The Batman Mysteries

Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a series on the Batman phenomenon.

Batman Begins
In May 1939 police officers were called to the scene of a disturbance at a chemical plant in Brooklyn, New York. They found three would-be burglars tied up on the premises. The men all appeared to be terrified. They had, they said, encountered a bizarre masked figure calling himself the Batman. He had overpowered all three of them and had left them for the police to find.

So began an enigma that has baffled the people and authorities of New York City and beyond for nearly three quarters of a century.

In telling the story of the Batman it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. From the start the Batman inspired all sorts of urban legends, exaggerations, and outright fabrications. In his first year of operation police and newspapers logged hundreds of alleged sightings. Among other things the Batman was credited with being bulletproof; with having a ghost-like ability walk through walls and appear and disappear at will; with superhuman fighting abilities; and even with the power of flight.

It is uncertain how many of these reports had any factual basis at all. Police files report over a dozen cases in the twelve months after the Batman’s first known appearance of his apprehending criminals and alleged criminals. These ranged from ordinary muggers surprised in the course of their activities to noted criminal bosses. In addition, at least some other sightings of the Batman appear to have had credible witnesses.
The separation of fact and fiction would only become more difficult in the years that followed, as reports and rumors accu
mulated. National Periodical Publications added further to the confusion with the creation of a fictional Batman in its comic books. Based in the fictional “Gotham City,” this Batman was a borderline superhuman athlete and detective who fought crime in a costume inspired by eyewitness reports of the New York City Batman’s appearance. This Batman enjoyed enormous success in the comics and in other media, to the point where most members of the public knew much more about him than about his original namesake. Numerous books and articles on the historical Batman have unwittingly included details from the comic book Batman’s adventures.

Batman and Robin
In the summer of 1940 Batman acquired a partner in crime fighting. Calling himself Robin, this partner appeared to be a youth in his early teens. Usually depicted in the media as wearing a brightly-colored costume, Robin in fact dressed in a dark outfit much like that favored by the Batman himself. Like the Batman he was an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, quite capable of defeating most fully-grown adversaries.

Over the years there was much speculation as to the relationship between the two costumed vigilantes. Some supposed that Robin was the Batman’s son, others that he was perhaps a nephew, student, or younger brother. Perhaps inevitably, even in those days there was speculation, first publicly articulated in the early 1950s, that the two were homosexual lovers.

Whatever the nature of Robin’s relationship to the Batman, he served as the latter’s comrade-in-arms for over four years. During World War II Batman and Robin helped police to crack several black market rings in the New York City area. The duo are also frequently credited with having helped to defeat enemy spies. There is, however, no real evidence that they played any part in wartime counter-espionage efforts.

Robin abruptly stopped appearing after the summer of 1944. During his four years of activity eyewitness reports indicated that he had grown in stature, indicating that he was indeed an adolescent. It was speculated that Robin disappeared because he had either gone to college or joined the armed forces. At any rate, he seems never to have been seen again.

Into the 1950s
The Batman continued to appear after World War II. From 1947 he appeared with noticeably less frequency. He soldiered on, however, into 1955. His last documented appearance was in the late summer of that year, when he foiled a robbery at a cigarette lighter factory by using the factory’s distinctive sign—a giant “lighter” powered by propane—to signal police.

During these sixteen years of activity the Batman was often a controversial figure. His vigilante methods were much debated in the press. A number of the alleged criminals that he apprehended were released for lack of evidence. However in most cases other witnesses, physical evidence, and confessions by the frightened criminals themselves combined to make the charges stick.

Assertions that the Batman’s activities contributed to a decline in crime rates in New York City during the period have been much debated over the years. The general consensus among serious students of crime rates is that they had little effect. Large segments of the public nonetheless believed that they did make a significant difference. Polls throughout the period indicated that the Batman enjoyed widespread public support and was regarded as a hero. Though they were never on record as saying so, NYPD officials were widely suspected of tacitly tolerating the Batman’s vigilante activities.

By 1955 the Batman had long since become a figure of legend. It was not surprising that rumors of his continued operation lasted far beyond the last documented sightings. As would later become apparent, the world had indeed not seen the last of the Batman.

