Salvatore Maroni was a mob boss who took over organised crime in Gotham City after the demise of Carmine Falcone. He stepped up to run the mob's doings, shortly before Harvey Dent became the new District Attorney.
Dent tried to convict Maroni by using Rossi as a witness, but Rossi changed his statement in court and drew a weapon to try and kill Dent. The gun jammed and Rossi was taken away, but Maroni was released. However, Dent then went after the mob's money, so Maroni attended a meeting with other crime lords of Gotham. Gambol was angry that a man named the Joker had been stealing from their mob banks, but Maroni dismissed him and explained that Dent was the real danger. They listened to a proposal from Mr Lau, who told them he had moved their money to a secure location that could not be touched by the GCPD. The Joker arrived at the meeting, laughing at Lau's plan, saying Batman would get to the money and the only way to be safe was to kill him. The Joker asked for half of their money in return for Batman's death, which the mob refused.
Later Lau was kidnapped by Batman and delivered to James Gordon, and the Chechen told Maroni that the Joker was right. Gordon arrested Maroni and many of his mob members, and judge Janet Surrillo tried them in a reco case for conspiring together. The Joker then made good on his promise and announced to Gotham that if Batman didn't reveal himself, he would start killing public figures.
After Surrillo, Commissioner Loeb and James Gordon were all apparently killed by the Joker, Batman entered a nightclub where Maroni was with his mistress and demanded to know the Joker's location. Batman dropped Maroni off a ledge, breaking both of his legs, but Maroni didn't know where he was. The Joker eventually kidnapped Harvey Dent, burnt half his face off and killed his girlfriend Rachel Dawes.
Maroni visited Gotham General Hospital where James Gordon was seeing Dent, and told Dent that the Joker had gone too far. He gave Gordon the location of a meeting between the Joker and the Chechen, where the Joker killed Lau and the Chechen both but got away before the police got there. Dent escaped from the hospital and snuck into Maroni's limousine, holding him responsible for his disfigurement and Rachel's death. Maroni told him that Anna Ramirez was the one who kidnapped Rachel, and Dent then flipped a coin to see if Maroni would live. He survived the coin flip, but Dent flipped again for his driver before shooting the driver. The car crashed and turned upside down, but Dent managed to escape alive.
Background information and notes
- It is not known if Maroni survived the car crash or was killed.