Jerome Valeska

Jerome Valeska was a deranged "cop killer" and somewhat anarchist, who became a criminal in Gotham City. He was also the more vengeful and chaotic twin brother of Jeremiah Valeska. Jerome was marked to be one of the worst threats that Gotham ever faced, to the point where Batman learned of his existence and all the lives he took.

## Jerome Valeska

### Family

Lila Valeska (mother; deceased)Paul Cicero (father; deceased)

Zachary Trumble (uncle; deceased)

Jeremiah Valeska (brother)

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Jerome was born to Lila Valeska and Paul Cicero in Haley's Travelling Circus, as was his brother, Jeremiah Valeska. Jerome was known to constantly scare and abuse his brother. At one point during Jeremiah's 8th or 9th birthday, Jerome attempted to kill him by putting a plate to his throat. He later tried to light his bed on fire but failed. Jerome also liked to mutilate ally cats.

Due to the constant abuse, Jeremiah was taken away by his uncle with his mother's knowledge to escape Jerome and all his abuse. It was later revealed that in his adulthood Jeremiah began lying to people about how Jerome tried to kill him since the day he was born and made a murder attempt everyday in order to poison the people Jerome loved against him, which included his own mother.

## **Mother's Murder**

After Jeremiah was taken away, Jerome was physically and verbally abused by not only his own mother but the rest of his family, such as his uncle. When Jerome was 18, he became so enraged by the beatings that he went mad and killed his mother by hacking her to death with a hatchet. He later dumped her body in the back of a truck and hid it from the rest of the circus.

## **Terrorizing Gotham**

### **Killing Spree**

Jerome, after leaving the circus and murdering his mother, began to go on a killing spree and went after the rest of his family. He successfully tracked down his uncle and killed him, however he never found his father. Jerome then made his way to Gotham City, where he established himself as an anarchistic criminal who's goal was to kill and maim as much people as possible. After murdering 6 people, the GCPD tracked him down to an old warehouse where he ambushed them with a machine gun, killing a lot of them.

Gillian Loeb would later describe the attack as the "stuff of nightmares" and that he "could never get that madman's laugh out of [his] head". Jerome soon began to blow up buildings and attempted to destroy the whole city, however quickly abandoned this plan as it was too complicated. Jerome also managed to round himself up a gang who he released into the streets, killing hundreds in the process.

### **War with the GCPD**

The GCPD went to their absolute to track down Jerome with the intention of putting him down, as he had caused too much chaos. In reality, Jerome's killings, establishment and gang was all just a distraction to keep the police busy so that he could track down his brother without being arrested. Jerome tried many times to find his brother with the intention of killing him, however he never did as Jeremiah had built himself a home outside of Gotham City.

## **Death**

After a year of terrorizing Gotham and the failure to find his brother, Jerome became enraged and started killing the police who hunted him. He also psychopathically attempted to murder the commissioner, however was unsuccessful. Two months before his death, Jerome also had an encounter with Alfred Pennyworth, whom he got into a fight with after he attempted to kidnap a young Jim Gordon.

Months and months later, Jerome was eventually found by his brother, who had gone insane and become a criminal himself. The two serial killing brothers then exchanged dialogue saying how neither of them could wait to kill the other to get them back for their miserable childhood. Jerome and Jeremiah then began to fight to the death. However, Jeremiah would emerge victorious after he managed to grab a gun and shoot Jerome countless times, and then he picked him up and threw him off a building. Jerome, while falling to his death, laughed while saying he was proud of his brother and said he would live on through the horrible things his brother would later do.

Jerome smashed down onto a car, instantly dying. However, Jerome essentially predicted the future before dying, as his brother, Jeremiah, later became The Joker, a sociopathic criminal who causes havoc on Gotham City to entertain himself, becoming the archenemy of the Gotham protector Batman.