Joe of Spades is a character from Lupin the 3rd Part 2.
Character history[]
Joe was a gangster who had taught Daisuke Jigen how to fire from his magnum after he was unable to shoot the tin cans. He says that he won't live long if he shoots like that and stretches his gun so all the tin cans were shot, he also says that you have to shoot faster than the other guy and fired six holes on a six of spades playing card. Jigen considered him to be his mentor and was considered the world's best killer. He was considered a superstar in the 1950s and according to Joe himself, he once was able to slice someones arteries with his playing cards.
Joe had a son who went to Harvard University and is a scientist at NASA, his son invented a teleporter and gave Joe it as a present being compared to a fax machine.
Years later in Marseilles, he was running away and got shot in the arm from machine gun fire however he managed to get into a bar. Maria who was his friend had noticed that he looked awful, Joe asked her to use her phone to contact Jigen. He needed Jigen's help and told him that he was in Maria's bar, two gangsters had arrived as one kicked the door down and he tried to aim at them but was unable to fire. Jigen was panicking as the gangsters wanted him dead, he arrived at the bar the next day to discover that he had already gone. Maria says that he was safe but it was close as she ended up firing from her machine gun that was under the bar at the gangsters, she then gives Jigen his rusty gun and to meet him by the docks.
Joe was in a building sat down and selected an ace of spades, he was worried and heard a knock on the door. It was Jigen and he let him in, Jigen thought that he was "shuffled off to the world" and Joe apologized. He tells Jigen that he messed up on a hit and he's the next target blaming his age, after throwing a playing card he then asked Jigen to take him to Paris. Jigen agreed.
After leaving the building, Joe was then targeted by four gangsters that were dealt by Lupin III. Jigen introduced Joe to Lupin but he got worried when Jigen quizzed him about the guns claiming that they were hidden in the phone booths while in reality were transported. Later Jigen gave him a new magnum however he struggled to put a bullet in yet took the gun. Joe then left as one of his subordinates planted dynamite on a car that Lupin was going to drive, when it was approaching 3 o'clock, he jumped out of the car knowing that he was going to take out Lupin and Jigen.
Joe declared himself a thief removing his old man disguise and was after the Pretoria Amour as he headed back to New York. He sent his men to a museum in Paris disguised as security guards and attached a teleporter to the diamond. Back in his headquarters, the phone rang at the other teleporter for the confirmation as the Pretoria Amour was transported from Paris to New York. According to a newspaper that Fujiko Mine read, Joe also stole the Rose of Maughan and framed Lupin for the crime. Due to the heists, Joe and Maria were now billionaires and he was planning to relax in Miami as Maria wanted to sunbathe and was fed up of the snow. He rejected Maria's kiss as he was waiting for the Starlight Oppenheim to be stolen by his henchmen.
Joe was surprised when Lupin teleported himself to the device instead of the Starlight Oppenheim however Lupin suffered from side effects yet said that he was "faxed over" and demanded the jewels. He refused and pointed his magnum at Lupin, he wanted to take him and Jigen out due to his age thinking that he had to make a decision and considered them to be a threat. Jigen contacted him and saying that he sent him a gift. Dynamite was then transported and exploded causing the teleporter to be broken as well as causing damage to the building. It is implied that Joe died from the explosion as only Lupin survived the blast.