Simon Baux, aka "Sweatbox", was an elderly resident of Dick Tracy's city. He was a philanthropist and friend of Mayor Armstrong. Baux was obsessed with physical fitness and he exercised constantly (which caused him to sweat profusely). He also sponsored a youth softball league.
Sweatbox's Secret Past
When Freedom Lake - the site of a Japanese-American Interment camp from World War II - was drained, a box was found which contained a written confession to a murder committed in 1947. Sweatbox's brother Stephen Baux had confessed to the murder at the time, but was killed in prison before the case was brought to trial. Stephen's fiancee forced Simon to write the confession, which he did. Shortly thereafter, Simon killed her and buried her body and the confession at the site of Camp Freedom (which was about to be flooded in preparation for a new dam), believing that they would never be discovered.
Later, an accidental discovery by the homeless girl Toad Spencer revealed human remains in the crypt where Stephen Baux was buried. It was eventually revealed that these bodies were of the victims of multiple murders that Sweatbox had committed over the course of several decades.
Desperate Measures
Fearing that he was about to captured by the police, Sweatbox kidnapped Toad and tried to blackmail the actor George Tawara (who had been interred at Camp Freedom as a youth) into publicly confessing to the 1947 murder.
Toad was rescued by her friend the Mole, and the two men struggled. When Dick Tracy and Lee Ebony arrived on the scene, Sweatbox attempted to escape but was killed when his car skidded on an icy road near a railroad crossing and was struck by a speeding train (February 24th, 2013).
Notes
- Due to inconsistent coloring, Sweatbox was depicted with both grey hair and light brown hair. The grey hair appeared in Sunday strips (which are colored by the official creative team) and should therefore be considered more accurate.
- The Sweatbox storyline was affected by some late-stage, editorially-mandated changes. Scenes depicting the child Toad Spencer in jeopardy were deemed too potentially disturbing, and alternate panels were drawn by artist Joe Staton to be distributed to newspapers. Similarly, a subplot revealing that Sweatbox had been (or was suspected of being) a child molester was considered too controversial and was deleted.
- Sweatbox's plan makes little sense when examined. He kidnapped Toad, depending on George Tawara's willingness to make the false confession in order to save her life. However, Tawara had only a passing connection to the girl (though Sweatbox may have assumed a basic decency on Tawara's part that would motivate him to act in order to save ANY innocent person). Furthermore, Tawara's confession could be easily recanted or debunked once Toad was out of danger (or if she was harmed by Sweatbox). Additionally, Sweatbox would still have been the prime suspect in the murders of the victims found in the crypt. Whether this confused plot was the result of the aforementioned editorial alterations is unknown. Tracy himself attributed some of Sweatbox's illogical behavior to the man's age.