Miss Egghead (who was known by the first name "Eggie") was a cockfight organizer. She was wealthy and educated, yet felt a passion for raising and training gamecocks. She proudly referred to her grandfather, who had made a fortune mining silver and gold in Mexico. She lived in an estate with her older sister Agatha.
Miss Egghead had a oval-shaped head with a severely receding hairline, which she often covered with a short dark wig. Her actual hair was light.
The Missing Gamecock[]
Miss Egghead was the biggest gamecock breeder in the United States. She operated with the aid of her "chauffeur" Miguel Toqual. Miguel's young daughter Conchita freed Miss Egghead's best fighting rooster, and Miss Egghead became determined to recover the bird.
The rooster was found and taken in by B.O. Plenty and his family. Miss Egghead and Miguel tracked the bird to Sunny Dell Acres, and offered a $50 reward for its return. Miguel was later able to re-capture the bird on his own, but rather than return it to Miss Egghead, he sold it to a laboratory that experimented in ways to rig cockfights.
When Miss Egghead learned what Miguel had done, she struck him over the head with a bronze statue. The wounded Miguel agreed to show Miss Egghead where the laboratory was. When the pair arrived at the (now empty) laboratory, Miguel succumbed to his injury and died in Miss Egghead's car. Miss Egghead broke open the door to the lab and left Miguel's body, where it was later discovered by Wunbrow.
Miss Egghead was interviewed by Dick Tracy and the police, who had found a fragment of the statue lodged in Miguel's skull. Conchita, who had been taken in by Egghead, had deduced what had happened, and tried to notify the police but was stopped by Agatha. After the police left, Conchita fled with the statue, planning to reveal Miss Egghead's guilt. Miss Egghead and Agatha chased after the child, but the strain of the pursuit proved to be too much for Agatha, and she collapsed from a heart condition.
Miss Egghead was unable to find Conchita before the child reached the police, and she decided to escape to Cuba.
Cuba and Back Again[]
Fleeing a murder charge in the United States, Miss Egghead fled to (pre-Communist) Cuba. She obtained a short dark wig and got a suntan, hoping to disguise her features. She was tracked down by Wunbrow, who had returned to Cuba with Conchita. Miss Egghad discovered Wunbrow in her hotel room and stabbed him. She then fled.
Fearing that the authorities were closing in on her, Miss Egghead approached Chicory, an underworld figure in Cuba. He put her in touch with The Dropper, who ran a transportation service for criminals. For an additional fee, The Dropper also offered to dispose of Dick Tracy for her. She agreed, and together they kidnapped Dick Tracy and deposited him on the Granite Island.
Miss Egghead returned to her home in the U.S. for a time, but soon discovered that she was still being actively sought by the police. She returned to Cuba and approached Chicory again, this time seeking passage to South America. Chicory no longer had an interest in helping Miss Egghead, and he locked her in one of his gamecock pens.
The island was soon battered by a fierce tropical storm. Chicory’s house began to flood, and Miss Egghead would likely have drowned if not for the timely arrival of Wunbrow, who freed her. The two constructed a makeshift raft out of the large wooden door to Chicory’s house. Despite surviving through many hours of rough waters and strong winds, Miss Egghead was eventually struck by some flying debris (October 25th, 1958). She died from the injury.
Notes[]
The term "egghead" has often been used to derogatorily refer to an intellectual person who is out-of-touch with everyday life. It was used by Vice Presidential candidate Richard Nixon to describe Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson in the early 1950s. In the case of Miss Egghead, it would seem to only refer to the physical shape of her head, as Miss Egghead was not shown to be uncommonly intelligent (though she was devious and resourceful).
In 1966, a villain named "Egghead" debuted on the Batman television series. Like Miss Egghead, he had a bald, egg-shaped head. There is apparently no other connection between the 2 characters.
Additionally, Marvel Comics has a villain named Egghead (an enemy of Ant-Man and the Avengers, who first appeared in 1962), but again there is no apparent connection between the two. This Egghead has also been featured in the Amazing Spider-Man daily newspaper comic strip.
A later Rogues' Gallery entry about Miss Egghead indicated that she had died in the plane explosion that killed her accomplices, but this is not accurate.
