Johnny Dynamite

Golden Age Origin
Johnny Dynamite was a hard-boiled private detective, known as "The Wild Man from Chicago." He was a tough guy with conacts on both sides of the law. He was good friends with a DA, but was readily accepted by denizens of the underworld. His office was on State Street in a big city (probably New York). Johnny was shot in the right eye by Myra Benz, who tried to knock him off with a gun disguised as a camera. After loosing the eye, Johnny wore a patch. He smoked cigarettes constantly, cursed frequently, and had a bad habbit of getting shot and beaten by his enemies. But, he gave as good as he got. He was an experienced and persistent detective and often carried a concealed handgun (his guns included a palm pistol, .45 and a colt revoler, possibly others), though in later cases, he mostly relied on his fists. He seemed to take his cases very personally, and killed many of his early foes, claiming they were reaching for a weapon. Some, such as Myra Benz, he brazenly killed without any true justification beyond his own sense of justice.

Johnny often worked with police homicide detective Luke Hennessy. Johnny's sister lived in Maine, and her daughter, Marcella Rush, was an aspiring actress who got hooked on heroine when she came to New York and shot a man who tried to rape her. Johnny had a number of girlfriends at different times, including Judy Kane, but most were killed or turned out be killers.

Golden Age Appearances
Dymnamite #3-9 Johnny Dynamite #10-12 Foreign Intrigues #14-15