Flyface

Appeared from Tuesday, October 13, 1959 to Sunday, May 8, 1960

Flyface, whose real name was Felixweather Limpp, aka Hank Tight, was a lawyer and a member of Fifth’s gang. Flyface was a portly, 42-year old man with a shock of white hair and a grimaced expression on his face. His face and his clothes were slovenly and flies were constantly flying about his face.

Flyface quit school at the end of his freshman year and his life changed when he met Fifth. The other members of Fifth’s gang were Olive Tomate, Eddie Berrie, The Boys and Barkeep. It was Flyface who taught Fifth to say “I refuse to answer……” and Fifth, thinking it was a brilliant legal ploy, made Flyface his attorney. Fifth wouldn’t make any decision without Flyface’s advice. Olive called Flyface a “smelly imitation lawyer”.

Flyface helped Fifth torture Matty Munkie with a huge lens that focused the sun’s rays on him. When Fifth set a trap for Lizz, Flyface spotted Tracy sitting in a parked car waiting for Lizz. He knocked Tracy out with a brick and brought him to Fifth, who already had taken Lizz captive. Flyface guarded Tracy, who was handcuffed with his own handcuffs, while Fifth and Olive took Lizz to the roof to place Lizz under the lens. Tracy had a spare handcuff key in a secret compartment in his shoe heel and, without Flyface knowing it, he freed himself. Tracy grabbed Flyface’s shotgun and, at gunpoint, handcuffed Flyface to a water pipe in the washroom. As Tracy ran to the roof to rescue Lizz, Fifth and Olive found Flyface and unlocked him with Tracy’s handcuff key. They all went to their hideout in an apartment uptown.

Olive objected to Flyface’s odor and dirty clothes. She kept spraying bug spray at the flies surrounding Flyface’s head. Fifth sent Flyface out to get a change of clothes. Hiding in a phone both in Joe’s Cigar Store, Flyface called his mother, Mrs. Limpp, and asked her to bring him some clothes. When Mrs. Limpp arrived, it was snowing and she begged Flyface to join her and her grandson, Little Doc, for Christmas. Flyface reluctantly agreed. While they were eating, Eddie Berrie and another of Fifth’s hoodlums, burst into Mrs. Limpp’s house and took Flyface away at gunpoint. Fifth had sent them to get Flyface because he was angry that Flyface had missed the annual meeting of The Boys and Fifth could make no decisions without him. At first, Fifth was ready to execute Flyface, but then he relented and welcomed him home.

When Tracy, Sam and the police raided Fifth’s hideout, Flyface, Olive and Eddie surrendered immediately but Fifth took a little longer. Finally, Tracy’s right cross knocked down Fifth and they all went to jail. In jail and in the show-up, Flyface demanded to have his law books given to him to read. In March, Flyface set fire to the pages of his law books and, because the pages were soaked with a certain chemical, the flames gave off traces of nitric oxide. The fumes killed two guards, but Flyface and Fifth, with cigarette filters in their nostrils, feigned unconsciousness. When they saw their chance, they disguised themselves as firemen and escaped from the county jail.

At another of Fifth’s hideouts, they changed clothes. With the help of Haku Kou, a seven-foot Hawaiian who wanted to be the head of Fifth’s criminal operations in Hawaii, Fifth and Flyface, disguised in muumuus, flew to Hawaii in Haku Kou’s airplane. Upon landing at a remote Hawaiian beach, Fifth and Flyface discovered that Haku Kou was an undercover agent for the Honolulu police. Haku flew away in his plane and left Flyface and Fifth to the mercy of a tremendous tidal wave. Fifth and Flyface couldn’t outrun the huge waves and they floundered in the undertow. When the third and largest wave hit, Fifth and Flyface were crushed under a massive volume of water. Tracy, Chief Liu and Haku Kou searched the ravaged beach after the tidal wave subsided, but they did not find any bodies. Tracy didn’t notice the pile of sand with the flies swarming around – possibly Flyface’s grave. Tracy had no proof that Flyface was dead, but presumed he was.

Also Appeared:

1961: An unnamed man, who looked like Flyface, appeared on the television show
1962: The 52 Gang called Dyne O’Matick, the space coupe pilot, by the name “fly-face”
June 26, 1960
August 7, 1960
August 6, 1961
September 7, 1962

Adapted and reprinted with permission from the author Victor E. Wichert, “The Dick Tracy Encyclopedia, Oct. 4, 1931 – Dec. 25, 1977”. Dick Tracy is a registered trademark of Tribune Media Services, Inc.