TEXT: Vendetta
  A Gangland Resource For Mean Streets
  INTRODUCTION  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
  CHAPTER ONE: Film Gangsters . . . . . .5
  Film noir Gangsters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
  New Character Archetypes  . . . . . . .6
  CHAPTER TWO: Then and Now  . . . . . .9
  Common Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
  Humble Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
  Keep it in the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Mob Hierarchy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  The Omerta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
  Beyond Omerta  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
  Obedience  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
  Loyalty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
  Honor  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
  Pride  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
  Silence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
  CHAPTER THREE: Mafia Cities  . . . . . . .14
  National Commission  . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
  Chicago Mob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
  Los Angeles Mob  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
  Detroit Mob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
  Philadelphia Mob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
  San Francisco Mob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
  CHAPTER FOUR: The Syndicate  . . . . .19
  Adaptive Nature  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
  Criminal Enterprise  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
  Criminal Entrepreneurs  . . . . . . . . . . . .19
  Death, Taxes, and Wall Street  . . . . . .20
  Future of the Syndicate  . . . . . . . . . . .21
  Syndicate Tactics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
  CHAPTER FIVE: Mob Hits  . . . . . . . . . . .23
  Up the Ladder  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
  Runaway Train  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
  The Heist  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
  Shakedown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
  INDEX  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
  Written and Produced by
  Mark Bruno
  Turnabout is Fair Play
  Adrian Chapman
  Editing
  Samantha Downing
  Todd Downing
  Illustrations
  Jason McCuiston
  Hulton | Archive
  Front Cover
  Peter Hince
  Front Cover Typesetting & Layout
  Todd Downing
  XPG Line Producer
  Mark Bruno
  XPG System Development
  Todd Downing
  TM
  © Copyright 2002 Deep7 and Mark Bruno. XPG ©
  Copyright 2001-2002 by Deep7 and is trademarked.
  All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
  Permission granted to print (and/or reproduce portions
  of) this manual for non-commercial, personal use.
  Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly pro-
  hibited under international copyright law and violators
  will be prosecuted. 
  Some art  based on photographs from the Hulton
  Archive. Used under license.
  
  Vendetta: A Gangland Resource is the first
  supplement in support of Deep7’s role-play-
  ing game of classic film noir, Mean Streets.
  This PDF sourcebooklet presents a more
  detailed look into the American branch of
  the Mafia – its roots, founding fathers, fami-
  lies –  and puts it all into perspective for
  those who want to play mobsters and hooli-
  gans in crime/gangster-based scenarios, or to
  add further flavor to mobsters in a current
  film noir campaign. As such, Vendetta con-
  tains very little in the way of additional rules
  or “crunchy bits,” primarily because the
  information contained within has been
  designed with the sole purpose of fleshing
  out the game setting. While this has the ben-
  efit of making Vendetta system-independent
  (thus allowing GMs to apply the material to
  other game systems), it also allows GMs and
  players to focus on what’s really important
  to a role-playing game: story and setting.  
  Vendetta has been designed for both GMs
  and players. As such, you’re not required to
  purchase this product in order to have access
  to information that was left out of the core
  game book, for whatever the reason.
  Vendetta has the tools GMs will need to craft
  engaging and thrilling crime-based cam-
  paigns, while players will find useful infor-
  mation on how to portray gangsters and
  criminals in an RPG. 
  Film noir Gangsters
  Gangsters have been featured in films dat-
  ing back to the early days of Hollywood,
  during the silent era. One of the first to mark
  the start of the gangster as its own genre was
  D. W. Griffith’s The Musketeers of Pig Alley
  (1912). Two of the most influential films that
  helped to launch the entire genre in the
  1930s were German director Fritz Lang’s Dr.
  Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) and its sequel,
  released in 1923. This is a two-part crime
  melodrama about an evil, criminal boss
  capable of disguise and tremendous hypnot-
  ic 
  powers. 
  Josef 
  von 
  Sternberg’s
  Underworld (1927) is also considered a clas-
  sic. It’s a film with many of the genre’s stan-
  dard conventions and shot from the gang-
  ster’s point of view. 
  Lastly, Lewis Milestone’s The Racket
  (1928), a Howard Hughes-produced film, 
  5
  Film 
  Gangsters
  c h a p t e r   o n e
  Gangsters have been a part of America’s counter-culture since
  Sicilian refugees flooded into the United States during the latter
  part of the 19th century. This type of criminal element had such
  an impact on American society that Hollywood directors took to
  them like bears to honey in the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50. They permeate
  all aspects of American pop-culture as well, including numerous
  books, television programs, and, most notably, movies. 
  
