Seeing promise in Vito, Leo takes him under his wing and teaches him the art of boxing. With nowhere else to turn, Vito approaches Leo Galante, the Consigliere of the Vinci Crime Family, who's currently serving a five year sentence for fixing fights. Shortly after his arrival, Vito is confronted by a vengeful Brian O'Neill, who's serving a sentence for his failed robbery at the West Side Mall, for which he blames Vito. Vito is arrested and later sentenced to ten years in Hartmann Federal Penitentiary for his role in the ration stamp theft. Vito is paid $2,000 for his help in the hit, and gives the money to his sister Francesca to pay off the family debt. While the initial ambush fails, Vito and Joe ultimately kill Pen after chasing him inside the distillery. Pen employs several dozen guards at his distillery in Sand Island, where the ambush is to take place. However, the job is no simple hit, as Mr. After a shootout with them and the police, Vito and Joe get away with the jewels, but the O'Neill gang are caught and arrested.Īfter proving themselves on those previous jobs, Henry enlists Vito and Joe to help kill Sidney Pen, who's stopped paying Don Clemente his money. The job goes awry almost as soon as it begins when Brian O'Neill and his gang show up to rob the same store. The next day Vito and Joe are told that a man who borrowed money from Alberto Clemente to buy a jewelry store isn't paying him back fast enough, so Luca Gurino wants them to rob his store. This one action will set in motion a series of events that will change many aspects of Vito's life and future in organized crime. While the robbery was successful, it's soon realized that the stamps expire at midnight so Vito must rush to sell them off at gas station around Empire Bay. Vito is introduced to Henry Tomasino, a soldato in the Clemente family, who gives him his first job: stealing rationed gas stamps from the Office of Price Administration. After a brief stint at stacking crates, Vito is put to work by Derek collecting a 'barber's fee' from the dock workers, for which he's paid $100. Meanwhile, Vito's mother suggests he get a job through Derek Pappalardo at the docks where his late father worked.

In need of money, he turns to Joe, who takes Vito to meet Mike Bruski, a junkyard owner who buys stolen cars. Once home, Vito finds out his father left the family a debt of $2,000 to a loan shark. While there, Joe arranges a set of forged discharge papers so Vito doesn't have to return to the Army. In the midst of battle Don Calò, head of the Sicilian Mafia, arrives and instructs the Italian soldiers to surrender, which they do out of respect for him.Īfter being wounded in battle, Vito spends time in an Army hospital and is later given a one month leave to return home. Outnumbered and behind enemy lines, they join forces with the local resistance in an attempt to liberate the town of San Celeste. On July 11, 1943, Vito and his squad are en route to southern Italy when their plane is hit by flak and goes down. Vito chooses the Army and is assigned to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Military EnlistmentĪfter being arrested in 1943, Vito is given the choice of going to jail or joining the U.S. Now an adult, Vito is determined to make something of himself at all costs. Vito and Joe were the brains and the brawn behind a hundred petty crimes, all the while watching the neighborhood's wealthy gangsters and dreaming of the good life. Growing up on the streets, Vito crossed paths with Joe Barbaro, a loudmouthed bully who eventually became his best friend. He watched his father work himself into an early grave and soon decided that life inside the law wasn't for him.

Sadly, even in Empire Bay, they couldn't escape poverty. At the age of seven his father decided to move the family to America to start a new life. Vito was born in San Martino, Sicily in 1925 into a very poor family.

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