Haunt of Fear #12

Synopsis

A wealthy man and his son want the property of the well-liked elderly town garbageman and so they instigate a smear campaign to drive him out. First they get a license ordinance passed, and since he can't afford to pay it, the stray dogs and cats he's picked up are carted off to the pound. Then they get the neighborhood's children to stop visiting the old man. St. Valentine's day arrives and the old man is at first delighted to find his mailbox stuffed with cards thinking that the children have not forgotten him after all. Then, sobbing, he reads the poisoned missives one after the other that the wealthy man and his son have distributed amongst the townsfolk. No one sees him for a week so they check his house and find that he has hanged himself. On the following St. Valentine's day his corpse rises from the grave and tears the heart from the son's chest and leaves it as a valentine for the father.