Claudia Calabrese

Claudia Calabrese (born June 19th, 187X), formerly Claudia Van Der Burg, is the owner of the Calabrese Waste Collection Agency and the Donna of the La Famiglia Nostra crime syndicate. She has been the regent boss of the crime family for two and a half years following the death of her husband, Vincentio Calabrese.

Personality
Claudia Calabrese is often described by friends and colleagues as a somewhat reserved and icy woman who can be difficult to get to know. She is friendly and cordial to everyone she meets, but she tends to hold people - even friends - at arm’s length, sometimes quite literally. Claudia dislikes touch and physical closeness. She has been known to react very strongly to being touched unexpectedly or by someone she does not trust. Claudia’s body and physical space are a particular point of fixation for her. She restricts her eating habits severely to one or two small meals per day in order to maintain her figure. She is also very sensitive about being viewed without her usual glamorous clothing or makeup. Claudia is deeply invested in the idea of herself as a beautiful, elegant, and desirable woman, even more so after she has had two children and is approaching middle age. Strict control over her appearance, her emotions, and her body is her attempt to resist the ravages of age, oncoming menopause, grief, and childbirth. She presents herself much like a work of art, to be admired at a distance but not touched.

Claudia’s outward iciness belies a very deep and complex inner emotional landscape. She has a warm and loving side which she largely reserves for her family. Giulietta and Mattheo, her two children, are among the few who are allowed to touch her without prior warning. She also has an affectionate and loving relationship with her youngest stepson Alphonsus, whom she helped to raise after his biological mother died in his toddlerhood. Claudia’s children are the most important people in her life and she loves all of them - even the stepchildren - with intensity and loyalty.

That loyalty and love also extends to her mob family. Claudia married young at age 22 and the majority of her adult life has been structured around her husband’s criminal enterprise. La Famiglia Nostra is her family, both figuratively and literally, and the centerpiece of her life. When her husband disappeared, she wasted no time in seizing the reins in order to keep La Famiglia - her personal friends and relatives - afloat after the devastation of the Street Sweepers.

After a struggle against the corporate Steel Chip Gang and the militaristic Dead Rabbits, La Famiglia Nostra is once again on top of the game with Claudia as its leader. She reigns from what she believes is her rightful place as queen of the White City.

Early Life
Claudia Van Der Burg was the daughter of Polish immigrants who came to America to flee the Partitions of Poland and the increasing oppression of the Polish people at the hands of Prussia. When they arrived in America, her father took whatever jobs he could get - mostly low-wage jobs involving extensive physical labor. Claudia's mother stayed home with her daughter. They lived a meager existence and often struggled to get by. As a child, Claudia was often bullied due to her poverty and her Polish ancestry. She found an escape from her situation in the theater. Whenever things became too stressful at home, Claudia would sneak into the local theater and watch the Vaudeville performers rehearse. As she became a teenager, she decided that she wanted to become an actress.

Claudia left home at sixteen. She found work as a seamstress by day and auditioned for theater troupes by night. Unfortunately, the thing that other children used to bully her for - the fact that she was a Pole - became the very same thing that prevented her from getting roles. Theaters hesitated to put her very Polish-sounding name on their marquees and posters. Claudia struggled, living by herself in a small apartment with only her dog Charles for company. Eventually, at nineteen, she found some minor success modeling for advertisements and secured a few roles in theater. She attained a small amount of critical acclaim playing Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

This was around the time she met Vincentio Calabrese. Vincentio, a longtime lover of theater himself, saw Claudia's performance as Portia and quickly became enamored with her. He made a point of coming to watch her as often as possible -- and sent flowers after every show regardless of whether or not he attended. Claudia was nineteen years old (to Vincentio's forty) and overwhelmed and intimidated by the attention at first. She initially rejected Vincentio's advances on the basis of his age and the fact that she had a boyfriend at the time. However, after an abrupt break-up with her boyfriend, Claudia decided to give Vincentio a chance. (Years later, she would find out that La Famiglia mafia toughs had beaten and threatened her boyfriend into ending the relationship.)

Vincentio swept Claudia up into a world she had previously only been able to imagine. He was wealthy and successful, with enough money to spoil her rotten. Vincentio got her out of her small room and put her up in a much nicer apartment closer to him. He showered her with expensive gifts, trips, and dates. Claudia found herself dining at the finest restaurants in Chicago, wearing new clothes from Paris, taking lavish vacations abroad, and wearing jewelry that cost more than her rent. Vincentio was an attentive and romantic lover in addition to an extravagant gift-giver. Whatever objections Claudia had to his age were quickly forgotten and she fell quickly in love with him. They dated on and off for three years. Vincentio finally proposed after Claudia fell pregnant with their first son Mattheo.

Married Life
Marriage and motherhood brought a new set of challenges to Claudia. Vincentio's teenaged sons Enrico and Ceasario were still raw from losing their mother (Vincentio’s first wife, Antonia)  and did not accept Claudia as their new step-mother. She managed to bond with Vincentio's youngest son, Alphonsus, who was only three when his mother died. It also soon became clear to Claudia that she was excluded from several aspects of her husband's life. He was secretive and reluctant to share any details about his business with her. He often spent time away from home - sometimes days or weeks - without telling Claudia where he was or what he was doing. The stress of her husband's secrecy on top of dealing with a fussy newborn began to wear on Claudia. Eventually, after putting together the pieces on her own (by going through Vincentio's private documents in his office), Claudia confronted Vincentio on his secrecy and lies, which lead to the first instance of physical abuse between them when Vincentio struck her for violating his privacy.

