by Dennis E. Power
(with much assistance from Matthew Baugh, Win Eckert and Chuck Loridans)

Invisibles Timeline
1897 Invisible Man by H.G. Well (John Hawley Griffin. OIM Original Invisible Man)
1898 League of Extraordinary Men (John Hawley Griffin)
1922 Invisible Man (John (Jack) Griffin)
1931 Invisible Man's Return (Frank Griffin----- with Geoffrey Radcliffe as
the IM
1935 Invisible Man's Revenge  (Robert Griffin) the IM
1938 Invisible Woman (Kitty Caroll)
1942 (twenty years after Invisible Man) Invisible Agent (Frank Griffin a.k.a. Frank Raymond)
1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Geoffrey Radcliffe IM)
1949 Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (Tommy Morgan IM)
1966 Invisibility Affair Willard Morthley and Kerry Griffin inventors of the OTSMID (Omnidirectional Total Spectrum Molecular Interpenetration Device) which can render objects invisible
1974 Daniel Weston  becomes an Invisible Man
 

JOHN HAWLEY GRIFFIN 1867-?

    The Invisible Man was John Hawley Griffin whose exploits were first portrayed in H.G. Wells The Invisible Man. we do not know until the end of the book that he is approximately six feet tall, broad chested, bearded and has the condition known as albinism and so has white hair and beard and red eyes. The albinism was however not a result of the invisibility serum although it may have been a cause of it.

    Mr. Wells does not dwell too much on Griffin's family. It then is left for us to do so.

    John Hawley Griffin was an arrogant sort but he comes by this arrogance naturally. The Griffins were the direct descendants of Gryffudd, one of the last Kings of Wales. They were also related to the Irish Griffiths, also an ancient Royal family. The Irish name oddly enough means ruddy one, something that John Hawley Griffin obviously was not. The family had fallen in status, one of their ancestors had been John Griffin, ancestor of Barons Griffin of Braybroke Castle of Northants. Rebecca, the daughter of the aforesaid John Griffin married Finn O'Brien, the Red Bull of Munster and brother in law to the 1st Baron Grebson.(1) The later day Griffins were however far from being titled and were esconsced in the upper middle class.

    John Hawley Griffin's father Robert, keenly felt the lost of his family's position and wealth. Their lowered societal status was especially driven home by the fact that Robert Griffin had married into wealth and position. His wife was Phoebe Radcliffe b.1839 Phoebe was the daughter of Lord Michael Radcliffe, owner of several industrial and industrial endeavors and of Polly Ffoulkes, daughter of Sir Andrew Ffoulkes.(2) They looked upon Griffin's lower social status with displeasure. Phoebe Radcliffe and Robert Griffin eloped in 1857, traveling across Europe and to the United States on a sort of elopement and honeymoon. By the time they had reached San Francisco where Robert hoped to make a fortune,  Phoebe was pregnant. Robert found to his displeasure that San Francisco although no longer a boom town was still not the sort of place he wanted to spend his life with his new wife.

    They decided to take up the invitation of Griffin's kinsman, Alexander Raymond of New Jersey and guest with him for a while. Rather than travel through the savage wilderness that was the American West, they went around the Horn. By the time they arrived on the east coast of the United States, Phoebe was quite gravid. The Griffin's were guests at his Uncle Alex's New Jersey estate. He was immediately uneasy because his cousin Henry was immediately smitten with Phoebe despite her advanced pregnancy. Flattered, she was also quite flirtatious with him.

    In the early part of 1858, Phoebe gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Irene. Robert was however tired of living as a guest and very tired of Henry. In 1859, Robert Griffin, Phoebe and Irene returned to England where the Radcliffes, grudgingly accepted the marriage now that a child, a very beautiful child had been born. They however did not refrain from remarking how their daughter had married down, etc. Robert acquired a position at one of the Radcliffe banks, this along his property income and his wife's allowance, gave them a comfortable living. He was however troubled by his wife's continued flirtatious behavior.

    The old saying was certainly true in the Griffin's case, marry in haste and repent at leisure. Phoebe became pregnant once more and gave birth to John Hawley Griffin. She was horrified, as was her family. John Hawley Griffin was born an albino. All of Robert Griffin's fears and jealousies boiled to the fore. He accused her of having an affair. Since neither had albinos in their family each was blamed by the other. Actually both of them must have had at least one since both parents must carry the recessive gene.

    Robert Griffin was called to his in-law's house. He could keep his position with the bank but Phoebe's allowance would stop. This was how he was informed that she was leaving him. She left him for Henry Raymond with whom she had kept up a passionate correspondence and took Irene with her to America.(3)The Radcliffes blamed Griffin for the loss of their daughter and only allowed Robert Griffin to keep his position for the sake of the grandchild John Hawley Griffin. However they never wished to see Robert or the child.

    Robert did his duty and raised his son by himself. As John grew older, he could see that Phoebe had not snuck one in on him after all, for despite his pale features, John resembled Robert. He instilled in John the need to acquire position in society, to strive for success at all costs. Yet John, because of his condition was constantly aware of stares and glares at him, it did not help that he was brilliant. His athletic build and willingness stopped any abuse, but it did not endear him to many of his peers. As he grew older he grew ever more aware of being an object of disgust, pity or curiosity. At University College he was awarded a medal for chemistry, but still he was regarded as different. It his desire not to be constantly scrutinized that made him devote his chemical knowledge to become invisible, when chemistry proved not enough for the task, he self taught himself physics.

    John Hawley Griffin took a position as a chemical demonstrator at a provincial college. The Professor there was, according to Griffin always attempting to spy on him, always after him to publish his findings. He was there for three years before contacting his father for money. When John went to the University the Griffins were apparently not wealthy but not suffering either. It is probable that Griffin senior had owned some property from which he received an income. This was apparently enough to send his son to University College. John Hawley Griffin was oblivious to the fact that his father had suffered some financial reversals. He spent all the money that his Father gave to him, continually convincing his Father that when he made the breakthrough that they would be wealthy beyond dreams.

    When Robert could not reimburse the money he had taken he shot himself rather than face the public humiliation of being an embezzler. It was shortly after Robert Griffin's death according to the Wells' portrayal that John Hawley achieved complete invisibility. He had however sort of rushed into the process, first successfully making a cat invisible, he then tested the formula on himself. The effect was painful and apparently irreversible. Shortly after achieving invisibility he burned down the flat where he was staying, first taking care to place his three notebooks and chequebook in a safe place. Griffin gives as the reason that he was afraid that someone would steal his process. While this may have been the result of the psychosis that accompanied the invisibility drugs, it was probably only partly that. There is some evidence to suggest that unlike further compilations of the invisibility serum, the original one was slightly different in formula. In the original serum the violent psychosis often associated with the drug manifested itself slowly, taking months to come to full term.

    The real reason that Griffin started the fire was because his father's creditors were after him. He wanted to leave nothing behind that would be traceable. He probably did not intend to burn the flat down so much as burn all his non essential papers and equipment but when the fire accidentally got out of hand, he thought little of allowing it to become fully involved. He reasoned that the flat was no doubt insured and a big fire would cover his trail better. Why did he wish to cover his trail? Two reasons, firstly because the drug was increasing his paranoia but also because he had a secret that he did not wish to be uncovered.

    This secret was one that even his Father knew nothing about, since Robert Griffin would have considered this secret a betrayal and might have cut off all ties with his son.

    John Hawley Griffin was married and had two sons. He had met a girl while in Chesilstowe; she was a relative of a member of the faculty. Her name was Rebecca Gray. She would listen in on several of the classes despite her being a young woman no one objected because she was not enrolled in the school. There was also an element of pity involved because of her condition. No, she was not another person with albinism but rather was blind. John Griffin was amazed when she did not turn away in disgust upon seeing him only to discover later that she could not see him. Although Rebecca was treated much like a child, he found her to be highly intelligent and capable as well as being a pretty girl with a very pleasant personality. He courted her, at first because he knew that he would never find another woman such as her but also because he had fallen in love with her.

    It was the existence of his wife and his two boys that also drove Griffin to succeed in his experiments. The boys were perfect without a hint of blindness or albinism. He had used a good portion of his father's money for his family's upkeep but upon discovering that his father was not only bankrupt and embezzling money, John Hawley Griffin was near to panic. He did not want any touch of scandal to touch his family nor did he could he stand to see them want. When his father's creditors had tracked down John Hawley Griffin, he made certain that they could not find his wife and children. His desperation for success to erase the stain of his shame, to overcome his father's debts and to make certain that his family was provided for were the main reasons that John Hawley, the scientist rushed to use his serum prior to having created a reagent.

    After taking it and finding that the effects were not temporary, he knew he had to find a reagent prior to announcing his discovery to the world. The story that he told Dr. Kemp about living on the streets was only partially true. In reality, he probably lived at his home, returning when his wife's domestic help left for the night. During the day he kept himself occupied by some petty thievery which also served to keep his family from severe financial straits. Griffin soon found however that a home with two small boys was not conducive to carrying out very delicate operations or research. Moreover he found his anger growing, exponentially in many cases and over the slightest provocation. For the safety of his children and to give himself some peace and quiet in which to experiment, John Griffin traveled to Iping to try and find a reagent.

    In Iping despite four months of relatively undisturbed work, he was unable to find the reagent. His rages were growing in strength, as was his paranoia. As his paranoia grew so did an odd feeling of omnipotence. John Hawley Griffin was brought back to harsh reality when he began to realize that the funds that his wife had been sending him were  depleted. Desperate and feeling defiant of God, he robbed a vicarage collection box. When the landlady of the room he was renting threatened him with eviction, he threw off his face bandage and revealed his invisibility to her, shocking her. When a constable came to arrest him for the burglary at the vicarage, he fought several of the townspeople of Iping while undressing. Once undressed he was invisible. In his ensuing flight, the constable was knocked unconscious.

    Griffin fleeing from Iping happens across a tramp outside of town. He convinces Mr. Marvel, the tramp, to become his accomplice in stealing back his precious notebooks. To cover Mr. Marvel's theft of the notebooks, Griffin embarked on a mini-wave of terrorism in Iping, hitting and tripping people, smashing windows and general acts of vandalism. After rescuing his notebooks and fearful that his secret was going to be published and exposed, Griffin and Mr. Marvel embarked on a spree of thievery with the unseen Griffin emptying the tills of various banks and businesses and Mr. Marvel holding the money in his pockets.

    Mr. Marvel bolted from Griffin and took refuge in an inn called the Jolly Cricketers. He told them that the Invisible Man was after him. They bolted the door. Enraged Griffin broke in a window and climbed into the Inn. He attempted to manhandle Mr. Marvel out of the window but the bartender shot at the unseen apparition and managed to wing Griffin. He fled. He managed to bind his wound before too much blood loss had occurred.

    Griffin fled to the home of a former classmate of his at University College, Dr. Kemp. Griffin convinced Kemp of his invisibility and begged for a place to sleep. As Kemp allowed his visitor to sleep he read  the newspaper's versions of Griffin's adventures and became convinced he was harboring a homicidal maniac. Kemp was convinced of this when Griffin woke in a fit of rage. Kemp had sent a note police and kept Griffin occupied by inquiring about his story.

    As Griffin related his tale to Kemp he became ever more agitated. He launched into a paranoid fantasy of being an Invisible Emperor. The psychosis often later associated with the invisibility drugs had seized his mind. Why had it done so at this juncture after he having been invisible for many months? Well, as stated before his formula was slightly different than others that followed, he did not use as much of the ingredient monocaine, which was the ingredient that caused the psychosis. Yet even the smaller amount shortened his temper and dulled his moral conscience, allowing him to not experience feelings of guilt about torching a flat full of people. The serum that he created was apparently self-replicating and was non-reactive to his immune system; it may have in fact worked in conjunction with his immune system and some of his hormonal systems. A by-product of the invisibility seems to have been an increased vitality, stamina and strength.(4)  The toxins that monocaine produced accrued in his system becoming greater when his immune system was taxed.  The frequent colds and now fighting off the infection and shock caused by a gunshot, made his immune system work overtime and thus the toxins were also created at increased rate.

