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Supporting Characters
Nellie Wheaten (Later Wheaton)
Nellie Wheaten was an adolescent girl who lived on her father's farm. The fugitive musician 88 Keyes arrived the farm to hide from law enforcement, and Nellie became enamored of his handsome appearance and talent.
- The Bus Came Back: Around the same time that Moon Maid seems to come back to life, she's seen again. Strangely despite Tracy and Junior having aged greatly, she doesn't seem to have aged a day.
- Farmer's Daughter: A particularly young version of this.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Love Makes You Dumb: Generally, Nellie, gentlemen trying to avoid the attention of the police may not make ideal boyfriends.
- Precocious Crush: Her primary reason for helping 88-keys. After getting over them, she rapidly gets one on Dick Tracy, much to her father's chagrin.
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No Yay: 88-Keys exploits Nellie's crush on him for all it's worth to get as much use out of her as possible.
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- Redemption Equals Death: Attempted and averted. The second she realizes what 88-keys and his accomplice are up to, she crashes the car with all of them in it in an attempt to kill everyone inside, but survives the crash.
- Sole Survivor: She's the only person to work for 88-Keys and avoid dying or imprisonment.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Puts a cap and some boy clothes on and drives 88-Keys around.
- Wholesome Crossdresser
Frizzletop
A former Army nurse, missing an arm, who's introduced trying to find a known criminal for her own reasons.
- Amateur Sleuth: Ends up temporarily becoming one of these after Tiger Lilly hires her at his clubhouse, suspecting something's afoot and spying on him.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost her left arm during a Japanese air raid in the Philippines.
- Death Notification: When she appears in the strip, she's hunting down Tiger Lilly in order to tell him that his brother has died.
- Her Heart Will Go On: She was engaged to John Lilly, Tiger Lilly's brother, who'd been stationed in the Philippines and died in the same raid that cost her her arm. When she returns in 2012, it turns out she's married Dennis O'Copper.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She's a cousin to the largely-criminal Jones family, but we don't even know if she shared their last name, or if Frizzletop even is a nickname.
- Plucky Girl: Even after the tragedy she's been through, she's got a strong spirit.
- Retcon: The 2010s series explicitly made her a cousin to the Jones family, although it wasn't exactly a big leap, considering her moniker.
- School Nurse: After going back to Texas, she becomes the nurse at a daycare facility for children of war workers.
- White Sheep: Cousin to Flattop and Blowtop Jones, and one of the few unambiguously good members of the Jones family.
Villains
Jerome "The Midget" Trohs
A diminutive gangster and armed robber, who partnered with his girlfriend "Mama", and used a massive dog for his escapes.
- Cigar Chomper: Is often shown puffing on a huge cigar.
- Depraved Dwarf: As his nickname indicates, he's a very short man, and an unrepentant thief and murderer.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Is trapped inside a portable shower cabinet and scalded to death by Mama as revenge for abandoning her to the police.
- Fingore: Tries to crush Tracy's fingers in a vice to cripple him and keep him from ever using a gun again.
- Sdrawkcab Name: His last name "Trohs" is "short" backwards.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: His girlfriend Mama is even bigger than most regular men, much less someone Jerome's size.
Mama
The girlfriend and partner of Jerome Trohs AKA The Midget, Mama is a giant of a woman who towers over her boyfriend, and serves as his muscle.
- Cassandra Truth: Realizes exactly where Jerome is hiding and tells the police. They don't listen.
- The Dog Bites Back: After Trohs abandons her to the police and escapes on his own, she eventually tracks him down first and kills him by scalding him to death in a shower stall. Unlike most examples of this trope, this is pretty unwarranted, given Jerome had been treating her well and was in no position to help anyone else escape at the time.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: As mentioned above.
Yogee Yamma
Yogee Yamma was a confidence trickster who claimed to be a mystic.
- Fauxreigner: We don't know anything about his past, so this is a possibility.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's missing an eye and leaves it uncovered.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The mind-control gas he used was highly flammable at room temperature. After escaping Tracy, he got drunk in celebration and accidentally set his supply of it off.
