Why Gilda Dent Was the One True Holiday
by The Killer Smile
One of the greatest surprises of the work The Long Halloween was the surprise twist ending that revealed that Gilda Dent, long-suffering wife of District Attorney Harvey Dent, was in fact a violent serial murderer resposible for the death of six men. This point has been questioned by several people in the DC Comics Message Board(www.dccomics.com), not the least of which is Steven "Vacuumboy" Higgins, the proprietor and sharp-eyed editor of this very site.
Let's examine why Gilda Dent was the first Holiday from a 'Gildist' point of view.
First of all, the Confession. In issue thirteen of TLH, Gilda confesses that she was in fact the first Holiday while she destroys her costume and one of the .22 pistols that she would have used. The evidence is damning...Holiday's costume, the weapon, the confession, and Gilda explains how she murdered those who died as well as revealing her motive.
Gilda believed that the destruction of the Falcone empire would allow her and Harvey to settle down a bit and have children. Gilda, then, is most recent in a long line of people who have been beaten by the harsh climes of Gotham City. Harvey is one of the most famous.
Gilda reveals that she murdered Johnny Viti on Halloween. The criticism of this point is that she could not have broken into a mob hitman's house. I disagree. Having orchestrated break-ins myself(my neighbors lose their keys a lot), I realize that it can be easy to get into someone's home. The question, really, is how Gilda avoided Johnny's recent bride.
The murders on Thanksgiving(issue two) are the hardest for the 'Albertists' to accept. Gilda's admission is true for two reasons....1)those murdered were Falcone men, whom Alberto would not murder until his own cover was jeopardized on Independence Day, and 2)Gilda proved to be far stronger than even she realized.
She admits that she left the hospital on Thanksgiving while Harvey slept. Being his wife, she would know intimately his sleep patterns and his breathing rhythms, as well as knowing that the stress of the attack on Gilda and the pressures of work would have insured a long and uninterrupted sleep. Gilda probably left the hospital numerous times, to retrieve her Holiday gear and plant it in or near the hospital. It became a simple matter to leave, murder the Irish gang, and return. What better alibi than the presence of an eminent attorney?
Perhaps this point is best punctuated near Christmas, when Gilda answers Harvey's pleas to 'take it easy' with, "Doctors! What do they know?"
The final Gilda murder is that of Milos Grapa, the bodyguard to Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone. The contention on this one is that Gilda could not have left her new home to follow the Joker while Harvey was still there. This can be explained numerous ways, such as Gilda left to get help, or perhaps lucked out and found the Joker rampaging through the Roman's men when she arrived to kill a fresh victim. She may have been hunting the Roman himself. Both the Irish and Viti were murdered for revenge. Who's to say Gilda didn't plan to kill the Joker for her Christmas victim?
The reason Gilda stopped killing was that she believed that Harvey had begun to murder with the same intentions as her. This was false, as Alberto proved to be the true killer, but it stopped Gilda and allowed the copycat, Alberto Falcone, to take the fall. The most puzzling aspect of this story, to me, was the finding of the .22 on the Roman holiday. Did Harvey or Gilda plant the .22? Did Harvey plan to kill Maroni? Was Two-Face emerging? There's the real puzzle, but it seems to have been answered itself by Maroni's pre-emptive strike on Dent and Gilda's unwillingness to return to the mantle of Holiday after Harvey disappeared.
Gilda Dent was the one true Holiday. Now, who is Hang Man?
