Batman #278

Issue Details

Synopsis

STOP ME BEFORE I KILL BATMAN Inspector Clive Kittridge of Scotland Yard, visiting in America, is allowed to accompany Batman on patrol and, while doing so, becomes involved in his latest case. A marionette with a wrung neck is delivered to Batman by Commissioner Gordon, shortly after Batman and Kittridge have encountered a redheaded man who desperately tried to tell them something but was unable to force any words from his mouth.  Days later, Batman encounters the Wringer, who proves to be the same man, wringing the head of a marionette made of Douglas fir. Batman and the Wringer fight, but the villain escapes. Later, on patrol near the park, Batman beholds the Wringer twist the neck of a walking, talking doll, and again fights him to no conclusion. Finally, while Bruce Wayne and Kittridge are attending a Bicentennial exhibit featuring audio-animatrons resembling historical American figures and reciting canned speeches, the Wringer destroys "Patrick Henry" just as the robot is saying "Give me liberty or give me--".   At this point, Batman has deduced The Wringer's real target, a stockbroker named Douglas Walker on Park Avenue. The clues to this deduction were the Douglas fir marionette, the walking doll found near the park, and the Wringer's destruction of the Patrick Henry robot just before it would have said "death". The Wringer, who blames Walker for losing the money he had invested with his brokerage, attempts to kill him, but Batman appears to capture the villain. Later, Batman states that the Wringer was caught in conflicting impulses, wanting to kill Walker and yet wanting to be stopped from doing so.   After witnessing the Batman at work, Clive Kittridge is impressed and even loses a wage against Bruce Wayne.