Jay J. Armes, Private Eye With a Superhero Story, Dies at 92

U.S.|Jay J. Armes, Private Eye With a Superhero Story, Dies astatine 92

Jay J. Armes, a flamboyant backstage researcher who lived connected an property with miniature Tibetan horses, traveled successful a bulletproof Cadillac limousine with rotating licence plates and had alloy hooks for hands, including 1 fitted to occurrence a .22 caliber revolver, died connected Sept. 18 successful El Paso. He was 92.

His death, astatine a hospital, was caused by respiratory failure, his lad Jay J. Armes III said.

Described by People mag arsenic “armless but deadly,” Mr. Armes appeared to unrecorded the beingness of a superhero. In the 1970s, the Ideal Toy Corporation adjacent reproduced him arsenic a integrative enactment figure, with hooks similar those helium began wearing successful adolescence aft an mishap successful which railroad dynamite exploded successful his hands.

He told different daring tales of triumph: flying connected a glider into Cuba to retrieve $2 cardinal for a client; helping different lawsuit flight from a Mexican situation by sending him a helicopter, which helium said inspired the 1975 Charles Bronson movie “Breakout.”

The nationalist media was enthralled by his detective skills.

“He is an adept connected bugging, a skilled pilot, a deadly marksman and karate combatant and, perhaps, the champion backstage oculus successful the country,” Newsweek wrote successful 1975. “All helium lacks is simply a brace of hands.”