- Lovely Assistant: He had his wife help him with the fake swami bit. It's unclear if she was being mind-controlled as well.
- Madwoman in the Attic: Mad Scientist in the Basement, actually. Poor Professor Roloc Drab was severely unhinged after being trapped in the basement and forced to make mind control gas for so long.
- Mind Control: He kidnapped a scientist who'd invented a drug that made people highly suggestible, and used it for a fake swami act where he robbed people.
Black Pearl Erad
Black Pearl Erad was a black market weapons dealer. Pearl and her gang had a criminal enterprise that involved stealing government blueprints for war machines such as tanks. Pearl would then produce and test prototypes and then sell the finished models to the highest bidders, which were usually hostile foreign powers.
- Femme Fatale
- Inscrutable Oriental
- Yellow Peril: Strangely enough, she's essentially a female version of this without being the Dragon Lady.
Deafy Sweetfellow
Deafy Sweetfellow (possibly an alias) ran a bicycle theft ring in Dick Tracy's city.
- Epic Fail: Tries to attack a skunk with blunt force. It doesn't go well for him.
- Obfuscating Disability: He's not actually hard of hearing, or even deaf.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted, when Junior shows up at his truck without backup, Deafy backs the truck over him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He and his gang run Junior over with a truck, hospitalizing him.
Krome
Krome was a killer for hire who operated the criminal organization known as Crime Inc.
- Affably Evil: Quite polite and gentlemanly.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After his girlfriend Kitty (who'd already shot his arm) accidentally helped him escape a shootout with Tracy, she planned to stop his crimes by shooting him, and Krome pleaded for his life. Kitty found this ironic, and decided to spare him and take him to her apartment. Bad idea, lady.
- An Arm and a Leg: In order to stop him from killing again, his girlfriend ambushed him while he and his partner Lowse were facing off with Tracy and Pat. This ultimately led to him getting his arm cut off due to it going gangrenous thanks to not getting proper medical help fast enough.
- Kill It with Ice: Between still being weak from his operation and having to free himself from an iced-over river, Krome was in no state to survive the cold, and ultimately froze to death.
- Professional Killer: And on Crime Inc.'s payroll.
- Shock and Awe: He manages to overpower Kitty and kill her by electrocuting her with her own hair dryer.
- Wicked Toymaker: He got a kick out of killing his targets by loading nitroglycerin bombs in toys.
Selbert Depool
Selbert DePool was a brute with dark circles around his eyes and a history of mental instability.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Depools are a mess, as you'll see.
- Clashing Cousins: Tired of being concealed in his aunt's house, he left his hiding place and ran into his cousin Myrna, who was also staying with their aunt. In order to keep her from squealing to the cops, he sealed her up in his hiding place.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: As can be seen in the picture.
- Evil Uncle: He claimed that his Uncle Angus had him Wrongfully Committed, and his aunt (Angus's wife) claimed that Angus had also been emotionally abusive and cruel to her. It's unclear how true either of these claims are.
- The Farmer and the Viper: His aunt was grateful that he'd killed her allegedly abusive husband and so concealed him in her home and destroyed the murder evidence. However, she also shot him after he locked up Myrna, and set her free. Then his aunt treated his non-fatal gunshot wound. Then he poisoned her wither own booby trap and burned her house down with her in it. Fortunately, Myrna had long fled the house. So...basically this?
- Super-Strength: Downplayed, but he can shove a steam bath cabinet over, which is how he killed his uncle.
- Wrongfully Committed: He claimed that he was perfectly sane and that his uncle had had him committed to invalidate his claim to the De Pool fortune.
"Little Face" Finny
A jewel thief with a notoriously oversized head that made his facial features look almost comically small.
- Demoted to Extra: In the 90's movie, he's one of the members of Lips's gang who's unceremoniously mowed down by Flattop during the opening scene.
- Ear Ache: Loses his ears to frostbite after he tries hiding from the police in a cold storage locker.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the 2000's "Mr Crime" storyline, he pulls one of these and infiltrates Mr Crime's gang. He'd also really rather be called 'Leonard', thanks.