  The Chicago Mob
  Commonly known as the “Outfit,”
  Chicago’s organized crime families have a
  long history of ruling the city through fear
  and coercion. But they weren’t always
  organized under one banner and Don. Prior
  to the Prohibition era, the families were
  more or less fractured groups of thugs
  involved in bootlegging, gambling, and
  prostitution. There were constant street bat-
  tles over neighborhood rights, bootleg cir-
  cuits, along with the occasional personal
  vendetta. Essentially, it was every man for
  himself, and the families were hardly inter-
  ested in “enriching” their members. All of
  this changed with the arrival of Silvio “Big
  Daddy” Desideria, who eventually became
  one of Chicago’s most powerful crime boss-
  es.
  Desideria was born in Messina, Sicily dur-
  ing the 1890s, but immigrated with his fam-
  ily to New York City in 1903. Eventually,
  the family moved to Chicago to stay with
  relatives there, who had come to live in the
  United States in 1888. Prior to his involve-
  ment with the Chicago Outfit, Desideria was
  making successful inroads into the city’s
  political arena, serving as a precinct captain,
  which provided him with envious political
  protection.
  As Desideria grew in power among the
  fractured crime families, so did his own
  gang. By the mid-1920s, the man command-
  ed the largest and most powerful group of
  racketeers in the city. Unfortunately, a man
  as powerful as Desideria made quite a few
  enemies – equally power hungry bosses who
  decided that Big Daddy stood in the way of
  millions of dollars of wealth.
  Eventually, gunmen aligned with the
  Giglioti family assassinated Desideria in his
  North Shore home. The boss of that family,
  Vincent Caravaglia, quickly took over what
  Desideria had built, and used it as the foun-
  dation for a bootlegging empire. Caravaglia
  is credited with calling together the other
  major local gangs and forging them into a
  cartel that divided up the liquor business in
  the city in order to bring stability and maxi-
  mum profitability to bootlegging.
  In the 1940s, Chicago’s Outfit is supreme
  in the city; no other syndicate has been able
  to make inroads into its neighborhoods.
  Since moving away from bootlegging, the
  Outfit now concentrates most of its efforts
  on gambling and vice. Club and casinos line
  Rush Street, in the neighborhood of Cicero,
  and in south suburban Calumet City.
  Chicago Crime Families
  Much like their peers in New York City,
  Chicago’s five crime families are
  aligned under a tenuous alliance
  known as the Outfit; however, the dif-
  ference stops there. Unlike, the
  Syndicate, where the Commission is,
  more or less, a democratic body, the
  Outfit is controlled by one man,
  Vincent Caravaglia, the Boss of
  Bosses. There are still instances of
  infighting among the families though,
  with the majority of problems arising
  from  clashes over who controls what in the
  city. So far, Caravaglia has been able to pre-
  vent an all-out mob war. 
  The Los Angeles Mob
  The first boss of the Los Angeles crime
  family was Joseph Gennaro, who was in
  control until he died of a massive heart
  attack in 1931 at the age of 87. Michael
  Imperia, who eventually led the family to
  15
  Chapter Three
  Chicago Mob Statistics
  Family
  Members
  Boss
  Giglioti 
  600 
  Vincent Caravaglia
  Caruso 
  400 
  Michael Costa  
  Ricerche 
  400 
  Luigi DeLuca
  Greco 
  250 
  Anthony Santoro
  Fontanna 
  300 
  James Marino  
  
  dictability, just like for any good, justifiable
  business enterprise.
  The New York mob has traditionally per-
  petuated this by taking over legitimate busi-
  nesses, while providing a service in return.
  Although, the mob never really assumes
  complete control of any business they
  absorb. This is primarily because they wish
  to keep the criminal element outside a cli-
  mate necessary for a legitimate business’
  success. That, and it doesn’t leave an obvi-
  ous paper trail to the door of the crime boss-
  es.
  The Syndicate’s legal and illegal activities
  and business enterprises are widespread.
  They have even adopted tactics that are con-
  sidered to be “Mafia specialties.” These spe-
  cialties include focused forms of racketeer-
  ing (like business and labor racketeering),
  bid rigging, business fraud, and industry car-
  tels – areas that the Syndicate demonstrates
  its most aggressive and effective penetration
  of the city’s legitimate economy. In fact, of
  all the families known to operate in the
  United States, the New York City Syndicate
  is the most effective at employing these
  methods. Specialized racketeering still
  proves the most profitable and is organized
  into two separate fundamentals: labor and
  business.
  Labor racketeering involves organized
  crime control of labor unions. With this con-
  trol, vast sums of money are siphoned from
  union pension funds, businesses are extorted
  in return for labor peace, and an absence of
  strikes and bribes are solicited for “sweet-
  heart contracts.” Business racketeering has
  occurred primarily in New York City in the
  construction, music, and garbage industries.
  In addition, the New York Syndicate controls
  unions, bars, brothels, restaurants, and truck-
  ing firms. The four families have also, at
  various times, controlled the Fulton Fish
  Market, the New York Coliseum, and air
  cargo operations at Laguardia Airport, as
  well as numerous other sites.
  Death, Taxes, and Wall Street
  As a result of the monopoly control held
  by the Syndicate in copious industries, con-
  sumers are forced to pay inflated prices. The
  practice is known as the “Mob tax” and is
  utilized by all families operating in the
  United States.
  20
  Chapter  Four
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Mean Streets/Mean Streets Vendetta.pdf