The Swami Sleuth is Black Barry Desmond, an "ex-spirit medium, magician, confidence man and amateur sleuth." He is also an escape artist, which comes in handy in the one adventure I've read, Murder Magic in the August, 1934 issue of Star Detective.
Murder Magic reads like a typical hardboiled detective piece, with a bit of sleight-of-hand and lock picking mixed in. A major piece of the story involves Desmond being left alone in shackles by hoods that know he's a escape artist. He's also a bit of an amoral antihero (or a jerk), as he endangers his assistant's life to save his own skin and punches out a cop to hide incriminating evidence.
The only two stories I've come across of the character have been by George A. McDonald, the other being April, 1934 issue of Detective Story Magazine.
George A. McDonald also wrote Phantom Detective and Federal Agent stories. He was very prolific in the pulps. I've never read the Desmond stories.
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