Flattop Jones
| Flattop | |
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Art by Chester Gould.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Tribune Media Services |
| First appearance | December 21, 1943 |
| Created by | Chester Gould |
Flattop Jones, Sr. is a fictional character, 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 that is perfectly flat on the top.
Gould revealed little about Flattop's personal life in the comic strip, but the background references that he did give the character share similarities to real-life Depression-era gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. For example, Flattop claims in the strip to be a freelance hitman from Cookson Hills in Oklahoma. The comic strip also references Flattop's involvement in the "Kansas City Massacre," a 1933 incident in which Floyd was alleged to have been involved.
Gould's character leads a gang of three hoods and is known as an "Ace Killer" in one newspaper headline shown in the comic strip (having committed five murders). In the storyline in which Flattop is the featured villain, black marketeers hire him to eliminate Dick Tracy for a fee of $5000: five times his regular rate.
Flattop proves his value by quickly orchestrating a successful setup involving an argument over money to capture Tracy in the killer's car, to be transported somewhere where he can be murdered undisturbed. Fortunately for Tracy, Flattop stops just short of doing the deed when he realizes that if his employers are willing to pay such a high price for Tracy's death, then they would surely be desperate enough to pay much more. As such, Flattop decides to blackmail his employers for an additional $50,000 lest he release the detective with the information Tracy needs to arrest them.
Hiding in a boarding room while the transaction is completed, Tracy learns that a resident living with her mother downstairs is a WAC who is learning morse code. Taking advantage of an available piano in the room, he plays it and stamps on the floor in code as if keeping time to his music, hoping that the WAC below, Margie Elong, will recognize the call for help. Sure enough, Elong and her mother get the message and alert the police.
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