listed
See Also