In spite of this, Claudia continued to press for information on and - eventually - for involvement in her husband's work. Vincentio's desire to keep Claudia out of mob business - and Claudia's opposing desire to be involved - lead to increasing conflict between them. Their fights grew more and more frequent, often crossing into physically abusive territory. As their marriage became more contentious, Vincentio often cheated on her with younger women - which, in turn, made their fights even worse. They went through cycles of intense conflict, uneasy calm, romantic reconciliation, and back to conflict. During this time, Claudia gave birth to their second child, Giulietta. The birth of another child brought some peace back to their marriage, but not for long. Vincentio, wanting to shield his new daughter from the ugly side of their relationship, instead began fighting Claudia in private.

As time passed, Vincentio allowed her some token involvement in the mob business. He gave Claudia managerial duties over the Calabrese Waste Collection Agency - the legitimate front they used for much of their mob-related activities. That position seemed to satisfy Claudia and the state of their marriage actually improved a great deal.

A few years later, Vincentio allegedly died in a sting operation by Mayor Hadewich's Streetsweeper force. Vincentio was meeting with alcohol smugglers onboard a ship in the Chicago River when the ship suddenly caught fire and exploded. His body was never found - though the body of his friend and underboss Diano Bianchi, who was also in attendance, was located among the wreckage. Claudia's three stepsons - who functioned as underbosses and consiglieres in La Famiglia Nostra - were also swiftly arrested and put into prison.

Rise to Power (Season 1)
In the wake of Vincentio Calabrese's death, La Famiglia Nostra was forced to cease the majority of their criminal activity and retreat underground. The sudden death of her husband, as well as the capture of her stepsons, meant that Claudia was the only adult-aged Calabrese left alive and out of prison. Due to the dynastic, bloodline-based leadership structure of the criminal organization, that meant the Claudia was acting regent until her son Mattheo came of age. Claudia, reeling from grief over the shocking loss, suddenly found herself thrust into a position that would determine the future of La Famiglia Nostra.

Due to the lack of a body, Claudia remained uncertain whether or not her husband faked his death. As a result, she did not choose to exercise any of her power as acting regent - and La Famiglia Nostra fell into inactivity over a year-long period. Additionally, Claudia refused to hold a funeral until Vincentio's remains were discovered. However, time wore on and no body was found despite police trawling the Chicago River several times. La Famiglia Nostra seemed doomed to collapse and obscurity beneath a leader paralyzed by grief and unable to move forward.

However, the family's situation took a sudden turn with the murder of Mayor Hadewich. With Hadewich gone, the criminal organizations of the Chicago were suddenly free from his reign of terror. The death spurred Claudia to put the past behind her and take control of La Famiglia. However, La Famiglia was severely weakened due to severe losses against the Streetsweepers and a year of inactivity. Seeking to bolster her numbers and get back into Chicago's criminal underworld, Claudia sought an alliance with the Steel Chip Gang lead by Benedict "Benny" House.

Unfortunately, the meeting went sour. Benny demanded full control of Chicago's highly lucrative West Side, which Claudia could not allow. Hostility between the Steel Chips and La Famiglia worsened when Benny ordered his men to set fire to the Calabrese Waste Collection Agency's Lake Side office. It became evident that all-out gang warfare was about to explode in Chicago. Benny and his Steel Chips had an advantage since they had been largely overlooked by the Streetsweepers, and they were not lagging behind from a year of inactivity. In an attempt to gain the upper hand against Benny, Claudia sought the help of James Chapel. During this time, she also began a romantic relationship with city councilman William Bascher - hoping to convince him to run for the newly vaceant mayor's office.

Chapel had a historically fraught relationship with La Famiglia, however, and Claudia's actions soon proved detrimental to her organization. The Endrizzi cadet family took issue with Claudia's relationship with Chapel - believing him to be the Triple Cross Killer who murdered their daughter Giovanna. Eduardo Endrizzi, the acting don of the Endrizzi family, attacked Claudia at the Calabrese's restaurant La Primavera. After the attack, he recruited Bartolomeo De Luca (the Don of the De Luca cadet family) and opted to split from La Famiglia Nostra - violating their sacred omerta.

Before leaving, the Endrizzis sought to punish Claudia for her actions. They kidnapped her Giulietta and Mattheo and held them for ransom. Claudia would be forced to surrender Chapel in order to see her children alive again. The remaining La Famiglia loyalists - the Bianchis, the Espositos, and the Fiorentinos - struck a deal with the newly arrived Dead Rabbits to rescue the children. The two groups searched Chicago up and down for any sign of the children before securing information that led them to the port.

Claudia arranged a prisoner exchange -- using a decoy instead of the real James Chapel -- and met with the Endrizzis at the port. Claudia arrived backed by reinforcements from the Dead Rabbits, along with her own people, and bloodshed quickly broke out. Though both sides suffered heavy losses, Claudia and her supporters managed to recover her children safe and alive. Eduardo Endrizzi was killed in the conflict by Henry Scaglione, Claudia's driver and bodyguard. This event solidified a new alliance between La Famgilia Nostra and the Dead Rabbits for joint control of Chicago.

La Ricostituzione
[To Be Added]

Mayoral Election (Season 2)
[To Be Added]

Related Pages

 * La Famiglia Nostra
 * The Calabrese Family