In the next article of th series we will follow the history of the Batman from the 1960s to the 1990s

The Many Lives of the Batman

In this second installment of our series on the Batman legend, we follow the reports of the Batman activities of the 1960s through the 1990s.

Batman II
For a decade after the last documented Batman appearance in 1955 nothing more was heard from the costumed vigilante. For many Americans the Batman became nothing more than the popular comic book superhero of that name. Over the years this fictional Batman’s adventures in “Gotham City” became more and more fantastic, as the character increasingly encountered various colorfully-costumed “supervillains.”

In January of 1966 life began to imitate art when Edward Nigma—the professional alias of unsuccessful comedy actor Franklin J. Geoghan—performed the first of a series of spectacular thefts as the costumed Riddler. Nigma had been inspired to create this costumed identity by late 1940s Batman stories he had read as a boy. Like the comic book Riddler, Nigma left strange clues at the scene of every crime. In Nigma’s case, however, the clues were invariably red herrings designed to frustrate police.

Six months into his comic reign of “terror,” Nigma was apprehended and unmasked by none other than the Batman. The people and authorities of New York City were stunned by the sudden reappearance of their city’s notorious vigilante after a hiatus of eleven years.

Over the following months the Batman apprehended two other flamboyant thieves who, like Nigma, patterned their appearance and crimes after those of the comic book Batman’s adversaries. Low-level mobster Jack Napier, who took on the name and appearance of the comic book villain the Joker, was fortunately apprehended before any of his dangerous “pranks” resulted in loss of life, ruled incompetent to stand trial, and spent many years in a mental institution. Former flight attendant Selina Kyle, who became a jewel thief under the name Catwoman, claimed that she suffered from amnesia after surviving an accident, a claim that was quickly disproved by her service records. After her release from prison some years later she wrote a book about her experiences.

The new Batman was soon joined by a new Robin. This Robin appeared to be in his mid-teens and appeared alongside Batman until 1969. This period also witnessed the career of a female vigilante calling herself Batgirl. She appears to have operated independently of the Batman and Robin.

After Selina Kyle’s capture there were no further “super villains” for the Batman to combat. Instead he devoted his career to apprehending a variety of ordinary muggers, burglars, robbers, and gangsters. While his efforts gained great attention, and widespread public support, they were not enough to prevent the explosion of crime that New York City witnessed in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1980 the second Batman appears to have grown tired of crime fighting and ceased operations.

Batman III

In 1989 rumors began to emerge regarding the activities of still another Batman. Initially there was widespread speculation in the media that these reports were part of a publicity campaign for a new major motion picture featuring the fictional Batman of the comics. Before long, however, it became apparent that a new Batman vigilante had indeed set up operations in New York City.

This new Batman appeared at a time when home video recorders had become widespread. Where previous Batmen had only rarely been captured on film, still less in motion pictures, the third Batman was captured in nearly a dozen authenticated video clips in the space of only about four years.

The third Batman’s career proved short-lived. Early in 1993 he intervened in an attempted bank robbery in Manhattan. This robber, an unemployed former wrestler from Mexico named Eduardo Dorrance, (A.K.A. El Golpe) engaged the Batman in a quite brutal brawl. Although the Batman succeeded in subduing the assailant, a number of eyewitnesses observed him leaving the crime scene with what appeared to be considerable pain and difficulty. When he failed to reappear for months afterward, there was speculation that his injuries had forced him to end his vigilante career.

But the Batman story was not yet finished.

The Killer Angel

After a hiatus of several months Batman reappeared in a new costume. The new outfit looked very different from those of the previous Batmen. The new Batman’s methods differed even more radically from those of his predecessors. This Batman seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in the brutal use of excessive force to subdue his adversaries. Over the next few months he sent dozens of criminals and suspected criminals to the hospital. Several nearly died.

Although some members of the public supported the new Batman’s vicious methods, the main response was one of disapproval. The NYPD made capturing this Batman a matter of priority. In early 1994 they succeeded in subduing him in a confrontation that left four officers seriously injured.

