Flash Comics #18 (1941)

While on a date, Jay Garrick and Joan Williams run into Joan's old friend Brenda Forest, a restaurant owner, who tells Joan about how her establishments have been recently plagued by racketeers. Although Jay initially tells Joan she should mind her own business, he later visits one of Brenda's restaurants as the Flash and chases away two of the criminals. He follows them back to their base to learn more about the operation. Meanwhile, Joan visits Brenda and learns of the Flash's recent actions. During her visit, several members of the protection gang arrive. However, the Flash arrives to scare them off, remaining invisible at superspeed and causing them to punch each other. The next day, Jay reads of the murder of Brenda's restaurant manager, Fred Devere. When Brenda and Joan go to the morgue to identify the body, they are unable to do so, because it has been horribly burned. The Flash runs to several of Brenda's restaurants and, finding criminals trying to destroy each of them, foils their efforts. When several of them run off, he follows them to their boss. Meanwhile, Brenda and Joan are tricked into being captured. The Flash arrives shortly thereafter, rescues the girls, defeats the gangsters, and learns that the leader of the racketeering operation is none other than Fred Devere, who had faked his own death.