5 Real-life Masked Vigilantes

In the words of Doug Walker, superheroes have become today’s equivalent of gods and demigods. The mythology surrounding superheroes, from the masked vigilantes, evil arch-villains to kid sidekicks, have become a staple in popular culture, made more popular by the rise of Marvel and DC movies.

But what people do not know is that there are masked vigilantes who have escaped the pages of comic books, and now walk among us today. Some lived in the past, riding horses and wearing masks, that would one day give birth to the superhero genre. While others exist in modern times, inspired to wear their costumes by their favorite fictional heroes.

Today let's list down five examples of real life crime fighters and learn their tales. 

5. San Diego Vigilantes

In the book On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1 by Chris Gavaler, he stated that superheroes originated from masked men who lived during the Old West. Indeed, back in frontier days when law was weak, people at that time put the law into their own hands. When an Old West town or city was beset by roving bandits and bloodthirsty gunfighters, it wasn’t always the lawmen who stopped them. What these criminals really feared were the lynchers, who oftentimes outmanned the police. Over 600+ people were lynched in the frontier following the Civil War. Masks provided these vigilantes the protection to do their deed.

The first recorded incident of a masked lynching happened in San Diego, California on July 1878. One night, a criminal by the name of Refugio Baca was locked up in a holding cell, when he heard a group of people trying to storm the jail. The people, numbering between 20-30 men, wore masks and carried firearms as they forced their way in. With the lawmen powerless, Baca was then taken away to a cottonwood tree where he was hanged. In that same year, they became responsible for the lynching of two more outlaws.

4. OG Imba

Like the previous example on our list, this group thread the line between good and evil (so can they be called chaotic good?). The story of OG Imba: Waray-Waray Gang can be traced back somewhere in 2010, when the Philippines was filled with all sorts of gangs and criminal syndicates. At around this time, a group of youths in the city of Tacloban decided that they had enough and so created a gang to fight these other gangs. What resulted of course, was carnage and mayhem.

In the few pictures and videos posted by OG Imba, you can see that these gangs wore caps and bandannas to hide their identities (while flaunting their wide-assortment of firearms). They wage gang warfare in their city while dressed up in these threads. They proclaim themselves to be a “good gang” who prohibit their members from using drugs and extorting the innocents, but make up for it through sheer extreme violence. Not even the police are safe from their thirst for justice. They still exist today, becoming even more powerful as the Philippine goes into a Drug War where there is a high demand for vigilante justice.

3. The Mighty Atom

Everybody knows the story of Superman. The man from Krypton, sent here to Earth as his home planet was destroyed. He was then raised by a kind farmer and his wife in the ways of an idealized American. And as he grew up, he would later discover powers that he would use to fight for truth and justice. Of course, this story is fiction, but you’ll be surprised to know one real life person who fits the bill.

Enter Joe Greenstein, aka the Mighty Atom. Like Superman, he was also taken away from his hometown to escape anti-semitism in Poland. Although Jews at that time were considered weak by society, Joe would demolish this image by becoming the strongest strongman in history. Taking the moniker of the Mighty Atom, he would perform feats of strength while wearing his Tarzan costume, such as bending horseshoes, tying his hair onto an airplane (and preventing it from flying off), and even survived getting shot to the head. He fought crime too, once by teaching the police wrestling and jujitsu techniques, and later by fighting a whole gang of anti-semitic thugs. When he and the men were taken to court, the judge couldn’t believe his eyes after seeing an unscathed Mighty Atom and 18 injured men.

There is a possibility that The Mighty Atom might have inspired or influenced the story of Superman. His creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were Jewish, and had definitely heard the story of The Mighty Atom, who was a household name in the Hebrew community at the time. 

2. New York Initiative

In 2011, a documentary entitled Superheroes was released by HBO. It was the first time anyone has taken a glimpse of the growing number of subcultures inspired by superheroes and comic books. At first, these people were mostly laughed at by the public due to their habit of patrolling the streets while wearing those funny and childish costumes. But that all changed the night this documentary was aired. Director Michael Barnett did well in portraying these people, not as costumed losers, but a brave group who risked their lives to actually prevent and stop crime. 

One of the superhero groups that were shown was a team known as the New York Initiative. These crimefighters, dressed in their colorful masks and costumes, wage war against all sorts of baddies from syndicates, pedophiles and homophobes. The documentary shows one of their superhero stakeouts, where they try to lure a dangerous homophobe who’s been a suspect in multiple assaults on the local LGBTs in Brooklyn. What’s amazing about these guys is the fact that what they are doing is dangerous. Yet they still do it in order to keep everyone safe even if other people consider them whack.

1. Bald Knobbers

Let us go back to the time of the Old West and talk about another inspiration behind superheroes. One we can consider as a group of real-life Batmans. Missouri in the late 19th century was not a good place to be in for many people. Animosity due to the Civil War was still rife, bandits and renegades roamed the countryside, and if you’re a black man then you better get the hell out of dodge. At that time, the place was also filled with feuds that made the Hatfield-McCoy conflict look like a kindergarten playground fight.

In 1883, a group of Union Missourians wanted to get rid of their Confederate neighbors, and decided to do a little bushwhacking. But in order to strike fear into their enemies, they had to become the devil themselves… literally. They dressed up in white, wore capes, and put on a black kerchief or hood decorated with horns and such. They would later become known as the Bald Knobbers.

Throughout the remaining decade, these guys burned and ambushed anyone they suspected to still harbor Confederate sympathies. Houses and courtyards were set on fire, and many (even the innocents) were killed in shootouts or in cold-blood. The gang started becoming larger and larger until they existed in 5 or more counties. To call themselves superheroes are a bit off, since like the KKK, they were basically a terrorist group who used fear and intimidation. By the end of their rampage, they killed between 15-18 people.

So what do you guys think? Do these real-life superheroes blur the lines of good and evil to you? How are they similar to the characters you grew up with? Maybe someday some of them would inspire us that wearing capes, masks and tights are not as embarrassing as you might think. Hell, they might just make us feel like badasses.