After Richard Stanton's daughter was kidnapped, the shock gave his wife a heart attack and he quit the theater to find her. Disguising himself as a "harmless old woman," he later came to be known as "Madam Fatal." Eight years later, he found the gangster who kidnapped his daughter, John Carver. Carver had kidnapped Stanton's daughter out of revenge because Stanton married Carver's first love. Stanton brought the fiend to justice but, failed to find his daughter, causing him to continue on and fight criminals as Madam Fatal. He was assisted by his parrot, Hamlet, who would recite Shakespeare. He later formed the "Sure Fire Detective Agency" with Tubby White and Scrappy Nelson.