Stagg created the fictional sleuth Thornley Colton, known as Problemist, the genre's first blind detective[1] living in New York City in the early 20th century.
The independently wealthy Colton relies on his intelligence and superb senses, honed due to his blindness, and takes only the most difficult cases for the sheer pleasure of solving mysteries, often clashing with the NYPD along the way.
Stagg also was employed by a newspaper in Newark, New Jersey, wrote numerous short stories and magazine articles, and later became a screenwriter of 'photoplays' during Hollywood's early era.
[5] Stagg was killed along with his friend, writer Malcolm Strong, when the automobile he was driving overturned on a rural road in Santa Monica, California, near Los Angeles.
"[6] Stagg's friend, Thanhouser director George Foster Platt, was hospitalized after the wreck, but survived.