As an avid retro gamer myself, I was thrilled to play through Mafia: Definitive Edition and revisit this mobster classic. The developers did a superb job updating the visuals, gameplay, and immersion to today‘s standards while retaining the outstanding crime drama storytelling.
But what fascinates me most about returning to Lost Heaven and Tommy Angelo‘s rise and fall as a Made Man are the riveting historical echoes condenced into this fictional world. Let‘s dive deeper into some of the most intriguing true stories behind one of gaming‘s greatest mob epics!
The Morello Empire Built on Violence and Vice
In Mafia, Salieri‘s Italian mob wages street war against the rival Morello faction. This name conjures up memories of New York‘s real-life Morello crime family who dominated the early 20th century underworld. At their peak from 1903-1930, the Morellos exerted murderous force across Manhattan to profit massively off rackets like:
- Counterfeiting – Starting in 1903 with Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Saietta, they printed an estimated $5-$10 million in fake bills
- Extortion and Protection – Morellos forced payments from businesses under deadly threats
- Prostitution and Gambling Dens – Ran lucrative brothels, underground casinos generating huge cash flows
The Morellos also battled rival Camorra gangs during 1915-18 to emerge as New York‘s preeminent Mafia rulers. While the in-game Morellos have different specific actions than their real namesakes, the parallels in violence, political corruption, vice-peddling, and police evasion are unmistakable.
Coercing Stores Under Mafia "Protection" Rackets
A core money-making quest in Mafia involves intimidating businesses into paying monthly "protection fee" kickbacks, under implicit threats of property destruction if they refuse to comply. When Tommy discovers the local brothel switches allegiance to the Morellos, Don Salieri sends him to bomb their building.
In historical reality, this was standard practice for 1930s mobsters monopolizing neighborhoods. They forced proprietors into payment schemes disguised as security services against fictional dangers posed by rival gangs. Those daring to resist faced relentless harassment, property vandalism, arson attacks, beatings, and sometimes death.
- In New York, a shopkeeper resisted Black Hand extortion letters for months before his home was finally bombed in 1910.
- Chicago mob bosses like Dean O‘Bannion and Al Capone used bombings, assassinations and fear tactics to squeeze business owners out of cash.
- In Mafia, the game perfectly encapsulates this dangerous racketeering and its violent enforcement methods.
The High Price of Power for Mob Bosses
Mafia bosses project indomitable force to enemies and allies. But maintaining control requires treading delicately between internal rival factions ready to seize power at the first sign of weakness. In Mafia, Don Salieri attends a meeting in a public restaurant and gets ambushed by a rival hit squad seeking to assassinate him.
This directly echoes how real mob leaders often met their demise outside their safe zones of control, failing to bring along enough trusted guards due to overconfidence in their status. Famous examples include:
- Paul Castellano: Gambino Boss whacked outside Sparks Steak House in 1985. Power struggle with upstart John Gotti wishing to take the reins.
- Angelo Bruno: Longtime Philly Mob ruler shot dead in his car in 1980. An internal faction hit intended to usurp power from Bruno.
- Albert Anastasia: Murder Inc. founder assassinated while getting a shave at the barbershop in 1957. Contract killing from Profaci Crime Family boss in alliance with Anastasia‘s ambitious underboss Carlo Gambino.
Mafia neatly encapsulates the knife‘s-edge level of vulnerability and paranoia bosses needed to live under constantly.
Bootlegging Wars Fueled by Prohibition
With alcohol sales outlawed in America throughout the 1920s and early 30s, illegal liquor distribution became the largest revenue source for mobsters.
In Mafia, Salieri and Morello thugs clash over control of breweries, distilleries, smuggling routes, and mob-owned bars selling illicit alcohol. As demand was sky-high, the stakes for monopolizing this underground economy provoked deadly turf wars between rival factions.
In reality, the excessive fortunes from bootlegging dwarfed potential profits from protection rackets, gambling, narcotics, or sex work. Organized crime families waged constant urban warfare nationwide throughout Prohibition, though perhaps bloodiest in Chicago culminating in the infamous 1929 St. Valentine‘s Day Massacre with Al Capone consolidating power.
Just as in the game, the contraband alcohol trade became center stage for the emerging nationwide mafia infrastructure – and its most savage power battles.
Hard Times, Tough Decisions
As Mafia shows via Tommy Angelo‘s descent into organized crime, average citizens often turned to mafias out of economic desperation rather than criminal ambition. The 1929 Wall Street crash crippled American finances for over a decade in its aftermath during The Great Depression.
Unemployment peaked at 25% in 1933. Those clinging to blue-collar jobs saw average hourly wages drop 60% in 4 years. Half the nation‘s banks failed and retirement savings evaporated. Families struggled severely just to afford food and housing week-to-week.
And amidst the drastic financial insecurity, crime rates predictably soared:
- Violent Crime Rate: Climbed from 289 per 100k pre-Depression to over 390 per 100k by 1933.
- National Murder Rate: Surged nearly 50% from 6.8 to 9.7 per 100,000 residents from the 1920s to 1930s.
- Organized Crime Recruits: Mafia families saw their strongest membership surges exploiting those left most desperate.
Just like Tommy, civilian struggles to survive in the devastating economy drove many into pursuing organized crime for sustenance. Mafia powerfully depicts the painful societal impact of 1930‘s financial chaos.
Replaying this definitive edition of Mafia filled me both with nostalgia for the original classic, and deeper appreciation for how skillfully it weaves together fiction with compelling real-world historical crime elements.
From the Morello‘s rise to the double-edged sword of a mob boss‘s power, coercive protection rackets to the lucrative blood-soaked Prohibition economy, and how economic despair transformed regular citizens into criminals, Lost Heaven strikingly mimics the real birth of the golden age of American organized crime empires.
For fellow gaming enthusiasts, I cannot recommend Mafia: Definitive Edition highly enough, both as an upgraded modern title and for its masterful adaptation of the fascinating true underworld history underlying Tommy Angelo‘s journey. Here‘s hoping we see more historical crime classics revived with the quality and care this one received!