The Mole
A smuggler who organized underground hideouts for wanted criminals in return for a part of their loot. Murdered his accomplice Oily when the latter tried to steal his money.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His granddaughter Molette.
- Heel–Face Turn: Served 19 years in prison after being caught, and went legitimate afterwards.
- King of the Homeless: In the modern age a large number of homeless people have moved into his hideout network, and they regard the reformed Mole as a beloved figure/leader. He's become a sort of free landlord who does his own repairs and maintenance.
- No Honor Among Thieves: His accomplice Oily tried to flee with their loot, leading to Mole killing him in revenge.
- Tunnel King: Excavated a series of tunnels and dugouts by himself to be used as safehouses for criminals.
B.B. Eyes
A gang leader and black market racketeer specializing in rubber tires during the rubber rationing of World War 2, B.B Eyes originally came to the City seeking revenge for his brother, the obscure villain Jaques.
- Avenging the Villain: His brother Jaques had been killed by Tracy some time earlier.
- Black Bead Eyes: The source of his name, he has notably tiny, beady eyes, similar to b.b pellets.
- Cop Killer: Particularly memorable in that he kills a recurring one from the 30s.
- Disney Villain Death: Was originally shown having drowned at the bottom of a river while stuck in an old tire, but reappeared in modern day perfectly fine.
- Knight of Cerebus: While the villains before him were certainly threats, B.B. stands out as one of the first villains to be capable of killing Tracy's fellow officers, and comes very close to killing Tracy several times.
- I Surrender, Suckers: B.B. throws his gun away when Tracy corners him. At first Tracy wonders why, but...
- Rugged Scar: Has a notable scar over one of his eyes, but strangely, this has nothing to do with his name.
Pruneface (Boche?)
A Nazi spy hiding out in the U.S under the guise of a respectable citizen, which eventually brings him into conflict with Tracy.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Is a gangster rather than foreign agent in the 1990 movie.
- Expansion Pack Past: The "Xylon Conspiracy" story arc, which revolved around a classified case set in the 1940's, and tied Pruneface to several other famous Tracy villains who were also involved, including Big Boy, Shakey and Flattop, none of whom he ever met in the original comics.
- Back from the Dead: Is revived decades after freezing to death by cryonics.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Has a whole family of Nazis and criminals.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife Mrs. Pruneface, as well as his daughter Prunella and granddaughter Prune Hilda.
- Facial Horror: The source of his name, for some unknown reason his face is heavily wrinkled and sagging, despite being relatively young, to the point that his eyes often disappear in the folds.
- Meaningful Name: Boche is German for, well, German.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His first name is a nickname and "Boche" was a name he used for his spy operations which may or may not be his real surname.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He passes his wrinkly skin condition down to his daughter and granddaughter.
- Those Wacky Nazis: He's a ruthless foreign agent.
88 Key(e)s
A sociopathic piano player turned murderer and extortionist.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Well, he's still a criminal in the movie, but nowhere near as bad as his comic counterpart, who was an unrepentant murderer, while the movie version is mostly just an amoral thief.
- Body in a Breadbox: Murdered his wealthy lover and hid her body in a grand piano.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Has a particularly bad case of this. Over the span of his storyline he kills three of his associates, two of which did nothing to cause it, and lets one be imprisoned.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Machine-gunned in a X pattern by Tracy, who correctly suspected he was hiding in a shed.
- Demoted to Dragon: In the 1990 movie, he's the Blank's primary henchman.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A "glamour boy" as Dick Tracy calls him, whose charming face hides a rotten heart.
- Famed In-Story: Keyes is a famous pianist in universe who'd cut a number of albums and played shows everywhere before his crimes were exposed. This makes going on the run more complicated than he'd like.
- Karma Houdini: In Dick Tracy Goes to War, he escapes to South America.
- Meaningful Name: He's a pianist with the surname of Keyes.
