The following story and photos are from Giant Panda King's book,
Gotham 1919-1939 by Russall S. Beattie, available from www.giantpandaking.com.
Viewer discretion is advised.
What if - all of a sudden - you could no longer trust an everyday household
object? What if playing cards or drinking water could kill you? That is precisely what
the citizens of Gotham experienced with Mitchell Mayo. Mitchell was born and raised in Gotham, and,
even from a young age, had big aspirations. He was a normal enough person, at least, on the surface.
As a child, he’d always felt that he was playing “catch-up” to his peers, but he had an eye for
details. As an adult, Mitchell got a job working for the Gotham-based company, “Condiment King.”
The company produced a wide variety of products: tomato catsup, relish,
mustard, and much more. Mitchell worked in the quality control department at the company.
Condiment King was a household name in Gotham, competing with Heinz and Kraft.
Mitchell liked his job at Condiment King, but his ambition made him want more.
He became abrasive - almost antagonistic - towards his fellow employees.
He had incredibly high standards; some would even say unrealistic standards. This led to him
receiving numerous warnings from his superiors regarding his behavior. Mitchell Mayo had seen
many men work in jobs like his their entire lives, only to work themselves into their graves.
He decided that he would not end up like those men, he would make a name for himself.
He would do whatever he needed to to make sure that no one would ever forget him.
Using his knowledge of quality control and his position at the Condiment King company,
Mitchell devised a plan. He would randomly select bottles of various condiments - catsup,
mustard, mayonnaise - and poison them. He crafted letters to send to the company,
but waited until seven people had died to send his first bit of correspondence.
These letters were signed “Yours truly, The Condiment King,” in mockery of the company
and its mascot. Mitchell saw this as only fitting. He demanded payment from the company, or he would
continue to poison their customers randomly. The owners of Condiment King Co. were distraught,
but they had no idea who was behind the despicable blackmail scheme. The police were brought in to
try and discover who was behind it all, but they were stumped. Then the Bat-Man came onto the case.
The Bat-Man went over the evidence the police did have: the letters. They had been crafted from
individual letters clipped from newspapers and magazines. This made it nearly untraceable. After
analyzing it with his own equipment, the Bat found small traces of sugar and vinegar on the paper.
He traced it to the kind being used by Condiment King Co., thus confirming his suspicions: that the
person poisoning these condiments was someone who worked at the very company being extorted.
At first, the owners of the company were skeptical when given this information.
They thought that there was no way such a thing could happen under their watch.
This didn’t stop the Bat-Man from continuing with his investigation anyway.
The Bat surmised that the poisonings happened either after the quality control department’s
checks, or during them. It did not take long for the masked vigilante to discover the truth behind
this self-proclaimed “Condiment King”: Mitchell Mayo was the man responsible. Thinking that he
had covered his tracks well enough, Mitchell was shocked when he was confronted by the Bat-Man.
He was not physically formidable enough to put up a fight, and did not struggle when the Bat turned
him into the GCPD. Mitchell was sentenced to life at Blackgate Federal Penitentiary.
Mitchell Mayo had made a name for himself, even if he had not ended up where he thought he would. His
reign of terror as the “Condiment King” struck headlines in Gotham. He had sullied the name
of a well-known and loved company in Gotham, and it struck the company itself a large blow.
Condiment King Co. ended up changing its name due to declining business and sale of its products.
The company was eventually bought out by Heinz. Mitchell saw his infamy in the paper, and while
Blackgate was a difficult environment for him, he relished in his moment in the spotlight. Mitchell
would spend the rest of his days in Blackgate, eventually dying due to mysterious circumstances.
Some speculate that he was poisoned by a guard who had been bribed by a family member of one of his
victims. Others speculate that he died of natural causes. Whatever the case, it is lost to history,
and the Condiment King’s reign of terror had come to an end.