Police Captain Howard

Police Captain Howard was a credited author name used on 19th-century American popular fiction, especially dime novels and story-paper serials. The Dime Novel Bibliography lists works under this name including detective tales such as Shadow, the Mysterious Detective, Young Sleuth in Chicago, and other crime and adventure stories published in the 1880s and 1890s.

What makes the name especially interesting is that it does not seem to belong to one firmly documented person. Bibliographic records describe Howard, Police Captain as a pseudonym used by multiple people, and at least some titles have been specifically linked to Francis Worcester Doughty. That means the name is best understood as part of the publishing world of mass-market fiction, where colorful pen names helped sell suspense, action, and mystery.

Because the available sources point to a shared pseudonym rather than a single, well-documented individual, there is very little confirmed personal biography to tell. Even so, the stories published under this name reflect the energy of early detective fiction and the brisk, sensational style that made dime novels so popular with their original readers.