The details of the early life of Matthew Thorne are shrouded in mystery, other that he completed medical school and became an accomplished surgeon.  In the mid 1940's, Thorne was late middle-aged and bored in his profession.  He decides to open a "Crime Clinic", analyzing plans for burglaries and offer strategic advice for a cut of the take. In June of 1943, his operation was widely successful and he began to enter the field himself.  When he did, he adopted a surgeon's attire and drove an ambulance, presuming the police would never stop a medical emergency.  One night when he was assisting with a case, the ambulance was spotted by Batman and Robin, who presumed that it meant someone in need.  Arriving quickly the found the thieves and the Crime Doctor looting a safe in a rubber warehouse.  Confused, the two heroes engaged the crooks but caught off guard, they were eluded but not before Batman slipped a tracer on the escaping crooks.

Following it, the find that the Crime Clinic is the home of the prominent Thorne, as they interrogate him, a patient with a ruptured appendix bursts in, needing immediate medical aid.  Enjoining Batman's help, he performs emergency surgery and stabilize the patient.  He explains to Batman that he loves the doctor's work but that thrill of crime was impossible to resist. He flings ether on Robin and threatens to light if unless they let him escape, bragging on finding a new philosopher's stone.  His ploy successful, he vanishes into the night but Batman and Robin seize on his final clue.

Aware of a recent discovery that altered atomic structure, Batman realizes that Thorne is after the formula to manufacture metallic gold.  When he arrives, he finds that the Crime Doctor has indeed already been there and taken the formula to the newly-built
Eastington Atom-Smasher.  Racing to intercept them, Batman and Robin arrive at the top of the 50-foot structure just as the Crime Doctor and his men had defeated the guards.  Quickly engaging them, the Dynamic Duo gain the upper hand, causing Thorne and Batman melee down an external ladder, until a blow to Thorne's jaw sends him over the railing into the river below.  Batman quickly dives in after him, saving the drowning criminal and hauling him ashore til the police arrive (Detective Comics #77).

The Crime Doctor was incarcerated at a local penitentiary as prisoner #5649 for the next several months until a jail break mortally injured the prison warden.  When the house staff at the prison infirmary realized they lacked the skill to save him, the recruited Thorne to assist, ultimate saving the Warden's life.  Under the guise of managing his patient's recovery, Thorne managed to douse the guards with ether and escape over the prison wall.