Carmine Falcone

Year One

When Batman originally arrived on the scene, The Roman had almost all of Gotham in his pocket. He controlled the corrupt police commissioner Loeb, and the judges. He also used his power to keep Harvey Dent stuck at assistant D.A.

Batman quickly went to work undermining the structure of his organization. At first he uses pure vigilante tactics, doing things like destroying Falcone’s Rolls Royce. Later during one of Batman’s raids Catwoman is also present and she claws Falcone’s face leaving three long scars down his right cheek. Batman then scored a major coup when he got a low level drug dealer to testify against Jim Gordon’s corrupt partner Flass. Flass in turn testified against Loeb, which resulted in the commissioner resigning. Falcone’s nephew Johnny Viti was arrested around the same time in an attempt on the life of Gordon’s wife and infant son. Falcone apparently attempted a hit on his nephew to keep him quiet, which resulted in a feud with his sister Carla.

The Long Halloween

The feud was eventually settled and Falcone persisted essentially undeterred for a while. He attempted to get Bruce Wayne to let him launder his money in the Gotham City Bank. Wayne obviously refuses. Later that night Batman and Catwoman both break into Falcone’s study at the same time. This prompts Falcone to put out a million dollar bounty good for either one of the masked vigilantes. Falcone then manages to convince enough of the other board members that he is approved anyway. Batman intimidates the bank president into resigning and Bruce Wayne manages to keep Falcone’s money out of his bank. Falcone lashes out by having Johnny Viti assassinate the former bank president.

Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent form a pact to bring The Roman down, they agree that though they may bend the rules, they won’t break them. Shortly thereafter Johnny Viti is found murdered on Halloween night. The killer left a jack-o-lantern and a .22 pistol with a baby bottle nipple as a silencer and the serial numbers filed off. The Holiday killings had begun.

Once a month, on a holiday, someone involved in organized crime in Gotham was shot. The crime families referred to this period as “The Long Halloween.” The killings ignited a war between the Falcone and Maroni crime families. Eventually, after all of Sal “The Boss” Maroni’s men had been killed (including his father), he decided to testify against Falcone. The Roman’s daughter Sofia managed to convince him otherwise and instead of testifying Maroni hurled acid on Dent, transforming him into Two-Face.

The first thing that Two-Face did was to finish Harvey Dent’s vendetta against organized crime. He ultimately gathered a number of Gotham’s psychotic villains and stormed The Roman’s high-rise. During the ensuing showdown Two-Face murdered Falcone. He was eventually succeeded in his empire by his daughter Sofia Falcone Gigante.

Dark Victory & When In Rome

Falcone's grave is robbed and kept preserved using Mr. Freeze's technology in order to antagonise the remaining Falcone Family. It is revealed Two-Face is behind the grave robbing. Also, Calander Man uses secret microphones and Fear Toxin lased cigarettes in order to trick Alberto Falcone into hearing his father's voice and try and make him commit suicide.

Catwoman: When in Rome

Meanwhile, Catwoman travels to Rome to try and find evidence of Falcone being her real father. However she can't find enough evidence to confirm it, though she still suspects.

In Other Media

Batman Begins (2005)

Carmine Falcone was played by Tom Wilkinson.

Falcone is Gotham's underworld king and runs a succsessful drug smuggling operation. He is shown to have cops and judges under his payroll, including detective Flass. He shown to be the one who hired the hit on Joe Chill for threatening to testify against him after sharing a cell with him. He ends up working with the Scarecrow to bring in Fear Toxin narcotics for his use in the Ayslum. He is however captured by the new vigilante known as the Batman. The Scarecrow later drives him insane for asking too many questions, Falcone not realizing he was actually working for Ra's al Ghul.

He is mentioned in The Dark Knight during a court case for Sal Maroni.

Video Game

Tom Wilkinson reprises his role for the video game adaptation of Batman Begins. The player must take him down on the third level.