Arnold Wesker

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

## Scarface and Ventriloquist

* The Ventriloquist
* Arnold Wesker

## Biography

### Arnold Wesker: 1950 - 2007

A meek and mild person, even from birth, Arnold Wesker was a quiet boy who preferred the company of books over friends. Arnold’s father, Henry Wesker (a top enforcer for the then head of the Falcone crime family, Vincent Falcone) would berate Arnold for being so weak, often insisting on taking his son to work with him, hoping that seeing the ins and outs of the way the mafia did business would toughen Arnold up. I believe the horrors that Arnold likely saw as a boy were repressed and would serve as the source of this psychotic break later in life.

Arnold did toughen up, on the outside. Arnold found a way to adapt, having analyzed the methods and mannerism of the gangsters he was surrounded by and emulating that behavior to appease his father (and lessen the severity of beatings his father gave him), but it would not save Arnold from further trauma. One day, Arnold’s mother and father were both hit by a truck transporting display dummies. Afraid his father would return from death to beat him again for crying, Arnold refused to mourn his parent’s death.

After going to live with his wealthy aunt, Arnold enjoyed the peaceful existence of a life of luxury. Over time, Arnold began to revert to being a bookworm he had been in his youth. After high school, Arnold’s aunt paid for his nephew’s tuition to Gotham State University, where Arnold earned a degree in library science. Arnold was so respected by his professors that upon graduating, the university hired him as an assistant librarian, eventually becoming the school’s chief librarian when his mentor retired.

I was in my second year of college, working in the university library, when Arnold’s inner darkness finally erupted when a drunk frat boy stumbled into the library. Arnold tried to escort the boy out into the hall to maintain the tranquility of the library, but the drunken boy struck Arnold down and berated him. Fearing that the boy was possessed by his father’s ghost, finally come to torment Arnold for being weak, Arnold grabbed a letter opener from a nearby desk and silenced the drunken boy. Arnold was arrested and charged with manslaughter.

### Ventriloquist: 2007 - Present

Arthur Wesker was found guilty and sent to Blackgate Prison. A quiet, timid man like him should never have lasted long in Blackgate, but Arnold Wesker was a survivor. He used his father’s reputation to broker some favor with some of the old-timers and became a prison lawyer, using his intellect and academics to help many prisoners’ with their appeals (Wesker not only help Oswald Cobblepot get his conviction overturned, but Wesker was the one who prepared the papers for the purchase of property which later became the Iceberg Lounge).

While he was on the fast-track to becoming a powerful player within Blackgate, Wesker still felt alone. Despite the demand for his skills, Wesker was not liked. His only friends on the inside were his cellmate and “Woody”, his cellmate’s hand-carved wooden puppet which was used to entertain fellow inmates at special events.

Within two months of incarceration, Arnold had reported waking up in the middle of the night, claiming he heard Woody calling out to him (and once stated he woke up to find Woody sitting on his chest). Papers were filed by the prison psychiatrist to transfer Wesker to Arkham for treatment, but before they could be processed, the Cataclysm struck Gotham.

When the League's assassin who would later be called Bane assaulted Blackgate, Wesker killed his cellmate and stole the prisoner’s puppet, escaping with it in the ensuing riot. While many escaped prisoners were quickly collected. Wesker and his puppet did not resurface again until 2009. Woody had been renamed “Scarface” (referencing a gauge in the puppet’s face that had resulted when its former owner tried to use the puppet to defend himself against Wesker’s shank) and Wesker had organized a criminal enterprise under the command of the puppet. Oddly enough, Wesker was also subservient to the puppet. Though he nearly succeeded in aligning all of Gotham’s criminal gangs under Scarface, Wesker was defeated and sent to Arkham. In his most recent incarceration, Wesker’s puppet was stolen and came into the possession of Peyton Riley who has also fallen under the puppet’s sway. Wesker probably wants his toy back. We might be looking at a gang war over a damn doll.

## Arkham Files

### Medical Profile

* Patient is in good health, considering his age.
* Patient is currently taking alosetron for his irritable bowel syndrome.

### Psychological Profile

* Patient exhibits avoidant personality disorder with repressed aggression.
* Patient also suffers from multiple personality disorder combined with an object dependent obsession with “Scarface”, his wooden ventriloquy dummy.
* As “Scarface”, patient will demean himself and act as a brutal mob boss, often carrying on conversations with himself using his regular voice and ventriloquy.

### Behavior Profile

* Patient is banned from employment in the Woodworking Shop as he was once found to be making replacement “Scarface” puppets.
* Patient currently works in the Asylum’s Martha Wayne Memorial Library as the Senior Patient Librarian. He seems to enjoy the work.
* Patient has gone eighteen months without disciplinary action.
* WARNING: During the intake interview, Patient Thomas Elliot (#60903) informed me that during his employ here he stole the Scarface puppet from the patient property storage vault and gave it to his girlfriend at the time. Apparently, she has some sort of “creepy doll” fetish. I’m told, Dr. Sinner believes informing Wesker of this will only serve to upset him, possibly derailing all his progress.
* **Threat Assignment:** Low
* **Treatment Ranking:** 1-Compliant
* **Intake Interviewer:** Dr. Roy Westerman
* **Assigned Patient Coordinator:** Dr. Alyce Sinner

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* Intellectual Genius
* Criminally Insane
* Considered Armed and Dangerous
* Mastermind
* Highly Perceptive
* More dangerous than he would appear
* Scarface
* Often in the company of other criminals
* Well-Connected in the Criminal Underworld

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Frederick Rhino and John "Mugsy" Grant are his Henchmen
* Ventriloquist's Arkham File was done before he escaped to wage war against Peyton Riley.
* Scarface and his Ventriloquist own the biggest, independently operated organized crime syndicate in Gotham. Though they have worked with the Masterminds in the past, they typically oppose them.
* His criminal activity falls under GCPD jurisdiction.
* He was given a trustee status and a trustee housing.

### Notes

* Roy tried to create a reason that he would project an abusive gangster caricature personality onto a puppet, the idea being he is emulating his father with Scarface.
* It is suggested in the VOX Box of Oracle Files: Arnold Wesker 2 that Scarface may actually be sentient.
* Ventriloquist's Patient number (#88583) is a nod to his first comic book appearance: *Detective Comics #583*, in 1988.
* In the comics Frederick Rhino was Scarface's enforcer.
* John "Mugsy" Grant is a character from *Batman: The Animated Series* TV show. His name is a nod to Frederick Rhino's creators: John Wagner and Alan Grant.
* In the comics Sabatino Family was a mob whose member Johnny Sabatino married Peyton Riley.

## Oracle & Arkham Files

Oracle Files: Arnold Wesker 1Oracle Files: Arnold Wesker 2Arkham File: Scarface and Ventriloquist

## Links and References

* Appearances of Arnold Wesker

1. ↑ Oracle Files: Arnold Wesker (1/2)
2. ↑ Oracle Files: Arnold Wesker (2/2)
3. ↑ Arkham Files: Arnold Wesker