The latest Batman was unmasked as Jean Paul Valley, a disturbed self-defense teacher and security consultant. Valley claimed that the previous Batman had asked him to stand in for him. Subsequent investigation indicated that he was in fact simply a copycat. During his incarceration Valley’s mental state rapidly declined, and he began claiming to be an avatar of Azrael, the “Angel of Death.” Valley was subsequently declared unfit to stand trial and institutionalized. He was released in 2006 and has since maintained a low profile.

The “Azrael” Batman’s activities led the New York state legislature in 1996 to pass the so-called “Keene Act,” expressly forbidding costumed vigilantism. Since that time there have been no further confirmed Batman activities in New York. Rumors of the Batman’s continued existence abound, however. Illegal or not, it is by no means certain that the Batman is finished.

In the third article of the series we will look at the man many most associated with the Batman—the millionaire playboy suspected for many years of secretly being the vigilante.

This looks cool. I will read this.

Thanks, Monk!

A while back I started wondering what it would be like if there really had been a Batman or series of Batmen in the real world. If there was a Superman or Green Lantern the world itself would be a very different place. But a Batman's career you can almost believe could happen. So what if it did? What would people be saying about it now, 73 years later?

The Bruce Wayne Story

In this third article in our series we examine the life of millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne, the man whom many say was the original Batman.

A Tragic Childhood
Robert Bruce Wayne was born in 1917, the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Both parents came from families who had made their fortunes in industry. Thomas Wayne was content to leave management of the family business to his elder brother Andrew, preferring instead to earn a medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and set up private practice in Manhattan.

Young Bruce seems to have had devoted parents and a happy childhood, marred mainly by the loss of an older sister, Violet, in the great influenza epidemic that followed World War I. However, in 1925 he experienced the profound shock of losing both parents simultaneously. That year Thomas and Martha Wayne were gunned down while leaving a movie theater. The killer was never caught. Police decided at the time that they were the victims of a mugging gone wrong. No credible challenge to this ruling has ever been mounted.

Contrary to what has widely been reported, eight-year-old Bruce was at home in the care of a sitter and did not actually witness his parents’ murder (Also contrary to frequent reports the movie they went to see on that fatal night was not “The Mark of Zorro,” starring Douglas Fairbanks; it was Fairbanks’ 1925 sequel to that film, “Don Q, Son of Zorro.”). The trauma the child experienced was undoubtedly severe enough in any case.

Bruce’s childless uncle and aunt, Andrew and Harriet Cooper Wayne, took in the orphaned boy and raised him at the Wayne family’s Long Island estate. The traumatized Bruce was said to have been very withdrawn and solitary for much of his boyhood. At an early age he threw himself into the twin pursuits of diligent academic study and vigorous athletic workouts. As he would say later in an interview, “My father always told me that a wise man maintains ‘a sound mind in a sound body.’ I felt that working hard on both was a way of honoring Father’s memory.”

As a teenager Bruce began to emerge from his shell. The arrival in the Wayne household of another orphaned nephew of Aunt Harriet’s, Richard “Dick” Grayson, is credited with having done much to encourage this. Ten years younger than Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson lost both parents and both siblings in a boating accident in Long Island Sound in 1930. The teenage Bruce became a kind of devoted older brother to his little cousin. Friends of the family recall that they spent much time together and developed many common interests before Bruce left to attend college at Yale in 1935.

Prime Suspect

Upon his graduation in 1939 Bruce returned to New York, found bachelors’ quarters in Manhattan, and soon gained for himself a reputation as something of a playboy. According to some of his friends of the time, however, this reputation was not entirely deserved. Former girlfriend Victoria “Vicki” Vale (later Victoria Harrison) said many years later: “Bruce attended a lot of parties, but everybody noticed that he tended to leave early. Nobody ever saw him drinking or smoking. Really, in our set he had a reputation as something of a ‘Boy Scout.’ It was almost as if he was trying to create this exaggerated image of himself as a partier when he wasn’t.”

It was during this time that the Batman, and later Robin, began their crusade against crime in New York City. Among the city’s young social set Bruce Wayne soon fell under suspicion. “There were so many coincidences,” Vale recalls. “There was his calculated playboy image. There was the fact that he was known to be quite the athlete and expert on self-defense. The fact that Dick Grayson just HAPPENED to be the same age as that Robin character. The way Bruce kept having these mysterious injuries that he claimed were caused by dangerous games and stunts that nobody else ever seemed to witness. And of course there was what had happened to his parents. It would be enough to make anybody hate crime and criminals badly enough to want to do something about it.”

