Pre-Crisis Character History

Gerry  was the owner of Rags -n- Tatters - an antique/pawn shop. He was a poor man financially but he was strong in character, family and friends. He got married and had a son Rory Regan but lost his wife shortly after. As his son grew up he promised his boy the world. Meanwhile, he sacrificed his business to help anyone in the community.

As the owner of Rags -n- Tatters he would give money for items he couldn't sell and hold on to items for a longer period of time to help people. His son grew up and went to war and came back and Gerry's life remained the same. Gerry and his son Rory ran the store together and Gerry kept promising his son a grand future.
One day while Gerry and his friends were hanging out behind the store Gerry found a suitcase full of money. They decided to give the money to Rory. Later, two hoods came back looking for the money and killed Gerry and his friends for hiding the money.
Rory would find the money and a note left by Gerry about a costume he had for his for a party. The Costume would turn out to be the costume Rory would use to fight the criminals who killed his father, thus making Rory the Ragman.

Post-Crisis Character History

After the Crisis of Infinite Earths the Ragman suit was changed drastically into the Suit of Souls. This meant instead of being a simple costume each rag was the soul of an evil person the suit had absorbed. Also the Suit of Souls had its origin going back to 1500 A.D. The suit was worn by a different person time and time again, going forward in time.
Gerry himself was the Ragman during the World War II. He defended Poland during the war until the souls in his suit forced him to leave due to the fires that took the Warsaw Ghetto. Gerry did not know at that time and never found out that the suit was composed of individual souls that could if motivated work together to overpower the user.

Gerry, not knowing what to do, came to America and started the shop Rags -n- Tatters. Here the story stays relatively the same as it was in the Pre-Crisis era. He raised Rory and things continued until the mob wanted to use the store as a front to sell drugs. When Gerry refused he was killed and Rory was stabbed.
When Rory came to, he found out that the Mob had stolen the papers of ownership to the store and were using it as a front as the intended. Rory broke into the store one night to find proof of the mobs involvement. When he opened a box the loose rags of the Suit of Souls enveloped him and he became the Ragman.