Flattop (Dick Tracy villain)

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Flattop Jones is a villain created by Chester Gould for the Dick Tracy comic strip and is the most popular one in the strip's history. His nickname comes from his large head which is perfectly flat on the top like an aircraft carrier's flight deck.

[edit] Introductory appearance

Little is known about his personal life except that he was a freelance hitman from the Cookson Hills in Oklahoma, an origin he shares with real-life Depression-era gangster Pretty Boy Floyd.

He was hired by black marketeers to eliminate the police detective for a fee at $5000, five times his regular rate.

Flattop proved his value by quickly orchestrating a successful setup to capture Tracy in the killer's car to be transported somewhere where he could be murdered undisturbed. Fortunately for Tracy, Flattop stopped just short of doing the deed when he decided to blackmail his employers for an additional $50000 lest he release the detective with the information Tracy needed to arrest them.

Hiding in a boarding room while the transaction was completed, Tracy learned that residents downstairs included a WAC who was learning morse code. Taking advantage of an available piano in the room, he played it and stamped on the floor in code as if keeping time to his music, hoping that the residents below would recognize the call for help. Sure enough, the residents got the message and alerted the police about the situation.

However, even as Tracy's partner, Pat Patton, was preparing for a rescue; Flattop, having closed his blackmail deal, prepared to shoot him with Tracy surrounded by his henchmen. On Flattop's count of three, Tracy interrupted the assassination by lunging at the killer and wrestling for his gun. In the struggle, Tracy managed to kill a henchman with a tommy gun, grabbed it and began firing to kill the criminals even while the police were storming the hideout.

However, Flattop escaped and became a hunted fugitive hampered by his extremely distinctive appearance. This led to a long chase where Flattop hid out in a boarding house while being extorted by the crooked child who hid him. That child drowned in a lake while skating with expensive new skates he bought with the blackmail money which led Tracy to the boarding house which forced Flattop to flee. Eventually after hiding in a chimney, being stung by bees in a hive he disturbed in there, murdering a street hawker to fake his own death and for the victim's ration cards, he was eventually spotted in a hotel. In desperation, Flattop hid in the room of Vitamin Flintheart, an aging actor.

Once, after attempting to explain his trespass, Flattop assaulted him and used his makeup supplies for a disguise. Tracy, Patton and Flintheart continued the search and battled Flattop after almost being fooled by a child whom Flattop passed off his disguise in hopes of making him a decoy. Flattop was severely wounded, but was successfully treated in custody.

Although Chester Gould had a policy of typically killing off his villains at the end of their one story, the artist used Flattop again in which he broke jail, took Flintheart hostage and hid in the harbor area. Eventually, Flattop drowned attempting to flee Tracy, trapped between two struts of a dock.

Flattop was so popular that when he was killed off, readers went into public mourning.

[edit] Relatives

Given that the popularity of the villain, it was later revealed that Jones had numerous relatives who were equally bizarre and hardened criminals. These villains have included:

Flattop Jr. - The son of Flattop who was an engineering genius with an arsenal of custom equipment designed to keep him ahead of the law.
Blowtop - A brother of Flattop who's distinctive feature was an explosive temper that caused him to rage at the slightest provocation.
Angeltop - The daughter of Flattop who has a head of equivalent dimensions, not including her fuller hair and sought to murder Dick Tracy in revenge for the death of her father and cop Liz for killing her brother.
Hi-Top - The illegitimate son of Flattop Jr. and an unnamed African American girl with whom he had an apparently off-stage affair, Hi-Top is, consequently, the grandson of Flattop. He is the leader of a black street gang in Tracy's city.
Sharptop - A third Jones brother who grew up right, became a college professor, and was apparently possessed by the ghost of his brother during a seance held by Gravel Gertie's new age enthusiast niece, Crystal.
Poptop - The beer-guzzling father of Flattop, Blowtop, and Sharptop, the grandfather of Angeltop, and the great-grandfather of Hi-Top. Considered the entire family a disgrace and kept his distance from them.