As a quiet child in the 70’s who preferred reading to being outdoors, I was enthralled by Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery/horror anthologies. I was afraid to see scary or bloody movies, or even PG-rated movies – I was a Disney kid all the way – but I would sit in the school library or the public library until they told me to move along, nose deep in Alfred Hitchcock’s collections of classic tales by classic writers, such as Haunted Houseful, Ghostly Gallery or Monster Museum. I was also a Three Investigators fan – and being a kid, I even liked those dorky Happy Hollisters – and I well remember sitting by the radio of an evening, listening to hourlong episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which drew much of its material from the same sources as Hitchcock. (Yes, radio drama in the 1970’s!)
After I grew up and became a grade school teacher, I found that being around kids made me nostalgic for the “good stuff” from my youth, so over the years I bought many used books and introduced many of them to my classroom library. Of course the Hitchcock anthologies are long out of print, but you can still find used copies of Haunted Houseful, Ghostly Gallery and Monster Museum on amazon.com . I have also found a few Three Investigators mysteries here and there, and even some surviving Radio Mystery Theater episodes on CD. But, tantalizingly, there are a few great stories that still elude me…
There is a story, “The Hands of Mr. Ottermole,” which is quite well known, but I can’t find out which anthology it was published in. The title character is a serial killer who surreptitiously stalks his victims through London and strangles them, for no reason other than impulse. In the twist ending,
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Mr. Ottermole is revealed to be a high-ranking police officer working the case; the journalist who deduces this makes the fatal mistake of interviewing Constable Ottermole alone. When asked about his motive for killing, the officer replies, “Why, something just came into…into…” – and then quick as lightning his hands surround the reporter’s neck – “into my hands!”
Which anthology published this story? I seem to remember that the same anthology contained a story about one Mr. Manning, an embezzler who hid his money in a hole where a sapling was being planted, and some watered-down thing called “Larceny and Old Lace.”
A different anthology contains a rather fantastic tale of a man who investigates reports of carnivorous giant snails on a remote island, and finds to his chagrin that the reports are real.
Do you know where to find these stories? I have searched the internet and raided local libraries, but no luck so far. Any information you can provide is most appreciated. 
