Cutie Diamond was a bank robber and remorseless killer. He was a thin man with dark hair and a pointed chin. Diamond lived in a remote section of the Ozark Hills on a mountaintop thirty miles from the nearest town of Valleyside.
Cutie's Past[]
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Diamond shows his trophies to the Arson siblings
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Diamond demonstrates his marksmanship skill
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Diamond and Zora pose for newspaper photograph
Diamond had been a partner of Zora Arson in several bank robberies. He boasted of having committed at least four murders: a Sheriff near Hallet, Pawnee County, Oklahoma, a bank teller near Little Rock Arkansas; a railroad policeman in a small town near Arkansas City, and a unknown victim who was apparently another lawman. He kept trophies of his crimes (a sheriff's badge, a bank teller eye-shade, a railroad police officer's white hat, and a constable's badge and pistol), which he showed to Boris and Zora Arson (April 28th, 1935).
Diamond practiced sharp-shooting by firing at a bullet hole in a human skull that he kept sitting on a post beside his mountain home. Diamond claimed that the skull was that of a police officer who was the only person that had dared to approach his hideout during the past four years. A year after their encounter in the valley, Diamond had retrieved the officer's skull for a shooting target. He boasted to the Arsons that Dick Tracy would receive the same reception as this victim.
Diamond also boasted that his skill as a marksman was so great that he had managed to shoot through the same bullet hole every day for four years and only knocked the skull off the post once (April 29th, 1935).
Diamond's egotism was so strong that he habitually sent pictures of himself and Zora Arson to the newspapers, challenging law enforcement to try to find them.
Teaming with the Arsons[]
Although he had a large house, Diamond slept at night in a cave behind an elaborate system of bars in which he also kept wildcats. When Dick Tracy and his posse tracked Zora and Boris Arson to Diamond's hideout, Diamond surprised the posse with his wildcats and machine gun fire. Tracy flooded the cave with carbon monoxide, forcing the criminals to flee into the posse's combined gunfire. Zora Arson was killed and Cutie was mortally wounded in a gun battle with Dick Tracy. He died shortly thereafter.
Notes[]
- In the prose short story "Murder is My Hobby" by Sgt. Jim Doherty (which was available to read on the PLAINCLOTHES website), Cutie's first name was given as Charles. However, this has not been established as official canon.
- Similar to how aspects of Boris Arson's character suggest the real-life gangster John Dillinger, Diamond's nickname of "Cutie" and his base in the hills of Oklahoma suggest another famed Midwest bandit, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Gould would later use Floyd as the model for Flattop.
- In real life, Cutie's crimes across state lines would have been investigated by the FBI, as was the case with both Dillinger and Floyd.
- It was implied that in addition to being partners, Diamond and Zora Arson were (or had been) romantically involved. At one point, Boris Arson takes a photograph of the pair, with Zora smoking a cigar and Diamond posing with a sub-machine gun over the hood of his car. This seems to be inspired by similar photos taken of the real-life criminal couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
- There is presumably no connection between him and the criminals Feets Diamond and Diamonds