Cutie Diamond

Cutie Diamond was one of the most cold blooded and sadistic killers encountered by Dick Tracy; the comic strip-story line ran from April 27th, 1935--May 21st 1935 .

Biography

Diamond shows off his "Murder Trophies" to the Arsons

Diamond's "target"

Diamond at what Chester Gould called his "Morning exercise"

By choice Diamond was a Bank robber and killer. He lived in a isolated mountain top home "in the Hills" thirty miles from the nearest community of Valleyside. Several years before his partner in crime was Zora Arson. To his guests the siblings Zora and Boris Arson he boasted of committing four murders: A Sherriff from Hallet, Pawnee County, Oklahoma; a bank teller from Little Rock, Arkansas; a railroad policeman from a small town near "Arkansas City," ; when he heard that Tracy was on the trail of the Arsons, Diamond sneered that Tracy would get the same thing the only other policeman who had dared come after him would get: an unnamed Constable had followed Diamond to the Valley below the killer's mountaintop hideout in 1930; a year after their "meeting" Diamond retrived not just the officers badge and pistol but also his skull as a shooting target on a fence post beside his house and in four years had only missed once. He also showed his "trophies" to the Arsons: A sherriff's badge; A Constable's badge and pistol; a "Bull" [slang for "railroad policeman"]'s white hat and a Bank teller's eye-shade.  So great was Cutie's ego that he had Boris take pictures of himself and Zora to send to the newspapers.  Ironically the only place Cutie can feel "safe" is in a cave guarded by wildcats  near his house. The Posse consisting of Dick Tracy; Pat Patton and posseman Chief Yellowpony find out the villians hideway and are greeted by the wildcats and gunfire. Tracy opens a hole in the cave and pumps carbon monixide into the cave-giving the villians a choice: to either surrender or die! Cutie and Zora tried to shoot their way out: Zora is killed; Cutie who had vowed to kill Tracy is mortally wounded in a gun duel with the Detective and dies of his wounds.  Patton kills the Wildcats. Boris hides back in the cave and threatens to kill anyone who comes after him-Tracy notices where the villian is hiding and fires a .45 Thompson machine gun at point blank range through the cave wall at Boris; Boris has a bullet proof vest but is stunned enough by the bullets impact to be arrested by Tracy and Patton. Yellowpony is left behind till the State Police can come up to retrive not only the bodies of Cutie and Zora but also the evidence of Diamond's four murders

Trivia

• The name of the state where Diamond hides is not given-it is in a western State west of Dick Tracy's City and is located in the Ozark mountains near Oklahoma; it is implied to be "Arkansas" [!]
• This comic strip stories is one of the few where Dick Tracy is seen in a police uniform  and not in his regular plainclothing
• In real life the taking of Yellowpony's car across State Lines would have involved the FBI  in the pursuit of the Arsons and any accomplices-such as actually happened to the John Dillinger Bankrobbery Gang
• Although the chase and shootout takes place over a single day, Gould stretched out the story line over a month!
• Chester Gould was in the habbit of giving law officers; criminals and sometimes ordinary citizens "punning" names; although he did not give a name to the murdered constable logic dictates that Gould would probably have chosen a name such as "John Doe Law"; {"John Doe" is a legal name for an unknown deceased male person and "John Law" was contemporary slang nickname for a law officer at that time}
• The referece to Pawnee Oklahoma is a in joke reference to cartoonist Chester Gould's place of Birth!
• In keeping with the typical sterotypes on minorities at the time this comic is written: Yellowpony is supposed to be a member of the Pawnee[!] Nation of Oklahoma-however he speaks a dialect pigion from "Robinson Crusoe" and his dress is more common to be found among the navajo nation of the American Southwest!
• A running gag is that Gould would sometimes insert a "stock Characther" in a storyline; for example; using the same simple farmer ruralite character "Deus ex Machina" to help the story along-such as the farmer who gave Steve the Tramp and Stooge Viller a ride and was knocked out by Steve so his car could be stolen; the farmer who found the body of gang Boss Jerry O' Marra and alerted a highway patrolman; or the squirrel hunter who witnessed the murder and help recover the body of deserter Red Bluff for Dick Tracy and posse pursuit of "88 Keyes".
• Concerning Chester Gould who wrote "Dick Tracy" from 1931 to 1977; in 14 August 1944 he was subject to a special story in Life Magazine including cartoons drawn by Gould himself: in one Dick Tracy is nearly surrounded by 12 of his most dangerous foes of whom 11 can be identified: (B-B Eyes; The Blank;The Brow;Flattop Jones Sr.; 88 Keyes; Little Face; Mamma and Jerome Trohs; The Mole; Pruneface and Mrs. Pruneface; (Gould was nearby ready to "erase" them if Tracy needed his help[!].As a publicity stunt Gould was photographed outside his house with paper copies of his various villians in the ground (He actually kept a "Rogue's Gallery" of villians on his studio Wall)