Occam's Razor, usually represented as "the simplest explanation is often the best one", was originally translated into English as the following phrase: "it is vain to do with more what one can do with fewer". As an example, rather than assuming that all tales of animal-raised men are truthful, as Farmer seems to do in "The Adventure of the Three Madmen", one could use Occam's Razor to conclude that some of them are true, and that the others are accounts of these individuals adventures that inaccurately report certain details, and that others are complete fabrications.
Applying Occam's Razor to the accounts of certain characters depicted in comic books, one finds that a number of them fall into the second category, especially in consideration of their similarities to other, better-known figures. For example, when considering the character who appeared in the twentieth and subsequent issues of _Detective Comics_ (1938) as the Crimson Avenger, one will discover the following: "newspaper publisher Lee Travis simply threw on hat, cloak, and mask, picked up a weapon or three, and had his faithful valet Wing chauffeur him around into one adventure after another, just one step ahead of the police, who figured him for a criminal." (Thomas, _Secret Origins_ #3, 1986)
All of these traits, save for the cape, are well-known as features of the individual known as the Green Hornet, who had debuted in 1936. If observing Occam's Razor, we can safely conclude that the two characters are different fictional representations of the same individual. Thus, Lee Travis is just an alias for Britt Reid. What most likely occurred is that the publisher of the comics had heard about his exploits, and realized that he was not a criminal but a crime-fighter.
There are two intriguing implications proceding from that conclusion. The first is that "the Crimson Avenger" was a member of two noteworthy associations of costumed crime-fighters, the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the All-Star Squadron. (In the latter case, he is not unlike the character named "Midnight", clearly another alias of the figure most often known as "the Spirit".) "The Green Hornet", on the other hand, is not known to have interacted with any other crime-fighters on a regular basis.
The other conclusion is that two stories concerning "the Crimson Avenger" cannot be factual. The first story, presented in 1972, alleged that the Seven Soldiers of Victory, in their last case, had been flung through time to various historical eras, save for Wing who had been killed. From their perspective, only a few weeks passed, but they would not be rescued for nearly twenty years. Returned to their rescuers' time, they went about their normal lives. But a little more than a decade later, "the Crimson Avenger" would die steering a burning boat out to sea, content with his fate as he was dying of an incurable illness.
Unfortunately, this sequence of events dramatically contradicts the chronology of the life of "the Green Hornet" as presented in his own comic book series. There, the Green Hornet retired in 1945, was succeeded in the role by his nephew and two of his grand-nephews, and was killed saving his daughter's life in 1989.
Can these two sequences of events be resolved?
I believe that they can. Essentially, in 1948, the Seven Soldiers of Victory did battle an enemy which caused them to be cast through time. The figure either called "Wing" or "Kato" was not killed, though he may have been seriously injured. A monument was erected to the Soldiers of Victory at the site of the incident, and in the mid 1960s, it was discovered by the Justice Society and the Justice League as being somehow important to a crisis which they were currently facing. Travelling through time, they rescued the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and prevailed over their foes with their aid.
They then returned the Seven Soldiers to their original time, not far from where they had disappeared, so as to preserve the integrity of the timestream. The sole exceptions were Sylvester Pemberton and his partner Pat Dugan, who had apparently disappeared from history in 1948, because they volunteered to remain in the 1960s. (It's not clear why they did so, but they did. Pemberton briefly became a member of Infinity Inc. some years later, before being murdered, while Pat Dugan became the mentor to a young woman who inherited some of Pemberton's technology.) In order to further preserve the time stream, the five Soldiers who were sent back had their memories of the episode erased. Thus, even though many of them were still alive in the 1960s, they did not know what had happened in 1948, and the divinatory magic of Dr. Fate -- which uncovered the monument -- was not drawn to them.
There is some additional evidence to support this version of events, in a story concerning the member of the Seven Soldiers known as the Vigilante. It was revealed that the Vigilante had spent twenty years in the American West during the late nineteenth century, rather than a few weeks. This seems rather unlikely, even if one accepts the claim that Johnny Thunder's clumsiness was at fault. If the Vigilante was returned to the late 1940s and then lived through the next few decades, that would account for his age in a much more plausible manner. There are even published accounts of his activities in the 1950s which would seem to contradict the story a priori.
The other story, of the "Crimson Avenger's" tragic but heroic death, is somewhat more complex. Ironically, in this instance it was the "authorized" publication which obscured the truth, and the unofficial one which revealed it. An examination of the published career of Britt Reid II, nephew of Britt Reid will suggest that he retired from crime-fighting in 1979 after a heart attack, that he married long-time love Lenore Case in 1981, and that their son Daniel John Reid III was born in 1983 ... when Lenore Case was 43 years old. That seems somewhat improbable.
Let us suppose that the marriage occurred in 1971, and the birth of the son in 1973. However, the 1979 date for his retirement is accurate, but the heart attack was only the first sign of an incurable illness. It was Britt Reid II who steered a flaming boat out of New York Harbor to a safe distance, such that when it blew, "many windows [shook], but not a single one [was] broken." (Thomas; _DC Comics Presents_ #38) This occurred in 1980.
On the other hand, it could be that there really were two newspaper publishers who were drawn to the dangerous career of a crimefighter. One could claim that they both had young Asian chauffeurs. One could claim that Lee Travis somehow deduced Britt Reid's secret, and was inspired to imitate him. But I believe the interpretation of events which I present above to be the correct one.