Wealthy millionaire by day, at night Jimmie Dale put on a costume and becomes âThe Grey Seal,â daredevil safe cracker and footpad â he never takes a thing, but leaves behind his mark, a grey seal of paper to mark his conquest. He was just doing it for âthe sheer deviltry of itâ at first, but when a woman catches him she blackmails him to war on certain crime organizations. Frank Packardâs Gray Seal character first appeared in print in 1914. In some ways he was inspired by earlier Edwardian adventurers like A.J Raffles, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and Arsene Lupin, but Packard blended those borrowed elements into an entirely new concept. Daleâs adventures first appeared in âPeopleâs Magazineâ and then were collected into several novels.