History
Miguel Rico was a con-man, blackmailer, and sold information for the right price. By the winter of 1943, he was selling the details of American shipping roots to Nazi spy Baroness von Kampf, as well as blackmailing rich socialite Grace Dana to keep forged letters that would shame her and her husband James in the eyes of the public and ruin her husband's career.
When the press began suspecting that Baroness von Kampf was more than a refugee from her home country, her leader Bruno Beitz ordered her to eliminate Rico before he could blow her cover. At the same time, Grace Dana confided in her friend, socialite Marla Drake who was secretly the costumed crime fighter Miss Fury. Marla agreed to lend Grace the most recent money demand on the condition that she get introduced to Rico. Rico was charmed by Marla's beauty and she convinced him to go on a date with her. Before his date with Marla, von Kampf came for a visit demanding that he give her the information he has been paying him for. He then scoffed at her and told the Baroness to leave. The Baroness instead pretended to storm out but hide out in Rico's home until Rico had left. Marla was planning on standing Rico up in order to break into his apartment as Miss Fury and recover the blackmail letters from his safe.
Noticing that the lights to his apartment were turned back on Rico rushed back up to his apartment and caught Miss Fury poking into his wall safe. Pulling a gun out he attempted to shoot the heroine but missed. While in the shadows the Baroness fired her own gun wounding Rico. The Baroness then dialed the operator and left the phone off the hook and then fled the scene leaving Miss Fury to take the wrap for what she hoped was Rico's murder.
When the police arrived at the scene, Miss Fury fled and Miguel Rico was taken to the hospital where he was expected to recover. When Detective Carey came to question him, Rico refused to talk and after the detective had left decided to leave the hospital despite warning that he wasn't fully healed.
Wanting revenge against the Baroness, Rico climbed onto the balcony of her penthouse apartment where he was attacked by the recently installed guard dogs. Rico managed to shoot one of them dead and fight off the other. When the Baroness came home, Miguel attacked her, blacking one of her eyes and taking the expensive necklace around her neck for re-compensation for the time he lost in the hospital.
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Posing as Miss Fury
During this time, Rico also discovered the Miss Fury costume hidden in a potted plant by Marla Drake earlier and decides to pose as Miss Fury for his next job. Hired by a spy to steal a supply of Acrothorium, an element invented by elderly scientist Jan Novak that can destroy all metals. Wearing the Miss Fury costume, he smothered Novak with a pillow and opened up the secret compartment where his notes and the Acrothorium supply was hidden and found it missing. Suspecting Novak's nurse he and his employer began following her. The nurse sought refuge in Marla Drake's home, who was already wondering who was posing as her.
Deciding to lead her impostor into a trap, she posed as the nurse with a new costume underneath in the hopes of leading the false Miss Fury into a trap. When her impostor attacked, Marla changed into her costume which led to a fight that took them to the cities roof tops and attracted the attention of the police including Detective Dan Carey.[1]
During the fight, the real Miss Fury triumphed by knocking her impostor off a building and getting him caught up in a bundle of clothing, making his arrest an easy one. Unmasked, Rico denied any involvement in the death of Novak and was taken into police custody. There he explained that he was framed by Miss Fury, whom he believed was Baroness von Kampf, but was informed that the Baroness had fled to South America prior to Novak's death. When Carey began demanding answers from Rico about his accomplice, Rico was shot dead by said accomplice who fired his gun through a window, before he could talk.[2]