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Quote1 A man gets tired...doing wrong and going unpunished. Nothing happens. You start to wonder if there is a god. Quote2
Patrick "Matches" Malone src

Patrick "Matches" Malone was the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents.

As Thomas and Martha Wayne walked into an alleyway with their 12-year old son Bruce, they were approached by a masked Malone, who pointed a gun at them and demanded their money. Thomas gave Malone his wallet, and Malone grabbed Martha's necklace, causing it to break and scatter. He then shot the couple and concentrated his gun on Bruce, however didn't pull the trigger and instead walked off into the night. The incident was witnessed by Selina Kyle. The Gotham City Police Department wanted to close the Wayne killing case quickly, so conspired with the mob to frame a criminal known as Mario Pepper by placing a replica of Martha Wayne's necklace in his apartment. Mario ended up being killed during a confrontation with detectives James Gordon and Harvey Bullock. However due to a tip off by Oswald Cobblepot, Gordon came to the conclusion Pepper was set up and looked into solving the case. Bruce himself also looked into finding his parent's killer.[1]

Approximately two years after the death of his parents, Bruce managed to identify Patrick "Matches" Malone as his parent's killer and headed to his apartment on the intent on killing him. Malone had difficulty recognizing Bruce as he had done many assassinations. However, when Bruce described the incident, Malone appeared to remember and described what both Bruce's parents looked like, as well as the fact Martha's necklace broke. Malone attempted to goad Bruce into killing him, saying that he was a "monster", but Bruce decided against it and said Malone was just a man. Bruce left the apartment and bumped into Gordon who had arrived to stop Bruce from killing Malone. At that moment Malone committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Although the identity to the actual of killer of Thomas and Martha Wayne was finally discovered, Gordon said he would look into Malone's motives and potential employers.[2]

Further investigation revealed that Malone was contracted by "the Philosopher", an old friend of Thomas Wayne.[3] The Philosopher was ordered by his mysterious employers to have Thomas Wayne assassinated due to Wayne's persistent resistance to their illegal activities.[4]

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