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using Wikipedia as our White Casebook... from Joe Chill's entry:
Batman's origin story is first established in a sequence of panels in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939) that is later reproduced in the comic book Batman #1 (Spring 1940), but the mugger is not given a name until Batman #47 (June-July 1948). In that issue, Batman discovers that Joe Chill, the small-time crime boss he is investigating, is none other than the man who killed his parents. Batman confronts him and reveals his secret identity. Chill, frightened, seeks protection from his henchmen. Once they learn that Chill's actions led to the hated Batman's existence, they turn on their boss and fatally shoot him - just before they realize how valuable his knowledge is to them. Before a dying Chill has a chance to reveal Batman's identity, the Dark Knight intervenes and finishes the goons; Chill dies in Batman's arms addressing him by his true name.
In Detective Comics #235 (1956), Batman learns that Chill is not a mere robber, but actually a hitman who has murdered the Waynes on orders from a Mafia boss named Lew Moxon.
In the 1980 miniseries The Untold Legend of the Batman, Alfred Pennyworth reminisces that Joe Chill is the son of one Alice Chilton, one-time caretaker of young Bruce Wayne.
which prompted me to look Lew Moxon's up:
Sometime prior to their murder, Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife attend a costume party - to which Dr. Wayne wears a bat-like costume. Wayne is taken from the party, by gun-point, to meet racketeer and bank robber Lew Moxon. Moxon orders Dr. Wayne to remove a bullet from his shoulder. Wayne carries out the operation before overpowering Moxon and his men.
Moxon is arrested and sentenced to 10 years for armed robbery. As he is taken away he swears revenge on Thomas Wayne. Ten years later, a free Moxon informs Thomas Wayne that he will get someone else to extract that revenge (that someone being Joe Chill). It is suggested that Chill was told to leave young Bruce alive so as to provide an alibi for Moxon.
Years later Batman learns of Moxon's involvement in the murder of his parents, by which time Moxon is operating a Billboard blimp business. Batman's first attempt to convict Moxon for the murder of his parents fails, as Moxon is now suffering from amnesia and is able to pass a lie detector test. Batman determines that Moxon's blimp business must be a cover for illegal activities and continues to trail the gangster. Eventually, after uncovering Moxon's illegal activities, Batman confronts the criminal while wearing his father's costume (his own had been ripped during an earlier fight). On seeing Dr. Wayne's costume Moxon suddenly remembers what he had done. Thinking Batman was actually Thomas Wayne's ghost, Moxon panics and runs out into the street, where he is hit by a truck and killed. |
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