    As Griffin finished telling his tale, he heard footsteps down on the lower floor. He wrestled with Kemp and undressed at the same time. Invisible once more he fled from Kemp's house and eluded the police. Taking Griffin's delirious ramblings as literal truth Dr. Kemp told Colonel Adyne, the head of the Burdock police that extraordinary measure had to be taken to capture him. All houses must be locked up, all food must be secured, powered glass must be spread on the roads, etc.

    The measures were immediately put into place and Griffin was a trapped man unable to escape from a police cordon even by train. There occurred in Hintondean a death that the esteemed Mr. Wells surmises was a murder done by John Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man. A man was found with a broken arm and a smashed head in a gravel pit, a broken walking stick and a bloody iron rod next to him. The murdered man was supposedly of a gentle disposition and so it was deemed that he could not have any enemies. The only witness to this occasion was a child, "the assertion of a little girl to the effect that, going to her afternoon school, she saw the murdered man "trotting" in a peculiar manner across a field towards the gravel pit. "

    While it is quite probable that in the throes of deep toxic psychosis, Griffin wantonly attacked and murdered this man, if I am allowed to play devil's advocate for a moment, let me offer another possibility. Mr. Wells states the possibility that Griffin took a piece of iron rod from a broken fence to use as a weapon and that Mr. Wicksteed struck at the floating object and caused the Invisible Man to fly into a rage. It is also possible that Griffin was using the rod not as a weapon but as a support, a sort of makeshift walking stick, him still being weak from lack of sleep and the gunshot. Mr. Wicksteed saw the rod walking across the ground and swung his walking stick at the air above it, striking Griffin a blow that caused him to cry out in pain and fall over. Frightened Mr. Wicksteed lashed out with his cane at the empty space that felt solid. Grabbing the iron rod, Griffin swung the iron rod wildly, striking Mr. Wicksteed in the arm and as he fell in the head, the later blow killed him instantly. Now Griffin was saddled with a dead body that could give away his presence. He hefted Mr. Wicksteed onto his back and carried him across the field. His fireman's carry of Mr. Wicksteed was the peculiar trotting that the girl saw. He dumped the body into the gravel pit and tossed in the broken walking stick and iron rod.

    My point is that while Griffin may have been in the throes of psychosis and committed wanton murder, there are other explanations for Mr. Wicksteed's murder. Whether the death of Mr. Wicksteed was a deliberate murder or a manslaughter, there is little doubt that Griffin was now, possibly because of even more injuries, deep in psychosis when he wrote a raving note declaring himself the ruler of Port Burdock, Invisible Man the First. He proclaimed Kemp's execution.

   Griffin went to Kemp's house to carry out the execution. He was confident that even though the police had the place surrounded he would win through and keep his promise. He nearly managed to carry it off, even shooting albeit non-fatally Colonel Adye. He then attacked two policemen with an axe but again did not kill them.

    Once again he eluded capture but was chased by police, Dr. Kemp and his neighbors. When he attacked Kemp in public, Griffin was in turn attacked by an angry. He was beaten mercilessly. His blood loss and momentary shock caused the serum level in his system to fall below a crucial level and he became visible. He was covered with a sheet and carried to a house. Although Griffin's vital signs had fallen to dangerously low levels he was not dead. He was still comatose when dumped into a hastily dug grave in potter's field. Whether it was due to some innate stubbornness or to some element inside the invisibility serum but a few hours after being buried, Griffin found himself awake and in great pain. The same pain that he had experienced when he first undergone the invisibility process. He clawed his way out of the grave washed off the dirt in a nearby stream, watching as the grime washed away to reveal nothingness.

    The loss of blood had also lowered the amount of toxins in his system, so he had a clarity of thought that he had not experienced for some time. He realized that he would eventually go insane again, unless he lost another dangerous amount of blood. Before that happened he must safeguard his family. He embarked on a series of robberies and send money to his wife. He also desired that Griffin the Albino, the Invisible Man not be traced to his family so he visited his University and altered the records removing all references to him being an Albino. He visited his wife once more before his psychosis took control of him. Although he was fully invisible his wife never knew it, she knowing him only by his voice and his touch.

    He discovered by accident that sexual activity kept his hormonal levels static and so the toxin levels did not rise out of control. Griffin's wife could not provide the needed outlet especially when she became pregnant for the third time. He told her he was taking a job with the government and would be gone for quite a while.

    Griffin used streetwalkers at first, covering up but was afraid of gaining too much attention and of catching disease. He heard of a girls school run by a former Madam and decided to hide out there for a while. Using the young ladies as a fertile ground for control of his condition. However he was found out by a government sponsored group of agents known as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and captured and more or less drafted to work for them. He did manage to make a deal with Campion Bond and Moriarty to further distance the tale of the Albino Invisible Man from his family. Part of the price for his services was to inform his wife and children that he had died honorably working for his Majesty's government. He would discover years later that Campion Bond reneged on that particular promise.

    John Hawley Griffin used his middle name as his first name while he was with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and gave them constantly false information about his background. Freed of constraint, Griffin was allowed to let his amoral impulses loose. In the league he killed without compunction yet even in the greatest throes of his psychosis, wanton killing held little allure for him. After a few years of service with the League, how many have not yet been disclosed by Her Majesty's government, seems to have disappeared from the sense of mankind. It is possible however that he discovered a cure for his invisibility using a blood filtration device. One of Sexton Blake's greatest foes was a man called Zenith the Albino. Could this have been a cured John Hawley Griffin or was Zenith perhaps one of the three children that he fathered while as Rosa Coote's School for Girls? This issue will be resolved when more information becomes available.

JOHN (JACK)  STUART GRIFFIN 1894-1922

    John Stuart Griffin was the eldest child of John Hawley Griffin and Rebecca Grey. Like his father and mother Jack was a handsome and intelligent personage. He had only dim shadowy memories of his father and fond memories of his mother. They lived in genteel poverty, having a home and servants but always struggling to make ends meet. He was driven to succeed but really knew little of the Griffin legacy. His mother had managed to secure enough income for her three son's education. Her only stipulation was that they attend their father's old alma mater, University College. At University College Jack began hearing odd whispers and strange looks from the older members of the faculty about the odd subjects of Griffin the Albino and Invisibility. His mother died suddenly in 1905, leaving Jack as executor of the estate with an access to some bank accounts that not even his mother had known about, there were safety deposits containing an odd mixture of bank accounts, scientific notes and newspaper clippings.

    The newspaper clippings made all the cryptic whispering make sense. The money was enough to continue Jack's education, keep his brothers in public school and provide them with a university education. Jack specialized in chemistry following in his Father's chosen profession, he wished to prove that his Father had not been a crank as was generally believed by then. Through his Uncle Walter Gray, who was also on the faculty of University College, Jack Griffin obtained a position immediately after graduation, working for Cranley Preservatives Inc., a firm specializing in new scientific methods of food preservation. The head of the firm and main researcher, Dr. Cranley allowed Jack Griffin the use of the laboratory equipment for his own experiments after hours.

    Also working at Cranley Preservatives was a man who despised Jack Griffin upon hearing his name. The man was in his early fifties and had also gotten his position through his connection with University College. He had been considered a bit unreliable because he had suffered a bit of a nervous breakdown and had taken to drink, losing his medical practice. Although a dogged researcher he was known to go on a bender every now and then. His name was Kemp. Yes, it was the same Kemp once terrorized by Jack Griffin's father. Kemp attempted to talk Cranley out of hiring Jack Griffin but Cranley, believing it to be nothing more than professional jealousy told Kemp that his position was assured.

    Another reason for Dr. Kemp's antipathy for Jack Griffin was because of the immediate rapport between Griffin and Cranley's daughter Flora. Kemp had nursed a secret affection for Flora for years but had not pursued romance because of his past difficulties and because of the disparities in their ages. Yet he did not want anyone, especially Griffin to have the pleasure of her company. Jack and Flora's relationship developed into a true love affair with the understanding that Griffin would one day ask for her hand. This gave him additional incentive to follow up on his Father's researches.

    Among the items that Jack Griffin inherited was one of the three missing notebooks of his father. The one he possessed was the middle one. A search for the other two proved again fruitless. It is a testament to Jack Griffin's genius that in five years of research he came up with a serum that while not identical to his Father's worked in much the same manner. Unlike his father he tested it first on animals and then created an antidote. With his antidote in hand, Griffin experimented upon himself. This invisibility serum took a long time to act with a month of subcutaneous injections to get the invisibility effect.

    Jack Griffin also used monocaine as the catalytic ingredient of the invisibility serum, yet his had a higher concentration of monocaine in its composition. His test animals showed almost immediate signs of psychosis but this was alleviated upon administration of the antidote. Griffin thought that the insanity factor was something that could be worked out after he had achieved invisibility. He also believed that a man's superior mind would be able to stave off the psychosis  for a longer period than the animal. Griffin took a leave of absence and began the treatment with his serum.

    Having achieved total invisibility, he then tested the antidote on himself. It did not work on human physiology. Desperate Jack Griffin traveled to Iping, hoping to locate his father's missing books. He knew from newspaper clippings that he had stayed in Iping. The Coach and Horses Inn where his father had stayed was now under new management and was now called The Lion's Head Inn. Heavily swaddled against the cold he entered the inn and took a room. Although the film, The Invisible Man, Universal 1933 is based on this portion of Jack Griffin's life, the writers of the film filled gaps of known activity with incidents borrowed from the original Invisible Man's adventure as presented by H.G.Wells, this then is why the opening sequence of the Invisible Man film seems similar to the novel. In reality Jack Griffin took a room and stayed in it pretty much without incident nor did he run out of money as portrayed in the film.

    He was racing against an unknown deadline and failed to meet it. The original serum caused psychosis as toxins built up over a period of time. The toxin levels increased with intensified hormonal and immune system responses. However due to the second serum created by Jack had a higher concentration of monocaine and a greater reliance on hormonal stimuli. This caused his toxins to build up at a faster rate especially when triggered by increased adrenal activity as caused by fear and anger.

    As Jack Griffin worked desperately on a successful antidote to his invisibility and its accompanying growing madness, Flora Cranley was at her wit's end. Jack Griffin had disappeared and she was desperate to find him. She implored her father to help find him and when Dr. Kemp tried to turn her against Griffin and point her affections towards him under the pretense of comforting her, she turned him down flat. Her response was a bit hysterical but as we will she had a good reason to be so upset.

    Dr. Kemp must have suspected that Griffin was attempting to recreate his father's research for he told Flora that Griffin was delving into things better left alone.

    Dr. Cranley along with Dr. Kemp searched through Griffin's deserted laboratory. He had packed up much of his equipment and burned his non-essential papers. It was only through an exhaustive search that they discovered a list of chemicals. One of the chemicals on the list especially worried Dr. Cranley; the drug monocaine which was derived from a flower from India. It had the ability to draw color out of anything that it touched.

    Kemp asked why that was so bad. Cranley told him that a German experiment had injected monocaine into a dog (5) It had turned the dog marble white but it had also driven it violently mad.  It was here that Dr. Kemp revealed to Dr. Cranley that Griffin was the son of the legendary Invisible man and that he was undoubtedly following in the same steps.(6) Cranley told Kemp to the keep this between themselves, invoking the name of honor with the unspoken threat of job termination if Kemp did not comply.