The coincidences continued over the years. In 1944, the year that Dick Grayson left New York City to attend Yale, Robin stopped appearing. Batman’s own appearances became notably less frequent in 1947, the same year that Bruce Wayne married socialite Julie Madison and began to assume a greater role in the management of the Wayne family’s business interests. The Batman’s appearances ceased altogether in 1955, the year the Waynes had the last of their four children.

A Legacy of Philanthropy
Through it all Bruce Wayne maintained a policy of laughing off any allegations that he might be the mysterious Caped Crusader. “Bruce had a good sense of humor about the whole thing,” Vale says. “It became a favorite joke of his among his friends. When suspicions about him eventually filtered out into the papers he would laugh about it with the newsmen.”

Upon Andrew Wayne’s death in 1959 Bruce took over the full responsibility for managing Wayne Enterprises. In the years that followed he increasingly left the business’ management in the hands of trusted managers and focused his own attention upon the operations of the charitable Wayne Foundation. The Wayne family had long been known for their philanthropy. It was this that seemed most to hold Bruce Wayne’s interest. “Dad always loved his fellow man,” says Helena Wayne Bertinelli, his eldest daughter and eventual successor as CEO of the Wayne Foundation. “He always wanted to make the world a better place.”

In 1970 the Wayne Foundation unveiled a major new initiative aimed at assisting religious organizations and other community partners to help youth in high-crime neighborhoods to find better education and alternatives to themselves becoming caught up in criminal activity. At a press conference Bruce Wayne once again made light of his notoriety. “For thirty years now I’ve had people accusing me of being New York’s fearless crime fighter, the Batman. My friends can tell you how silly that is—I’m hardly the fearless type! But I WOULD like to be remembered as a crime fighter. The Batman, bless him, seems obsessed with stopping crime when it happens. I’ve got a far greater ambition—to find ways of fighting crime by stopping it from happening in the first place.“

In 1978 Bruce Wayne was diagnosed with colon cancer. Despite his decision to seek aggressive treatment, the cancer progressed rapidly. In April 1979 he died. He was widely eulogized by public figures for his efforts at philanthropy.

The Dark Knight?
In 1985 journalist Dennis O’Neill, who had developed an interest in the Batman while serving as a reporter for the New York “Daily Bugle” during the 1960s and 1970s, published a book entitled Dark Knight over Gotham. In it O’Neill marshaled considerable evidence to support his contention that Bruce Wayne was indeed the original Batman. He alleged further that Wayne had bankrolled the second Batman of the 1960s, and that the NYPD had long maintained a policy of tacitly supporting the Batman’s vigilante activities.

A bestseller, the book has created endless debate among Batman enthusiasts. While many believe that O’Neill proved his case well, others have attacked some of his conclusions, notably his speculation that exposure to carcinogens during the Batman’s first-ever adventure at the Brooklyn chemical plant led eventually to Wayne’s fatal cancer. O’Neill was also, by his own admission, unable to secure anything constituting “smoking gun” proof of Wayne’s complicity in the Batman activities.

Julie Madison Wayne died in 2008. Dick Grayson, now retired from a long career in civil engineering, has always refused to grant interviews. Helena Wayne Bertinelli and Bruce Wayne’s other children refuse to discuss the matter of the Batman in interviews about their father, though they are happy to speak of his charitable activities and reminisce about him as a father. If Bruce Wayne ever had any involvement with the Batman, he appears to have taken any knowledge of this to the grave.

There was one other public figure who could, perhaps, have answered questions about the Batman’s identity. In our next article we will examine his story.

Secrets of the NYPD

In this fourth article of a series on the Batman phenomenon we examine the career of New York City Commissioner of Police James Gordon—the only person who has ever publicly admitted to a connection with the notorious vigilante.

"The Batman’s Best Friend"
James Richard “Jim” Gordon joined the New York City Policy Department in 1936. The son of a Brooklyn shopkeeper, Gordon had a natural aptitude for police work and soon became known for his diligence and incorruptibility in a system where some officers showed little evidence of either characteristic. His rise in the force was swift.

