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.
"This is Dr. Jonathan Crane at Arkham Asylum. The date is October 29th, 1923.
I’m here with James, one of our more volatile patients. Say hello, James. yYes, yes, I know,
it’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? Well, don’t worry, it will all
be over soon. Today, I plan to expose James here to a potentially lethal dose of my gas mixture.
The hope for today’s experiment is to see whether that affects his fear reaction differently
than when exposed to a normal dose. Time to put on my mask…"
Dr. Jonathan Crane: one of the leading psychologists in America in the 1920s,
doctor at Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, and one of the most deplorable men
to ever walk the face of the planet. Crane had gone to Gotham University
to study psychology in his younger days, and soon found opportunity knocking at his door.
Crane had been invited to take part in the “Little Albert” experiments,
and jumped at the chance to be on the research team. The “Little Albert” experiment’s purpose
was to take a perfectly normal child - an infant nicknamed “Albert” - and instill a phobia in him.
They would expose “Albert” to numerous stimuli - animals, masks, burning newspapers - to develop a
baseline. “Albert” showed no fear response when exposed to these. They then put “Albert” in a
room with a white rat, striking a metal bar with a hammer every time the child touched the animal.
This elicited a fear response in “Albert,” and the infant would cry and crawl away. This development
deeply impacted Crane; he was fascinated with phobias and fear. The other members of
the research team stated in their notes that Crane pushed them all to take the experiment further and
further. It made some of them uncomfortable. Crane himself regretted his obstinance during that time.
After enough instances of being exposed to the loud noise, “Albert” soon began to show signs of
fear even when exposed only to the rat. His fear became generalized, and he would cry and show fear
even around other furry animals and objects. This did not apply to all things with hair,
but the research team - and specifically Jonathan Crane - considered the experiment a success.
Soon, Jonathan moved on from the “Little Albert” experiment and graduated from
college. Dr. Crane found his fascination with phobias at the forefront of his research.
Wanting to focus on this fear-based psychology, he found employment at Arkham Asylum.
There, he worked under Dr. Hugo Strange, the warden and chief medical officer at the asylum.
At first, Dr. Crane was extremely uncomfortable with the environment at Arkham.
He witnessed numerous inhumane practices occurring under Strange’s watch,
and even enacted by Strange himself. He had come here to distance himself from the unethical nature
of the “Little Albert” experiment. Hugo Strange had no problem with human experimentation,
even conducting his own research on the inmates, unbeknownst to the authorities in Gotham City.
Strange encouraged the other medical and psychological staff to do the same;
he had twisted this place of healing into a sadistic playground, one where his employees
could live out their darkest fantasies. Dr. Crane was afraid to speak up; he was a recent hire,
and he considered the research he planned to do paramount to his career. So, he stayed,
continuing to do the best he could under the circumstances. Eventually, his willful ignorance
of the horrors happening at Arkham gave way to guilt, resentment, and finally, grim acceptance.
He found himself also making compromises in his morality “for the sake of research” as
Hugo Strange would put it. And so, Jonathan Crane took to beginning his experiments
into fear. He considered the conditions in Arkham to be unique; and took this as a sign to perform
some of the most unethical experiments ever conducted in the United States of America.
He used his knowledge of psychology and chemistry to develop a gas-based psychoactive drug.
This gas would bring people’s deepest fears to life, preying on their subconscious mind and
increasing their paranoia. He would test his drug on the inmates at Arkham, taking note of their
reactions and what they claimed to see while under the influence of his “fear toxin,” as Hugo Strange
dubbed it. The working relationship between Crane and Strange was an almost mentorly one.
Crane began to run his ideas and hypotheses by the warden of Arkham.
In Crane’s experimentation, numerous inmates died, but it was usually kept quiet by Strange.
He considered the experimentation happening behind closed doors to be
“out of sight, out of mind.” Eventually, the inmates of Arkham weren’t enough for Crane.
Crane - having heard reports of the mysterious
Bat-Man - realized the element he’d felt was missing from his experiments.
The Bat-Man used a persona - a moniker - to strike fear into the hearts of criminals in Gotham.
Dr. Crane saw this fear firsthand in some of the inmates that were admitted to Arkham. This sparked
an idea in Crane’s mind: he would use a persona to further his research and experimentation.
He would get to witness, up close and personal, this very fear. Utilizing his knowledge of both
the movie The Scarecrow, starring Buster Keaton, and the Scarecrow from the Wonderful Wizard of
Oz by L. Frank Baum, Crane constructed an outfit that he would use in his experiments.