- Mistaken for Gay: In the film and novelization continuity. Both Lips and Big Boy believe this. He's not and is actually the secret boyfriend of Breathless Mahoney (despite her lust for Dick Tracy).
- Named by the Adaptation: Gets the first name Clarence in Dick Tracy Goes to War.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: At least in the comic and movie.
- The Simple Life is Simple: Averted pretty hard. He has no idea what he's doing when he hides out at a farm.
- Spell My Name With An S: In the comic, his surname is spelled Keyes, but outside sources such as the movie usually spell it as Keys.
Ana (Boche?) aka Mrs. Pruneface
The equally deformed wife of Pruneface.
- Amazonian Beauty: When she has her makeup, she's an appealing woman.
- Baldness Means Sickness: She has some hair, but what little we see poking out of her hood is thin and patchy, in keeping with her origin story of having her head/face burned badly. When disguised she opts for a wig.
- The Baroness: The Rosa Klebb variety but capable of disguising herself as a beautiful woman.
- Berserk Button: Do not mess with her whip, even if you're a beloved servant. She'll beat you to death.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Played with. She's quite feminine even if she has the strength and build of an ox, and is an extremely capable cook.
- I Was Quite a Looker: She had a can of gasoline flung into her face and set aflame as she and her husband were fleeing Europe. She says her "beautiful woman" disguise is based off of her past self.
- Master of Disguise: Was capable of hiding her deformity.
- Spanner in the Works: Gets a job working as a cook for the Mayor but gets tossed in the pool, which destroys her makeup.
- Super-Strength: Has a powerful build and the strength to match.
"Laffy" Smith
Laffy Smith was a criminal who forged prescriptions as way to obtain drugs, which he then sold to dealers. Laffy had the habit of laughing compulsively.
- The Hyena: His nickname came from his compulsive laughter.
Flattop Jones
A professional hitman from Crookson Hills, Oklahoma, brought into the city to kill Dick Tracy at the behest of the mob. Widely considered to be one of Tracy's most dangerous and iconic foes.
- Abusive Parents:
- According to his brother Sharptop, he and Flattop spent much of their formative years working on their uncle and aunt's farm, where the former would beat Flattop.
- While it's implied he wasn't around much for either his son or his daughter, it's also implied he wasn't a good father even when he was around.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Zigzagged: He laughs at Tracy's sarcastic cracks while he has the detective captive, but primarily because he has the upper hand.
- Arch-Enemy: Shares this title for Tracy alongside Big Boy in the comics.
- Avenging the Villain: Flattop's death led to his brother, wife and daughter coming out of the woodwork to get revenge on Tracy, even though Flattop dying wasn't even his fault, as Flattop had accidentally drowned while hiding from the police in a replica of the Santa Maria ship, and got stuck when the tide came in.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Has numerous relatives that tend to be as psychotic as himself, the exceptions being his father, sister, cousin, and youngest brother.
- Breakout Character: Far and away the most recognizable and beloved villain in the history of the strip.
- Demoted to Dragon: In the 1990 movie where he's working for Big Boy.
- The Dragon: In the movie only, where he's Big Boy's Co-Dragons with Itchy.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He would have won if he hadn't gotten greedy and tried extorting the mob for a higher fee, even though he was already being paid five times his usual rate.
- I Have No Son!: His father Poptop has severed all ties with him, alongside all his other criminal relatives.
- Near-Villain Victory: Possibly came the closest to actually killing Tracy than anyone, only to change his mind at the last second in the hopes of extorting his employers for more money.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Unlike most other villains in the strip, Flattop was just going to outright put a bullet through Tracy's head when he had the detective captive rather than set up some ridiculous deathtrap.
- Professional Killer: His job.
- Two Siblings In One: In one story arc, Flattop's ghost seemingly possessed the body of his brother Sharptop during a seance, but it's unclear if it was the real Flattop or just a delusion.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Stiletta Jones, a female criminal and murderer just as psychotic as he was. Together they had two children, Flattop Jr. and Angeltop.
