A sense of duty and a will to do good is sometimes more than enough reason to fight for justice. Such is the case in our profile on...

The Topper

    Just after midnight in Gotham, a young woman named Bess is trying to escape two thugs who are chasing her. Seeing a door carelessly left ajar by some tenant, she enters the hotel apartment. But she only meets death there at the hands of her pursuers. This is the scene that wealthy young Barry Graham finds when he returns to his apartment after a dull evening. Barry calls the police, but, when they arrive, the two policemen wrongly conclude that Barry is the culprit. Luckily for Barry, the desk sergeant, O'Brien, knows that Barry is an upright man and has him released.

    Arriving home, Barry finds his apartment ransacked, and crooks waiting for him with saps in hand. But from an open window a shot rings out disarming one of the thugs, and they flee in terror. A woman enters through the window and explains to Barry that the murdered girl was her sister. Bess was mixed up with organized crime and was trying to get a gangland list to the police, so she could redeem herself and go straight. Janet, the dead girl’s sister, is out to avenge her death with Barry's help. They find the list and confront the gang boss. He confesses, and the pair turns him over to the police.

    The very next evening, Janet gets a start when a masked figure comes through her window. It is Barry, who now has taken on the identity of the Topper! Having never realized before how much crime there was in the world, he resolves to fight it as the Topper. His trademark would be a top hat and cane on a calling card. With Janet's aid, the Topper will become the scourge of evil and corruption.