He took material from hessian bags - collected from the Gotham Corn Kernel Company - and sewed
together a suit and mask. Crane also installed a secondary laboratory at the corn kernel factory.
He installed a gas mask within the mask he had made, and the result was a monstrous, patchwork
scarecrow costume. Jonathan Crane had become the Scarecrow. He would incorporate this outfit
into his experiments at the asylum, but still, his desire grew to increase his subject pool.
He turned his sights towards Gotham City. Wearing his outfit, the Scarecrow made his way through
Gotham under the cover of night. He would find random citizens walking alone, and approach them,
exposing them to his fear toxin. He would then watch their reaction to his costume, taking notes
upon returning to the Asylum. He would leave the unfortunate victim writhing on the street,
not caring whether the dosage he’d given them was lethal or not. Forty people were found,
writhing in fear and muttering unintelligibly, and three were found dead, an expression of
terror frozen on their faces. The police were baffled as to what could cause this. The Bat-Man
saw the fear building in Gotham as a result of these attacks. He began his own investigation.
One of the victims who had died was found clutching a scrap of hessian burlap. The
Bat-Man deduced that the victim had grabbed the attacker and torn a scrap off of their clothing.
Upon examining the burlap, the Bat discovered words printed on it, which led him to the Gotham
Corn Kernel Company. There he found numerous scraps of burlap, as well as chemistry equipment
and canisters of gas, labeled “fear toxin.” He studied the notes and research present here,
determining that the perpetrator had been using this place as a secondary base of operations.
It didn’t take much for the Bat-Man to determine the identity of the attacker:
Dr. Jonathan Crane. His name was scrawled within the notes numerous times in reference to himself.
The Bat-Man went to confront the doctor at Arkham Asylum.
Upon arriving there, Dr. Hugo Strange immediately told the Bat where he would find Dr.
Crane. There had once been a mutual respect between Strange and Crane, but the more
Crane began to increase the intensity of his experiments, the less he had communicated them
to Strange. The warden of Arkham felt no remorse for handing his colleague over to the Bat-Man.
Strange wished to put Crane in his place for his lack of communication with the warden.
The Bat went to confront Crane in his office, but the doctor immediately knew the jig was up.
Before the Bat-Man could even enter the office, he saw Crane exit and take off running. As he ran
through the asylum halls, he unlocked the cells of numerous inmates he’d experimented on. The fearful
inmates turned their fear on the Bat, attacking what they probably assumed was a monster. The
Bat-Man lost track of Dr. Crane, but he had a good idea of where the psychologist had gone. After
helping to round up the inmates, the Bat returned to the Gotham Corn Kernel Company building.
Sure enough, the Scarecrow was there. Before the Bat-Man could apprehend him, the Scarecrow sprayed
him with the fear gas he’d developed. Bruce Wayne describes the experience in his journals.
He saw his parents being murdered over and over again by a shadowy figure, sometimes faceless,
sometime with his own face, and sometimes with th face of various criminals he’d encountered. By
the time he snapped out of it, the Scarecrow was gone, along with most of his notes and equipment.
Gotham would not see the Scarecrow again for some time, as Crane kept a low profile after
nearly being apprehended by the law. The Bat-Man continued his investigation for months following
his encounter with the criminal, trying to crack the formula to Scarecrow’s fear toxin.
He hoped to identify an antidote or counter-agent. Scarecrow did not leave Gotham,
but continued his experiments quietly. He would abduct people off the street - mostly
the homeless and disenfranchised - and subject them to unimaginable terrors.
The Scarecrow would not appear again until the events of the Shadow War, having received contact
from the League of Assassins. They wished to employ his work in their takeover of Gotham City.
Jonathan Crane was more than happy to oblige. Years later, after the Scarecrow’s eventual
incarceration, his research would be acquired by the rising Nazi powers in Germany. Much of Crane’s
work would be incorporated into the horrible tests and experiments conducted on prisoners
in their concentration camps. Jonathan Crane would go down in history as one of the
deadliest men in US history. Later trials would determine that Crane was not criminally insane,
he was just a truly evil person. Jonathan Crane - the Scarecrow - would also heavily
impact the citizens of Gotham, and their fear would feed his twisted desires.
The Scarecrow was a name that would strike terror into the hearts of everyone who heard it.
"As hypothesized, the higher the dosage of fear gas, the more reaction the subjects have to my
countenance while masked. I think that this final test proves the effective cry of my formula,
and further testing will be required. It’s time to finally begin testing outside the
confines of Arkham. It’s time to take my formula to the streets of Gotham."