Terry Gross interviewed Spillane in 1989. Among the subjects they discussed was the time he was shot while riding with the police on a bust. Spillane and some of the cops were behind a stack of tomato sauce when one of the bad guys fired a shotgun at them. Buckshot passed through the cans and Spillane was actually wounded. But everyone was covered with the red sauce and it took an uncomfortable moment to realize that most of them weren't injured.
Another tidbit from the interview: Mickey was a Jehovah's Witness.
Click here to listen to the interview. Spoiler alert: Spillane gives away the ending of his first Mike Hammer novel, I the Jury (1947).
"The Rap Sheet" eulogizes Spillane here and offers links to other online death notices.
--Marshal Zeringue
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