- "For every successful mobster, one hundred lie dead in their wake. Deadbeats. Forgotten by many, and mourned by none. The murder of Valerio Marcano led to the downfall of a criminal dynasty, yet he was a nobody. An alcoholic and inveterate gambler: betrayed by his son, murdered on the orders of a Mob boss and then used as a rallying cry in a gang war. His life meant little, but somehow his death meant more."
- — Cigarette Card Description
Valerio Marcano is a character mentioned in Mafia III and Mafia: Definitive Edition.
History[]
Valerio Marcano moved to the U.S. from Sicily with his parents, Biagio and Petrina, when he was three. They settled in Bossier City, Louisiana, where his parents ran an Italian market. Valerio was supposed to take over the business, but he began running with mobsters instead, and before long his parents disowned him.
He began working for the Carillo crime family as a low-level foot soldier in 1914. Never amounting to much, his affliction for gambling took most of what he earned while he accumulated a mountain of debt to his boss.
In 1926, his four sons, Lou, Sal, Lucio, and Tommy Marcano moved in with Valerio, living in a run-down wooden shack on the edge of River Row. A short time later the three older sons began pulling off jobs for the Carillos, and before long they are all arrested and sent to the State Penitentiary at Cordoba.
Valerio's gambling debts finally catch up to him in 1934, and Giuseppe orders a hit on Valerio. He offers to wipe Valerio's debt clean in return for Sal saving his life in prison, but Sal turns him down, allowing his father to be murdered. Sal then lies to his brothers, telling them they need to exact revenge, and the three kill Carillo and his men while they're dining in a popular Italian restaurant in the French Ward.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Valerio appears on a cigarette card in Mafia: Definitive Edition.
- Ironically, Valerio's cigarette card showed him wearing a double-breasted suit and an overcoat. This would have been more akin to the dress of a capo or don. His profile said he was an enforcer who gambled away almost all of his earnings. Ironically, his sons Thomas and Salvatore, who rose to greater heights in the underworld were seen dressing more conservatively. The exception to this inconspicuousness was his eldest son Lou, who was often shown wearing a gaudy suit, and possibly his son Lucio, as Valerio's daughter-in-law Olivia revealed that her husband "always wore the finest suits"[1] However, it may have been possible that in addition to compulsive gambling, Valerio Marcano was one who thought image and presentability of higher priority than family care and basic necessities, which added to his debts and money problems.
- Valerio’s appearance seems to be inspired by Don Fanucci, a character from the 1974 film the Godfather Part II. His death also lead to a young upstart’s rise to power, in his case being Vito Corleone.
- Given how Father James and the Cigarette Cards know about Sal’s betrayal of Valerio, it can be assumed that his other sons also knew but never cared.
References[]
- ↑ "Certainly was Exciting" conversation between Lincoln Clay and Olivia Marcano about her late husband