Vincentio Calabrese

Vincentio "Vinny" Calabrese (born November 10th, 185X) was the founder of La Famiglia Nostra and its first Don. He immigrated from Sicily to Chicago in his early twenties, alongside his first wife Antonia and his childhood friend Diano Bianchi. After Antonia's death, he married a small-time Vaudeville actress named Claudia Van Der Burg -- who later went on to become Donna of La Famiglia after Vincentio's alleged passing in a Streetsweeper sting.

Personality
Vincentio was known to be immensely charming, highly sociable, funny, and a dedicated friend to those in his inner circle. He loved his children greatly, especially his two favorites Ceasario and Giulietta. When it came to women, he was flirtatious and well-known as a lady-killer. Women tended to find him very handsome when he was younger - and he still drew in several admirers even into his 60's. Those who met Vincentio usually liked him immediately. He was athletic and enjoyed fencing as well as football and wrestling (though he had to step away from sports after being diagnosed with back problems in his 50's).

However, Vincentio had his dark side. He was frequently unfaithful to both his wives and kept several mistresses on the side. Vincentio was feared even by friends and family for his violent, explosive, volatile temper. It's rumored that he killed his first wife Antonia. He was known to be physically abusive toward his second wife Claudia, causing her five broken bones over the twenty-year period of their marriage. Despite his infidelities, he was jealous and controlling toward his wives and monitored who they were allowed to speak with. He was also ruthless in his mob dealings, eliminating rivals with deadly efficiency and swiftness. Vincentio sat on the throne of Chicago's criminal underworld for a very good reason - and his loyal followers both feared and admired him.

Early Career
Vincentio was born in the 1850's in Sicily, just a few years prior to Italy's annexation of the kingdom of Sicily and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The transition was hardly a smooth one and lead to increasing social and political strife upon the Mediterranean island. Rising food prices and the loss of feudal commons badly affected the peasantry, forcing many to resort to banditry for survival. Combined with a severely lacking police force on the island, many farmers and landowners were forced to hire small companies of mercenaries to defend their citrus and cattle farms - and this is where Vincentio Calabrese, the son of a rural peasant farmer, got his start. Vincentio's father died young and he was forced to care for his mother and sister Gabriella. Sensing an opportunity, he gathered up a small group of friends - men who would later become his underbosses - and they began hiring themselves out as security for local landowners.

Vincentio and his friends quickly proved to be much more effective at preventing theft and recovering stolen cattle than the anemic Sicilian police force. The fledgling mafia saw an opportunity to increase their profts by collaborating with groups of peasant bandits. Vincentio would offer protection services to local farmers. If the farmers did not want to pay the Mafia's steep rates, they would find themselves targeted heavily by bandits. The vandalization and theft of their property would encourage them -- and all farmers around them -- to submit to the Mafia's demands. The Mafia would then, in turn, kick a small portion of their profits to the bandit groups. Vincentio's group of friends soon found themselves making a small fortune. Vincentio met and married his first wife, Antonia, during this time. The couple decided to take an extended honeymoon in America and, upon arriving in Chicago, decided to put down roots permanently.

Vincentio started off as garbage collector for the City of Chicago and soon found himself drawn into the Sabbatini Crime Family. He sent money back to his sister Gabriella in Sicily. As he began to make more and more money with the Sabbatinis, he sent word to his friends and family in Sicily, who soon began immigrating to join him in the land of opportunity. The first to join him was his childhood friend Diano Bianchi - swiftly followed by Samuele Esposito, Paolo Fiorentino, Alfredo Endrizzi, and Christian De Luca.

The Sabbatinis began to grow wary of Vincentio and his growing popularity in Chicago's criminal underworld. And they were right to have mixed feelings about him. Vincentio orchestrated a coup and killed Don Lorenzo Sabbatini as well as several other influential members of the Sabbatini family, thus crowning himself as Chicago's most powerful gangster. He christened his new organization La Famiglia Nostra and wasted no time in making his old Sicilian friends into his powerful underbosses.

At age 30, he became a father to his eldest son Enrico, whom he intended to raise in the business as his successor. His second and third sons, Ceasario and Alphonsus, followed shortly afterward.

The fledgling La Famiglia threatened to fall apart, however, when Vincentio came under suspicion for the murder of his wife Antonia. Antonia, a devout Catholic, had strongly opposed her husband's work since the beginning. She disappeared abruptly after contacting the Chicago Police Department with the promise of information on her husband's activities. Luckily, Vincentio managed to shake off the accusations due to some clever legal work from his lawyer friend Daniel Sullivan - and the case of Antonia's murder remains cold to the present day.

Marriage to Claudia and Alleged Death
Shortly after Antonia's death, Vincentio became romantically involved with a small-time Vaudeville actress by the name of Claudia Van Der Burg. Vincentio was a known womanizer and had many girlfriends, even while married. Few among his inner circle expected Claudia to stick around for long -- which is why it shocked many of his underbosses when Vincentio decided to propose to Claudia after three years of on-and-off dating. It later turned out that he'd gotten her pregnant and that is what lead to the sudden proposal. Just a few months into their marriage, Claudia gave birth to their first son, Mattheo.

Though he had not originally planned to marry Claudia (rather he intended to marry the sister of Alfredo Endrizzi, his underboss), Vincentio seemed relatively happy with his new wife and son. Claudia had no Italian heritage to speak of, but she was beautiful and young. If asked, Vincentio would have said -- perhaps honestly -- that he loved Claudia. However, their marriage quickly took a turn when Claudia began pushing for involvement in the mob business. Vincentio's secrecy about his work, his womanizing, his jealousy toward Claudia, his long absences from home, and his lies quickly wore on Claudia's nerves. She demanded answers that her husband was not willing to provide, which lead to escalating -- often physically violent -- conflict between them. Vincentio never considered divorce, however, due to his strict Catholicism. Their marriage went through cycles of intense conflict, uneasy calm, and tender romantic reconciliation before diving back into conflict. During this time, Claudia gave birth to their second child Giulietta. The birth of a new daughter helped smooth things over in their marriage temporarily, but not for long. Both of them wanted to protect their daughter from the ugly truth of their union, so they took to fighting in private.

Eventually, Vincentio relented and allowed Claudia some token involvement in the mob -- which improved the state of their marriage greatly (much to his surprise). The improvement lasted for a few years before Vincentio was allegedly killed in a sting operation by Mayor Hadewich's Streetsweeper force. Vincentio and his right-hand man Diano Bianchi were meeting with some alcohol smugglers aboard a ship in the Chicago River when the ship suddenly caught fire and exploded. His body was never recovered, leading some to believe he faked his death and escaped across the border into Canada.

Related Pages

 * Claudia Calabrese
 * The Calabrese Family
 * La Famiglia Nostra