Habeas Corpus  

The pig Habeas Corpus first shows up in “The Phantom City.”  Monk buys it from an Arab trader in Bustan where Doc and his crew are chasing down the villain Mohallet. Supposedly the animal was making a nuisance of himself by dragging up too many dead hyenas in front of his master’s tent

This thought first crossed my mind when I picked up book for my daughter, one I had read as a child. It was “Freddy the Detective” by Walter Brooks. If you’re not familiar with these stories, Freddy the Pig was a pig that wanted to be a detective and had all kinds of adventures around the farm.

The first Freddy book was published in 1927 with other books following in 1930 and 1932. Additional books followed but these were after the first appearance of Habeas Corpus. Freddy appeared in a total of 26 books published between 1927 and 1958.  We don’t know the exact motivation Dent had to add a pet pig to the Doc Savage stories but it is not beyond reason to wonder if Lester Dent was tipping his hat to fellow author Walter Brooks while adding some humor to his stories.