After several episodes of Sofia Falcone being branded as the crazy ‘Hangman’, the last episode of The Penguin has confirmed that she’s actually been framed and that the Hangman is actually her father Carmine Falcone.
While this looks like a ‘case closed’ for who the identity of The Hangman is, a theory online posits that The Hangman’s true identity is not of Carmine, but Sofia’s dead brother Alberto Falcone. @RichardOcelot posts his thread:
That episode made it a deliberate point to not show where young Alberto was during the mum's death flashback.
And when he's talking with Sofia about it as an adult he's vague and brushes it off. It didn't show how that affected him.— Richard (@RichardOcelot) October 14, 2024
Fans had been speculating that Carmine had been the killer for a while, especially since he had tried to choke out Catwoman in The Batman. Some guessed that this was his preferred method of eliminating people and he just pinned the murders on Sofia when the cops started investigating.
The thread, however, claims that Carmine could be a red herring, and it’s revealed that Alberto was actually the one committing the murders. Sure, Carmine may have been the one to kill Sofia’s mother, but the theory suggests that Al saw the whole thing happen as a child, and he started emulating his father in adulthood.
The evidence is actually there in the episode. Alberto is seemingly stressed after Sofia’s interaction with the reporter, suggesting that someone tipped him off about the investigation. It also seems that Carmine only kills people as a means to an end; it wouldn’t have made sense for him to just keep murdering women from the same place like a serial killer.
The theory suggests that Alberto was the one doing the murders, Carmine knew and helped cover it up; and when Sofia put it together that her mother was murdered, it just seemed easier to silence her altogether and send her to Arkham.
It’s also worth noting that Alberto in the comics is an actual serial killer (The Holiday Killer from Batman: The Long Halloween), and the show could be sticking to that backstory; they were just hoping for a different reveal.
While this does seem too convoluted at this point, the thread does suggest that Oz will figure out this information and use it as leverage with Sofia—who is now on a full-on rampage, killing her family and keeping Viti in her pocket.
Of course, this is all just a theory for now, but I did think it was pretty well thought out, and not impossible.
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