Jack "Five Star" Thorpe was a respected crime reporter for the Gotham Gazette whose stories helped the police and Batman solve many crimes. He made it his mission to find the identity of the boss of the Artisan gang.

while at a police league dinner to honor him for his work he argued that anyone with the proper training could do what he did. this led to him making a bet that if he couldn't turn socialite Bruce Wayne into a star crime reporter in three months he would donate $10,000 to charity. Bruce agreed because it was for charity even and he figured even Batman might learn a few things from such a great crime reporter.

Thorpe's plan was to lead Bruce to "uncover" that a man named Jim Long was the boss of the Artisans but this backfired as, in the end, Bruce revealed that Thorpe himself was actually the Artisan chief.