Mumbles
A career bad guy with poor speech habits and a permanently droopy expression. He's one of the more iconic villains, having appeared in most adaptations and being one of the very few Tracy rogues granted Joker Immunity. He's still a regular face as of 2021.
- Bad Boss: Tried to hog most of the Mumbles Quartet's loot since he was technically the mastermind. When the others protested he tried to blow them up. Later on he tracked the others down, forced them to work for him again, then had them all killed.
- Character Exaggeration: In the comics Mumbles can take some effort to decipher, but he's coherent to the reader and other characters. In adaptations his speech tends to be completely incoherent gibberish that requires a third party to "translate" into English* .Mumbles: "BGGNJDNJJGJGJSWKKMXCNVMSSGHJ"Mook: "Mumbles says, 'What happened?'"
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He will absolutely always betray you if he can get something out of it.
- Comic-Book Time: Bizzarely inverted in a 1994 story where he turns out not only to have been the only character to have ever aged in the strip, but to have also done so at an incredibly rapid rate (seemingly about 50 years since his last appearance in 1990)! It wound up being subject to Canon Discontinuity.
- Demoted to Dragon: These days you'll more likely see him being a lackey for organized crime than hatching his own schemes.
- Joker Immunity: Rare example for a Dick Tracy villain, especially in the Chester Gould era. We even saw him drown on panel and officially declared dead, but he still came back. Apparently he had mastered some yoga techniques that made him indistinguishable from a corpse and able to breathe underwater. Since the '70s he mostly just gets taken to jail, although he tends to get remarkably short sentences for a multiple murderer.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: In the movie his incoherent mumbling seems to be fake, and he's capable of speaking perfectly normally when he wants to.
- Only One Name: It's Mumbles. Just, Mumbles.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Always seen in a suit, and is drawn to look fairly attractive for a Gould-era villain.
- Speech Impediment: Mumbles notably does not have an actual speech impediment, he just has sloppy speech habits and makes no effort to improve them.
- The Sociopath: Moreso in his earlier appearances. In his first story he murders a cop that's trying to pull him over for speeding, terrorizes his fellow performers into helping him rob their patrons, kidnaps his girlfriend and threatens to throw acid in her face after she tries to break up with him, then tries to murder said performers and girlfriend out of spite.
- Would Hit a Girl: Tried to murder his ex in his first story, and then bludgeoned his female co-conspirator to death with a shovel in his second (although to be fair that was in self defense).
The Brow
A Nazi agent, spy and saboteur who comes into conflict with Tracy after his activities come to the attention of the police.
- Bad Boss: Not exactly unexpected, but he press-ganged a pair of pickpockets known as the Summer Sisters and forced them to collect his spy reports by torturing one of them while the other one was out on assignment, only stopping once they returned. Also, he apparently marks his subordinates by breaking their wrists, if his actions with the Summer Sisters and subsequent dialogue are any indication.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Brow used the "chair of horror" to force the Summer Sisters into compliance. Said chair had a leg clamp with sharp spikes, and one sister would be placed within it and bound while the other did jobs for the Brow. If the free one tried anything...CRUNCH.
- Death by Irony: Impaled on an American Flag after falling out a window.
- Demoted to Extra: In the movie, where he's one of Lips's gang members who's unceremoniously massacred by Flattop.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ends up badly injuring himself with his own torture device.
- Karmic Death: See Death by Irony.
- Super-Strength: Each of his hands is strong enough to break peoples' wrists with their grip.
- Those Wacky Nazis: An agent of the Third Reich.
- Would Hit a Girl: In order to make the point to the Summer Sisters that they belonged to him, he broke a wrist on each of them, then had his doctor patch them up.
Shaky Trembly
A con man and kidnapper, who graduated to murder during his plot to kidnap a child star. The adoptive father of Breathless Mahoney.
- And I Must Scream: Suffocated to death in a tiny, icy hiding place.
- Domestic Abuse: Emotional abuse anyway. When Elia Mahoney found out he'd gotten his money through criminal means, he threatened to falsely implicate her as an accomplice in all his crimes, and also threatened to kill her.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife, adoptive daughter Breathless, and cousin Quiver Trembly.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: You wouldn't think it, but Shaky can put a bullet through a dime from across the room.
