River City History: Gail Porter

Gail Porter first rose to fame as a reporter during World War II. With much of the male staff of the paper gone to war, the Daily Star desperately needed new staff. At the age of seventeen, Gail took up her family’s camera and started a career of investigating some of River City’s toughest criminals. Being young and beautiful, she often could use her looks to get into situations others might not. The rest of the time, she mustered her never-ending fearless streak to work her way into even the hairiest situations.

After the war, she faced greater and greater competition from the returning workforce. Despite years of critical success at the Star that continued even into the end of the decade, the boy’s club at the newspaper ultimately worked against her. By 1950, she was back working at the smaller much lower profile Daily Chronicle. While at the Chronicle, she learned of the Red Hawk and his burgeoning criminal enterprise.

Against the orders of her editor in chief Glen Grant, she went into the Red Hawk’s many clubs and hangouts. Hiding her past as a reporter, she fell in with the girls of Red Hawk’s most trusted hitmen. Ultimately she dug up enough dirt to put most of Red Hawk’s empire away for a very long time, but not without exposing her identity to the criminals.

Forced into hiding, Gail Porter knew she would need help if she hoped to escape death at the hands of the Red Hawk and bring his gang to justice. Jonathan Jones became her saving grace. The drunken P.I. was a shadow of his former self, but when he stumbled upon an assassination attempt on Porter, he quickly found his old grace in combat. Seconds after meeting Porter, three men were dead, all at the hands of the Crime Crusader.

Jones found himself on the run with Porter. He initially tried to leave the city with her, but found that every attempt to leave met with more death. Police, traffic workers, firefighters and paramedics were all under the Red Hawk’s purview. Anywhere he turned, Jones risked his own death. Up against a villain with as firm a hold on the city as any of the monsters that tried to rule it in the past, the Crime Crusader found himself running out of options.

With some reluctance, Jones informed Gail they only had option left: they would have to take on the Red Hawk head-on. And the source of their entry into the Red Hawk’s world would be a twelve year old girl.