    The two weeks that Jack Griffin spent at the Lion's Head, he paid his bill on time but his aloofness from the patrons of the Inn and his never being seen out of his bandages caused some talk. Jack Griffin grew extremely short tempered as his quest for an antidote seemed increasingly impossible. He was having trouble concentrating as the toxins clouded his mind, as paranoia and rage overcame his rationality. The murmur of noise from the tavern room below enraged him, breaking his concentration. He screamed curses, broke furniture and smashed glassware. Even though he would pay the landlady for these outbursts they became tiresome.

       As she served his midday meal, a catalytic agent failed. He blamed her for the failed reaction, stating that a whole day's work was ruined because of her. He pushed her of the room and threw the tray full of food behind her. Screaming she ran to her husband and told her to evict Griffin. When he attempted to do so, Griffin tossed him down a flight of steps, causing him some head trauma.

    A constable was sent for. He asked for a couple of men to accompany him up to take the man into custody. Infuriated at another interruption, Griffin swore at them. He told them he would show them what they were dealing with and took off his head coverings. Revealing a headless body. Frightened the Constable and townspeople fled from the room. However the constable had some wits about him, remembering the stories of twenty years past he realized that the man was invisible and that they had to capture him before he got all his clothes off.

    The constable and several men returned to the room and struggled with the half clothed invisible man. However as stated the invisibility formula made Griffin slightly stronger than most and he was able to hold them off, knock out the constable while pulling off his clothes. He fled from the room and exacted a vengeance on Iping for having disturbed his work. He broke barware, smashed windows, pushed people down, turned over a baby carriage, stole and threw a bike at a crowd, knocked off hats and general mayhem like this.

    He made his way to Dr. Kemp's home and let himself in. Dr. Kemp was listening to the radio a report about a small town nearby suffering from a delusion of having an invisible man among them. Kemp was startled but not entirely surprised when a voice spoke up calling those people fools. The voice told Kemp to build up a fire, he was chilled. Griffin told Kemp that he not to call out he was strong and could throttle him.

    As Griffin built up a fire, Griffin dressed in some of Kemp's clothing, mostly to get warm, not so much for Griffin's comfort as was depicted in the film. He probably dispensed with the head bandage, not really needing it and also because it helped keep Kemp uneasy. Griffin told Kemp he had started his research five years prior.

    Kemp blurted out that he had suspected that Griffin had been continuing his father's work. Griffin demanded to know how Kemp knew about that. Realizing his possibly fatal error, Kemp admitted that he had known the elder Griffin and had been a friend of his. Griffin's attitude changed towards Kemp becoming friendlier and more confiding. He tells Kemp how the drugs had lit up his mind, showing him that with this power he could make people grovel at his feet. He informed Kemp that they would be partners and that Kemp would help him with his coming reign of terror.

    First however he had to retrieve his notebooks from the Lion's Head Inn. He had Kemp drive to the village. Griffin planned to walk unnoticed through the noisy, crowded tavern taproom. However the Inn was quiet as a Police Inquiry was underway to determine if the stories of the Invisible Man were true or not. The head constable was under the opinion that the stories were balmy. Griffin slipped past the inquiry and up to his former room. He tossed his books and belongings down to Kemp.

    On his way out of the inn he could not resist a bit of malicious mischief. This resulted in him smashing in the head of the Chief Constable, killing him. Kemp nearly drove off the road when Griffin told him that he had killed a policeman.

Returning to Kemp's house, Griffin dressed and ate. He remarked that he had to hide for an hour after eating food being visible until it was digested. He warned Kemp not to tell anyone of his presence and retired.

    As Griffin slept the police set up a set up to seal off the countryside for twenty miles surrounding Iping. Radio broadcasts warned people to lock their doors and not venture out.

    Griffin calls Cranley to tell them that Griffin was back and that he was the Invisible Man. Cranley wishes Griffin to remain silent.  He and Flora would be right over. Griffin awakens as the Cranleys arrive. Griffin accuses Kemp of betrayal. Kemp bluffed by telling Griffin he had told Dr. Cranley and Flora. Flora had been frantic to find him.

    Griffin insisted upon seeing Flora alone. Despite Kemp and Dr. Cranley's wishes, she agreed. Flora was horrified by Griffin's condition and asked why he had done it. He told her he had done if for her; because being so poor he had little to offer her. She told him that he just had to find a way to get back to normal, she was with his child. (7) As if this were a signal, Griffin began raving about establishing a dynasty to rule the world. A world where everyone feared him. Even the moon feared him.

    As Griffin talked with Flora, he noticed that Police were surrounding the house. He stripped out of his clothing and made his way to Griffin's study. Kemp opened a window to call out to the police. Griffin thanked him for opening the window and vowed to kill him at 10 P.M the next night.

    Griffin managed to elude the police surrounding the house. He spent the next day stealing money from a bank and throwing it into a crowd. He killed twenty-three men in search parties looking for him and then as evening drew close he throttled a switchman at a railroad and sent a train into a wrong track, derailing it. Hundreds died in the train wreck, passengers and residents of the town below the derailment.

    The police in concert with Kemp set up an elaborate trap for Griffin. Going against Dr. Cranley's wishes Kemp revealed that the Invisible Man was Griffin. Flora would be ruined by the scandal. Kemp agreed albeit very reluctantly to go along with a police plan to lure Griffin to the police station. Kemp was to pretend to seek protection at the police station and then slip out of the back disguised as a police officer and drive away to the countryside. Griffin followed the Kemp as he was escorted to the police station, waited as Kemp changed his clothing, rode on the running board of the car that drove Kemp to his house and sat silently in Kemp's car as he escaped to the countryside.

    At the appointed hour Griffin knocked Kemp out and set his car so that it would roll down a cliff.

    In the end it was fatigue and nature that did John Griffin in. During  a snowstorm he took shelter in farmer's barn. The farmer heard his snoring. The police surrounded the barn, seeking to drive him out the barn they set it afire. As Griffin's footprints appeared in the snow he was shot down.

    Griffin died in the hospital, shot through both lungs not even the extra bit of stamina provided by the serum could save him. Flora was devastated by his death. As his heart slowed down, the serum's effectiveness also faded and he gradually regained visibility.

    Flora Cranley went away to a sanitarium to get over her grief, at least that was the official reason, in reality she bore John Griffin's son, whom she gave over to John Griffin's brother Francis to raise. She later married a member of the English parliament and put these events far behind her. Cranley Preservatives was purchased by Radcliffe Industries.

FRANCIS DRAKE GRIFFIN 1896-1949

    Frank Griffin differed from his brothers in many ways, he was the only of the three not to suffer from driven ambition, the only not to become an invisible man and he was the only one not to attend Rugby. Due to a financial reasons, John Stuart Griffin was forced to make a decision that only one of his brothers be allowed to attend Rugby school (8), the other would go to the less expensive yet still academically sound Brookfield.(9)

    Frank volunteered to go to Brookfield and by doing so set in motion events that would further tie his family's destiny to the invisibility formula. At Brookfield, Frank met and became fast friends with Michael and Geoffrey Radcliffe, scions of a wealthy and landed family. Since Frank had no home life to speak of once his mother had died, Geoffrey invited him to his home for the holidays.

    The Radcliffe family was at the time lead by Philip Radcliffe, the nephew of Phoebe Radcliffe. He was quite a bit more egalitarian than his grandfather had been. He accepted Frank Griffin as a family member and attempted to reach out to John and Robert Griffin. However, John wanted nothing to do with the Radcliffe family still rankling over the treatment his father and grandfather had gotten. Robert followed his eldest brother's lead. Frank's continued involvement with the Radcliffes caused a rift between he and his brothers.

    Upon graduating from Brookfield, Frank Griffin entered Oxford with Geoffrey Radcliffe. His tuition was paid by scholarship supplemented by Philip Radcliffe. He studied chemistry and later medicine. While at Oxford he was introduced to a fellow student Willard Morthley, an American, Willard in turn introduced Frank to his sister, Katherine who had also come to England for an education. While Frank was in Edinburgh medical school, they married. After finishing medical school Frank's hopes for a career as a medical researcher were almost crushed for 1922 was also the same year that Frank's brother became notorious as the Invisible Man.

    Michael and Geoffrey Radcliffe came up with an interesting proposal. If Frank would take the position as physician on call at the Radcliffe Mines and would also use his chemical and research knowledge to come up with medical and other uses for coal and petroleum products he could have a research lab at Radcliffe Mines. Frank agreed. In 1923, Dr. Cranley approached Frank Griffin with some startling news and a set of proposals. Flora Cranley had borne John's son but could not bear to raise it, the scandal and the constant reminder of her grief was just too much for her mental state. Cranley wished for Frank to adopt the baby and claim that it was his own. This was not as difficult as would be supposed since, Katherine had gone to America for six months to take care of some family business and had just returned. To help provide for the child Cranley told Frank he would sell his lucrative Cranley Preservatives for lower than market value price, however he and Flora would have to remain as shareholders.

    Geoffrey Radcliffe brokered the deal. Michael, Geoffrey, Frank Griffin and Dr. and Flora Cranley became partners in the newly formed Radcliffe Preservatives Inc.. Michael and Geoffrey sold their shares to their family business Radcliffe Industries, so Radcliffe Preservatives became a subsidiary of Radcliffe Industries.

    Philip Radcliffe died in 1930 and his son Michael took over the business. Philip's cousin and a shareholder in Radcliffe Industries, Richard Cobb was made Chief Financial Officer. Geoffrey had by that time met and fallen love with beautiful Helen Manson. Unfortunately, Richard Cobb also conceived of a passion for Helen. In late 1930, he murdered Michael Radcliffe. Michael and Geoffrey were inspecting a minor cave in at one of the mine's shafts, as Richard Cobb had arranged Geoffrey was called away momentarily. Richard had been hiding in the mine; he hit Michael with a wrench and shoved him down the shaft.

    Geoffrey was accused and then convicted of having killed his brother. Every legal option was exhausted, although since they were relying heavily on good old Richard for his influence and legal aid, it may be that his defense was not all that it could have been. By 1931 two hours before Geoffrey is to executed, Dr. Frank Griffin visits him. Geoffrey goes off to the side to use the urinal. Dr. Griffin leaves. The guards find Geoffrey's clothes in a heap before the urinal.

    The word is out that Geoffrey has escaped. Geoffrey finds a suitcase of clothes that Frank had left him. He and Helen Manson go to a small cottage owned by the Radcliffe's. The caretaker's believes that a patient of Dr. Griffin's was coming to stay. Helen told him that the patient had been terribly hurt and so would be wrapped up.

    Frank had injected Geoffrey with an invisibility serum derived from Jack Griffin's serum. He had distilled the monocaine in an attempt to reduce its production of toxins, the distillate was known as duocaine. The serum still increased production of certain hormones which resulted in an odd subtle scent which animals could sense. The caretaker's dog would not stop barking at Geoffrey. The constant barking got on Geoffrey's nerves demonstrating a quick temper, which was an early stage of the invisibility psychosis. The barking dog eventually draws the attention of the police, causing Geoffrey to flee from the cottage. Helen returns to the Radcliffe Manor

    Inspector Simpson of Scotland Yard upon hearing the Griffin name in connection with Geoffrey Radcliffe's sudden disappearance immediately makes the deduction that Dr. Griffin had made Geoffrey invisible. He visits Dr. Griffin at his laboratory and apprises him of the fact, telling him that if an invisible monster kills, a doctor will hang.

    Griffin tests an antidote on an invisible guinea pig, the guinea pig become visible but died immediately afterward. Geoffrey Radcliffe visits Dr. Griffin shortly thereafter. Griffin informs him that the police know he is invisible. Griffin tells Geoffrey that he search for a cure is going very well and takes a blood sample. He knows it is important to keep Geoffrey calm.

