EC - The Escaped Maniac (Roussos)

The Escaped Maniac!
art by George Roussos, story by Al Feldstein
Crime SuspenStories #8 (1952)

This is one of the handful of stories Roussos drew for EC in the early 1950s. It has a story being told by a driver who picks up a hitchhiker in the rain on a lonely road. As they drive, radio alerts come on about a dangerous escapee from a nearby hospital for the criminally insane. The hitchhiker is afraid the driver thinks that he's the maniac, and tries to convince him otherwise.

You know where this is going, of course. One of the weaknesses of reading the stories knowing that there's going to be a twist ending, and there's really only one twist possible. Still, a well told version of a predictable tale.