When the Batman vigilante activities began young officer Gordon quickly took an interest in them. “He was always talking about the Batman,” fellow officer Stafford Repp O’Hara later recalled. “It was a sort of obsession with him.” During the 1940s Gordon developed something of a knack for appearing on the scene whenever any Batman-related activity occurred. Said O’Hara, “We used to joke about Jim being the Batman’s best friend. He would just laugh it off.”

As Gordon rose in the NYPD’s ranks he became an outspoken advocate for the Batman within the department. Indeed, in 1949 he was quietly reprimanded for speaking approvingly about the Batman’s activities in an interview. By this time pro-Batman sentiment within the NYPD was widespread; however the department still officially regarded him as an unsanctioned vigilante. Gordon’s breach of protocol on the matter does not seem to have affected his career.


Controversial Commissioner
In 1970 newly elected New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay chose Gordon to serve as New York City’s Commissioner of Police with a mandate to attack the long-standing issues of corruption and brutality in the scandal-plagued force. Gordon had long advocated such reforms, and quickly set to work attempting to restore accountability and integrity to the department’s supervisors and officers. He was instrumental in implementing a “defense of life” policy that tightened the rules on the use of deadly force by officers.

Gordon’s activities as a reformer made him a number of enemies in the department, and drew criticism from police leaders around the nation. In 1971, during the investigation into the notorious attempt on the life of corruption-fighting officer Frank Serpico, Gordon received several death threats of his own.

In 1973 Gordon left the NYPD and served as a consultant and advocate for police reform for some years. Upon his death in 1990 obituaries eulogized him as a great figure in the police reform movement of the 1970s. But the most sensational aspect of his career had yet to emerge.

The Secret Star
In his 1985 book Dark Knight Over Gotham journalist Dennis O’Neill suggested that NYPD officers knew far more about the Batman and his activities than they were prepared to admit. When questioned about the matter, Gordon refused to comment. He was in fact saving his comments for after his death.

In 1992 the Gordon family, in accordance with Jim Gordon’s wishes, published a posthumous memoir entitled Dark Knight, Blue Knight. In this memoir Gordon claimed that in 1941 the NYPD had set up a secret unit to keep a watch on the Batman’s activities. That same year the Batman contacted Gordon in his own home late one night and offered to assist the police with inside information on New York City gang activities that the Batman had acquired. “He said that he had been looking for a cop that he could be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt was honest,” Gordon wrote. “He had decided that I was that man.”

Gordon became a kind of double agent, on the one hand shielding the Batman from police efforts to capture him or learn his identity, on the other funneling information provided by the Batman to figures with New York City’s police and government who could be trusted to make good use of it. Though Gordon’s descriptions of the NYPD’s Batman-related activities differed considerably in detail from Dennis O’Neill’s speculations, they generally supported O’Neill’s claims.

In 1966, eleven years after the first Batman’s apparent retirement, Gordon received another mysterious visit from a shadowy figure claiming to be the Batman’s chosen successor. This new Batman displayed insider knowledge of his predecessor’s activities that convinced Gordon that he was telling the truth. Gordon promised the new vigilante his support. The second Batman’s first public case, in which he captured Edward “the Riddler” Nigma, followed shortly thereafter.

Gordon selected five trusted officers for a kind of covert Batman liaison operation code-named “Secret Star.” This operation, which continued through Gordon’s term as Commissioner of Police, served to shield the Batman from police investigation while finding ways to take advantage of the information that he provided. “It was largely the same deal we had back in the 1940s,” Gordon claimed. “Except this time I was a much more public figure than before and the stakes were higher.” According to Gordon, information supplied by the Batman as part of the “Secret Star” operation was instrumental in helping to confirm Frank Serpico’s allegations of corruption in the NYPD.

Gordon refused to say in the course of his memoir whether he actually knew the identity of either the first or the second Batman. “I had some strongly educated guesses, of course,” he wrote. “But I was never completely certain, and I’m not to this day. It would be wrong of me to put these men or their next of kin to the bother of airing my speculations, so I plan to take them with me when I go.” In a review of Gordon’s memoir Dennis O’Neill has claimed that Gordon’s pointed refusal to name Bruce Wayne as a suspect suggests that the millionaire was in fact Gordon’s main candidate for Batman.