    As Dr. Frank Griffin is talking with Geoffrey, Willie Spears the newly appointed production superintendent demands to speak with Dr. Griffin. He was quite intoxicated. He tells Dr. Griffin to mind his own business and not to interfere with the mine's operation. Mr. Cobb will soon be getting rid of the safety regulations and the research laboratory. Geoffrey Radcliffe is shocked that a drunken night watchman had been put in a position of such responsibility. He decides to follow Spears and hitches a ride in his car. Standing on the running board, he pulls open the hood and detaches the carburetor wires, which causes the car to stop. He does this twice, spooking Spear. Spears dashes for the woods. Geoffrey Radcliffe tells Spears that he is the ghost of Geoffrey Radcliffe. Willie Spears frightened confesses that he saw Cobb kill Michael. He promises to go the police. Spears hurries to his home and starts packing. Geoffrey Radcliffe punches Spears and ties him up.

    Geoffrey Radcliffe went to Radcliffe Manor to get a confession out of Richard Cobb. Richard has been pressuring Helen to tell where Geoffrey is at so that he could be helped.
Geoffrey attempts to get Richard to sign a confession, Richard throws a paperweight at the chair where Geoffrey his rocking and pulls out a gun and begins blasting away. Richard Cobb runs down the steps and is greeted by Inspector Simpson and a group of police.

    Something about Cobb's manner makes Simpson suspicious but his job is to capture Geoffrey Radcliffe. Police surround the estate. It is raining and the rain pouring on Geoffrey would make him ghostly visible. Geoffrey is chased from the garden house back into the main house. The police are conducting a through search using smoke machines and wearing gas masks. Geoffrey manages to grab a policeman and over power him. He steals his clothes and gas mask and ties him up. Helen pretends to have been overcome by the smoke and Geoffrey disguised as a police officer carries her out of the house.

    Geoffrey sneaks over to Frank Griffin's house, where Frank and Helen are under the watchful eyes of the police having a dinner. During the meal Geoffrey begins exhibiting delusions of grandeur. Frank Griffin drugs him and handcuffs him to a chair. Geoffrey feigns extreme dryness and asks for a glass of water. He splashes it in Frank's face, over powers him and gets the handcuff key. He escapes. The commotion brings in the police.

    Geoffrey Radcliffe returns to Radcliffe Manor where Richard Cobb sleeps with a gun next to his hand. Geoffrey picks up the gun and makes Richard leave the room. Geoffrey is forced to knock out the guard to Richard's room and then the trick the one downstairs. He and Richard go to Willie Spears house where Willie is standing on a chair, a noose around his neck.

    At Geoffrey's prompting Spears confesses that he saw Cobb kill Michael. Cobb kicks the chair out from Spears. As Geoffrey tries to save Spears, Cobb jumps on him. They fight and bring a crowd. Richard takes advantage of the crowd to escape. Geoffrey chases after him gripped by the madness. He chases Cobb to the Radcliffe mines and up an ore train. Although the police arrive on the scene and shoot at Geoffrey, Richard is still dumped out of a train to fall a great distance and land among a pile of ore. Dying he confesses to killing Michael.

    Geoffrey has fled the scene. Shot and going into shock, he takes the clothes off of a scarecrow and stumbles back to the mine offices. Dying from excessive blood loss and internal hemorrhaging Geoffrey needs immediate transfusions to stay alive. The new blood brought him back to visibility, allowing Dr. Frank Griffin to operate and save Geoffrey's life. However the transfusion was not a permanent solution for as Geoffrey's own blood began to renew itself, he became invisible again. Dr. Frank Griffin hit upon the idea of filtering Geoffrey's blood which proved most effective. (10)

    In early 1933 a Dr. Peter Drury took a position as a researcher with Dr. Frank Griffin. He worked there only briefly a little over a year. Dr. Griffin would not have normally hired a man whom he had been familiar with his work or background but  Dr. Drury had been hired with the recommendation of Dr. Griffin's estranged brother, Robert. It was not discovered until some time later that when Dr. Peter Drury had left Radcliffe Industries taking along copies of Dr. Griffin's notes and a sample of the invisibility formula.

ROBERT FREDERICK GRIFFIN 1898-1935

    Robert Griffin was not as intellectually gifted as his brothers were and this is probably the reason that he did not attend a university after graduating from Rugby. He did however had a great ambition to be wealthy and to marry into the ranks of the aristocracy. He joined the British Army and fought in France and Germany during the Great War. After the war he knocked about in Germany for a few years, meeting becoming great chums with an ex-patriate named Peter Drury.

    Drury had been educated at Aberdeen and Berlin, becoming an ardent Teutonophile. He had written against Britain's alliance against Britain. Robert Griffin was embittered at England for failing to make him an officer, citing his inability to follow orders and some unsubstantiated reports that he had participated in atrocities. After failing to create a fortune in Germany, Robert Griffin bid adieu to Peter Drury and traveled through Asia. His budding financial empire, based on the sale of Russian weaponry to White Russians in Harbin and Chinese bandits in the Manchuria were thwarted by an operative for the Kempei Tai, a little Japanese with annoying squeaking shoes. Griffin did have the satisfaction of smashing the little man in the mouth with a rifle butt and breaking all of his teeth before jumping off a burning gunboat.

    Robert Griffin was fished out of the water by the U.S.S. San Pablo.(11) He is set ashore and decides to leave China. He spent a year in the Philippines and two years in Australia. It was in Australia that he met Jasper and Irene Herrick. Jasper was a Lord but one whose fortune had eroded. While their daughter was at the University, the Herricks had come to Australia hoping to find gold and refill the family coffers. They did not find any. Robert Griffin acquired a map to a diamond mine in Tanganyika. As a result of how he had acquired it, Griffin had to leave Australia immediately. He offered the Herricks half the diamond mine if they would finance an expedition. They saw the diamond sample and jumped at the chance.

    It was 1930 when the Herricks and Robert Griffin went into the interior of Africa and discovered a mine where Griffin's map said that there was one. Due to hardships and bad planning they were nearly out of food and ammunition on the expedition back to Dar es Salaam. Robert Griffin suffered a severe blow to his head. Lady Irene would later state that it was a tree branch that fell and hit Griffin despite her cry for him to move. Although this is pure speculation, it actually quite possible that Lady Irene hit Robert Griffin over the head herself. Her reasons for doing this were greed-she did not want split the diamonds with Griffin, fear- his treatment of bearers had proved he was capable of murderous violence and disgust--he had shown a most unwholesome interest in their daughter Julie after having seen her picture.

    The Herricks left the comatose Griffin with a bearer who later returned to the party, telling them that Griffin had died. The Herricks returned to England. Robert Griffin awoke with a splitting headache and no idea of how he had come to be in the African jungle. His memory of the last year of his life was gone. He wrote to his friend Peter Drury who invited him to visit Germany. Griffin lived in Germany and France for two years until Drury told him of a plan to make him wealthy. If they could get a hold of his father's or brother's formulas they could write their own check.

    Drury showed Robert that his brother Frank had access to such a formula and had used it to clear the name of his good friend Geoffrey Radcliffe. It amused Robert to steal from his righteous brother. When Drury went to England, Griffin felt compelled to return to Africa. He worked at various jobs in Nairobi finally working on the dock. A falling crate hit him on the head.  He awoke not knowing where he was at but knew someone one trying to steal his diamond mine; he attacked his fellow workers. Overpowered he was confined to the Capetown Asylum for the Insane. Half-delusional he killed two interns and a male nurse with a knife and escaped up an elevator shaft.

    The second blow to his head had restored some of the memories that had been lost. He was filled with a burning need to get what was due to him and get revenge to those who had betrayed him. He also needed to make Julie Herrick his woman and marry into the aristocracy he despised. Since he was a hunted fugitive he would not be able to get leave South Africa nor enter England legally.

    He smuggled himself aboard a ship bound for London. He hid inside a burlap covered crate with a supply of food and water.  Upon feeling the crate loaded onto the London dock, he cuts himself out of the crate and hurries from the waterfront. Robert Griffin next stops at a tailor's shop where he buys a new suit of clothing. The clerk asks if the man was off of the El Akama. Griffin grabs the clerk by his shirt front, shouting, "Who told you I was from the Al Akama, Who has been watching me! I am tired of people spying on me. I have had enough of that!"

 The clerk said me meant no harm, only that he knew the Al Akama had just come in. As the clerk goes to get change, Griffin notices a bobby patrolling the street and moves behind a fitting mirror until the bobby has passed.

 The clerk returns with the change. Griffin apologizes for having manhandled the clerk. He said he had been away. The clerk asks where. Griffin said he has been lost. As he turns to leave, the clerk asks about the old clothing. Griffin says to keep it, they are just rags. He walks out the door.

 The clerk bundles up the clothing but feels something in a pocket. He pulls it out. It is a newspaper clipping (no clear date) The headline reads  Homicidal Maniac escapes from Capetown Asylum. Murders two internes and nurse in psychopathic ward. There is a picture with the caption, Robert Griffin. The legible section of the article says, "Robert Griffin, a dock worker, committed to the Capetown asylum for the Insane. He killed two internes and a nurse. He escaped through an elevator shaft. Police have laid down a dragnet and expect a swift capture."

    As Griffin makes his way to Shortlands, the ancestral estate of the Herricks, Jasper and Irene Herrick meet with their daughter Julie's fiancée, Mark Foster, he is a journalist and a grandson of Lady Ainsley. Julie and Mark leave to go to a dinner. Their car passes by Robert Griffin who is standing in the bushes outside of the mansion.

 The butler informs Sir and Lady Herrick that an old friend of theirs has come to visit. They are flabbergasted to discover that it is Robert Griffin.

    The Herricks had truly thought he was dead or at least put on a good pretense of it. None of this mattered to Griffin. He wanted his share of the diamond mine, immediately.  He pulled out an agreement signed by Griffin and the Herricks giving him half the diamond mine. Sir Jasper told him that it would be impossible to give him that sum. The diamond mine had played out and Jasper had made some bad investments. They were left with a little money but not much. Griffin said that he would take whatever they owned in the amount that he was owed. He also revealed to them his passion for their daughter Julie.

 Lady Herrick gives Griffin a glass of drugged whisky. Lady Herrick convinces Jasper that Griffin is psychotic and cannot be trusted with the money. They steal his copy of the contract and shove him of the door, telling the butler never to admit him again.

 Drugged Griffin stumbles into a river and nearly drowns but is rescued by a man fishing on the river's shore. The man is Herbert Higgins a cobbler. Herbert befriends Griffin. Griffin confides his tale to Herbert. Herbert convinces Griffin to get a lawyer. Herbert and the Lawyer visit the Herricks on Griffin's behalf. They attempt to blackmail the Herricks into giving up some money. The Herricks however are friends with the Chief Constable. He is convinced by the Herricks that Griffin is a blackmailing tramp and tells Herbert that Griffin has by sundown to get out of his district. Herbert sends Griffin on his way.

    Griffin thought briefly about asking his brother Frank for help but thought that the sanctimonious prig would have turned him into the police. Desperate he suddenly remembered having written a recommendation to get his friend Peter Drury on Frank Griffin's staff. However Radcliffe Industries no longer employed him they did provide him with an address. It was not too distant from the Herrick's mansion. So Drury had probably planned to put the squeeze on them as well.

    Drury is not too happy at finding Robert Griffin at his doorstep. Drury had cultivated Griffin's friendship but only as a means to an end, to get access to the Griffin invisibility formula. Drury had been involved in the early German experiments with monocaine derived from John Hawley Griffin's original formula. The German High Command had gotten ahold of one of John Hawley Griffin's notebooks, the first one in the set of three. Attempting to recreate John Hawley's experiment in order to create in invisible army to help the German cause had failed. After the fall of the Kaiser the experimentation was ended and Drury retained ownership of the Griffin notebook.

