Chapter Two: Year One (1939-1940)
"Overseas, America was soon to fight a war like no other. In Gotham, one man was fighting a war that was unprecedented since Robin Hood. A war of one man against an entire organisation that was willing to destroy all in its path. It was a war of courage, intelligence and dark obsession."
CIA Director Felix Leiter, an extract from his autobiography 'Memoirs From the Shadows'
The first sign Batman was in Gotham was that of three beaten bodies left on a pavement. The three men were ordinary hoodlums who had tried to break into an apartment on Gotham's Upper East Side. When discovered by police, all three men gave statements that a man dressed like a "Black Devil from Hell" had fallen upon them and beat them into unconsciousness. Unsurprisingly, this description was dismissed as the ramblings of a drunken trio who were perhaps beaten by a group of people who they'd angered in some manner.
After arresting the group for breaking and entering, GCPD were happy to let the matter drop there and get back to normal. This was until the 13th May, when a mugger was taken down in Robinson Park. Those who alerted the police told them that the mugger had been taken down by "A giant bat" and the criminal himself babbled on about his attacker. Once again, the police ignored the reports as they were dismissed as hysterical nonsense.
Throughout the rest of May though, more and more people reported seeing someone dressed as a bat, typically near or at a crime scene. It was soon impossible for the police to continue to ignore the statements of witnesses and an official statement was released after the Gotham Gazette published an article on the Batman in late July. While refusing to actually admit there was a vigilante stalking the streets of Gotham, the statement did call for "… Vigilance on part of the public for helping police apprehend a dangerous and mentally unstable person who has taken to walking around the streets, dressed as a bat."
Although the statement was met with derision and many in Gotham's upper classes wondering what they were paying the police force for, an event was about to take place that would ultimately change things completely. On the 31st August, a dinner party took place at the Mayor's Mansion that comprised of some of Gotham's leading citizens and major members of the Falcone family, including Carmine Falcone himself. Among these was then Commissioner Loeb of the GCPD.
What happened on that night has long been shrouded in legend as none of those who attended ever wanted to admit neither what had happened nor how it had affected them. The one reliable piece of testimony was given years later by a Falcone family member named Frederick Rhino (Known more commonly as Rhino by his peers) who only ever spoke of what had happened decades after the fact. Rhino had been hired as protection for the evening along with a score of others although the job was generally regarded as a waste of an evening. After all, who'd be stupid enough to attack the very heart of Gotham's elite and expect to walk away from it?
It turned out that someone indeed dared to strike at the group that evening. According to the testimony of Rhino, things had been going smoothly, the meal had been excellent and everyone had enjoyed themselves. One person had raised the issue of Batman, but the figure was dismissed as a useful tool to strike into the hearts of the lower class criminals and certainly couldn't hurt them. This arrogance had its fall as the lights in the mansion went out, no doubt orchestrated by the Batman to hide his presence during his infiltration of the mansion.
Rhino spoke of the annoyance of those assembled around the dining table at this inconvenience, something which soon turned to horror when a single light came from the table itself, the darkness being pushed back only to show the face of a man clad in a black cowl. The shock of this was soon compounded as the man offered a stark promise, the feeding upon Gotham's people was now over and that they would be brought to justice.
With a sudden flash, the room once more descended into darkness and by the time lights could be found, the Batman was gone completely. A search was ordered in the mansion but the cowled man was nowhere to be found and it was if he had never been there in the first place.
Now such a tale would only produce questions and scepticism from any decent journalist, especially when taking into account Rhino was later successfully prosecuted for perjury. As sources go, his credibility is quite low. However, there are several circumstances that appear to add weight to Rhino's story. Several of Gotham's finest families took sabbaticals away from the city after that night, even at a time when it was unfashionable to do so. Many of them even bought property in other cities along the coast with New York suddenly becoming the popular spot for secondary homes for Gotham's elite.
The most interesting support for Rhino's story comes from the GCPD itself the very day after the dinner party. An order, coming from Commissioner Loeb himself, was sent out to all Gotham stations, telling the rank and file that Batman was to be brought in at all costs. There were no activities in the preceding weeks that would have made Batman more of a target than he had already been defined as, a lone mentally disturbed person. Although it was largely conjecture and coincidence, there is a lot to suggest that Batman did indeed strike on that summer evening.
