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.
Gotham’s law enforcement saw a new era of justice in the 1920s.
When J Edgar Hoover became the leader of the Bureau Of Investigation,
or as it would later be known, the FBI, he began to wage war on the American criminal underworld.
His career saw the arrests of John Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson, and many others,
but he could never quite pin down the criminals in Gotham City. His obsession with Gotham and
the Bat-Man put a lot of pressure on Gotham City’s police department. The BOI’s casefile
on the Bat-Man always seemed to be empty, mocking them with its minuscule information. Many in the
organization believed the vigilante had government backing of some kind, but nothing was ever proven.
Gotham was unique - many of its criminals achieved celebrity status among Gotham’s
citizens.In addition, William Randolph Hearst’s news empire ran daily coverage on violent crime
in America, shocking and titillating many listeners. A fair share of Gotham’s
criminals were dubbed “supervillains” and became household names. The Bat-Man’s battles with his
“Rogues Gallery” made them seem almost like the highly popular radio plays of the time.
Gotham also saw an influx of immigration as well as Americans relocating from the Southern states.
Gotham culture became a mixture of many different cultures,
as was often the case in America. This sudden influx caused numerous problems for the GCPD,
such as understaffing issues and rampant petty crimes going unpunished.
It also gave rise to many white nationalist secret societies in Gotham.
Well before the Bat appeared in Gotham, a young rookie joined the Gotham City Police Department.
The youngest child of Irish immigrants, James Gordon was the only one of his brothers to
survive the Great War. While he was not the only veteran to return home from those horrors,
he was one of the few who felt he still had more fight in him upon his return. James
found a desire to serve and protect his city, and saw the corruption seeded throughout it.
He quickly earned a reputation among his fellow officers as a fair but tough cop.
Many small-time crooks had bruises to show for their attempted bribery of Officer Gordon.
He also had little tolerance for racism and bigotry, his parents having been
immigrants themselves. Jim may have been one of only a few good men working for the city,
but one good man would be enough for the Bat-Man.
During those early days of Gordon’s career, the city was ravaged by gang wars between the Falcone,
Thorne, and Penguin gangs. Carmine Falcone had started a gang with his brothers, modeled after
the Sicilian mob in Chicago and New York. The Falcone Crime Family held most of the power in the
early days of Gotham’s underworld until Carmine’s death in 1924 during the Gotham Gang Wars.
The rest of the Falcone family was either arrested by the GCPD, or fled Gotham altogether.
Rupert Thorne was the corrupt city treasurer for Gotham, and had his hands in every facet
of the criminal underworld. His political career was simply a means to an end for him,
and he considered himself untouchable. Thorne had links to organized crime and
Gotham’s elite families, as well as some of Gotham’s white nationalist secret societies.
One of the Bat-Man’s first targets upon his appearance in Gotham was to topple
Thorne’s political standing. He accomplished this through lobbying efforts via Wayne Enterprises,
and destroying his underworld protection as the Dark Knight.
After this, Thorne became a fully-fledged gangster, running his own small operation.
He was eventually arrested, realizing he was in over his head during the Gang Wars.
The disgraced politician and mobster eventually turned himself in to the Bat-Man and the GCPD.
The Penguin was a constant pain to the GCPD.
He had an alibi for every accusation and the money to hire lawyers for every case.
Cobblepot was new blood in Gotham’s gang scene, and the victor in the Gotham Gang Wars.
His readiness to adapt to the change present in Gotham was what solidified his standing there.
In 1925, after many years of service, Commissioner O’Hara, the police commissioner at the time,
decided to step down. O’Hara was not a corrupt man, nor was he ill-intentioned,
but he was not young. He no longer had the enthusiasm or stamina needed for the job.
He saw those qualities that he lacked in one of his younger captains, James Gordon.
His last decision as acting commissioner was to promote Captain Gordon to Commissioner of GCPD.
This sparked the beginning of a new era in the GCPD.
Gordon was the Bat-Man’s inside man, and the two reached an agreement.
The Bat would clean the streets of Gotham, and the GCPD would make sure they stayed that way.
Not long after this agreement was reached, however, Jim almost quit because of the
paralysis inflicted on his daughter by the Joker. Barbara convinced her father to stay in
active duty for the sake of the city, as he was so close to bringing actual change to the city.
Soon after, the infamous “Bat-Signal” was erected on the roof of the GCPD headquarters.
It was a way for the police to contact the Bat-Man, and a reminder to the criminal
element that the Bat was watching. Jim Gordon also had decent support within his police force
in Detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya. Harvey was loud, mean, and lazy. He also was
known to visit the occasional speakeasy or plant evidence to aid the GCPD in arrests.
Bullock was often at odds with the Commissioner due to his support of the Bat and other costumed
vigilantes, but he respected Gordon more than anyone else on the force.
He was also dependable and got the job done, no matter what.