    During the mid twenties in Germany, Peter Drury had joined the National Socialist Party. Although he had convinced Robert Griffin that his desire to create a safe invisibility formula was for personal gain and fame, in reality it was for the glory of the Reich. When Drury had used his friendship with Griffin to gain access to the current work on the invisibility formula, he had copied the work and substituted a vial of water for the invisibility formula. He then regretfully informed Frank Griffin he had to take a position elsewhere.

    In reality he had taken up residence in a secluded house where he could conduct experiment undisturbed. Since his research was viewed a bit skeptically he was not given full support, especially since he wished to remain in England to carry it out. He was however given a specially trained attack dog for protection. He was given an additional assignment to watch the Herrick estate and report on the comings and goings of one Mark Foster. Foster was ostensibly a journalist but his relationship to Lady Jane Ainsley (12) was troubling for the Reich. They believed that Foster was actually a British Intelligence Agent and was using his relationship with Sir Jasper Herrick to gather intelligence on activities in South Africa and Tanganyika.

    Drury knew the Herrick name from somewhere but did not know that they were the people Griffin had been involved with the mine business. Nor did he have time to follow Foster around so he let that part of his assignment slide.

    Griffin asked what Drury was doing here. Drury told him working on the invisibility formula and showed Griffin  an empty cage from which dog barks emanated, a parrot cage where an empty swing swings and parrot sounds come forth. Drury lets in a barking dog but all that can be seen is the dog's collar. Drury also lets Griffin know that this dog had been specially trained to protect him and would kill any who attacked him. Drury explains that he had experimented with invisibility on animals but needed to experiment on humans. Drury was certain he had licked the psychosis problem by changing the toxin's chemical make-up just enough so that the body would recognized them as potential threats, therefore the toxins would be kept to a minimal level by the immune response system. He also counteracted the higher hormonal levels generated by the serum so that the rage and anger responses would be neutralized by natural euphoric chemicals in the brain. One of his final improvements to the serum was that the mucal membranes and salivary glands would produce a secondary form of the serum which would coat and bond with anything entering the body in that matter, therefore cold air, smoke and most importantly food could not be seen floating around in mid air.

    Griffin asked why Drury had not tested the serum on humans as of yet. Drury said he had been waiting for the perfect person, someone who he could trust utterly. Someone like him.

    Robert Griffin was reluctant to try it. Drury manipulated him into doing so. Accusing him of cowardice, painting a picture how Griffin could get revenge on those who had betrayed him and he finally brought up his fugitive status. Drury stated he would hate to turn him in but would do so if Griffin did not cooperate.

     Once the serum is injected and is successful, Drury begins making plans to contact the leaders of the Reich, using Griffin as an exhibit. Drury planned to leave the next day. Griffin demurred, stating that he would go to Germany without a legitimate identity. When he was returned back to visibility he would need a new identity to get back into England. Drury agrees to arrange for a new identity. While he makes the arrangements, Griffin returns to Shortlands, the Herrick Estate. In Sir Jasper's bedroom he terrorizes Sir Jasper into signing a promissory note that gives all of the Herrick's wealth to Griffin, including the ancestral home of Shortlands. Griffin also tells Herrick he intends to have Julie. Griffin says he has killed three men with a knife like the one he was using.

    While Griffin is reading over the agreement, Sir Jasper attempts to brain him. The Invisible Man toys with these attacks. As Sir Jasper was attempting to hit Griffin, Lady Irene walked into the room. She thought Sir Jasper had gone mad. Robert Griffin finally showed her that he was an invisible man by splashing water from a fish tank on his face. At seeing the disembodied face Lady Irene collapses.

    Griffin leaves the Shortlands.

    Griffin shows up at Herbert Higgins place dressed in the fashionable invisible man outfit of sunglasses, bandages, etc. Once convinced that this was not a trick Herbert agrees to help Griffin again. Herbert reluctantly feeds Griffin and then they go to the Running Nag Inn. There is talk of by some of the men that a suit of clothes had been seen walking down the road with neither head nor hands. Herbert, with Griffin's help, wins at a game of darts. Herbert pretends to throw and Griffin invisibly runs the darts to the board and sticks them in.

    Herbert wins the bet but is challenged by the loser, who takes back his money. Herbert pretends to punch the man but Griffin is the one that does it. Herbert takes his money and leaves the Inn.

    Standing at the bar, watching these events with a piercing look, is Mark Foster. He was taking supper at the Inn because Julie was at home taking care of her mother. Her mother is in a sort of dementia raving about invisible men and a man named Griffin. Foster had been intrigued by the mention of invisible men mentioned with the name Griffin.

    The next day at the Herrick Mansion, while Julie was still upstairs taking care of her mother Foster asked the butler if he had ever heard the name Griffin. He told Foster that a man named Griffin had visited the Herrick home a few days before but had been thrown out. No soon were the words out his mouth when a vase sailed off of an upstairs balustrade and crashed to floor just missing Foster. He ran upstairs but saw nothing.

    He went to an upstairs sitting room and made a phone call to his grandmother Lady Jane Ainsley to get some information on the Invisible Men. Lady Ainsley although she had not formally joined the League of Anti-Diabolists, had contacts with them just as she had contacts with the Intelligence Service. Foster did work for Intelligence but thought that the Invisible Man might be of interest to both organizations. After the phone call he returned to his room at the Inn.

     Unknown to Foster, Sir Jasper, having heard the vase break, had run out of his study to see what was the matter. Griffin, the invisible man, put an arm lock on him and strong armed him back into the study. He told Herrick to send Foster away. Herrick said that Julie was in love with Foster. Griffin once again announced his intention to have Julie and to kill Foster rather than let him have Julie. Herrick blurted out that Julie would never marry Griffin.

 Griffin asks if it was because he was invisible. Frightened and not wanting to admit it was because Griffin was psychotic, he said yes, because Griffin was invisible. Griffin vows to become visible again.

    Griffin returns to Drury's just in time to see him restore visibility to his dog by transfusion, prior to their triumphant return trip to the Reich. Drury has arranged for Griffin to have new identity papers with the name of Martin Fields. Drury insists that they leave for Germany that very night. Griffin will have none of it unless Drury proves to him that the process is reversible by making him visible again. Drury said that it would take the entire blood supply of another man to restore Griffin's visibility, thus killing him. Griffin said he had the perfect candidate. He had Drury call the Running Nag Inn and get Foster, telling him that Drury had captured the invisible man.

    Drury was starting to believe that his serum was a failure after all, at least in the human tests. From Griffin's behavior he thought psychosis factor evidently was still present in his blend of the serum. Actually it was not. Robert Griffin was naturally psychotic. Drury was either unaware of the two major head traumas that Griffin had suffered or considered them negligible. In Griffin's defense however, the minor amount of monocaine or duocaine toxins in his system did not help his mental stability any.

    Drury was going arrange it so that Griffin would have to accompany him to Germany by making certain the police knew his location. Nor was did he plan to allow Griffin to kill what might be a British Intelligence officer. That sort of scrutiny was something Drury and other agents did not need. Drury makes the phone call but he actually calls the police, who think he is some kind of a crank. After Drury hangs up, they ring him back but Griffin answers the phone. Drury's plane goes awry. Angry at Drury's deception Griffin decides to take Drury's blood.

    Drury protests promising Griffin fame and wealth in the Reich. Griffin laughs stating he has his own agenda. While Griffin is transfusing Drury's blood into him, Drury's dog is barking like a crazed animal but is chained up in another room.

   Shortly after Drury had called the police, Foster drops in them for a visit the police to see if they have a line on this invisible man story. They tell him about the prank call from Dr. Drury, that old crank who does those weird experiments. Foster convinces a policeman to accompany him Drury's to investigate the call.

 Griffin having drained all of Drury's blood decides to cover up his crime by setting the place on fire. He ducks out the back door. Foster and the policeman arrive in time to discover that Drury is dead and drained of blood. Foster and the Police officer are able to snuff out the blaze. Drury's notebooks are a bit charred but still salvagable. The dog is freed and chases after Griffin.

    As it turns out Drury is not dead but has suffered from extreme blood loss. Not having any medical training, Griffin had merely taken some of Drury's blood and transfused it into his system. He did not flush his system but only added some of Drury's blood to his own which neutralized the invisibility formula for a short time. Dr. Peter Drury would live on to work for both sides of World War II using his scientific knowledge for the creation of monsters.

   Griffin is lucky enough to hitch a ride and is dropped off at Shortlands.

    Sir Jasper is shocked to find him visible. He tells Sir Jasper that he has come to take possession of his property that if Jasper knew what was good for him he would cooperate. Oddly enough, although he forced Sir Jasper to turn everything over to Robert Griffin, he tells Sir Jasper to call him Martin Fields, using his new identity papers. He stays as their guest. Outside the house is the constant barking of Drury's dog.

    Herbert shows up at Shortlands and  while surprised to find him visible, attempts to blackmail Griffin. Griffin tells him that to become visible he needs to drain the blood of a man. If Herbert didn't keep quiet, he might just drain his blood. The constant barking of the dog was getting on Griffin's nerves. Herbert said he wasn't afraid of it. Griffin told Herbert he would pay a thousand pounds to kill the dog.

    The next morning at breakfast Foster discusses the Invisible Man Griffin derides it as a fairy tail but as the conversation progresses, he begins to blab about what an Invisible Man might do. This piques Foster's attention.

    As Robert Griffin was getting a biscuit from the serving table he noticed that his hand was fading. He was becoming invisible again. He ran to his room claiming he had cut his hand. He had Herbert deliver a message to Foster, asking him to meet him in the wine cellar. The notes stated that Griffin  believed that the Invisible man was hiding down there. When Foster went down there, Griffin locked the door and fought with him.

    Now totally invisible, Griffin had the advantage. He subdued Foster and began to transfuse his blood.

    As Griffin was transfusing Foster's blood Herbert was struggling with Drury's dog. The police arrived at Shortlands and asked Sir Jasper about a person who had been picked up outside of Dr. Drury's house and then dropped off at Shortlands. As the police were talking to Sir Jasper the dog pushed into the house and went down to the cellar. The police and Sir Jasper were in hot pursuit. They broke down the door. Griffin was translucent but not fully visible.

 Drury's dog attacked and killed Griffin. Foster would live. The police man remarked it must have been imagined slights that had driven Griffin mad and made him dabble in areas best left alone. (13)

    The incident made the papers. In Shanghai, a small Japanese man read the article and saw the accompanying photograph of Robert Griffin found it interesting, very, very interesting. He smiled revealing a set of gold-filled teeth.

KITTY CARROLL (The Invisible woman) 1915-1953

    If you will pardon the interruption we will take a slight detour from the history of the Griffin family to discuss yet separate incident of invisibility, yet one that is connected to the narrative at hand. We have seen how Dr. Peter Drury was able to concoct a combination of the Griffin monocaine/duocaine formula to make one that appeared to be without the psychosis inducing properties. Yet this formulation was also flawed for there was not a successful reagent that would allow the subject to regain visibility with any degree of permanence.

    Despite a somewhat reclusive lifestyle, Dr. Peter Drury was well known and liked in the scientific community for his willingness to share knowledge and his sustained correspondence with several of his colleague. As it would later be discovered his correspondence was not so much an extension of a gregarious personality but rather a means to several ends. In his capacity as a double agent for the Allies and Nazis, Drury was able to glean often sensitive material that would escape many censors. He was also able to gain through a correspondence with scientists in various fields, aid and knowledge in matters outside his field, and in many instances he was also able to held direct colleagues carry out experiments he did not have the time, material, wherewithal or intestinal fortitude to carry out. His correspondence with Dr. Lorenzo Cameron lead to Drury's semi-successful super-soldier lycanthropic experiments.

