Helen Randolph

Helen Randolph was a shared pen name used by Virginia Fairfax and Helen Allan Ripley. Sources about their books agree that the pair wrote the Mexican Mystery Stories for Girls series, including The Secret of Casa Grande, The Mystery of Carlitos, and Crossed Trails in Mexico, published in 1936.

Accounts tied to the series say Ripley spent part of her childhood in Mexico, which helped give the stories their setting and atmosphere. Those same sources describe Fairfax and Ripley as Girl Scout leaders in Mississippi who began writing after seeing how much their scouts enjoyed the stories they told on camping trips.

Because "Helen Randolph" was a pseudonym rather than one single public figure, clear confirmed portrait photography under that name was not readily available in the sources reviewed.