Pierre Antal

A talented European painter who twice becomes embroiled, albeit innocently, in a series of bizarre murders.

By August 1940 "socially eminent" Mr. Wylie - a man "insane about paintings" and "the patron of many a starving [artistic] genius" - has returned from a trip to Europe with Antal, his latest artistic discovery. Un­beknownst to his wealthy friends and acquaintances, however, Wylie is deeply in debt and has concocted an elaborate scheme to recoup his fortune by making Antal so famous that the value of his own collection of Antal paintings, which he purchased from the artist in Europe at bargain prices, will skyrocket.

The plot involves transforming each of Antal's care­ fully executed portraits of prominent citizens, which the artist paints during his sojourn in the United States, into a grim depiction of the subject's impending death. After Antal has painted the portrait of one socialite, for example, Wylie, taking care to remain unseen, plunges a dagger into the portrait's heart, then murders the man who sat for the portrait in the gruesome manner depicted in the mutilated portrait. Because Wylie cov­ers his face with a frightening skull-like mask when he commits the murders, and because he goes so far as to pretend that an attempt has been made on his own life, no one is able to deduce the identity of the murderer. Antal remains innocent of any wrongdoing, but the notoriety connected with his "prophetic pictures" will inevitably increase their value to'collectors.

Finally, after Wylie has committed three successful murders and been prevented by Robin from commit­ting a fourth, Bruce Wayne has his portrait painted by Antal in order to lure the murderer into a trap. When the mysterious murderer makes an attempt on Wayne's life, Batman captures him and unmasks him as art collector Wylie, but Wylie grabs a pistol and shoots himself rather than face trial and imprisonment. "He couldn't stand the disgrace!" murmurs Robin. "Much better this way!" agrees Batman. In December 1946-January 1947 a broker named Jennings, a singer named Louisa Ponelle, and an un­named lawyer are brutally murdered soon after having had their portraits painted by Pierre Antal. In each case, the portrait has been mutilated so as to depict the impending death of the subject, and Pierre Antal complains loudly to Batman and Robin that his artistic career is once again being threatened by a series of bizarre murders. Every detail of the new case, in fact, represents a bizarre re-creation of the old case (above), a case which Batman describes here as "our first really big case" and which he erroneously recalls as having been entitled "The Case of the Prophetic Murders,"

Recalling that Wylie, the murderer of six years ago, was apprehended when he attempted to murder Bruce Wayne, Batman and Robin set a similar trap for their new antagonist. This time, however, they are taken prisoner and carried captive to the villain's house on the outskirts of Gotham City.

"I'm a psychologist," explains their captor, "…I have always thought that if your first big case had failed, you would not have become famous! So--I decided to prove that criminologists are successful only because of a good start--a lucky beginning! I chose you for the experiment… I picked your first famous case, reproduced it to prove that if you had failed to solve it, you would never have become famous!… By altering the pattern of your first case--producing a failure instead of a success--I expect to induce a failure psy­chosis in you--a loss of nerve!"

"He is mad!" exclaims Batman, after the villain has left them alone, locked inside an escape-proof room. "An egomaniac!"

Certain that they will be brutally murdered as soon as their captor has completed his maniacal psychologi­cal experiment, Batman settles on a daring plan which he feels "might unbalance an egomaniac completely" and give them a precious opportunity to escape.

When the villain returns, Balman and Robin pull off their masks, announce that they are not really Batman and Robin at all, and claim that they had merely been standing in for the real Batman and Robin, who are busy making a radio broadcast. When the murderer turns on the radio to confirm whether or not they are telling the truth. he actually hears the voices of Batman and Robin, who had prerecorded a radio broadcast sometime prior to their capture.

"It--it's true!" cries the villain, clearly staggered by the thought that his elaborate psychological attack has been directed against the wrong persons. "All my work--wasted! Wasted!"

As his mind snaps under the strain of his failure, the villain grabs a pistol and fires wildly at Batman and Robin, who somehow manage to avoid being hit. Fi­nally, the tormented madman turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger in an ironic reenactment of the death of the man whose brutal murders he had so cunningly recreated.