    His correspondence with Professor Gibbs allowed Drury to test his invisibility formula with some modifications but in a direction that ultimately proved to also be a theoretical dead end. Professor Gibbs was a theoretical scientist/inventor much like Caractacus Potts, whose ideas outstripped their practical application. In other words he invented a lot of useless junk.

    Through correspondence with Drury and his researches into the original Griffin formula, Gibbs believed that by combining John Hawley Griffin's use of a device to manipulate electromagnetic radiation with modern chemical methods and a reformulation of the monocaine/duocaine formula. Gibbs laboratory and home was on the estate of Richard Russell, a wealthy playboy, whose father and grandfather had first patronized Gibbs various research efforts. However Russell was informed that his finances had dwindled to the point where the estate would have to be sold and Gibbs could no longer be patronized. Fearing loss of his patron, Professor Gibbs put all of his efforts into completing the formula and machine. He wanted to use the technology to recoup the finances of the Russell family.

    Professor Gibbs advertised for a test subject and his ad was answered by a recently discharged clothing model named Kitty Carroll.

The combination of the machine and drug proved to be most effective Kitty achieved invisibility and promptly disappeared. That is to say instead of staying at the laboratory to conduct necessary biological and psychological tests, she returned to her former place of employ to play pranks on the dress company manager, in effect terrorizing him into treating the clothing models with respect and consideration.

    Although Gibbs frantically searched for Kitty, he could not find her and thought the worst, until she returned. Shortly after she did however the invisibility treatment wore off.

    Gibbs had a hard time convincing his patron, Richard Russell that he had in fact achieved invisibility. Russell refused to stay and watch the second experiment and instead went to his fishing cabin. Kitty underwent a longer dose of the treatment, and then Gibbs and Kitty visited Russell's fishing cabin.

    After a series of comic mishaps, Russell was finally convinced that Kitty was an invisible woman. Gibbs had not foreseen the effect of the introduction of other chemicals into Kitty's system while she was in the invisible state. Although seemingly innocuous, Kitty had a couple of alcoholic drinks and smoked a couple of cigarettes while invisible. The introduction of nicotine and alcohol into  her system proved to have serious consequences. Kitty's invisibility did not wear off as before, and Gibbs had to concoct a formulation that would counteract the nicotine and alcohol in her system. She was warned not to drink or smoke anymore because she would turn invisible if she did.

    Another complication arose in the form of  Blackie Cole, a gangster living exiled in Mexico. Cole had escaped to avoid the penalty of the law, yet he longed to return to his homeland, America. It was more than likely his adopted homeland, since he spoke with a thick Germanic accent, his name was probably Kohl rather than Cole. He heard about the invisibility machine through some minions still living in New York. Kohl decided that invisibility would allow him to sneak back into America undetected.

    His minions stole the invisibility machine while Gibbs and Kitty Carroll were at Russell's upstate fishing cabin attempting to persuade Russell of the reality of invisibility.  A scientist in Kohl's employ assembled it. It was tested on one of Kohl's henchman. The only apparent effect it had on him was to make his deep voice into a falsetto.  Kohl dispatched his minions to kidnap the professor. They also grabbed Kitty much to Russell's dismay, a romance had been blossoming between Russell and her hampered by the fact that it was taking so long for her invisibility to wear off. It had just done so when the gangsters invaded Russell mansion. They knocked Russell unconscious, the manservant had already fainted. One of the henchmen, the one with the falsetto voice had been fired from the gang because of his falsetto voice. Kohl apparently took this as sign of a loss of masculinity. He offered to show Russell and the manservant George the whereabouts of Blackie Kohl's Mexican hideout.

   Kitty and Professor Gibbs had been taken to an adobe walled hacienda building in a remote area. Kohl threatens to kill Kitty unless Gibbs successfully makes him invisible. Kitty and Gibbs have the feeling that once the experiment is a success, they won't live long anyway. While the Professor diddles around with the machine Kitty drinks some pure grain alcohol and becomes invisible once more. She manages to knock out and capture the Kohl gang, just as Russell arrives to there to rescue her. She actually pretends that he rescued her from one or two of the gangsters.

    Because of its flaws, Gibb's invisibility machine is never marketed. However his research is used by Frank Raymond in late 1939 and by Dr. Peter Drury later on at Project M. Richard Russell, despite not being able to invest in the invisibility machine, does not go financially bust because he and Kitty receive rewards and bounties for the capture of Blackie Kohl. Embittered by his capture and subsequent life term, Kohl begins working with Bundists from his cell. He is able to steer the Bundists and their Nazi masters towards an invisibility formula he thinks is Gibbs. It is actually Frank Raymond's.

    Kitty Carroll and Richard Russell married and had a daughter, Susan born in 1939. (The child was a girl despite the depiction that it was a male in the filmed depiction of these events)  She was shown to have inherited her mother's invisibility when rubbing alcohol on her body made her fade from sight. However she faded back a few seconds later. As the baby's body matured and the chemical similarities with her mother's biochemistry changed the invisibility factor seemed to have vanished. As for Kitty she discovered that after several years her body had readjusted itself so that cigarettes and alcohol no longer affected her by making her invisible. This had unfortunate circumstances.

    Kitty and Richard Russell's martial bliss was cut short when Russell went off to fight the war in 1941. He was killed in North Africa in 1942.

     While working as a volunteer nurse, Kitty Russell met and eventually married a Long Island Physician, Franklin Storm. They had one child, Jonathan born 1944, although Franklin Storm did adopted little Susan. While driving home late from a cocktail party and unfortunately slightly inebriated, Kitty Carroll perished in a tragic automobile accident in 1953. Her daughter's latent innate invisible ability latter manifested as described here.

FRANCIS DRAKE GRIFFIN JR.

    The papers played up the angle of yet another Griffin going on an invisible murder spree. Frank Griffin had just inherited property in the United States, owned by his Grandmother Phoebe Raymond. It consisted of a home, a printing shop and a grocery store. In 1936 Frank Griffin and Katherine took Frank jr. and moved to New Jersey. They changed their name to Raymond and hopefully would be freed of the Griffin name and the invisibility curse. Frank sr. converted the grocery store to a doctor's office; Katherine took over the print shop and was helped by Frank jr. In early 1940 Frank and Katherine died when their car became stuck on a railroad crossing. A subsequent autopsy, made in 194,7 would determine that they died of wounds not typically consistent with such a train collision and immolation. Frank Jr. took over the print shop.

    In late November, 1941 (14) five men entered the Raymond printing shop late one evening. The men asked for some personal stationary. Frank Raymond asked what name would be on it, a man with a German accent states Frank Griffin. They revealed that they know who he is and all about his family. The five men are Colonel Conrad Stauffer, Baron Ikito and three goons who are probably goons from a local bundist organization.

    Colonel Stauffer knew about the Griffins from his acquaintanceship and sponsorship of Peter Drury. There was also an odd familial connection, his cousin Richard Cobb had been killed by an invisible man, although not one of the Griffins. Dr. Frank Griffin had signed the death certificate however.

    Baron Ikito is a short, dapper Japanese man wearing round rimmed glasses. Baron Ikito had tangled with Robert Griffin in Shanghai, although he had left his trademark gold filled dentures behind on this particular mission.

    Stauffer relates that they know Frank Griffin has been living under the alias of Raymond to duck the governments who want the invisibility formula known to be in the possession of his family. Having found him, Stauffer says that the Axis powers are willing to give him a fortune for a the formula. Stauffer then proves that he does not know as much as he thinks he does when Griffin is reluctant, he says,  "All we want is to buy your father's formula.  Or was it your uncle that invented it?"

 "No, no, no.  It was his grandfather.  John Griffin." Baron Ikito chimes in with polite impatience.

Stauffer says: "Yes, of course!  John Griffin Sr.  Shot by the police." Ikito does not bother to correct him again. (15)

    Baron Ikito does correct Stauffer later on when Stauffer states that it was German logic that located Raymond, "Please tell Mr. Raymond it was I who found him."

    Frank feigns ignorance, but it is no good.  When Frank refuses to cooperate Stauffer commands the thugs to beat the information out of Griffin. Ikito called for a more subtle approach and has Frank's hand clamped in an industrial paper slicer. Frank relents before his hand is mutilated. Baron Ikito has proved that he is a very good judge of character. However, the thugs are lax when Raymond is freed from the paper cutter and he manages to fight his way to freedom. The thugs begin firing guns at the fleeing Raymond but Baron Ikito spoils their aim by pretending to trip. Baron Ikito and Stauffer flee, knowing that Raymond will spill all to the authorities.

    Frank Raymond heads to the US government where he is told that they have been aware of his identity for some time however chose to abide by his wishes to remain incognito.  They would consider it a great patriotic service if he would turn the formula over to them. He says that he will not, the formula is too dangerous and no emergency could be serious enough to convince him to reconsider.

    A few weeks later however his feelings are changed by the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Frank appears before a group of Allied generals in Washington to tell them that he will allow his formula to be used for a mission, on the condition that he is the agent sent. They worry that without training or language skills he would be easily captured. Frank tells them that his grandparents, the Morthleys, spoke fluent German and he had picked up the language like a native. He also had taken French in high school so was conversant at least in that tongue.

    The generals agree and Frank is parachuted into Germany to steal the Nazi plans for the invasion of the US.

    Frank is nearly shot by Nazi soldiers as he descends but they are distracted by his apparent disintegration as he peels the clothes off of his invisible body.  A search is mounted, but all that the soldiers find are empty clothes.(16).  Frank is easily able to overpower a driver and steal a car.

    He proceeds to the carpentry shop of an Allied agent named Schmidt who will serve as his radio contact with headquarters.  Schmidt directs him to the home of Maria Sorenson who has been trained by the Nazis as a spy, but who is actually working for the British.

    Maria is astonished and delighted by the invisible agent, but says that he has come at the wrong time.  She is having dinner with Oberst Karl Heiser of the SS.  Hesier wears a "Death's Head" officers uniform.

    Heiser arrives and tries to seduce Maria.  He urges her to forget about Stauffer, who was formerly her lover and Heiser's superior.  Stauffer is out of the country on a mission and, he reminds her, many do not return from such missions.  Maria tries to get information from Heiser about the upcoming US invasion but is put to the test by Frank who has decided to pull a number of invisible pranks on the Nazi.  When Heiser gets more aggressive in his romantic advances, Frank spills a table of food on him.  When Maria laughs, Heiser has her put under house arrest.  She is furious at Frank at having ruined what it took her a year of work to accomplish.

    Maria is tired of talking to an invisible man so he covers himself with a robe, a turban, dark glasses and cold cream. After a few minutes of conversation he falls into a deep sleep. He states that this is the problem with the serum. It is the one of the two major side effects of this version of the serum. Prior to being killed, Dr. Frank Griffin had combined the researches of his grandfather, his brother, his own research and those of Dr. Peter Drury which he had acquired when his own papers were returned from Drury's effects.

    Dr. Frank Griffin had managed to come up with a formula that eliminated the psychosis, however it did have a tendency to make the recipient become giddy as if drunk when he exerted himself, there was also a syndrome of random narcolepsy. It was not ready to be in the field but this was an emergency. Dr. Frank Griffin however had created a viable antidote so invisible men could be brought back to visibility.

    Heiser returns to his headquarters to find that Stauffer and Ikito have returned to Germany.  Stauffer is dismissive of his ambitious junior officer, but becomes interested when Heiser tells him about his humiliation at Maria's. Stauffer clearly suspects that an invisible man is at large in Germany.

