The Italian Gang is a criminal organization in Mafia III.
History[]
Background[]
The Italian Gang, also known as the Scaletta Crime Family, is an informal Mafia family established sometime around 1952 by Vito Scaletta when he was assigned by The Commission to join the Marcano family and help manage their lucrative rackets in New Bordeaux. Begrudgingly accepted by Sal Marcano, who looked down on him as a "dirty carpetbagger", Vito opted to rely on his own muscle from a "farm team" Italian crime family he formed with the Commission's blessing, rather than use more direct Marcano family men like the other lieutenants and capos of the organization. Although the majority of his members are Americans of Italian descent and Italian immigrants, he also brought a number of mixed Hispanic and black mobsters into his gang as well, most if not all of them being at least half Italian however. He likely also brought in other Mediterranean Europeans such as Greek, Corsican, Spanish, and Portuguese mobsters as members and associates as well. Bobby Navarro is an Italian-American member with a Spanish surname, for example.
In Better Days[]
For several years, Vito had a tense but firm relationship with the Marcano family. He undertook without complaint any tasks that were assigned to him, and he made sure to pay his kickbacks on time to Sal. His gang eventually solidified their hold over the industrial neighborhood of River Row, where Vito was responsible for managing the labor rackets that gave the Marcanos full control of New Bordeaux's blue-collar working class and an old import company used as a front for smuggling valuable contraband between Cuba and the United States. He also set up several smaller rackets of his own without Sal's knowledge, focused on small-scale crimes that wouldn't be as easily noticed.
A Choice to Make[]
As Vito suspected, Sal was indeed plotting against him, as he feared that Vito, who he believed was secretly spying on him for Leo Galante, would learn about the Marcano family's plan to build a private casino in defiance of Commission rules prohibiting the establishment of any enterprise, legal or illegal, without first offering the other families a stake.
Sal put Vito in charge of organizing a robbery of the Federal Reserve, an undertaking that forced Vito to spend his life savings in order to acquire the combination to the Reserve's central vault and obtain the decoy cash necessary to fool the guards into granting the robbery crew access. During these preparations, Sal also introduced Vito to Lincoln Clay, the adopted son of Sammy Robinson and a member of the crew. Vito noted that he and Lincoln were both combat veterans and told Sal he had no issue with him taking point on the job.
The heist was a great success, but when Vito was informed of Sammy's death at Sal's hands, he demanded that his cut from the job be paid out immediately. Sal refused on the grounds that he didn't trust Vito with such a large sum of cash and then added insult to injury by announcing that his nephew Michael Grecco would be brought in to run River Row and learn the business from Vito himself.
Vito hated Grecco, given his reputation for incompetence and greed, but had no choice but to accede to Sal's wishes. Grecco then used his place in the Marcano family to squeeze Vito's men out of the rackets they had been entrusted with and had his "mentor" placed under near-constant surveillance. Knowing that Sal was trying to strip him of his ability to earn so he could persuade the Commission to have him whacked, Vito used his smaller rackets to keep paying the kickbacks on a regular schedule.
A Friendship of Convenience[]
Vito's careful planning paid out better than he expected, and Sal's patience finally ran out. One night, he had Grecco's men ambush Vito at his restaurant, killing his bodyguards and leaving a beaten Vito tied up in his own walk-in freezer. Vito could do nothing but angrily curse at his captors as they waited for further orders.
Lincoln, tipped off by John Donovan, rescued Vito and took care of his abductors. They went upstairs to his office, finding it trashed due to Grecco's people trying in vain to find evidence of the smaller rackets. Vito wasn't too thrilled about Lincoln's offer to work for him but accepted as the alternative was waiting for Sal to finish him off. Vito gave Lincoln some leads on Grecco's operations, and he proceeded to eliminate the men overseeing the labor and contraband rackets while undermining Sal's already limited confidence in Grecco.
By the time Vito was ready to deal with his would-be usurper, the Marcano family had already ordered a hit on him, and only Lincoln's skillful driving stopped Grecco from driving off into the sunset. Tied up in the chum shack behind Vito's restaurant, Grecco confessed to everything and revealed the existence of the casino before Vito killed him with a blow to the head and ground up his remains. The Italian Gang took full control of River Row and continued to assist Lincoln in his war against Sal; Lincoln returned the favor by helping Vito get revenge on the men who killed his friend.
Members[]
- Vito Scaletta - Boss
- Alma Diaz - Lieutenant
Associates[]
Trivia[]
- Alma Diaz, who acts as the Italian Gang's underboss, will take over if Vito is killed by Lincoln. However, this is optional and not canon.
- Despite being a Mafia family run by his lifelong childhood friend he was separated from 17 years prior, Joe Barbaro does not have any affiliation or business dealings with the Italian Gang as of 1968. This is likely because the leadership of the Vinci Crime Family that Joe is by then a caporegime of forbids this, due to his past actions in 1951 alongside Vito.
- Members of the Italian Gang typically drive light blue De'Leo Angelenos. However, they drive a variety of other vehicles in light blue as well.
- Sal Marcano states that Vito was sent to New Bordeaux by the Commission "15 years back" in February 1968, very early into the year, so this means that Vito likely spent a year laying low out of state following the events of Mafia 2, dodging the heat from the Carlo Falcone murder investigation, while he established his outside crew that did work for Marcano probably sometime in 1952.