The 31st August incident represented a break from how the Batman was perceived not only by the police, but Gotham as a whole. An article ran in the local newspaper, the Gotham Gazette, asking the question of what Batman was hero, or villain? The question was asked by Alexander Knox, a reporter who would become famous for his own connection with Batman later on. Knox looked into the effect Batman was already having as it appeared crime rates had dipped since his arrival into Gotham.
The article did cause a stir when published, so much so that the Gotham Gazette published a full retraction in its next edition, having been pressured into it by Commissioner Loeb. The official reasoning was that the article had been inappropriate considering the Batman's obvious mental issues. An unofficial, yet more likely reasoning was that the police had no wish for anyone to paint the Batman in any kind of heroic light. Knox would continue to write what articles he could in the Gazette regarding Batman, but it would be several years before he could print an article telling his full side on matters.
The initial campaign that turned Batman into a fully-fledged outlaw continued as the full force of Gotham's legitimate powers and the underworld. September and October saw increased attacks by Batman on the criminal element, focusing on the Falcone crime syndicate as he attacked fronts for the syndicate. Bars, night clubs and gambling dens were all attacked and money destroyed on premises. The strikes against Falcone business interests were constant and without the crime organisation able to fight back against their attacker.
The run up to Christmas 1939 saw the Falcone family vulnerable for the first time since Carmine Falcone had first taken over the organisation. The constant attacks on its manner of money laundering had humiliated Carmine Falcone personally while damaging the organisation, albeit not to a great extent. The Batman had shaken confidence in the Falcone organisation, but they still ruled Gotham.
Two men had a meeting that would go onto undermine this confidence in the Falcone organisation however, the two men being a young Assistant District Attorney, and Lieutenant James Gordon of the GCPD. Harvey Dent was a native of Gotham who had studied law and had worked in the District Attorney's office for three years before Batman had arrived. He had already gained a reputation for honesty that was unusual amongst his peers and had successfully prosecuted a number of cases. The arrival of Batman and his attacks on the Falcone crime family had allowed him to get closer to them via investigations into the Batman himself.
James Gordon was another native to Gotham, although he had spent fifteen years outside of the city, rising to the rank of Lieutenant in Chicago. He played a large role in bringing down the remaining corrupt elements in Chicago's city council after Al Capone's downfall. Gordon proved to be overly successful in this as he also brought down officers who'd previously been in Capone's pocket. Such a move had made Gordon unpopular enough that he was transferred to Gotham, largely for his own safety. Gordon had arrived back in Gotham on the 15th May, while Batman was still unknown.
These two men, although not making waves like Batman, were already building names for themselves by New Year as Gordon was gaining a reputation for refusing bribes while Dent was slowly worming his way into Falcone's business fronts to uncover the truth. Interviews with Gordon later revealed that he and Dent started to work together fairly early on, a meeting taking place between them on New Year's Eve concerning their attempts to keep clean in a very dirty city.
While Gordon has been honest regarding his dealings with Dent, general legal issues prevented him from being more open with his dealings with Batman. Although later journals revealed some details, Gordon kept Batman's involvement hidden even from them. From the period we are looking at though, Gordon's entries are caged whenever mentioning Batman and seem to limit to simply making mentions of, what he believes, Batman's effects on the criminal element was rather than his dealings with him.
What can be discovered, when reading through the lines of Gordon's own words and the later testimonies of Harvey Dent, the possibility of working with Batman was raised between the two men at this point. Although it was impossible to contact Batman it seemed, he was a man who contacted others, rather than be allowed himself to be found. The first meeting between Gordon and Dent was on the 31st December, the two using a New Year's party hosted by Commissioner Loeb. Both men were outcasts in their respective departments and they had heard of each other enough to strike up a conversation.
The conversation between Gordon and Dent concerned their respective positions as being among the few honest officials in Gotham before turning to Batman. At this point, Batman was regarded as a real person throughout Gotham and by its officials and any conversations regarding him was only natural. Both Gordon and Dent agreed that the Batman's constant strikes on the Falcone were a good thing and, according to Dent's later accounts, the two agreed that they should consider working with the Batman.
Due to Dent's later instability, we must take his entire testimony with a grain of salt and Gordon always denied the alleged alliance between him and Batman. The depth of the alliance between the three men shall possibly remain a mystery for the ages unless new evidence is uncovered. Nevertheless, the testimonies of those involved still allow us to see that both Dent and Gordon recognised the state of Gotham, and that something needed to be done.