    Stauffer and Heiser return to Maria's. Maria has to wipe him clean of the cold cream and strip him. She is however unable to wake him. Stauffer has Heiser arrested in front of her for scheming to steal his position and his woman. Stauffer has a conversation with her in which he hints at his suspicion of her. Stauffer then pointedly mentions that the secret invasion plans will shortly be delivered to his office. Despite his prodding around in the room he fails to find the invisible man.

    Frank falls for the bait and breaks into Stauffer's office. The door is locked behind him. Stauffer confronts him and seems to have the advantage.  When Frank admits that he doesn't know the formula Stauffer orders him seized.  Frank starts a fire and holds off the SS men until a fire engine arrives and he goes down the ladder to freedom. He has managed to get away with a book containing the names of all the German and Japanese agents in the US which he gives to Schmidt to transmit to the Allies.

    Ikito arrives in Stauffer's office having learned through his sources of Frank's intrusion.  He asks about the book of Japanese agent's names and reminds Stauffer that he had pledged to guard the book with his life. Stauffer insists that the book is safe.  Ikito says that is good, otherwise both their lives would be forfeit. Stauffer doesn't understand until Ikito explains that he would be required to commit suicide were he to commit so grave a failure as to lose the book. Stauffer grows angry and sends Ikito away.

    In the meantime Frank has called Maria and her SS guard has overheard the call.  When the message is reported to Stauffer he realizes it is from Frank. He has the call traced to Schmidt's phone and has Schmidt arrested. Because Schmidt is arrested Frank believes that Maria is truly a double agent working for both sides. Seen from this light, many of her actions seem quite suspicious and he never fully trusts her again.

    In the meantime Frank has slipped into Heiser's cell where he is awaiting execution. He is able to bully information about the plan from the frightened officer. It seems that a squadron of suicide bombers is being sent at New York City that very night. There will be hundreds of acts of sabotage planned to coincide with the bombing.

    In return for this information, Frank knocks out the two guards and he and Heiser escape disguised in the men's uniforms.  Before they leave Heiser shoots both unconscious guards.
 When they return to Schmidt's they see that the building is being watched by SS men.  Frank slips inside to find Schmidt missing and Maria there. He jumps to the conclusion that she has sold him out and is raging at her when a net falls on him from the rafters.  Ikito's men have learned of the meeting place. Their net is lined with deep sea fishhooks and Frank passes out from the pain. The SS men notice the Japanese leaving the building and follow them to the Japanese Embassy.

    Heiser soon realizes that Frank is not coming back.  He telephones Stauffer and makes a deal to be reinstated in return for information on Frank's location. The two meet and proceed to the Embassy with a truckload of SS men.

    At the Japanese Embassy a surgeon removes all the hooks from Frank's body and announces that, aside of some blood loss, there is no real injury. Ikito wonders what makes the man invisible and the surgeon says that their chemists should have the answer soon. Which would mean that the Doctor took a few blood samples as he extracted the fishhooks. Frank awakens and Ikito asks him for the secret.  Frank says he will only give it up for Maria's safety and freedom.  Unless Frank lied to Stauffer earlier, he did not know the formula and so was either going to sacrifice himself or pulling an extraordinary bluff. Ikito agrees and has Maria brought into the room.

    At that moment Stauffer, Heiser and their truck of SS storm the building.

As Nazis and Japanese fight Frank takes advantage of the confusion to grab Maria and flee.  Stauffer sends his men after them.  When he tries to follows Ikito stops him.  Ikito is now convinced that Stauffer has lost the book and the invisible agent both. Which fits right into Ikito's plans.

    "I'll make an honorable man," Ikito tells Stauffer, "even out of you." True to his word he stabs the Nazi in the belly, performing hara-kiri by proxy.

    Heiser is delighted by his rival's death.  He starts back to headquarters, where he will now be the top man.  On his way he passes some SS who have been searching for him since his escape and they shoot him dead.

Dressed in a ceremonial kimono and holding a dagger, Ikito kneels before an image of Buddha and plunges the knife into his belly and collapses.  It is significant that his wound appears to be a simple stab and not the disemboweling slash that seppuku calls for. It is also significant that he does it just as the Germans are leaving the Embassy and get only a passing glance at the event.

    Frank and Maria drive their stolen truck onto an airfield (coincidentally the one where the bombers attacking New York are being readied) and steal a plane. Before pursuit planes can be launched they bomb the strip and head for England. Frank is still mistrustful of Maria and refuses to let her use the radio.  As a result, she cannot give her password to the authorities and British batteries shoot the plane down. Maria is able to parachute her and the unconscious Frank to safety.

    Frank awakens in a British hospital.  He is visible once again, and is informed that Maria is actually a British citizen named Maria Goodrich. (17)

    If you thought that the character of Baron Ikito seemed familiar, you would be correct, he is a short, dapper Japanese man wearing round rimmed glasses. He is better known as Mr. Moto. His appearance and speech match perfectly those of Mr. Moto. Ikito seems to be highly proficient in jujitsu. Though he is unarmed he has little difficulty in disarming and killing Stauffer, who has a pistol. This also fits with Moto's well established martial prowess. He is menacing yet never deliberately cruel or sadistic except when threatening to cut off Frank Raymond's hand. He was very convincing but then Mr. Moto could be. If you are equating Mr. Moto with the genial Private detective as he was portrayed in pre-war films, you are only getting part of the picture. Think of him as a sort of Japanese James Bond and you are probably closer the truth.

    The film version of these events showed him committing seppuku. This was done for two reasons; one is because due to the propagandistic nature of the war films, the Japanese villain would have had to die in some fashion. The other reason is because as far as the Germans were concerned he actually did kill himself. While it is true that the invisibility formula was important enough for Ikito to have traveled to America, Ikito's presence in Germany preceded the Invisible Man's so he must have had other business that did not concern Frank Raymond.

    Ikito had set in motion an elaborate ploy revolving around the code book that he had given to Conrad Stauffer in which the names of the Japanese and German spies in America were detailed. Moto would have been too clever to give such a valuable document to a man like Stauffer. The book was actually filled with disinformation on Japanese agents. Ikito/Moto planted it knowing that it would cause confusion among the Allies if it were ever stolen, and would even mislead the Nazis as to Japanese strength and objectives in the US.

    Consider this, even though the information was sent to allies by Schmidt there was not any mass round up of either Japanese or German spies in the United States. History has shown that during all of World War Two there were a few scattered spies and spy "nests" but not hundreds. It is most likely that all the names were all false. Sending the various US Intelligence organizations on a big wild goose chase.

    The good Baron's name was also undoubtedly false. Despite John P. Marquand's statement that Mr. Moto's full name was I.O. Moto (It wasn't but that will be dealt with elsewhere) the I. does not stand for Ikito. Ikito was a code name Moto used for this mission. Ikki can mean foreign lands and ito can mean design. Foreign lands design, meaning a plan carried out in foreign lands. Iki can also mean abandonment; desertion; relinquishment combined with plan, well you can get the idea.

    Ikito/Moto found working with the Nazi's extremely distasteful as can be seen by his manner towards the Nazi's which borders on the contemptible. Japanese culture, at least at this time, put a primary importance on being polite, even to your enemies for him to be so dismissive demonstrates his loathing for these men. Yet another telling sign is that after he kills Stauffer, he rips off Stauffer's swastika armband with a look of utter disgust and loathing and wipes his blade clean of blood on the swastika.

    Ikito's statement that ritual suicide would be expected of an agent who had committed such a harmful blunder as losing the book sounds accurate and certainly would coincide with what Stauffer knew of Japan.  Stauffer knew that Ikito's personal ethics would demand that that sacrifice was the only honorable way out. Or so Stauffer thought. Moto was such a devoted servant of the Emperor and of Japan, that he would probably have forgone personal honor for the good of Japan.

    The Japanese Embassy also had contacts with a mortuary, for they were able to get coffins and a hearse fairly quickly to smuggle Griffin and Miss Sorenson out of Schmidt's shop. Again this was all part of a previous plan. Ikito/Moto gave Stauffer the false book, reminding him often of how his life depended on its safe keeping. When Ikito/Moto had gathered enough intelligence material or scientific advances, he would have had the book stolen. Then Ikito/Moto could have staged a fake seppuku to cement the false document's authenticity. He would appear to do exactly what a disgraced agent would be expected to do. A stab wound to the belly, skillfully placed could look very nasty without actually doing irreparable harm, and Ikito had a highly skilled surgeon on hand who could have administered a drug to simulate death such as tetrodotoxin, the Zombie drug.  If this is the case, then a coffin bearing a still-living Ikito/Moto could have been sent to Japan soon after, stolen plans, material etc would have been smuggled out in the coffin holding his comatose body.

    Since Stauffer's blundering had precipitated a crisis, and the invisibility serum was of great importance Ikito/Moto went ahead with his plans much earlier than anticipated.
His coffin also contained a test tube of invisible blood for further analysis.

    Japanese scientists were able to synthesize a serum that would make humans invisible, however due to political machinations in the Japanese Empire regarding research allocations for secret weaponry and the complexity of creating such a serum, it was not until August 7 1945 that six men were successfully made invisible. The research facility was destroyed the next day by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the scientists who had conducted the experiments were also killed. The six soldiers and their commanding officer were out in the city conducting field tests and so were spared from death but not from the aftermath of the atomic bomb.

    With no way to cure themselves of the invisibility and afraid of being captured and executed by the Occupation forces, the invisible squad blends as well as they can in Japanese society. Four of the soldiers become kobun (soldiers) then leaders of a local yakuza based organization. Two others blend into normal society by painting their faces in make-up and take odd jobs such as carrying advertising signs. However one of the two cannot bear his invisible existence coupled with the loss of his loved ones in Hiroshima. He steps in front of a car. A pool of blood forms from an invisible source then a man's form takes shape. A reporter finds a suicide note, which leads him to Takemitsu Nanjo, the other face painting invisible man. The reporter convinces Nanjo to take a stance against the so-called invisible gang. The gangsters have been terrorizing the city as "the invisible gang," wrapping themselves up in scarves and trenchcoats so as to be visible to their victims, even though they are supposed to be invisible underneath. Once they discover Nanjo is going to interfere with their they beat him and leave him for dead.

    Nanjo recovers and destroys the gang by a combination of single combats and traps what cause the invisible gang to perish. Hopeful for a cure, he continues with this clown disguise.(18)

     Frank Griffin and Maria Goodrich would eventually marry but the mission related above was not the end of Frank's involvement with the invisibility serum or his only mission for the Allied Intelligence Services. While now unclassified, they can still not be released to the public without Frank's permission and he has yet to give it.

   Frank was rumored to work once or twice with Sgt. Rock and his company of grunts; he may have worked with Captain America and the mysterious Jack Pimpernel. On a couple of occasions while wrapped in bandages to give his invisible body form he was mistaken as the fabled Unknown Soldier. There is a very persistent rumor that he worked for several months with a very odd group of Commandos, a squad consisting of a werewolf, a vampire--who had been deliberately made into a vampire the U.S. Government, a soldier consisting of dead body parts stitched together and resurrected using the Frankenstein method. Accompanying this collection of creatures was a very beautiful female who was a  medical doctor. She was often used as a femme fatale. Her drop dead beauty was purported such that it would cause a man to stand stupefied like a statue.  Whether or not she was any relationship to Daisy Mae Yoakum is unknown.

