Thomas Wayne wore the bat outfit to a costume party. At one point, a couple of thugs broke in to the party and kidnapped Wayne at gunpoint. Their boss, a mobster named Lew Moxon, had been injured in a gunfight and they wanted Dr. Wayne to operate and remove the bullet. Instead, Wayne managed to overpower the crooks and turned them in to the police. Moxon swore he'd get even, and later he hired Joe Chill to kill the Waynes and make it look like a random mugging.