New Year soon passed and Batman remained at large, much to the continuing embarrassment of the police force. As the vigilante had been cast as a man with severe mental issues, the fact he remained free was a gross embarrassment for the GCPD and Commissioner Loeb in particular. Carmine Falcone was recorded by witnesses as visiting the Commissioner in his office in early February, no doubt concerning the failure to bring Batman in.
Carmine was no doubt feeling pressure himself as the months had gone by. An attack by Batman onto a bookies owed by the Carmine family on the 17th February had alerted the police, a group of officers led by James Gordon burst in to try and capture Batman just as the vigilante escaped. Now an official crime scene, the bookies was scoured by Gordon and his close allies, a series of documents starting a paper trail that linked the illegal gambling operation to a local bank chain.
Elliot & Gates was a bank that had a long history in Gotham, linked to two major families in the city's history. It was also one of the largest banks used by the Falcone family for money laundering with nearly one million dollars going through it every year. The paper trail from the bookies had led the GCPD to the bank, James Gordon managing to work together with Harvey Dent to gain a warrant to raid the bank in connection with the illegal gambling ring. Although Carmine Falcone still had control over the GCPD, the thought of several dozen cops of questionable honesty rifling through his bank and close to his money made the mob boss uneasy.
As a result, Carmine soon withdrew all money from the bank, placing it in his warehouses along the waterfront as a security measure in the expectation that the police would end their investigation. Despite undoubtedly putting pressure on Loeb to do such a thing, a paper trail linking the withdrawn money to the gambling ring was discovered which then led on to three other banks in Gotham. The race was on to withdraw the money, the Falcone family soon having most of their liquid assets hidden in warehouses along the docks.
The actual amount that Falcone made still is hard to be certain of. Certainly, the repealing of Prohibition had hit his business hard in the early 1930's although before the appearance of Batman, he had managed to stabilise it quite well. An estimate has been put forward that shows Carmine Falcone's income was second perhaps only to fellow mobster Al Capone at his height. His undue influence in Gotham brought Falcone roughly $60,000,000 a year from gambling, prostitution, rackets and various other business fronts. Even considering the amount Carmine had to spend to keep Gotham dirty, his own personal fortune came close to a further $80,000,000 including the value of properties and various holdings.
By the 3rd May, the Falcone family was starting to feel the pinch as Gordon and Dent had managed to raid almost every major bank in Gotham that had a strong connection to the Falcone family. Later interviews with some of Falcone's men revealed that this was the period where he first considered having both Gordon and Dent killed off as a matter of convenience and to restore some fear to the family name. This was a risky move; even Gotham's jaded populace not having experienced a brutal murder of a police officer and ADA in this manner. But the pressure was starting to show on Carmine Falcone and attempts to bribe or threaten either man had been refused.
Before such a move could be made however, news was taken to Carmine that affected him deeply. On the 8th May 1940, Carmine Falcone was sitting in his office, discussing the best way to deal with this threat on his organisation's power, when a made-man by the name of Tony Zuco came to him with devastating news. The warehouses storing the liquid assets of the Carmine family had gone up in flames. Rumours and reports concerning the actual amount differ due to speculation and legend regarding the family's wealth although an estimate of $50,000,000 is not beyond the realm of plausibility.
Hearing the news of the fire made Carmine finally lose control. After months of being defied and humiliated, he apparently started to shoot up his office, hurling abuse at his subordinates and wanted to know who was responsible. A nervous Zuco told him that Batman had been seen in the area and workers there had told everyone that they'd been scared off by him before the fire had started. Having overlooked Batman since the raids on the banks began, Falcone must have realised his mistake and went further into a rage before putting a $500,000 bounty on Batman's head.
Despite the promise of such a reward, the Falcone family had been hit the hardest it had ever been. First, Batman had robbed them of their security. Then, he'd robbed them of people's respect. Gordon and Dent had deprived them of people's fear. But now, Batman had hit the hardest blow and destroyed the money which had kept the corruption of Gotham flowing. In just one year, Batman had gone from a minor nuisance to having torn the Falcone Empire to pieces.
It was a magnificent start, and Batman was only getting warmed up.
The Third chapter of this little story and hope it entertains. I know this is something a bit different, but proving to be fun to write and hope it's fun to read as well.
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