The Brow's spike machine
"In the next issue, you'll meet Itchy, one of the most vicious criminals I ever dealt with. Torture and murder were just routine to this brutal villain! Where money was involved, Itchy would stop at nothing!!"
— Dick Tracy, Dick Tracy Monthly (Dell/Harvey) Issue #36, advertisement for next issue
Since 1931, Dick Tracy and his allies have faced all manner of memorable and grotesque killers and criminals. Through sheer viciousness and cruelty, a select few manage to stand out.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Comics
Comic Strip
- Pruneface Boche is a Nazi saboteur who helps to develop a deadly nerve agent for his masters, using it on his partner when the man draws police attention. Pruneface attempts to blow up a factory before going on the run, even murdering a dog for a sweater. Eventually returning in support of neo-Nazi groups, Pruneface attempts to blow up police stations and FBI buildings, even trying to spread a disease that causes mass blindness, not caring when even his family die in the pursuit of his revenge against Tracy.
- The Brow, real name Alfred Brau, is a Nazi spy who helps sabotage ships for his paymasters and reports on their location so the Nazis will be able to sink them. When a pair of twins, May and June Summer, find incriminating evidence, the Brow forces them to run "errands" for him while keeping one twin in a torture device to pierce her legs with nails. When they manage to overcome him, the Brow later returns to murder their taxi driver and drown the two before escaping. After a manhunt, the Brow attempts to kill all of Tracy's fellow cops before Tracy is able to take him down for good.
- Itchell "Itchy" Oliver seeks to gain the fortune left behind by his associate Shaky, and will do anything to try and gain it, starting by torturing B.O. Plenty for the fortune, even murdering Shaky's widow when she tries to defend Tracy from him. Murdering his own men as not to split the cut, Itchy goes on the run while killing whoever gets in his way, including a wedding guest to take his car, and a cop who stops him at the wrong time. Later capturing Tracy, Itchy attempts to slowly and painfully starve him to death, treating torture and murder as simply business as usual.
- Mr. Bribery is one of Dick Tracy's most enduring foes. Known for branding his minions with a B upon their heads, Bribery also murders his victims and keeps their shrunken heads as trophies, launching his mentor in this practice into space when he becomes a liability. With a huge body count, Bribery later emerges as the head of a new syndicate, orchestrating new murders and attempting to mold his own niece into a copy of her mother to be his new possession before trying to plunder the moon of its gold. Upon being informed said gold is missing, he furiously tries to torture his victims.
- "The Abduction of Tracy's Granddaughter": The unnamed pedophile is a revolting kidnapper who abducts children to "play" with them, keep them in his basement and murder them. Abducting three kids, including Tracy's granddaughter Jewel, the pedophile reveals he has done this before, with at least one child's skeleton still in the basement. Upon realizing he has captured Dick Tracy's grandchild, he opts to kill the children quicker to dispose of the evidence, and spends his time trying to hunt down an escaped Jewel to murder her.
Others
- Dick Tracy Forever issue #2—"Dick Tracy and That Damned Watch!!": The Brow and Pruneface are criminals with a long history against Dick Tracy. Formerly Nazi spies and saboteurs, the two begin to recruit former Nazi scientists, killing all others in their labs to leave no trace. With this achieved, the two have their scientists develop deadly nerve gas, which they intend to unleash on entire American cities, killing countless victims. Having devastated America, the two plan for an uprising from Nazis in South America to turn America into a fascist nightmare.
Films
- Republic Pictures serials:
- Dick Tracy (1937): The Spider, or the Lame One, is a criminal mastermind whose true identity is seeming philanthropist Walter Odette. Having multiple loose ends murdered with the mark of the Spider branded to their heads, he kidnaps Dick's brother Gordon and painfully lobotomizes him to turn him evil, while seeking to sell weapon plans to hostile nations and even blow up the Golden Gate bridge, without a care of innocents who die in his attempts at money and domination.
- Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939): Nicolas Zarnoff is a spy for the "Three Powers", attempting to help them ruin the United States and killing multiple innocents before being caught and escaping the death penalty. Zarnoff attempts to destroy a dam to flood everything below; to murder the president; and to shoot down a packed airship before trying to gun down the police, even ending by planning to let Dick Tracy himself waste away from thirst in the desert.
- Dick Tracy, Detective: Alexis "Splitface" Banning is a sadistic Serial Killer who was convicted for murdering his girlfriend by a jury. After returning from prison, his handsome face ruined by a jagged scar, Splitface opts to take revenge on the jurors, hunting them down and slitting their throats with intentions to not stop until he has killed all of them. When he becomes annoyed with his partner, Professor Starling, Splitface gruesomely murders him as well, even taking Tracy's beloved Tess and their adoptive son Junior hostage with clear intent to murder them to get away.
- 1990 film: Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice is a mob boss seeking to control the city. After having a rival gang shot to death while playing cards, he strong-arms Lips Manlis into turning over control of his nightclub, territory and girlfriend Breathless Mahoney—who Big Boy threatens and mistreats—to him, before having Lips killed in a cement bath. Part of Big Boy's plan is to unite all the remaining gangs, and when one rejects him, Big Boy has their car bombed as they're leaving. Trying to get Dick Tracy out of his way, Big Boy bribes him, and when this fails, tries to kill Tracy. Upon discovering his new club has been bugged by Tracy, Big Boy has the cop informing on him almost given the same cement bath as Lips and then takes part in killing Fletcher, the DA in his pocket, to frame Tracy. Framed for the abduction of Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart by rival gangster The Blank—really Breathless—Big Boy abandons his men and runs off with her, nearly letting her head get crushed by a clockwork. He also shoots and mortally wounds Blank as well.
Others
- The Secret Files's "Not a Creature Was Stirring", by Max Allan Collins: The Fat Man pretends to be a charity Santa to track down rich families so he can rob them. However, the Fat Man has another vice: Not content with robbery, he is also a Serial Killer of children who loves targeting the kids of well-off families so he can hurt them, throttling the children with his bare hands. When his latest victim is saved by Tracy, the Fat Man later attempts to target Tracy and Tess's own child, and tries to kill Tracy himself.
