Alberto Falcone

Alberto Falcone is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. As the serial killer Holiday, he is an enemy of Batman. He is featured in the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale series' ' and '.

Background

Born to Gotham City crime lord Carmine Falcone and his wife Louisa on February 14 (Valentine's Day), Alberto Falcone was an outcast in his family of mobsters, a nonexistent part of the family business. His father favored his older siblings Mario and Sofia Gigante, igniting a deep, pathological jealousy. He fought his way up on a scholarship to Harvard University and later went onto Oxford. Alberto was always eager to follow in his father's footsteps and offered his service, but Carmine refused to let Alberto get involved in his "business", apparently wishing for Alberto to live a normal life. Alberto, however, had other plans.

"The Long Halloween"

Throughout "", various Gotham City criminals are murdered by a mysterious serial killer known only as Holiday. At first the murdered criminals are connected to Falcone. "The Irish," a gang of Irish hitmen for hire, are all put under Falcone's payroll to kill then District-Attorney Harvey Dent by blowing up his house. Later, on Thanksgiving, they are all murdered in a hotel banquet room as they sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner. By Christmas, Milos Grappa, Falcone's bodyguard and "consigliere", is murdered in front of the Don's building. It initially seems to be the work of one of Falcone's rivals. On New Year's Eve, however, Alberto is apparently killed by Holiday during a party on board Falcone's yacht. His body is found and identified by his grieving father and Jasper Dolan, the Gotham City coroner.

During the next few months Holiday starts killing members of Sal Maroni's mob. This leads to a huge gang war between Falcone and the Maronis, forcing Falcone to employ "freaks" such as The Riddler and Poison Ivy to stabilize his empire. A large number of Maroni's guards, patrons, and business associates are killed alongside some of Falcone's guards at Maroni's only legitimate business; an Italian restaurant. Another amount of Maroni's men are assassinated at his safe house on St. Patrick's Day, just before Falcone's daughter could go there and pull a hit on them herself. On April Fools Day, Riddler is attacked but left unharmed, so he could publicly tell that Falcone was actively looking for Holiday himself. Holiday's guns are traced back to Gotham's Chinatown neighborhood, but the Chinese gun-maker is found murdered inside his shop on Mother's Day.

On Father's Day, Maroni's father and founder of the Maroni family, Luigi Maroni, is shot and killed in his tomato garden. During the Independence Day celebrations, Jasper Dolan, the coroner, is found dead at the Gotham City Docks with two bullets to the chest. His aunt, Carla Vitti, launches an investigation of her own into his and her son Johnny's deaths, only to be shot to death at the coroner's office on the day of what would have been the Roman holiday, the Feast of Lupercal.

On Labor Day, while Maroni is being transported to a safer area after disfiguring Harvey Dent in court, Alberto Falcone appears from nowhere and kills him with two shots to the head. He is arrested by Jim Gordon after Batman beats him so badly he loses feeling in one arm.

Alberto later admits to committing all of the Holiday murders, including that of his cousin, Johnny Vitti. His father offers to use his influence to free Alberto, if he only admits to killing Maroni. Alberto refuses, however, smugly saying that his new reputation as Holiday makes him much bigger than his father and all the gangsters in the mob put together. He is convicted by the jury and sentenced to the gas chamber. Although Alberto initially receives the death sentence, the Falcone influence allows him to instead plead insanity. He is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum instead, across the hall from the Calendar Man, another holiday-obsessed villain who is afraid that Holiday might overshadow him.

"Dark Victory"

In "", Alberto Falcone is released from Arkham with aid from D.A. Janice Porter, Dent's replacement, despite Gordon's recommendation that he remain in Arkham. Alberto is now under house arrest in his family home outside Gotham, with his brother Mario and sister Sofia Gigante. A tracer is attached to his leg in order to prevent an escape. While in the house, Alberto is manipulated by The Scarecrow and Calendar Man into believing that he is being contacted by the ghost of his dead father; the Scarecrow, a former psychologist, determines that Alberto is most afraid of his father, and the Calendar Man poses as the Roman's 'ghost' to permanently eliminate his 'rival'. The gun from the Holiday murders is soon left in his possession, which he uses to save Sofia from The Joker. On Carmine Falcone's birthday, Alberto receives another gun to kill Sofia in order to usurp powers of the five crime families (actually a part of Two-Face's plan to destroy the crime families). Alberto nearly kills her in a Holiday-style shooting, but ultimately stops himself.

Following Janice Porter's death, Two-Face has her body left in Alberto's bed in order to trick him into thinking he had killed her. This time Scarecrow uses his fear toxins to make Alberto hallucinate that his father's voice is commanding him to commit suicide. Alberto then knows that the voice is not real — his father did not believe in suicide — and he exposes Calendar Man. What happens next is never explicitly shown, but later events suggest that Calendar Man shoots and wounds Alberto, at which point Sofia Falcone attacks Calendar Man, breaking his jaw and attaching her brother's electronic monitoring ankle collar to him, leaving him unconscious outside the Falcone estate for Batman and the authorities to find. (Gordon and Batman appear doubtful that Alberto could have injured the Calendar Man so badly himself.) Sofia then takes her wounded brother to a hiding place in the Falcone mausoleum. There Sofia criticizes Alberto for complaining about the pain, recalling how Carmine had survived five shots to the chest. Alberto replies that he is not his father. Sofia, disgusted, agrees with this assessment and smothers him to death.