Rolf Müller was a circus strongman from East Germany[1] and member of the Ku Klux Klan. Müller was suspected to be Hooded Justice, but it was never confirmed.
Biography
Rolf Müller was born in 1905 to Henrik and Greta Müller. His family was on the run during the Communist witch-hunts.[1]
The Müller family immigrated to Macon County, North Carolina. Müller's father was very abusive to him as well as mother.
When he was thirteen years old, Müller ran away from home to join the Hauptzelt Zircus.
On February 6th, 1930 he returned home to North Carolina where he brutally murdered his father for years of abuse upon him and his mother.
Müller joined the Sakcson and Shanley circus's "Big Top Hello Mobile" troupe as Rolf the European Powerhouse. Müller also began a sexual relationship with a fellow performer named Frank Burrows, something he became deeply ashamed of.
At some point, Müller becomes a staunch anti-communist and joined the Ku Klux Klan. He, along with Burrows and three other Klan members, are accused of murdering a black couple named Samuel and Elois Horton, after they attend the circus in Atlanta, Georgia. They are eventually acquitted of the murder in question.
Müller quit his job at the height of the Senate Subcommittee hearings.[1]
Almost a year after Hooded Justice's disappearance, the New Frontiersman mentioned Müller's disappearance, and implied that he was executed by his Communist superiors. The Comedian, believing Müller to be Hooded Justice, shot and killed the circus performer. Three months later a decomposing body with a shot on his head was washed up the coast of Boston. It was tentatively identified as Müller.[1]
Legacy
Connection to Hooded Justice
In the fifth chapter of Under the Hood, Hollis Mason speculates about the fate of the mysterious Hooded Justice, and raises the possibility that he was actually Rolf Müller, a prominent circus strongman who quit his job at about the same time the vigilante vanished, only to wash up three months later in Boston, with a bullet to the head. Mason alludes to the article in the New Frontiersman that implied Müller, a suspected communist, had been murdered by his superiors. However, he doubles down on the possibility that Müller was Hooded Justice, noting their similar builds.[1]
This allegation was used as reference for the television series American Hero Story: Minutemen, though the series claimed that Müller was not Hooded Justice and that he was a scapegoat for the real Hooded Justice to go into hiding.
Trivia
- Rolf Müller's only live-action appearance was in the HBO's series Watchmen's show within a show, American Hero Story.
- According to the information given regarding Müller's KKK ties, and possibly Cyclops, and his connection to Hooded Justice in the original series, as well as HBO's Watchmen and the Watchmen Sourcebook, it is likely that Will Reeves (the real Hooded Justice) had Müller killed by the Comedian by feeding Blake bad information, so that he would be used as a scapegoat and to stop the government from tracking him down.