Elias Mendenhall was a villain in the series.
He was a neurologist working at the Metropolis Neuroscience center but was secretly brainwashing his patients as killers for hire.
He was portrayed by Charles Cioffi.
History[]
Mendenhall was a neurologist who worked at the Metropolis Neuroscience center and specialized in conventional research on the human brain.
However the center was losing money and he decided to use his skills in brain research for his own ends.
He began a research program of behavior modification and reconstruction with a device that brainwashed his patients with subliminal messages and the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Calling himself "The Hangman", he then sent his brainwashed patients out to wealthy criminal organizations as killers for hire.
This was done in secret and he was never found out as all the weapons used had their serial numbers filed off, the patients wiped off their prints and then suffered from fatal strokes soon afterwards.
Season 3[]
He first began brainwashing a patient named Homer Blackstock to murder a politician named Sanbourne by firing a grenade through his window.
Later he was visited to one of his work colleagues Maxwell Deter who tells about a patient with amnesia who has just joined them; Lois Lane.
Mendenhall said that Lois would be ideal for his research program and told Deter that what he did would compliment Deter's treatment of restoring Lois' memory. Deter agreed believing Lois was in safe hands.
Later Homer suffered a stroke and was taken away due to Mendenhall's treatment.
Mendenhall brainwashing one of his patients Agnes Moskowitz
He then brainwashed Homer's friend Agnes Moskowitz to kill Roger Stevens for a payment of $50,000 from other criminal organization which she succeeded in doing, but suffered from a stroke in the same way.
Another criminal organization called him after they had failed to assassinate Daily Planet editor Perry White and he decided to use Lois as his next killer. He met her in the gardens and introduced himself, saying he was ready to begin her treatments but in reality, he was brainwashing her into killing Perry.
Lois was then sent to kill Perry by running him down, but was stopped and freed of Mendenhall's brainwashing thanks to Superman. Mendenhall then waited for Lois to return, She did and assured him that Perry was dead, however unbeknownst to him, it was a ruse to catch him in the act. He began his final treatment which was really going to cause Lois a stroke in the same way as the others.
Just as he was about to put the wires on Lois' temple, Clark came rushing in, followed by Deter who was shocked by what Mendenhall had done. Mendenhall explained his sick-minded motives and then turned on his hypnotic tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to send in all his hypnotized patients to kill them.
Mendenhall caught by Superman
Deter disabled the speaker that was playing in Mendenhall's lab and Superman disarmed the patients, melted away their weaponry and destroyed the other speaker hanging from the building.
Mendenhall tried to escape but was stopped in his tracks by the Man of Steel. Superman then demanded a complete list of everyone who hired him to do those dreadful deeds or he would have "Battle Hymn of the Republic" constantly played in Mendenhall's prison cell day and night.
He was then arrested soon afterwards.