- "Peppone's legacy looms large over Lost Heaven. Under his rule the Italian gangs took root and flourished. His wiles first corrupted the police and politicians. His intuition and mentorship saw that his capos Ennio Salieri and Marcu Morello would one day rule in his place. In 1921 Don Felice Peppone died in a deal gone wrong but, in truth, the city will never have the luxury of forgetting him."
- — Cigarette Card Description
Don Peppone is a character mentioned in Mafia: Definitive Edition.
History[]
Felice Peppone was the Don of the Peppone family, the first notable Italian American Mafia gang in Lost Heaven. His personal history before he established the family in the early 1910s is unknown, but it can be assumed that, like most early American Mafia bosses, he started his criminal career in Italy and came to America in search of new opportunities.
Peppone's family included many future Lost Heaven mob figures, including Ennio Salieri, Marcu Morello, Sergio Morello, Vincenzo Ricci, Luigi Marino, and Frank Colletti. Peppone also helped established many mob traditions and practices that would be emulated by other families; he earned money through carefully controlled "rackets" built around different illegal businesses, had a system of ranks to determine which roles his men held in the family, and encouraged corruption among police and political officeholders as a means of protecting his organization from the law.
Peppone's reign as Lost Heaven's most powerful crime lord ended in the early 1920s with his murder. The public was led to believe that he had been killed by accident during a business deal gone wrong, but in truth, he was slain by his own caporegimes Salieri and Morello, after which his empire was divided between them. Peppone was largely overshadowed by the men who came after him, and as such his legacy as the father of the Lost Heaven mobs has somewhat fallen into obscurity.
Family Members[]
- Felice Peppone - Don (Deceased)
- Ennio Salieri - Caporegime (Incarcerated)
- Marcu Morello - Caporegime (Deceased)
- Vincenzo Ricci - Associate (Incarcerated)
Appearances[]
Mafia: DE[]
- A Trip to the Country (Mentioned)
- Bon Appétit (Mentioned)
- Crème de la Crème (Photo)
- Intermezzo Four (Mentioned/Photo)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- His character was inspired by Big Jim Colosimo, who established the first Mafia family in Chicago and was killed in 1920 by a gunman in his restaurant, which historians believe was arranged by his right-hand man Johnny Torrio due to Colosimo refusing to let the family establish a bootlegging racket.
- According to Detective Norman, Peppone's death was caused by him drowning in a lake. This was likely meant to make his murder appear as an accident so it could easily be explained away.
- Ennio Salieri and Marcu Morello presumably brought Peppone on a boat trip out on the lake north of Lost Heaven, and then threw him overboard and drowned him when they were too far from land for him to swim to safety. This would leave the police unable to prove that Felice Peppone was murdered.
- In Bon Appétit, Morello grimly states that he and Salieri have been at war "since we killed Peppone".
- In Intermezzo Four, it is stated by Detective Norman that the photo in the gallery below is from April 1920. The photo also appears in the ending of Crème de la Crème.
References[]
- ↑ According to cigarette card
- ↑ According to Detective Norman in Intermezzo Four