Creation
The Haunted Highwayman was created by All-Star Western writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.
Major Story Arcs
Death and Curse
In the early 1880s, Jonathan Rood was fired from his position as a Professor at a Gotham institute, after conducting a number of unethical experiments in hopes to find a cure for his wife’s paralysis. After loosing his job, he turned to thievery to obtain the money to help fund his research, by posing as a ghostly highwayman, robbing passing carriages. With victims and law enforcement believing Rood to be of supernatural nature, they enlisted the help of Doctor Terry Thirteen to deduce whether or not a ghost was haunting the highway. Dr. Thirteen eventually tracks Rood down to his home near Slaughter Swamp. After Rood shoots and kills a detective, his wife is shot in the crossfire, and dies while he’s being arrested. At the Gotham gallows, with his final words, Rood curses Dr. Thirteen, and all those who follow in the bloodline, for the death of his wife, before being hung.