O’Neill further suggested that Gordon’s reticence might have something to do with suspicions of vigilante activity surrounding a person much closer to home—his own daughter. In our next article we interview Barbara Gordon, the only alleged Batman vigilante ever to speak to the press.

Interview With the (Alleged) Batgirl

From 1967 to 1969 a motorcycle-riding Batman-inspired vigilante calling herself “Batgirl” was active in the streets of New York City. To this day she remains the longest-lived of several “copycat” vigilantes who appeared in the Batman’s wake. Though she was never identified, suspicion focused upon NYPD officer (later Commissioner of Police) James Gordon’s daughter, Barbara. In this fifth article in our series on the Batman phenomenon we interview the woman whom some say was once a Bat-vigilante.

Tomboy Librarian
It has to be said that Barbara Gordon Bard looks like a librarian. “It’s the glasses and the hair in the bun,” she says, laughing. “I only wear the glasses so I can see. The bun…well, it’s practical and when your hair is as long as mine you have to do something to keep it out of the way.”

We’re sitting in her office in the New York Public Library’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Barbara Bard is a senior librarian and curator for the NYPL’s extensive manuscript collections. “It’s a far cry from working as a desk clerk at the Chatham Square branch all those years ago. I’ve worked for NYPL for 46 years now. Time flies when you’re having fun!”

Barbara Gordon was born in 1944, the sixth of seven children of Commissioner of Police Jim Gordon. “I was a serious tomboy. My older and younger sisters were always rather girly. But I liked hanging out with my brothers. They didn’t like having me around, of course, but I eventually wheedled my way into becoming sort of a mascot for them. I grew up playing ball, and climbing trees, and getting into all kinds of stuff.”

At the same time, young Barbara cultivated a love of reading. “I was always reading in the family’s reference books and memorizing things. They said I had a `photographic memory.’ It really impressed a lot of people. Sadly it didn’t impress the boys I tried to go out with in high school and college.”

Bikes and Batman
Barbara found another way of impressing them. “I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was sixteen. It was my Uncle Mike’s Harley-Davidson. People couldn’t believe it when they saw this little girl riding this huge Hog! “ The next year she managed to buy a used Honda Cub. “It was more my size. Too bad the performance wasn’t much. When I was in college I managed to get hold of a Honda CB 77 Super Hawk. Then I was cooking with gas!”

On weekends she would race her Super Hawk in local events near the college campus. “I won some, too. When the guys finally made a rule about no female racers at the track they said it was because they were afraid I’d hurt myself. I think they were afraid I’d show them up and embarrass them.”

She had one more unusual interest. “It’s true—I was a real Batman geek. I read everything I could find about him. When I was a girl Dad would tell me stories about seeing him. He didn’t tell me too much. I didn’t know until years later that he was actually the Batman’s number one ally in the NYPD.”

So, did this interest in the Batman prompt her to try imitating him? “You’ve got to be kidding! There’s no way my parents would ever have let their little girl run around in a crazy outfit trying to catch bad guys. It was all they could do to deal with my fondness for motorcycles.

“That’s what made people start speculating that I was the Batgirl, of course. The motorcycles. I rode a Super Hawk…Batgirl was said to ride a Super Hawk. Never mind that there were thousands of CB 77s out there, or that mine was black instead of purple like hers. “

But she and the Batgirl both had conspicuous flowing red hair, did they not? “Let me just say this—if somebody like me with a distinctive hair color wanted to go around and play secret identity vigilante, don’t you think she’d be smart enough to wear a wig or something to conceal her real hair? I’ve always figured the Batgirl was probably a blonde wearing a red wig to throw everybody off. I say blonde because she couldn’t have been too bright to pull some of the stunts she pulled.”

A Mysterious Injury
In 1969 witnesses claimed that they saw the Batgirl flee the scene of a mugging after apparently having been shot while trying to intervene. That same weekend Barbara Gordon was treated for a gunshot wound in her right arm. She claimed that she had been shot by a mugger. There were no witnesses.

The Batgirl was never credibly reported again.

