A Serious House on Serious Earth

Located just outside Gotham City, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, commonly know as Arkham Asylum, has had a long and brutal history. The dark history began in the early 1900s when Amadeus Arkham's mother, for whom the asylum named after, having suffered from mental illness most of her life, committed suicide. Amadeus then decided, as the sole heir to the Arkham estate, to remodel his family home in order to properly treat the mentally ill, so others might not suffer the fate as his mother.

Upon telling his wife and daughter of his plans, they moved back to his family home to oversee the remodeling. While there, Amadeus Arkham received a call from the police notifying him that Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkings, a serial killer, referred to Amadeus Arkham by Metropolis Penitentiary while at State Psychiatric Hospital, had escaped from prison, and sought his considered opinion on the murderer's state of mind. Shortly afterward, Amadeus Arkham returned to his home to find his front door wide open. Inside, he discovered the corpses of his wife and daughter in an upstairs room, with Mad Dog's alias carved on Harriet's body.

Despite this family tragedy, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane officially opened that November. One of its first patients was Mad Dog, whom Amadeus Arkham insisted on treating personally. After treating Mad Dog for six months, Amadeus Arkham strapped him to an electroshock couch then deliberately and purposefully electrocuted him. The staff treated the death as an accident, but it contributed to Amadeus Arkham's gradual descent into the madness which he began to believe was his birthright. Eventually, Amadeus Arkham was incarcerated in his own asylum, where he died.

Today, Arkham Asylum is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated and is currently run by Jeremiah Arkham, Amadeus' great-nephew. Arkham does not have a good record, at least with regard to the high profile cases; inmates escaping on multiple occasions and those who are 'cured' and released only to re-offend weeks later. Furthermore, several staff members have committed serious crimes while working at the asylum.