Renee Montoya was very different from Bullock. She was the first woman detective in the history of
the GCPD, so the pressure was already on, but on top of that, her Hispanic heritage brought another
level of discrimination from her colleagues. We now know that Detective Montoya was also a
lesbian, which she would have kept secret to avoid further scrutiny. She would have felt
pressured from every side to give up her badge, but her courage and resilience kept her there.
When Montoya was partnered with Bullock by Commissioner Gordon, Harvey was furious. Jim had
little patience for Harvey’s casual racism, which is why he paired the two, unfairly to Montoya.
Detective Bullock’s mentality changed drastically during his time with her. For the little patience
Harvey had for Renee, she had even less for him. Every bit of pushback he gave her was met by equal
force from her. She challenged him on his corrupt and racist tendencies whenever she got the chance.
The two of them eventually gained respect for each other, and Harvey changed.
They had each other’s backs, and the two of them were an unstoppable team.
As the relationship between the GCPD and the Bat-Man grew, so did something else in the
shadows. Roman Sionis was born to one of the newer wealthy families in the Gotham scene.
The Sionis family gained their fortune from cosmetics and their chain of drugstores.
Roman’s father, Charles, was the figurehead for the company.
Roman grew up in the same social circles as Bruce Wayne, but Roman always resented Bruce and the
seemingly perfect family dynamics of the Waynes. Roman’s parents discouraged emotion and love,
choosing their fortune and social status over them. Charles Sionis had a grudge with the Waynes
as well; they had refused to join the FFS, an organization formed by Charles with ugly roots.
In Gotham’s early years, some of Gotham’s elite families banded together forming the False Face
Society, a White Nationalist organization with connection to the KKK. They were not
the only one of these groups, but they were one of the most prominent ones.
The members of the FFS wore masks not only to conceal their identities, but also to represent
their true selves. Their philosophy was that the masks they wore were symbolic of the masks
common citizens wear in society, hiding their true selves beneath false smiles and niceties.
By the time Charles had joined, however, their numbers and finances were dwindling. The FFS
eventually became less and less active over the years. After Charles Sionis’ passing, Roman took
on the family business, but soon found himself in over his head. He knew little of prudence,
and squandered the family fortune, simultaneously running Sionis Cosmetics into the ground.
With little left to his name, he turned to the group that had welcomed his father with open arms.
The False Face Society welcomed him too, and his youth and ambition eventually brought him to the
top of the chain of leadership. By 1925, white nationalist organizations were growing around
the country. Roman saw groups like the KKK gain 6,000,000 new members with their second wave,
as well as splinter groups form, such as the Black Legion. He saw an opportunity to wield
real power for once, by manipulating the fear, paranoia, and bigotry of his followers in the FFS.
He claimed that the Jewish and black population in Gotham would overtake the white citizens
and try to take control of the country. Donning a new mask,
one that resembled a skull, he took the name Black Mask, feared leader of the False Face Society.
Black Mask’s followers began numerous strikes against Jewish and black citizens.
Wayne Enterprises was also attacked. Black Mask specifically targeted Wayne Enterprises because
of the fact that Lucius Fox, a black man, secretly ran the company. It was a secret because of the
racial tension in America at the time, although it eventually became public after these events.
The Wayne family would’ve been considered progressive by the standards of their day for
hiring Lucius, although his importance was still kept hidden from the public eye. Bruce Wayne left
the day-to-day leadership of the company to Lucius because of his sharp mind and business skills.
Black Mask’s campaign against Mr. Fox ended up being his downfall,
as it allowed the GCPD and the Bat-Man to lay a trap for the deplorable criminal leader.
Over time, and after losing numerous members due to arrests, shootouts, and other various
circumstances, the False Face Society’s resources again began to dwindle. Black Mask,
becoming desperate, planned and attempted to execute a bald-faced raid on Wayne Enterprises
to attack Lucius Fox. All that awaited him and his followers was the Bat-Man and the GCPD.
After a scuffle, most of the remainder of the FFS had been arrested. Black Mask managed to make it
inside the building where he pulled a gun on the Bat-Man,which put them at a stalemate. In spite of
this, Black Mask failed to notice Lucius sneaking up behind him, wielding a typewriter. Mr. Fox
crept just close enough to hit Black Mask over the back of the head, incapacitating him. Even though
the immediate threat was gone, Black Mask’s last words before being locked away in Blackgate were
quite ominous. “You think this is over? You think we were bad? You have no idea. You have no idea…”
This arrest kicked off Commissioner Gordon’s career, cementing him in the public view as
a trustworthy force for good. It was also the spark that ignited the police’s full support
for the Bat-Man’s crusade, for better or for worse. It seemed that Gotham’s crime rate was
going to see a substantial decrease, but as it turned out, this was just the beginning. Darker
days were yet to come, and Gotham had only seen a few of the terrors that the world had to offer.