In the movie he accidentally hung himself but in the comics it's a little more confusing about what happened to him. Below is the wikipedia info on Hooded Justice
Hooded Justice is the first masked vigilante, often initialled
"H. J." by his teammates. His real identity is never conclusively revealed but in Hollis Mason's book it is suggested to be circus
strongman Rolf Müller.
This is
retconned heavily in
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #6, where we learn that he is not Rolf Muller (a character that sexually abused and killed children), but it is strongly implied that he is Muller's son or ward,
Jacob. Assuming that he himself was a victim of Muller's abuse, it explains a great deal about his violent persona, costume, and mask. A violent vigilante, Hooded Justice shared a romantic homosexual relationship with Captain Metropolis and a deep-seated rivalry with Comedian, after he prevented Blake from sexually assaulting Silk Spectre. Hooded Justice's relationship with Metropolis was a fractured one; Justice repeatedly cheated on his boyfriend with male prostitutes, physically abusing them in
sadomasochist sexual encounters. This resulted in bribery of his lovers and the usage of Silk Spectre as his
public girlfriend.
He ultimately disappeared in the 1950s after refusing to cooperate with
HUAC's new policy on costumed vigilantes. In the original novel it is suggested that he was murdered either by the Comedian for voting him out of the Minutemen (as Ozymandias believes), or by the
Stasi of his native
East Germany. In the retcon we learn that Hollis Mason, mistakenly believing him to be Muller, attacked Hooded Justice and snapped his neck, killing him. He was never actually unmasked, and Metropolis burned down the headquarters with his former lover's body inside; it later turns out that the Comedian was the one who misdirected Mason to believe that Justice was Muller, so Ozymandias was partially right. Much of the "Under the Hood" information on Muller and HJ is revealed to be a deliberate lie on Mason's part. This may be contrary to the intent of the original novel. In chapter 1, the fourth panel of page 25 focuses on two old men sitting affectionately together near Dan and Laurie in Rafael's restaurant. They look very much like older versions of Rolf Muller and Nelson Gardner, and it was speculated by many fans that these were in fact Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis, who had faked their deaths in order to retire and be together. Dave Gibbons said this was unintended but allowed that it might be true. In the retconned world of
Before Watchmen, it is obviously not the case.