Doesn’t that sound suspicious? Barbara Gordon sighs. “I know what it sounds like. All I can say is that a lot of people get mugged in New York. Sometimes they get shot. Remember, street crime was all too common in those days. I was young and figured I could take care of myself, and I had the unwise habit of riding around town at all hours when there wasn’t much traffic. One evening my luck finally ran out. This guy tried to hold me up. I, like a fool, tried to resist. And he shot me. I’m just thankful I was able to walk away from that one. That’s what I got from trying to be a hero.”

Later that year Barbara met Jason Bard, a young Army veteran and fledgling private investigator who later made a career as a noted home security consultant. The two married in 1971. “Jason really helped me to heal from the trauma I had experienced. We shared a lot in common. We had both been injured—Jason in Vietnam, me on the mean streets. We were both avid motorcyclists too. For our honeymoon we rode our bikes all the way out to the Grand Canyon and back. We had a blast!”

After that the couple settled down and raised two children. Barbara gradually rose in the ranks at the New York Public Library system and developed an interest in rare books and manuscripts, which eventually led to the position she holds now. “A husband, two lively boys, grandkids, a job I love—and I still ride my bike once in a while, when the weather’s pretty. I’ve had a very blessed life.”

Family Secrets
So, if she wasn’t a Bat-person herself, did she at least ever meet the Batman? “I’m pretty sure I came close, once. In his book Dad tells about how one night in 1966 the second Batman paid him a visit to see if he could count on his support. Around that time I was home from college. Mom and my younger sister were visiting family upstate. There was nobody else in the house.

“But one night I woke up and heard Dad and this other man talking quietly downstairs. I was only half awake. By the time I’d woken up enough to go and see what was going on the voices had stopped. I went down to see what was happening and Dad was alone. He was standing at an open window—I remember the curtains blowing in the breeze. I asked him who he had been talking to. He said there was nobody there, and told me to go back to bed. I did. But I knew what I had heard.

“Then years later, shortly before Dad died, he gave me the manuscript for his memoir with instructions not to let anyone see it until after his death. When I read about his meeting with the Batman I realized that that was who I had heard him talking to. That was the first time I had any real idea that Dad had actually known the Batman. He never told any of the rest of us about it. He wasn’t one to bring his work home much. “

So she really never knew anything about her father’s links with the Batman? “Nothing. Honest!”

“And now,” she says, clearly wanting to change the subject, “let’s talk about something more interesting. Like my grandkids!”

I hope TPTB @ DC see this and offer you paying work.
Whatever the ammount, they'd be getting the better part of the deal!

Thanks for the compliment, Tommy!

The Continuing Enigma of the Batman


In this last article of our series we examine further revelations regarding the New York City Police Department’s ties to the Batman, including the physical evidence of the Batman’s activities.

The Batman Files
The posthumous publication of former Commissioner of Police James Gordon’s memoirs prompted journalist Dennis O’Neill to renew his efforts to access the NYPD’s secret files on the Batman’s activities. His persistence in filing Freedom of Information Act requests finally paid off with the release in 1998 of a great deal of formerly classified information. Among other things these files confirmed the existence of Gordon’s “Secret Star” operation, used to keep track of the Batman’s activities in the 1960s and 1970s.

O’Neill even succeeded in persuading two former members of the Secret Star team—former NYPD detectives Samuel Olson and Theodore Blakely—to grant interviews. Olson and Blakely confirmed that the Secret Star team under Gordon’s leadership played a kind of double game. On the one hand they monitored the Batman’s activities for the police; on the other they shielded him from attempts to capture him or learn his identity, and passed information gathered by the Batman on to trustworthy superiors. In his 2003 book The Dark Knight Revelations O’Neill wrote: “The files and Olson and Blakely’s testimony confirm probably 80% of what Jim Gordon claimed in his book. At this point I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the remaining 20%.”

Olson and Blakely also put O’Neill on the trail of most tantalizing of Batman legends—the belief that the NYPD had a secret trove of recovered Batman artifacts.

Batmobile Remains
All incarnations of the Batman were sometimes observed traveling around New York City and its environs at night in a succession of sleek, dark, custom vehicles called the “Batmobile.” In 1952 a rumor began that the NYPD had recovered the remains of a Batmobile wrecked during a high-speed pursuit. The rumors persisted over the years, despite official denials by the city. Nineteen years later a new set of rumors began to the effect that another Batmobile had been wrecked and recovered.