- Kill It with Ice: In an indirect way. See, he was running from the cops near the local pier when he saw a hole in said pier big enough to fit him. So, he ducked in, but all too late, he realized that every time the ocean lapped over the pier, it was pouring water into the hole, which froze in the winter weather. By the time he realized the hole he'd entered was freezing over, it was too late to get out. He tried to call out to the cops, but they couldn't hear him. So all he could do was sit in that dark, icy pit in the ground, crying desperately for help as his breathing hole got smaller and smaller, until...
- Nervous Wreck: His name comes from his constant trembling and shaking. Despite this, he's able to put together ship models in bottles, which is a method he uses to concentrate while planning.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Murdered a fireman who tried to save him from a burning building to steal his slicker and cover his tracks.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He stole Vitamin Flintheart's fur coat, then bought an electric heater because the apartment he and his gang were hiding in was ice cold. Well, they also put the coat rack next to said heater, which as you might expect, eventually led to a massive fire.
- Would Hit a Girl: He drugged Snowflake Falls with an amnesia drug and brainwashed her while she was susceptible so that he could blackmail a wealthy man with a marriage con. He actually thought the whole thing was a really stupid idea and had to be talked into it by his gang. Later, he'd bludgeon her and throw her into an icy river.
Anna Enog
Anna Enog was the mother of Measles. Anna was the matron of the women's prison where Gravel Gertie was incarcerated following her involvement with the Brow. Anna and her son were operating a dope ring inside the prison.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After discovering that Gravel Gertie had infiltrated her ring for Dick Tracy, she and one of the guards cornered the reformed criminal in the prison pump room, intending to throw her into the machinery. While she was struggling with Gertie, Anna slipped on some brass polish and fell in instead.
- Dirty Cop: The matron of a women's prison who was also running a dope ring from the prison.
- Ground by Gears: After discovering that Gravel Gertie had infiltrated her ring for Dick Tracy, she and one of the guards cornered the reformed criminal in the prison pump room, intending to throw her into the machinery. While she was strangling with Gertie, Anna slipped on some brass polish and fell into the pump machinery and was killed.
- Wardens Are Evil: The matron of a women's prison who was also running a dope ring from the prison.
"Measles" Enog
A drug smuggler known mainly for his lucky escapes
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: When he's hiding with an immigrant family, one of the reasons he's allowed to stay is that their Good Bad Girl daughter is fascinated by this charming stranger.
- Back for the Dead: Returns to try to kill Gravel Gertie after swearing revenge on her 67 years ago (real world time). Dies of a drug overdose (Gertie chopping an axe into his back can't have helped).
- Badass Boast: "Yeah—They call me Measles, copper! And catching Measles is poison!"
- Bad Samaritan: While he's hiding with an immigrant family, he gives them his mother's ration stamps and some of the money from the wad of cash he keeps. Then he basically holds them hostage after the cops come.
- Born Lucky: His main claim to fame.
- Tracy would have arrested him within minutes of his introduction, had an almost-dead body not started the car Tracy was on.
- The most notable example of this is when he is arrested. Suddenly an accident frees him from his handcuffs while leaving Tracy pinned.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets hot coals shoved into his face and an axe chopped into his back, before overdosing on pain meds.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: After hearing about his mother's death, he spent 200 1945 dollars on flowers for her funeral, and proceeded to "ask" his criminal associates to spend exorbitant amounts on flowers as well.
- Functional Addict: After having a building fall on him, he suffered from constant agonizing headaches until a fellow crook hooked him up with patches that held a narcotic which alleviated them. Even though he's constantly jonesing for the patches, he still retains enough clarity of mind to do things like drive.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: He'd been part of a drug-dealing ring for the afore-mentioned patches, but he was keeping too big a portion for himself and shortchanging customers. When his partner tried to kick him out, Measles dissolved the partnership.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's a vicious brat.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The patches weren't helping enough after he'd been axed in the back and badly burned, so he tried eating a bunch of them. Well, there's a reason they're patches and not pills, although his pain did go away.
