Peter Blakenly

Top o’ the morning to you, friend! Welcome and enjoy your stay here!
I’m Peter Blakenly, former private detective and currently an actor in one-act plays in my old age. As you may know, I was The Black Rose, Boston’s #1 masked vigilante. By the way, I prefer to be labeled as a “masked vigilante” rather than a “masked superhero” or “superhero” because it sounds more mature and less childish. I’ll tell you about myself and my mysterious alter-ego after I pour myself a glass of Irish whiskey and soda.
I was born on January 24, 1914 to James and Olivia Blakenly. My father, whose grandfather was an Irish immigrant, worked as a top scientist for the United States Government. He developed such peculiar mechanisms as a gadget-laden cane for an Eastern European prime minister, a voice changer, and so on. I loved my father although he spent little time with me. However, he became a heavy smoker due the anxiety over his dangerous experiments. He died of lung cancer when I was nine years old, and the repulsive odor of cigarette smoke reeked in his last breaths. To this day I’ve always hated the sight and smell of tobacco products, especially cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.
My mother, Olivia Fontaine Blakenly, was of English-French descent and came from a respectable local family. Father’s death left a large inheritance for my mother and I, so she spoiled me rotten and brought me up on fine dining, cooking, classical music, and playing the piano and violin. I kept all these up because of the genuine kindness, patience, and love she expressed to me. She even introduced me to polite society by means of taking me to afternoon tea parties. Such formal gatherings improved my social skills and introduced me to the attractive young daughters of the feeble old bats present in the lounges. My mother also sent me to one of the finest colleges in the country to study drama. I was considered an eccentric and was quite lonely at times, but I had several successful relationships with the opposite sex there.
After graduating college in 1936 when I was 22 years old, I applied for acting jobs for a few weeks but I failed several times. Since I was young and had an explorer’s instinct, I decided to take a trip around the world for a year. I started with Jamaica first and then proceeded to South America, Europe, and Asia. It was in India where I learned about divine relations with the human soul and how mankind can be affected positively with such spiritual matters. After returning to Boston, I applied and auditioned for more acting jobs but the rejections continued.
But better days soon came. One day in 1937, I was in a local bookstore and an issue of THE SHADOW caught my eye on the pulp magazine shelf. I was inspired and I asked myself, “What if I became a real-life masked character like The Shadow?” I returned to my old home later that day and Mother was out. I searched throughout the house for inspiration. Finally, I found an old, battered chest in the attic and opened it. Inside was a rapier, a red mask for concealing the upper half of the face, a black handkerchief for concealing the lower half of the face, a black cloak, and a diary. The diary was written by a distant relative of mine, Peter Andrews, an English Shakespearean actor whose production of “HAMLET” had been performing in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution. He was secretly sympathetic towards the oppressed American colonists and so he became a masked highwayman by night. With his mask on, he was also one of the secret originators of the American Revolution. He left dead roses as calling cards and thus the population of Boston named him “The Black Rose.” However, Peter Andrews eventually departed for England with his fiancée and the daughter of a prominent English officer, Margaret Walton, and The Black Rose was soon forgotten while the new country ravaged itself in war. While reading the diary, I discovered my inspiration and what I was to become!
So for several years I physically trained myself to become the next Black Rose, particularly engaging in martial arts, fencing, and cudgels. I was never really a physical person before and thus the training was difficult and painful, but I didn’t mind because it was part of the plan. Using incognitos and several mailing addresses, I successfully contacted some of Father’s former assistants and requested them to update and improve his technology. I got a new gadget-laden cane out of these men and then bought several costume items and bulletproof vests using the same method of secrecy. Thus I received several Venetian masks, black cloaks, black suits, black fedoras, and other such items for a new, empty, and securely locked wooden wardrobe. In 1939 and at the age of 25, The Black Rose was ready to be born into the world.
The process of becoming The Black Rose drained my money considerably, so I needed a job fast! I applied as a police photographer, but I quit after a few months of gruesome experience. I then applied to become a photographer for the local newspaper, The Globe, but I was fired for taking merely photos of unconscious criminals with black roses rather than myself in costume. However, since I have an explorer’s instinct and I needed to be close to the forces of law and order, I became a private detective in 1940. The job was my most satisfying one and I stayed in business for 25 years. Each case consisted of another malicious culprit to catch, another black rose to drop, and another gorgeous woman to make love to. However, I took the time to play supporting and leading roles in one-act plays over the years.
However, my double life became strenuous and often interfered with my acting career, my private life, and my love life. So I retired from my private detective occupation and my double life at age 50 in 1964. I also abstained from promiscuity, since I was getting old and I was no longer a vigorous young man. I continued to act in one-plays and lived a quiet life until one night in 1969, when I entered the Boston Police Department in costume through a window and took off my mask for all to see. I was then placed on trial for the charge of vigilantism and was pronounced innocent because of my beneficial effects upon the people of Boston. Boston now honors me as their greatest hero and the police department throws lavish public birthday parties for me. I am deeply thankful for the police department and anyone who has helped reduce crime in Boston.
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