Black Mob

The Black Mob is a criminal organization in Mafia III.

History[]

Background[]

The Black Mob has existed in New Bordeaux since the days of Prohibition, operating out of Bayou Fantom and Delray Hollow, where they engaged in bootlegging, protection, hijacking, and illegal gambling.

After the murder of Giuseppe Carillo in 1934, the Mob forged an alliance with his killer, Sal Marcano, gaining permanent control over the Hollow in exchange for regular kickbacks to the Marcano family. This arrangement was negotiated by Black Mob boss Sammy Robinson, who considered Sal a close friend. By 1968, the Mob had become a fixture of the Hollow under Sammy, who ran it from a popular bar he co-owned with his son and underboss Ellis Robinson.

Operations[]

For decades, the Mob's principal operation was a racket called the "Black Lottery". The lottery made bets and sold tickets on everything from the final price of the day's stock market to the serial numbers on a dollar bill. In essence, it was a tax on the poor and desperate people in Delray Hollow, who were often strong-armed by Sammy's men into participating. ^[1] The lottery ran for many years and turned a tidy profit for the Mob and the Marcano family.

However, Sammy was savvy enough to realize that he needed to give something back to the people of the Hollow and plowed much of the money that wasn't going towards kickbacks into charitable acts. He established Perla's Nightclub, the Warm Hearts Neighborhood Kitchen, and a benevolence association backed by the Mob to assist those in need and support black entertainers. He paid for the partial renovation of the First Baptist Church after it was firebombed in 1962. When Saint Michelle's Orphanage was forced to close for lack of city funds, Sammy helped Father James by bringing the colored boys he could no longer support into the Mob. One of them was a teenager named Lincoln Clay.

The Haitian Problem[]

Despite Sammy's generosity, many folks in Delray Hollow did not like him or the Mob. In their eyes, the Hollow was being exploited for everything it was worth by Sal Marcano and his ilk, and rather than challenge this exploitation, the Mob was robbing them to line the family's pockets. Sammy himself was increasingly seen as a worn-out, submissive old man who no longer had it in him to stand up to Sal.

In the fall of 1967, Haitian immigrants living in shantytown communities in Bayou Fantom began breaking into homes across the Hollow, stealing money, jewelry, and other valuables to finance the establishment of their own Mob. They quickly gained the support of Sammy's critics, who lent their support to transform the Haitian Mob into a viable criminal and political organization. Soon, crews of Haitian soldiers began interfering with the Lottery, preventing the sale of tickets and returning bet money to its owners.

Sammy did his best to limit the damage, but the Black Mob was too small to effectively fight back and before long, most of his men had abandoned him or defected to the Haitians. Sammy soon fell three months behind in the Mob's kickbacks to Sal, but his mood began to improve when Lincoln, his adopted son, returned from serving in the Vietnam War in 1968. A homecoming party was held in his honor at the bar, attended by Father James and residents of the Hollow who remained loyal to Sammy.

The next day, after learning that the Haitians had tried to kill Lincoln while he was performing community service at Warm Hearts, Sammy reached the end of his patience with their defiance of him. He had a Black Mob contact provide Lincoln and Ellis with guns and an airboat so they could travel to the Haitian Mob's hideout in Bayou Fantom and assassinate their leader, Baka, after rebuking Ellis' suggestion that they hunt down the Haitians already in Delray Hollow by arguing that open gang warfare was the last thing the Hollow needed.

The Heist[]

In order to make good on the large sum of money he now owes to Sal Marcano, Sammy agrees to help him in his scheme to rob New Bordeaux's branch of the Federal Reserve. He asks Lincoln to meet with Sal at his country club to discuss the plan. Sal shows understanding of Sammy's money problems and says that the Black Mob's participation in the heist will square the past due debts. Lincoln says that he and Ellis have stopped the Haitian attacks on Delray Hollow. Sal is so impressed with how Lincoln dealt with the Haitian problem that he offers Lincoln the chance to take over Sammy's position as leader of the Black Mob. Unwilling to betray his adopted father, Lincoln turns Sal down. Sal admits that is not what he wanted to hear, but displays understanding, saying that loyalty is scarce and respectable.

Nevertheless, the heist is approved by both Sal and Sammy, and preparations are made by both sides. Yet according to Jonathan Maguire, it was the Black Mob's contributions that ensured the success of the robbery. A black laundry worker was able to supply two clean security officers' uniforms so Lincoln and Sal's son Giorgi could enter the Reserve without suspicion. A black janitor drew up a detailed map of the building's interior while also getting an accurate count of the Reserve's employees and security personnel.

Downfall[]

The heist is a success, earning Sammy a little over two million dollars from just his cut alone once the money is safely delivered and counted at his bar. Sammy is ecstatic and reveals to Ellis and Lincoln that he intends to settle all of the Black Mob's debts with Sal and possibly even renegotiate his longstanding agreement with the Marcano family.

As they celebrate their new wealth, Sal arrives with Giorgi and an unknown accomplice to collect his cut. After they all share a drink, Giorgi shoots Lincoln in the head and guns down Danny Burke, Ellis is stabbed to death by Sal's bagman, and Sal himself finishes off a wounded Sammy as he tries to crawl away. Giorgi then sets fire to the bar as they leave with all of the money. While Lincoln is left for dead, he has not yet expired. The Monsignor had been wishing to go to Sammy's Bar on a lark, and is shocked to see the place aflame and discovers Lincoln's body still alive (but barely). He pulls an unconscious Lincoln out of the inferno and nurses him back to health.

The loss of both Sammy and Ellis, coupled with Lincoln's presumed demise, is more than the Black Mob can handle. The organization falls apart, and the surviving members join up with the Haitian Mob. Giorgi then puts his Dixie Mafia allies in charge of Delray Hollow while the smoldering ruins of Sammy's Bar are left as a stark reminder of the fate of those who would dare stand in the way of the Marcano family.