        After the war in La Miranda Florida, a U.S. military project wanting to create an invisible intelligence corps to counteract Soviet espionage calls together two of the surviving invisible men Geoffrey Radcliffe and Frank Raymond. They undergo invisibility under controlled situations, however a ruckus at the Castle, the mansion on a small island in the cove, makes the Project Director fear that Russians are either spying on the project or are attempting to disrupt it. He asks Geoffrey Radcliffe, currently invisible to investigate. He finds the danger all over  but scares the daylights out of two bumbling shipping clerks. These immortals are currently using the names Chick and Wilbur.(19)

        These two bumbling former shipping clerks a couple years later, while posing as private detectives encounter another Invisible Man. This is Tommy Nelson a boxer accused of killing his manager. Having escaped from jail, Nelson talks, Bud and Lou as their characters are called in the theatrical portrayal of these events, into accompanying him to the home of fiancée, Helen Gray. Helen's Uncle Dr. Phillip Grey is working on a serum for invisibility and a re-agent to counteract it. Tommy wants Dr. Grey to inject him with the serum so Tommy can prove his innocence. Dr. Gray is reluctant to inject Tommy with the serum so Tommy does it himself. Dr. Philip Grey was using a serum based on the original monocaine derivation.

    Tommy began to become affected by the psychosis but was able to clear his name by staging a fight with the fat chubby immortal called Lou as his boxer who was supposed to take a dive but did not. When the gangsters try to kill Bud and Lou, Tommy intervenes. Tommy is nearly killed by a knife thrust. They break up the gang with enough evidence to clear Tommy.  A transfusion by "Lou" actually works a reagent and eradicates the invisibility serum from Tommy Nelson's system.  Any story however of Lou becoming affected by the invisibility serum is however spurious.

    Dr. Philip Grey had begun his research on the invisibility serum when he discovered an old notebook among his grandfather, Arthur Grey's effects. This notebook was the missing third book of John Hawley Griffin. Griffin may have given it to the elder Grey himself or else Arthur Grey might have gotten it along with some of his sister's effects after her death. Arthur Grey was the brother of Rebecca Grey, John Hawley Griffin's wife.(20)
 

KATRINA GRIFFIN 1946-?
    Special thanks to Win Eckert for providing necessary background information on the Invisibility Affair

    The last member of the Griffin family whose destiny was also intertwined with the concept of invisibility, was Katrina Griffin, the daughter of Maria Goodrich and Frank Griffin. For various legal reasons, Frank had to reassume the Griffin name but felt that time and his war record had expunged the taint.

    Katrina, nicknamed Kerry by her father was also intrigued by her family history and by the concept of invisibility although she approached it from a different angle than her ancestors, rather than trying a biological method she thought to use physics, specifically quantum theory. Her great uncle, Frank's mother's brother,  Dr. Willard Morthley had made some strides in this field and in early 1965, Kerry Griffin began working with Willard Morthley upon a method of creating invisibility by allowing the entire electro-magnetic spectrum to pass unimpeded through matter. Although Kerry was just 19 and still a student at MIT, it was she who had the theoretical breakthrough that brought about the creation of the OTSMID (Omnidirectional Total Spectrum Molecular Interpenetration Device) which rendered objects invisible.

    In doing so it also warped the space-time continuum and created a sort of null-space. Although there was no real practical use for the latter discovery at that time. The OTSMOD rendered objects invisible with a spherical field of radius, so one of the major flaws of the device was the visible demarcation of the its field which appears like a circular pit in the ground or a circular patch of clear air in a bank of fog.

    In other words if it were applied to a building, all you see is a giant circular pit in the ground, which denotes the edge of the field.  Therefore it is not really useful for personal use, as the person walking around could be identified by small circular pit moving around on the ground.

    Word however got out they had been successful in their experiments in invisibility and Dr. Morthley and his "assistant" Kerry Griffin were captured by Thrush.  Morthley insisted upon their capture for Kerry to let Thrush think he was the brains of the outfit, that way all attention would be centered on him and she could possibly escape and get help. Dr. Morthley did not tell her however that if Thrush thought he was the sole inventor, he hoped any mistreatment would be directed at him and if he should happen to perish in their hands then they might let the "useless" girl go free.

    They had to come up with a practical use for the OTSMOD or Kerry would face a fate worse than death.

    Kerry came up with the idea of an aircraft and Willard Morthley thought of the dirigible. Thrush then equipped a dirigible with an OTSMOD and soon discovered the second major flaw of the invisible invention. The null space inside the field was also an electromagnetic dead zone. You could not see out of the invisibility field nor could any form of electromagnetic energy such as light, heat, radio etc be transmitted or received. Therefore to fly on course, the field had to be dropped intermittently to take bearings.

    Despite its flaws Thrush used the dirigible to help Thrush's side win a revolution in a small Central American country, San Sebastian.  However, the intrepid UNCLE agents triumph and re-capture the dirigible and the technology, rescuing Dr. Morthley and Kerry Griffin.  Napoleon recommends to Mr. Waverley that the technology be used to help *their* side win the revolution. However the flaws of the OTSMOD are considered to outweigh its practical uses and the idea is shelved.

    Despite their breeding, charm and intelligence the Uncle agents accepted without question that Kerry Griffin was a mere girl friday to Dr. Morthley. (21)

     Devices oddly similar to the OTSMOD would later show up in two of the variant futures of the Wold Newton Universe. In the future which Future lived, Captain Future that is and the Star Trek timelines and of course the combination of the two. Curtis Newton had an invisibility device built into a belt, which created an invisibility field about his body for a period of fifteen minutes. Since he could not see out of this field however he had to rely on his other senses to guide him when he was inside the field.

    In the Star Trek timelines The OTSMOD sounds very similar to the Star Trek cloaking device, with the difference that on Star Trek, one can see outside of the cloak.

    Kerry continued to work on the invisibility project even after Dr. Morthley died in the early 70's. She received government grants to continue her research; she was later to find out that it was the military doing so. She hired an assistant who was a brilliant as her, Daniel Westin, from Britain. Even though he bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the two UNCLE agents that had rescued her, Westin insisted that there was no connection and as far as he knew no familial relationship between the Westins and Kuraykin's.
(It may look like Ilya Kuryakin but it is not). Dr. Kate and David Westin.
 

    Westin and Kerry, who he insists on calling Kate, become partners and then husband and wife. In late 1974, they receive an ultimatum to finish their research or lose all funding for this and further projects. The Westins realize that someone had been studying their notes. Westin without Kate's knowledge uses himself as a guinea pig for the first human experiment in invisibility using their new method which consists of injecting himself with what he termed liquid photons. This was more than likely a bogus term.  A minor mathematic mistake resulted in too much power being used altered the electro-chemical make up of Dr. Westin's body. He was permanently invisible.

    He destroyed the files at the lab so that the military could not get their hands on the use of his device, which they would use if there was a cure or not. He and Kate continued to work by themselves on a cure for his condition. They made a deal with the Klae Corporation to carry out various tasks for the multinational conglomerate, basically by being hired out as  investigators and/or spies. This is how the couple pay for their lab time The Klae Corporation's ties to the US Military and various intelligence corps, allowed it to put in a special order to the OSI/IMF. Not only did Westin need one of their special masks but also he needed a realistic full body suit. Fortunately his resemblance to Ilya Kuryakin whose facial and body measurements were already computerized made the task easier to do. An old friend of Westin's Dr. Nick Maggio developed Westin's artificial skin body suit. He had earlier designed smaller realistic pieces to to cover the cybernetic mechanisms on Colonel Steven Austin's legs and arm. (22)

    How successful the Westins were in finding a cure for his condition remains unknown at this point. (23)

    Click here for a Griffin family tree graphic
 

NOTES
 

1. Farmer, Philip Jose Tarzan Alive, addendum Three. pg 226
2. Sir Andrew Ffoulkes was a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

3. Irene Griffin later grew up to be a well known opera singer. She was involved with the King of Bohemia for a while. She was one of the few people to cross wits with Sherlock Holmes and best him. They began a long love affair which produced twin boys, one who became a great detective like his father and the other a master chef. Watson using his system of codified names gave Irene the name Adler. A Griffin or Gryphon is an Eagle Lion, Adler means Eagle in German. The Eagle also points to her American origins. It is unknown whether she knew about her connection to the Invisible Men or not.

4. This may explain the Invisible Man or Men's seeming enhanced strength and their ability to walk naked for hours and days in winter climes experiencing little worse than a deep chill.

5.This German experiment was probably conducted during the Great War as an attempt to recreate the experiments of the original Invisible Man and make an invisible army.  It is possible that one of Griffin's notebooks somehow make it into Germany. If so it would later be returned to England.

6.. This was excised from the film version for legal reasons

7. Naturally this was also excised from the film for code reasons as well as legal ones.

8. Rugby was of course the public school featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes and also the school where Sir Harry Flashman received his education.

9. Brookfield is the public school featured in Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton.

10. Frank Griffin involvement with Geoffrey Radcliffe's episode of invisibility is recounted in The Invisible Man Returns. Universal

11. The U.S.S. San Pablo became fleetingly famous in 1926 for its rescue of several missionaries trapped in a mission on the Yagtze river. This incident was later filmed as The Sand Pebbles

12. Lady Jane Ainsley was a medical researcher who had ties to British Intelligence. She was most renown for her work on blood research. She was involved in the Armand Tesla incidents of 1918 and 1944. She later joined the  League of Anti-Diabolists in 1944.

13. Robert Griffin's experience with transparency is told in Invisible Man's Revenge, Universal 1944

14. a paper boy announcing that Oregon State is playing Duke in the Rose Bowl confirms this date. The 1942 Rosebowl was indeed between these two teams.

15. Conrad Stauffer perhaps should not be blamed too much for his confusion as to Frank's relationship to the other Invisible Men. The similarity of his biological father, Jack Stuart Griffin and his grandfather John Hawley Griffin was confusing enough but because Frank's uncle Francis Griffin was also his adopted father was a difficult one even for this researcher to puzzle out.

16.  Captain Schultz who led the search is later demoted to Sergeant and is stationed at Stalag 17. His brother is also a Camp Guard although stationed at Stalag 13, although this Schultz is not as dedicated to the cause of National Socialism as he is to French pastries.

17. Frank Raymond's for nobody's eyes mission to Germany is portrayed in Invisible Agent, Universal 1942

18. Some of these events were fictionalized in the film Tomei ningen <Transparent Human Toho 1954

19. The careers of these two immortals variously known by hundreds of names in their existence will be explored in a forthcoming article tentatively called Immortal Befuddled. Although various comedy teams have put their own indelible interpretations of these two characters, they are using portrayed as a thin man accompanied by a heavier man. The incident at the Castle in La Miranda, Florida is shown in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Universal 1941 The later incident with Tommy Nelson as an Invisible can be seen in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man Universal 1951

20. Let's play follow the notebooks. John Hawley Griffin kept three notebooks on the course of his experiments. After being ejected from the Inn in Iping he has Mr. Marvel steal them. When Mr. Marvel hides in the Jolly Cricketer, he leaves the notebooks behind. The proprietor of the Jolly Cricketer sells the three notebooks. After much searching John Hawley Griffin manages to find one of the notebooks, the middle one. He leaves this to his sons. Jack Griffin uses this notebook to create a similar serum. This middle book was inherited by Jack brother Francis Griffin. The first notebook somehow ended up in the hands of the German High Command. They used it to create monocaine in order to run some invisibility experiments. This notebook ended up in the hands of Dr. Peter Drury, he had it in his possession when he was nearly killed by Robert Griffin. This notebook passed into the hands of Frank Griffin. The third notebook was of course held by the Gray family.
21. A reasonably accurate account of this incident was reported in The Invisibility Affair Man From Uncle 11 by Thomas Stratton.

22. The OSI connections to the Westin's was in the novelization television series of the Invisible Man by Michael Jahn. Thanks to John Small for pointing it out.

23. Although the pilot film of the television series was slightly more accurate than the series itself, the Invisible Man television series Universal Studios, NBC 1975 should not be construed as a real depiction of events in the lives of Kate Griffin Westin or David Westin. The use of their names and situations was sold to the network without consent.