While on leave he took his wife and his two small children to Central Park in New York City for a picnic. There Castle’s wife and children happened upon the scene of a mob killing on the Sheep’s Meadow green in the park. Fearing witnesses, the mobsters murdered Castle’s wife and children and escaped. Castle himself survived but was traumatized by his wife and children’s murders. He deserted from the Marines just before he was to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Castle dropped out of sight for a few months and then resurfaced to conduct a one-man anti-crime campaign throughout New York City. He had outfitted himself with assorted weapons and a battlesuit which displayed a large death’s head on the chest. For the next few weeks he sought out and executed criminals who he believed had some asociation with the gangsters who had killed his wife and children. The news media named him the Punisher. A concerned New York City detective named John Laviano identified the gang who slew the Punisher’s family as the “family” of Bruno Costa, brother of a powerful Maggia boss on the East Coast. Unfortunately, Costa’s alibis were supported by enough alleged “witnesses” to make prosecution imposible. Since the law’s hands were tied, the Punisher used the information Laviano had accumulated to hunt down Costa’s gang and eliminate them.

Thus began the Punisher’s career as a vigilante, a self-proclaimed enemy of crime. He has both clashed and cooperated with the costumed crimefighter Spider-Man, and the Punisher has made an enemy of another crimefighter, Daredevil, who disapproves of his violent, often lethal methods. The Punisher has served time in prison for his brutal slayings, and has even managed to wage his warfare against criminals within prison itself.

While imprisoned on Ryker’s Island the Punisher was drugged with mind-altering chemicals on the orders of his enemy, the criminal gangleader Jigsaw, whose face was horribly damaged when the Punisher once hurled him through a window. The chemicals had a delayed, cumulative effect that drove the Punisher mad, so that after he escaped prison, he eventually began firing at even such minor criminals as litterbugs and traffic violators. After the Punisher was again taken into police custody, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he underwent detoxification and was restored to sanity. The Punisher was sent back to Ryker’s Island but soon escaped again. He is now again at large, continuing his war on crime.

Recently the Punisher rethought his methods. He realized there were more types of criminals than he had previously battled and that these new prey could not be simply hunted by brute force. He now does more undercover investigation prior to striking and has developed cover personalities to undertake these investigations. For example, “McRook” was developed to assist a Wall Street investigation. He also has begun to develop a network of aids to assist his efforts.