Arkham Asylum

Business or Organization
Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane
Nick Name
Arkham
Owner
County of Gotham Extensive Funding by the Wayne Foundation
Primary Service or Goal
Mental Institution
Legal Status
Accredited Mental Institution
Headquarters
North of Gotham City in Gotham County
Alliances
Blackgate Prison Gotham City Police Department Wayne Foundation
Notable Employees & Patients
Employees Dr. Amadeus Arkham Dr. Harleen Francis Quinzel Dr. Jeremiah Arkham Patients (The) Answer Batman I Calendar Man Clayface III Dr. Amadeus Arkham Dr. Destiny Floronic Man Harley Quinn Joker Killer Croc Killer Moth II Mad Hatter I Maxie Zeus Mr. Freeze Professor Milo Riddler Scarecrow Two-Face Ventriloquist
Accessories
Resources and personnel common to an asylum for the criminally insane equipped with special holding cells and highly-trained guards trained to incarcerate metahumans.
Common Competitors
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Regularly Appearing
Batman Detective Comics
First Appearance
Batman #326 (Aug. 1980)
Creator
Len Wein & Irv Novick
Origin
Situated on a wooded acre north of Gotham City, Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane has a long and haunting past. Founded in the 1920's by Dr. Amadeus Arkham on land deeded to him by his mother, who suffered from mental illness, the asylum was the first of its kind in Gotham County. A vigorous social reformer, Dr. Arkham was appalled by the conditions of the Gotham penal system, where many of the mentally ill were incarcerated with hardened career criminals. Determined to improve the fate of the insane he transformed his ancestral home into a high-security mental facility staffed with many of the most prominent psychologists and physicians of the time. Losing his entire fortune to the stock market crash of 1929, Dr. Arkham went berserk and attempted to murder his stockbroker. Found not guilty by reason of insanity Dr. Arkham was committed to his own asylum where he spent the remainder of his days carving indecipherable inscriptions on his cell floor softly singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." He passed away in his sleep with a smile on his face in the early 1960's.