- Meaningful Name: He's got a lot of spots on his face, of unclear nature.
- Older Than They Look: He disappears from the comic for over twenty-years comic time (enough for Sparkle Plenty to have grown up and had children of her own) yet doesn't look a day older than he did when he was caught.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Although one assumes his last name is the same is his mother's.
- Playing Sick: In order to hide with an immigrant family, he pretends he fell off a train and needs a place to rest.
- The Exit Is That Way: After he's arrested, it turns out he's hidden tear gas capsules on his person, which he uses to blind the guards stripping him down. However the gas gets him, too and he runs into another cell that gets locked behind him.
- You Killed My Father: Gender-inversion: He happens to run into the adult Sparkle Plenty by coincidence, learns she's Gravel Gertie's daughter and where GG lives from the internet, and makes a beeline for the Plenty homestead, planning to get revenge for his mom. Things...don't work out, thanks to Gertie getting a bit of warning.
Breathless Mahoney
"Breathless darling, you're positively brilliant!"A beautiful female villain that is the step-daughter of Shakey the conman.
- And I Must Scream: In order to get away from the police, she has B.O. Plenty plow a furrow of dirt over her and makes a bit of space to breathe through. Not only is it cold and uncomfortable, she has to let a snake crawl across her face without making a peep...and then it starts to rain.
- Big Bad: One of the two in the movie.
- Big Damn Heroes: Decides she can't deny B.O. and Gertie their happiness and absolves the former from strangling him before she dies. Notable in that she had every reason to prosecute.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Like many Tracy villains.
- The Chessmaster: Movie only, though she's very resourceful in the comics as well.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially around her mother and B.O. Plenty.
- Determinator: She was willing to do anything to keep Shaky's money for herself, whether it was leaving her mother on the floor suffering chest pains, stabbing a gardner to death with his own shears, having herself buried to hide from the cops, or chasing a hillbilly to the ends of the earth.
- Femme Fatale: One of the classics of comic strips.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Nearly every guy she runs into compliments her attractiveness.
- Heartwarming Moments: Forgiving B.O. as he's about to be executed, and the way she phrases it.
- Ironic Echo: Sarcastically proclaims "poor mother" upon hearing about her mother's abuse at Shaky's hands. She utters the same phrase unironically when said mother is murdered.
- Promoted to Love Interest: In the 1990 movie.
Elia Mahoney
Mother of Breathless Mahoney and fourth wife of Shaky the conman.
- Domestic Abuse: After she found out that Shaky was a criminal, he forced her to keep quiet by threatening to implicate her in his crimes, as well as threatening her life.
- The Insomniac: Invoked. She takes half a bottle of stimulant pills so she won't fall asleep and give Breathless a chance to steal Shaky's money. Unfortunately, this gives her severe chest pains, and Breathless steals it while Elia's on the floor in agony.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At Breathless's sickbed, she promises to go straight, but her greed for the remainder of Shaky's money leads her go go along with Itchy's plan to trap B.O. Plenty. Almost too late, she realizes she betrayed her promise.
- Redemption Equals Death: Throws herself in front of Itchy's gun in order to stop him from finishing off Tracy and takes a bullet straight to the heart.
- Taking the Bullet: Throws herself in front of Itchy's gun in order to stop him from finishing off Tracy and takes a bullet straight to the heart.
Itchy Oliver
A crook who appears as the final villain in the Shaky-Breathless-B.O. Plenty saga.
- Avenging the Villain: Averted. Despite the two of them being best friends, he doesn't seem to give a damn about Shaky's death and is just out for his money.
- Ax-Crazy: One of the most murderous characters in the strip's history, with Breathless Mahoney's mother among his many victims.
- Boom, Headshot!: The throat and MOUTH, to be specific, and on panel, via a half-starved Dick Tracy. No elaborate death for this guy.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Murders his own gang in cold blood.
- Cold-Blooded Torture:
- Puts a lighter to B.O. Plenty's feet to torture the location of Shaky's money out of him.
