Religion: indeterminate
Name: unnamed banker
Classification: supporting character
First Appearance: Action Comics (vol. 1) #25 (June 1940): "Amnesiac Robbers"
Creators: Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy
Number of Appearances: 1
Enemy of: Medini
Employer: First National Bank
Occupation: banker
Gender: male
An unnamed banker handed over a satchel with $50,000 in payroll money to one of his bank's payroll messengers. The narrative caption for panel 2 on page 1 reads: "Within the First National Bank a payroll messenger is impressed with the importance of his mission . . ."
The banker tells the messenger, "Mr. Galbraith must have the money and valuable papers within half an hour!"
The banker is understandably irate when the delivery never arrives. The payroll messenger was found by police, wandering the streets. The money had been stolen by the mysterious Medini, who used hypnosis on the messenger.
This unnamed banker was only seen in panel 1 on page 1 of this story, and apparently in 3 panels of page 2. On the second page the banker angrily questions the messenger and exclaims, "The man's a thief, I tell you!"
At the same time that the payroll messenger is being questioned, an armored car turns up with its drivers in a similarly amnesiac state. The armored car has been robbed as well. A man who looks like the same banker goes to the police commissioner's office and points to the armored car drivers, demanding, "Arrest these men! They deliberately stole the money they were to transport!"
The police commissioner responds, "Sorry -- I refuse!"
The banker angrily replies, "You refuse! this is an outrage! I'll see the mayor! I'll--!"
The police commissioner interrupts him, explaining, "You see -- this isn't the only case of bank guards suffering from amnesia when the funds they are to protect disappear! There have been dozens of them!"
Possibly there are two similar-appearing bankers appearing on this page. The police commissioner would not have had to explain that there were other similar robberies to a man who had already been through the same thing before. But it is possible that this is the same banker, as he had lost money before through the robbery of a payroll messenger, not an armored car. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. The point of the first two pages of this story is to establish the strange and mysterious pattern of amnesia robberies striking Metropolis. This is the case that Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman will spend the rest of the story solving.
Suggested links for further research about this character:
- https://www.comics.org/issue/819/
- http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=60146