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.
Pamela Lillian Isley was born to a wealthy, progressive family. Her mother was from France,
having met Pamela’s father in America. Early on, education was one of the family’s top priorities.
Pamela’s mother challenged her to think outside the norms of everyday society,
whether in regards to traditional marriage, education, or being a woman in 1920s America.
This led to a very strict educational regimen for Pamela, as well as extensive household
rules. From a young age, Pamela felt very small next to the high expectations of her parents.
Pamela discovered and became fascinated with plants and botany.
The plants were her refuge if life ever became overwhelming. Once she reached young adulthood,
she went to Gotham University to study botany, staying true to her family’s progressive nature.
She was top of her class, and it became evident that Pamela was extremely intelligent. She
completely absorbed everything she learned about botany and plant life. Because of this, she was
set to be one of the first women in a field that most other women could only dream of being in.
Pamela truly only cared for her studies, but she was quite beautiful.
Many boys in her classes vied for her affections, but she cared little for any of their advances.
The young woman had been denied her own desires for so long by her parents.
Eventually, however, her love for her studies became fixated upon her professor, a married
man. She found him very attractive, but it wasn’t until the professor began to notice her attraction
to him that the two began an affair. Pamela’s professor took advantage of her attraction to him,
making illustrious promises to her. He promised he would leave his wife and family for her, he even
promised to help her gain prestige in her future career. Pamela was so enamored by these promises
that she couldn’t see the emptiness behind them. Eventually, word got out about their affair.
Panicking, Pamela’s professor cut off their relationship, returning to his family. Pamela
was expelled from Gotham University, crushing her dreams of becoming a full-fledged botanist.
Her family, upon learning of her escapades, also cut her off, leaving her without any money. Pamela
was heartbroken; she felt lied to, used, and alone. She promised herself that she would never
be taken advantage of again and that she would never allow herself to be the victim of the story.
Realizing that she was without money and resources, she began to form a plan.
Long had she spurned the advances of boys in her classes, but she would utilize the beauty she had
been born with. Pamela would meet with and form romantic entanglements with young socialite men,
using her charm to gain gifts and money from them.
The way she would pick her targets was with the help of women who had been used and cast aside
just like she had. The men she targeted were self-centered, misogynistic, and had left a
trail of destruction in their wake, ruining the lives of these disenfranchised women. She also
targeted other men who used their positions of power to take advantage of the working class.
This worked to an extent, but she soon began to realize that when these men became too attached,
it jarringly reminded her of her professor. She couldn’t stand it, and realized she needed a way
to break off these relationships when they had reached the limit of their usefulness.
Finding use in her knowledge of botany, Pamela experimented with plants she had acquired over the
years, and discovered new toxins and poisons could be derived from them, having different effects.
Some could paralyze and some proved lethal. She tended toward the latter. Pamela laced these
poisons into her perfume and lipstick. She also developed antidotes for her own use in order to
build up a resistance to the toxins she developed. Now, when a relationship had reached its end,
she would bestow the kiss of death upon the men who had unwittingly given her their hearts.
Police were baffled but the strange string of deaths. They had difficulty locating any
common threads other than the fact that these men were all wealthy and allegedly corrupt. The
fact that these men were so enamored with her ended up helping the police: one of her victims
was found clutching a framed photograph of her even as he lay dying. This helped the police
to determine their first and most likely suspect. The local newspapers had a field day with Pamela,
giving her the moniker “Poison Ivy” due to her beauty and the nature of the killings.
Poison Ivy’s base of operations was a hole-in-the-wall decommissioned flower
shop in the Bowery called Baudilaire’s. Here, she could cultivate her plants and remain undetected.
The building had been abandoned for years, and would remain so, making a perfect hideaway.
Even after the discoveries made by police, she still managed to stay undetected for quite awhile.
Ivy became very good at covering her tracks, and the police never knew which socialite men
would be her next victim. One of the“golden goose” prospects she had her eyes set on was Bruce Wayne,
Gotham’s prince, but she never managed to find good opportunities to get close to the
millionaire. Although she managed to stay one step ahead of the police, Ivy eventually found
herself in over her head. Once the Bat-Man and the Bat-Girl became involved in the investigation,
they soon found the commonality in the plants the toxins were being derived from.
The trail led back to Baudilaire’s, where Ivy had been hiding.
She was apprehended by the masked vigilantes and turned over to the GCPD.
Ivy’s trial ended with her being declared clinically insane and suffering from hysteria,
as was often the verdict for women who had deviated from “societal norms.”
She was sentenced to Arkham Asylum for rehabilitation.
It was here that she met a young woman, a custodian named Harleen Quinzel.
The two struck up casual conversations from time-to-time, finding some commonalities.
In spite of their amicable acquaintance, Ivy watched over the months as Harleen came to visit
less and less, becoming more enamored with the Clown Prince of Crime. Ivy thought it a
monumental waste; Harleen seemed nice, and it was well known by most that Joker was manipulative.
She watched Harley spiral to the point of freeing the Joker and becoming a criminal herself.
In the confusion of their breakout, Poison Ivy also escaped. She had gotten her hands
on plants from Arkham’s garden yard, and she used it to poison her guard and steal his keys.
While the rest of Arkham’s staff was distracted by the Joker and Harley,
Ivy made a break for it, escaping into the woodlands surrounding the Asylum.
After her escape, Ivy managed to track down Harley. Joker and Harley had gone
on a cross-country crime spree after their escape, but eventually they returned to Gotham.
Ivy sent Harley correspondence, and the two remained in touch. After another of the Joker’s
incarcerations, Harley was distraught, and the two met up, going on a brief crime spree of their own.
They called it a “girls night out,” and robbed numerous convenience stores.
Ivy’s encouragement and friendship to Harley was one of the reasons that Harley Quinn was
eventually able to leave the Joker and their toxic relationship, setting out on her own.
It was determined that Harley and Ivy may even have been romantically involved,
due to some of the correspondence between the two of them. It would’ve been a secret
romance due to the injustices and prejudices faced by lesbian and gay couples in the 1920s.
No one can say with absolute certainty what became of Poison Ivy.
She managed to evade police, falling completely off their radar. By the end of her criminal
career, she had become a master at covering her tracks, and her murders had died down.
Some reports of murders similar to her M.O. appeared out of Europe, and it is speculated
that she may have moved to France to live out her days, as her mother’s homeland.
Poison Ivy’s crimes were a wake up call for the wealthy men of Gotham. While her methods had
been extreme, and the ends did not justify the means, Ivy’s pain had been real. The emotional
manipulation perpetrated by her professor had been unjust, and represented ideals amongst
Gotham’s socialite circles that were corrupt, sexist, and demeaning. Whatever became of her,
Poison Ivy became somewhat of an urban legend after her disappearance. Even now in Gotham,
children tell tales of the “Witch of the Bowery,” and warn each other not to venture out at night.
Still others see her as a hero, having struck back at those abusing their power against women
and the working class. Poison Ivy will long be remembered in the annals of Gotham’s history
as a highly controversial, even mythological, figure.