- Attempts to starve Dick Tracy to death alongside Mrs. B-B Eyes, and almost succeeds.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Tried this on Tracy. Averted in his own death, which is instantaneous.
- Demoted to Dragon: In the 1990 movie where he's working for Big Boy.
- The Dragon: In the movie only, where he's Big Boy's Co-Dragons with Flattop.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: via Dick Tracy himself
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: If it wasn't for his skin condition, this would be his defining trait.
- Hate Sink: Lacks Flattop's charisma, the Mole's humanity, or anything redemptive. He's just a murderous jerk.
- Too Dumb to Live: Tries to draw on Dick Tracy, who has a gun aimed right at him with every reason in the world to pull the trigger. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Would Hurt a Child: After Junior tried to apprehend him on his own, Itchy cracks him over the head with his gun barrel and, when this doesn't stop the boy from fighting, proceeds to beat him into unconsciousness.
Kitty aka Mrs. B.B. Eyes
"Widow" of B.B. Eyes and associate of Itchy.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: She and Itchy kept Tracy captive for nearly three weeks, feeding him only one ounce of turnips a day and all the water that would cling to a fork twice a day.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She really loved her husband, enough so to choose a particularly gruesome form of vengeance.
- Getaway Driver: Served this role for her husband sometimes.
- Locked Out of the Loop: B.B. Eyes apparently never informed her that he hadn't actually been killed.
- Revenge: She wants to avenge the death of her husband.
Shoulders
A muscular gangster who specialized in blackmailing and manipulating political figures. Became a jewel thief after his return.
- Adaptational Ugliness: In The Movie, where he seems to have some sort of facial scarring. This was never the case in the comic strip.
- Ate His Gun: His second and actual death, accidentally blew his brains out with his own gun.
- Demoted to Extra: Alongside Rodent, Brow and Little-Face in the movie.
- Faking the Dead: Was believed to have died in a plane crash while fleeing the police, but turned out to be one of the few Tracy villains to pull this off and went into hiding. He died for real the second time.
- Large and in Charge: His nickname is based on his broad shoulders, he's much larger than most other characters.
- Would Hurt a Child: He shot Themesong in an effort to stop her from testifying about his murder of her father.
Influence
A casino owner and murderer, Influence was an accomplished hypnotist with a special pair of colored cellophane contact lenses which he used to give himself a hypnotic gaze.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the movie Influence appears to be a simple thug with no special abilities.
- Amplifier Artifact: His special contact lenses would appear to function this way, as he's later shown to be a perfectly capable hypnotist without them.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: After his reform, Influence uses his abilities on the right side of the law as a hypnotist-for-hire, getting paid to help eyewitnesses uncover their latent memories as well as aiding interrogations.
- Demoted to Extra: In the movie.
- Evil Is Petty: His way of having Vitamin Flintheart work off his gambling debts didn't just involve embezzling; he also forced Flintheart and Florence Lane to do all manner of embarrassing and degrading things, including acting as his servants in Lane's own mansion. Then again, he kills people if he thinks he can't use them, so technically his pettiness kept them alive.
- Eye Scream: Tracy divests him of his hypnotic contacts by cracking him in the face with a length of chain, which shatters them. Ow.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: After Dick Tracy learned about the contact lenses, he had a pair of his own made, which allowed him to resist Influence's power.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Influence has a pair of special cellophane contact lenses which give him this ability.
- Heel–Faith Turn: He found religion while in prison, and after being paroled he sought to atone for his crimes by using his hypnotic abilities to help others.
- Mad Scientist: He's explicitly mentioned as helping to develop the aforementioned contact lenses, and Tracy notes that he has the mind of a madman. Well, until he reforms.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Influence" is all we get in the comic, though a (probably non-canon) source calls him Dr. Otto.
- Perpetual Frowner: He doesn't exactly have a face designed for smiling, and his lips turn upward all of once in his story. Barely.
- Shoot the Builder: He killed the optician who helped him develop his hypnotic contacts to keep him from squealing.
