Rolf Müller was a circus strongman and serial killer of children from East Germany. Müller was suspected to be Hooded Justice.
Biography[]
Killer career[]
Remembering Jacob[]
In 1920, Rolf Müller began kidnapping and killing young children. One of his victims was a boy named Jacob who Müller kept a photograph of. He also had in his possession a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses dedicated to Jacob.
Joining Big Top Circus[]
In 1939, Müller disappeared and it was believed he was executed by Nazis. It turned out he moved to the United States and joined Big Top Circus, which toured the East Coast. He became a popular circus strongman known as "The Mighty Meuller". The tours coincided with the disappearances of children, as was the case in 1940. Silhouette who was investigating such disappearances, was aided by Nite Owl and Mothman and discovered one of his victims in an abandoned building not far from the circus's site.
Murdered by Eddie Blake[]
While looking for Hooded Justice, the Comedian researched Silhouette's casefiles in Boston and was led to Big Top Circus. He found Müller in his trailer and strangled him with a belt. Blake then shot him in the head and dumped his body in the ocean.
Post-Mortem[]
Almost a year after Hooded Justice's death, the New Frontiersman mentioned Müller's disappearance, and implied that he was executed by his communist superiors. Three months later a decomposing body with a bullet wound on his forehead washed up on the coast of Boston. It was tentatively identified as Müller.
Legacy[]
Deliberate Lies[]
In the fifth chapter of Under the Hood, Hollis Mason deliberately speculated about the fate of Hooded Justice, and raised the theory that he was actually Rolf Müller. This move was done after being blackmailed by the Comedian, who convinced him to the cover up their involvement in the deaths of Müller and H.J.. Mason alluded to an article in the New Frontiersman that implied Müller, a suspected communist, had been murdered by his superiors, and even he doubles down on the possibility that Müller was Hooded Justice, noting their similar builds. Mason made up this theory in order to cover up the true story, as he knew the truth about the both of them.
Trivia[]
- The original series created an ambiguous possibility about Hooded Justice's identity as Rolf Müller, but the prequel series Before Watchmen not only expands the story of Müller but also heavily retcons the original reference, establishing that Müller was not actually H.J.
- According to Under the Hood, Müller's body was discovered with a gunshot to the head. In Before Watchmen: Minutemen, Müller was killed via strangulation by the Comedian. It's possible that after strangling him Blake shot him in the head and threw Müller into the sea in order to stage different circumstances.
- Several inconsistencies arise, since the original series mentions that Müller had quit his job and then disappeared around the same time Hooded Justice disappeared. In the prequel however, H.J. disappears in 1952 and Müller is killed in his trailer in 1955, still working at the circus; while both characters are killed the same year, Müller didn't seem to have quit his job or anyhow disappeared at the same time as H.J. (who did three years earlier).
- Also, although in the original appearance Müller is bearded, in the prequel he is always seen with a moustache.
- An important retcon introduced by the prequel is that, as it turns out, Hollis Mason wrote deliberate lies in Under the Hood. He made up the theory of Hooded Justice being Müller in order to cover up the true story, as he knew the truth about the both of them.
- It is also interesting to note that there is a possibility that Müller is the mysterious masked butcher who mutilated Blanche Zandt and the other orphan children; they had similar builds, similar shape of head and eyebrows; also both characters are introduced wiping their hands, and him possessing the children book implies a connection to Ursula Zandt. According to the Comedian, he found out that Müller did in fact work for the Nazis,[1] which contradicts the rumors that the strongman had a communist background.[2]