Edward Lewis McIver was born in Killarney, Ireland, in 1901. He has no memory of the Emerald Isle, however, as his parents immigrated to the US in 1902, and Eddy grew up in the Bronx. From an early age, Eddy was always a rough and tumble kind of kid, and he would often get into fights over his Irish heritage. As he grew up, he also found an interest in exploring and investigating places, including breaking into abandoned buildings, which landed him in trouble with the police more than once.

It was during these frequent trips to the police station that he began to get to know the cops, chatting them up with his natural charisma. They took a shine to the boy, as many people did when he flashed his bright blue eyes and warm smile at them, and several of the officers took Eddy under their wings, keeping him out of trouble and somewhat grooming him towards eventually being a police officer himself. The fact most of them were Irish, too, helped solidify a sort of solidarity with the cops.

Eddy probably would have become a police officer had the war not intervened. In 1918, at the age of 17, Eddy faked his birth certificate and signed up for the army. His friends in the police thought he was crazy, but Eddy felt he had a duty to protect his country, and he was shipped off to war with millions of other young men.

His unit was deployed to France, and he spent much of the war as an artilleryman, loading ordinance and packing around the large cannons used in the conflict. He only rarely was on the front lines, but he saw his share of combat. It gave Eddy a bit of a cynical streak seeing all of those men being killed just to gain a few yards on a map.

After the war, Eddy came home to New York and decided not to go the route of being a policeman. He’d seen too many people do too many terrible things during the war, so instead in early 1920, Eddy went to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Prohibition was just rolling out across the country, and Eddy ended up investigating moonshiners in upstate New York and Pennsylvania more than he would have liked. He worked his way up the ranks in the agency, his sharp eye and sharper wit giving him a leg up on the other agents.

In July of 1929, Eddy was assigned to a case for Virginia Sullivan, a wealthy woman who suspected her husband of infidelity. Instead of finding Charles Sullivan tom catting about, Eddy instead discovered that the man was working for Chinese opium dealers, and was tied to a number of mysterious murders in New York. Using his keen mind and, on a few occasions, his bare knuckles, Eddy cracked the case wide open. He ended up on the front page of the Times after Charles Sullivan was arrested, though credit for the bust went to the Pinkerton Agency and he wasn’t identified by name.

Though he would never admit it, there were also rumors that Eddy had an affair with Virginia Sullivan. She did bankroll his new solo private detective office, helping him get out from under the thumb of the Pinkertons. Eddy, however, kept up his charm and playboy ways, chasing skirts as much as bad guys after becoming New York City’s newest independent gumshoe.

Eddy built a solid reputation for himself for the next few years. He hired a string of receptionists, each quitting eventually due to Eddy’s cavalier ways, until at last in 1934 he hired Rose Valiant. Rose was not the typical bombshell he put behind the desk. Usually he just wanted someone who looked good, not someone with brains to match, but in Rose he found a remarkable young woman that reminded him of himself a bit. She was also eager to learn the ropes of being a private detective herself, and Eddy considered that she might be a good apprentice to pass on the trade.

In early 1935, Eddy found himself working for mob boss Happy Caprissi. He didn’t particularly want the work, but he knew that Happy wasn’t the kind of guy you turned down. The job seemed simple enough, keep his peepers on some dame for a week, see where she went and what she was up to. What happened during that week, though, shook Eddy to his core. He returned from staking out the woman a broken man, and he began to drown himself in booze.

Since then, Eddy has become little more than a bum. He rarely takes cases, and even when he does he wouldn’t finish them without Rose’s help. He was evicted from his apartment, and after pawning most of his worldly possessions he moved onto the office couch, spending his days sleeping, drinking, and smoking. He likely wouldn’t eat if Rose didn’t bring him food every day. A shell of a man, he refuses to tell Rose or anyone what happened that turned him into a shadow of his former self.