- "Well... You're in the right spot, sonny boy. Federico Pappalardo at your service."
- — Derek Pappalardo
Federico "Derek" Pappalardo is a main character and the tertiary antagonist of Mafia II, and is mentioned in an optional non-canon cutscene in Mafia III.
History[]
Background[]
Derek is a Vinci Crime Family caporegime and head of the local chapter of the longshoreman's union. He started working the docks as a strikebreaker in 1916. It was his involvement in dockyard smuggling that led to his introduction to the Vinci family. After spending two years in prison for embezzlement, he played a prominent role in Empire Bay's Vinci-Moretti War in the early 1930s, after which he was rewarded with his current position. He then married Frank Vinci's goddaughter, bringing him further prestige. Derek is vulgar, violent, and greedy, perfect attributes for his job.[1]
Meeting Vito[]
Derek is introduced to Vito Scaletta in February of 1945 when Vito comes to see him about a job. Derek had employed his father Antonio Scaletta and Vito's mother insisted he do the same. Derek doesn't think much of Vito at first and gives him a menial job loading crates. After a few minutes doing this Vito walks off, telling his right hand man Steve Coyne he could make more money working for Barbaro Incorporated.
Hearing that he knows Joe Barbaro, Steve took Vito back to talk with Derek. After verifying his story with Joe, Derek gives Vito a job more suited to his talents; collecting the "barber's fee" from the dock workers. Vito not only collects the money, but he takes care of Bill, a worker who had been giving Derek and Steve problems.
Vehicle Export[]
Aside from running the docks, Derek also operates a profitable Vehicle Export business for the Vinci family. They buy stolen high value cars and export them to overseas countries where they are sold for a substantial profit. Vito Scaletta, Joe Barbaro, and many other criminals in Empire Bay take advantage of this racket to make money on the side from their usual work.
Death[]
Years after first meeting Derek, Vito comes to him looking for work. As it turns out, Frank Vinci was preparing a sitdown with the "other bosses" (presumably The Commission), and he took all of Derek's men as bodyguards for the meeting. Derek recruits Vito to help settle a labor dispute among the dockworkers, who are demanding that Derek give a job back to a worker he fired.
Over the course of the negotiations, Vito's name is mentioned and an Old Dockworker recognizes him as Antonio Scaletta's son, who asks why Vito is working for Derek after what he did to Vito's father. Steve then immediately tells the man to shut up, but just then, another worker speaks up and tells how Steve killed Vito's father, as ordered by Derek. When pressed for answers, Steve folds, and finally admits to drowning him.
After finding out the truth about his father's death, Vito goes after Derek and Steve, killing anyone else who gets in his way. After he's killed the last of them, Vito finds a substantial amount of money in Derek's desk and helps himself to it. The dockworkers decide that they will keep Vito's name out of it when the police arrive, and Vito wishes them good luck as he leaves.
Appearances[]
Mafia II[]
- Prologue
- Enemy of the State
- In Loving Memory of Francesco Potenza (Optional)
- Balls and Beans
- Stairway to Heaven (Betrayal/Killed)
Gallery[]
.jpg "Derek Pappalardo (Young).jpg (300 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Derek can be seen much younger when the Scaletta family arrives in America at the docks, eating a sandwich.
- In almost every cutscene he's in, Derek is seen eating something. Usually a steak and mashed potatoes with gravy.
- Derek has the same voice actor as Joe Barbaro, Robert Costanzo.
- His last name is spelled "Pappalardo" in both the Mafia II Family Album and mission objectives, but subtitles show it as "Papalardo". His name is also misspelled in The Story of Frankie Potts.
- In Italian, the name "Pappalardo" means "To eat lard" or "To eat bacon fat", and was once used as a nickname for someone who is gluttonous, or a person who skips religious fasts while eating meat in secret. This is likely intended a reference to both Derek's obesity and his greed.
- It is possible to skip killing Derek in Stairway to Heaven if Vito already has the money needed to pay back Bruno. However, doing so is not canon, and in Mafia II: Definitive Edition on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, this is not possible to do like in the original release of the game. In the Definitive Edition, killing Steve Coyne and killing Derek and his entire crew is required to progress the game, regardless of if the player already has enough money to pay off Bruno. This makes it clear that the ability to skip the gunfight in which Vito kills Steve and Derek was a bug in the original versions of the game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and it was simply never given a patch to fix this glitch.
- Derek can be seen at almost any time in his office, even in Per Aspera Ad Astra after he's been killed, in earlier versions of the original game that haven't been patched to fix this bug. However if the player attempts to return to his office after the gun battle in Stairway to Heaven where Derek and his right hand man Steve must be killed to progress, a message will appear saying "Derek is dead". Between then and Per Aspera Ad Astra in the Definitive Edition, this is always what happens.
- If the player enters his office at any time and talks to him asking for a job, he will say he has nothing for Vito and to come back soon. The same applies to Joe in the Joe's Adventures expansion, outside of missions given by Derek. Originally the game featured side jobs for Derek, but this was cut. The ability to sell luxury cars to Derek to earn money until Stairway to Heaven was likely intended as a simpler replacement for this.
- Derek is very much a representation of a padrone, one who arranges work for immigrants in exchange for a portion of their salary. Interestingly enough, Derek himself is an Italian immigrant to the United States. Immigrants themselves becoming padrones was not uncommon historically.
- If Vito is killed in Mafia III, he mentions Derek along with Alberto Clemente and Leo Galante before he dies, referring to them as "cocksuckers", and Derek in particular as a "fat fuck". However, like skipping killing Derek and Stephen Coyne due to a bug in the original version of Mafia II, this is optional, and therefore is not canon.
- Killing Derek in Stairway to Heaven will earn the player the Out for Justice achievement.