Origin
Anthony “Boss” Zucco was a mafia boss who ran an extortion racket. He sent his men to extort money from Haly’s circus. When the owner refused he had his men sabotage their acrobatic performance featuring the Flying Grayson. His man poured acid on the rope causing it to break and they young Dick Grayson watched in horror as his parents fell to their deaths. Dick Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne. Batman trained Dick and he soon became Robin. The two worked together to bring down Zucco and eventually got one of his men to confess to the murder of the Graysons. Zucco killed his man in a rage, but Batman and Robin had all the evidence they needed.
Major Story Arcs
Batman: Dark Victory
In the Batman: Dark Victory storyline, Anthony “Fats” Zucco is a low-level young heavy-set thug who’s always nervous and sweating working for Sal Maroni, a member of Carmine Falcone’s Mafia empire. He and another minor family head, Edward Skeevers, are put in charge of trafficking illegal substances. After constant attacks by enemies such as the Penguin, Zucco starts a new method of smuggling these drugs and attempts to take over Haley’s Circus in order to use it’s trucks for drug trafficking. He kills Dick Grayson’s parents to show the circus owner his seriousness, and then quickly goes underground. He is later found by Batman and Dick Grayson, not yet Robin, and is chased down a dark alley by Grayson until he has a heart attack. He confesses to various crimes as he supposedly dies. However he went into a coma and then to prison after he awoke and is serving two-conservative life sentence for the deaths of John and Mary Grayson, and in Blackgate Penitentiary.
Batman: Year Three
Around seven years later Zucco files for a parole hearing, in that he has offered evidence and testimony to put other criminals away. Despite his supposed remorse it was revealed before he was sent to prison, Zucco had hidden a ledger detailing every operation in Gotham City in the orphanage Dick spent a month in after his parents’ deaths. It would be enough to send any criminal boss to life imprisonment if he offered it to the authorities. The orphanage is being condemned and he is eager to get it back before the place is torn down. Wanting to keep the truth from Dick, now Nightwing Alfred goes to the parole hearing and pleads the judge to keep Zucco behind bars. Dick soon learn of Zucco release, despite Alfred’s attempts, and he races to Blackgate to confront Zucco once and for all. However, as he steps out of the prison, Zucco is gunned down by a helicopter hired by a rival crime boss. While it does give Grayson some closure, his relationship with Batman is further strained, even though Bruce says he didn’t know about the parole.
He later shows up as a Black Lantern in Batman: Blackest Night.
Post-Flashpoint: The New 52
Tony Zucco’s origin is slightly updated for the New 52; he is directly responsible for the deaths of John and Mary Grayson, and is the father of Sonia (Zucco) Branch. Originally presumed dead, he is living in Chicago under an alias.
Operating under the name “Billy Lester,” Zucco is employed as the personal driver and bodyguard of Mayor Wallace Cole, who is aware of Zucco’s true identity and criminal past. He lives in a Lincoln Park brownstone with his new wife, Nancy, and young son, Brian.
In Other Media
Batman: The Animated Series
He appears in the Robin origin two-parter episodes “Robin’s Reckoning” (parts 1 and 2). At the beginning of the episode he has returned to Gotham after leaving several years ago. A now teen-aged Dick Grayson (as Robin) finds out Batman has been hunting him without telling him Zucco had returned. In flashbacks he is shown to be an eager young man trying to make a name for himself among Gotham’s underworld. He threatens Haley’s Circus (where the Flying Graysons are performing) and sabotages the ropes which cause Grayson’s parents to fall, but he didn’t know a young Dick had seen him threaten the circus. Years later after he returns, Batman tries to take him at an abandoned amusement park but injures himself. Robin saves the day and Zucco is convicted for his past crimes. He is voiced by Thomas F. Wilson.
The Batman
Tony Zucco appears in the episode “A Matter of Family” where again he is the murderer of the Flying Graysons.
In this version he has three brothers who all from circus backgrounds. Zucco himself is a knife thrower who killed his father and now has a racketeering operation. After being arrested for trying to sell preotection money to the Flying Graysons, he sabotages the ropes to kill the Graysons. Batman hunts him down and is joined by Dick Grayson wearing a Robin costume. Robin has the opportunity to kill him in revenge but leaves him to the police instead.
He is voiced by long time Joker actor, Mark Hamill.