In their interviews with O’Neill both Samuel Olson and Theodore Blakely confirmed that the NYPD had retrieved wrecked Batmobile vehicles in 1952 and 1971. Blakely had personally supervised the recovery and investigation of the latter vehicle. “We went over it with a fine-toothed comb looking for clues to the Batman’s identity,” Blakely said. “According to our automotive experts that car wasn’t just a customized job—it was a total one-off, hand-built from the wheels up. There was no way we could trace it. Must have cost a fortune to build.” In reply to O’Neill’s question of whether it must have been the work of a millionaire such as Bruce Wayne, Blakely agreed that it could have been. “Of course New York’s always had lots of millionaires besides Bruce Wayne,” Blakely added.

O’Neill campaigned for the release of further NYPD files relating to the Batmobile salvage. In 2008 he was not only given the information he sought, but was permitted to visit the city-owned warehouse where the remains of both the 1952 and 1971 Batmobiles were kept. “A UFO buff who got an invitation to Area 51 to see a hangar full of crashed flying saucers couldn’t have been more excited,” O’Neill wrote.

Both Batmobiles were wrecks. “They had clearly suffered extensive collision and fire damage,” O’Neill said. “Still, I could easily recognize them from archival photos. Though I was not allowed to take photos of them, I was permitted to look them over close up. I have no doubt that they were authentic.”

The warehouse contained other Batman artifacts retrieved over the years, including grappling lines, a boomerang, bits of torn cape, and other odds and ends. There was also a third vehicle—a Honda CB 77 Super Hawk motorcycle. It had been painted midnight purple like the Batmobiles and sported a bullet hole in its windshield. “This had to be the Batgirl’s ride,” said O’Neill. “The police had retrieved it in 1969, right about the time she made her final appearance. The wrecked bike provided mute testimony to a close call that must have ended her vigilante career.” Though the motorcycle was in most respects simply a stock Honda Super Hawk, its previous owner had taken the precaution of filing away any serial numbers that might have made it possible for police to trace it.

Four years after O’Neill’s visit, access to the Batman artifacts and their exact location remain restricted. However, in 2012 the city held an exhibit of several of these artifacts, including pieces of the three Bat-vehicles, at the New York City Public Library’s Schwarzman Building. Librarian Barbara Gordon Bard reportedly played a role in curating the exhibit.


Who Were They?

O’Neill has continued to maintain in his writings on the subject that Bruce Wayne bankrolled both the first and second Batmen, and was most likely the first Batman. He has further speculated that the third Batman of 1989-1992 was also supported by someone close to Wayne, possibly Wayne’s cousin Richard Grayson. While many find his case for Bruce Wayne persuasive, the lack of solid evidence means that the case must be considered unproven. Others have advanced other candidates, including James Gordon, actor Arnold Schwarzernegger, and philanthropist Nelson Rockefeller.

It is clear that the Batmen had several characteristics in common. First, they possessed a rare combination of physical prowess—they were clearly trained martial artists and excellent athletes—intelligence—they evidenced detective and information gathering skills—and cunning—they evaded all efforts to discover their identity for many decades and covered their tracks well. Second, they must have possessed considerable financial resources. Third, they were in all likelihood supported by teams of trusted aides. Indeed it has been suggested that more than three men may have worn the Batman’s mask during the three periods of known Batman activity.

Unless another figure close to the Batman activities writes a tell-all memoir as James Gordon did, it would seem unlikely that the world will ever know who he—or rather they—were. That the Batman existed in one form or another for over five decades is, however, a matter of record. People in New York City and beyond will continue to wonder about the Batman’s secrets for many years to come.

Very cool, Daphne.

Now who's next?

Kevin, I almost hate you!
When I looked at the Index and saw that this thread and her other DC Superhero fiction thread were updated,
I could not contain my excitement that Daphne had written more entries.
But ..... all it was were your comments.
Like I said, I almost hate you.
Almost, because how can I hate someone with such good taste in reading?

And now, by submitting this post, here and in the other thread, I'm inviting someone else
to hate me for the same reason!
And the world goes round and round.