These are all the character fates and possible endings for Mafia III.
Lincoln Clay
Ruling Together
After Sal Marcano's death, Lincoln and his lieutenants took over New Bordeaux. He was not content to simply run the city; instead, he expanded across the South, into Florida and the Carolinas. Lincoln was soon wealthier than he could have ever imagined. He was smart with money, spreading it around and making sure the right people got paid and stayed paid.
As boss he was very benevolent, rebuilding Delray Hollow, buying up Frisco Fields, and even reopening Baron Saturday's Fun Park. He made contributions to worthy charities, schools, and hospitals. Of course, with great wealth came great temptation, and Lincoln gave in to everything - drugs, booze, prostitutes, or anything that could make money. Lincoln's decision to stay in New Bordeaux and run his criminal empire came at the price of losing the one person who truly cared about him, Father James.
Ruling Alone
After killing his underbosses, Lincoln leaves Eaglehurst Plantation. As he gets in his car and turns the key, it catches fire and explodes, killing him instantly. Father James set the bomb under his car after realizing that he was no different from Sal Marcano for killing the people he worked with. The Father has no regrets for killing him; due to the things Lincoln had done and what he had turned into, he carved out his path on his own.
Agent Maguire thought that a car bomb was too quick and too clean; after everything he did and all the people he killed, he deserved much worse. Father James identified Lincoln's body, which has left some doubt in Maguire's mind. Years later, he swears he sometimes hears footsteps upstairs that sound like combat boots, but he knows it's just the old house creaking and moaning; still, when it happens he can't help but wonder if it's Lincoln Clay coming to take what's left of his life.
Leaving New Bordeaux
- Maguire's story on Lincoln
After Sal Marcano's death Lincoln Clay disappeared. The FBI de-prioritized the case into him, but Agent Maguire kept an active file. In 1971 he tracked Lincoln to a California shipyard where he was working under an assumed name. However, by the time Maguire got there, Lincoln was gone. The trail went cold, and by '77 or '78 Maguire figured he was dead. But then he got a report of someone matching his description working with the Columbians. Since then there's been a new sighting of him every few years. Maguire promises that someday Lincoln will get tired of running or make a mistake, and he will be waiting.
- Father James' story on Lincoln
Lincoln made it out to California and worked at the shipyards for a few years. He met a woman, and it seemed like they were going to get married, but then it somehow all came apart. He started moving around after that, going to Alaska, New York, South America, and even Vietnam. Father James still gets postcards from time to time and believes Lincoln just wasn't able to accept the world for what it is or his place in it.
Cassandra
Nothing is known of Cassandra's fate if Lincoln decides to stay and rule New Bordeaux. If she and Lincoln managed to get through the takeover of the Marcano Crime Family without any betrayal, it is assumed she continued to lead the Haitian Mob and work as Lincoln's underboss, running whatever territories Lincoln saw fit to give her.
If Lincoln leaves New Bordeaux and Cassandra assumes control of the city, there wasn't a crime boss from Boston to Miami who respected her claim. As a result, the Commission, the Columbians, and the Cubans all went after her. They realized too late that they had no idea who they were fighting.
Johnny Galante had his throat slit while watching Deep Throat in a porn theater. Manny Moreno was set on fire outside his daughter's quinceanera. Severo Garcia was buried alive on the beach and drowned when the tide came in. Anton Bagrov was beaten to death with crowbars in the parking lot of the Briar Patch.
After this the real criminals came after her. The governor declared martial law and sent in the National Guard, so Cassandra shot him in the head on the steps of the capitol building. After that everyone got the message: The city belonged to Cassandra. But the government is like a rogue elephant. It's murderous, patient, and never forgets. So the state pulled funding for schools, city maintenance, and the like. If they couldn't get Cassandra, they'd strangle the city until it gave her up.
When the hurricane hit New Bordeaux, the locals called it Hurricane Cassandra. Nobody expected the damage to be so severe that the levees would completely fail, that the flooding would wipe out half the city and force the other half to leave, that the city would turn into the ghost town it is today. It's hard to believe that a major American city would be left to rot like that.
Some say that Cassandra was one of the thousands who drowned in the flood. Others say she slipped away into the swamps and still rules what's left of the city's underworld from the bayou. Either way she's a ghost who hasn't been seen in years.
Thomas Burke
Nothing is known of Thomas Burke's fate if Lincoln decides to stay and rule New Bordeaux. However, he was suffering from liver cancer, so if he and Lincoln managed to get through the takeover of the Marcano Crime Family without any betrayal, it is assumed he passed away soon after. What became of the Irish Mob is unknown.
If Lincoln leaves New Bordeaux and Thomas Burke assumes control of the city, his daughter Nicki explains that his liver was riddled with cancer and he should have only lived another six months, but Burke used the money Lincoln left him to go to Mexico and get a black market transplant, allowing him to live another sixteen years. He flooded the city with booze, then expanded into drugs, first heroin and then cocaine. He used the same infrastructure he'd set up for moonshining, and within a year or so, most of the cocaine entering the country came through New Bordeaux.
Burke became one of the wealthiest men in the southern United States. He bought himself a seat on the city council and got the township's name legally changed to Bourbon City. But all the cocaine only attracted other criminals, and Burke went to war with a Cuban gang. There were shoot-outs in the streets, car bombs, and a brothel burned to the ground. When the Cubans called him out, Burke came armed with an M-60 and grenades. He killed eight men before they put him down. That was 1984, and since then, no one has sat on the throne for more than a few months. New Bordeaux is still a lawless fool's paradise.
Vito Scaletta
Nothing is known of Vito Scaletta's fate if Lincoln decides to stay and rule New Bordeaux. If he and Lincoln managed to get through the takeover of the Marcano Crime Family without any betrayal, it is assumed he continued to lead the Italian Gang and work as Lincoln's underboss, running whatever territories Lincoln saw fit to give him.
If Lincoln leaves New Bordeaux and Vito Scaletta assumes control of the city, he spits on Sal Marcano's grave one last time by actually doing what Marcano couldn't do - finishing the Paradiso Hotel & Casino. Two years later, Vito opened another casino, and after that there was an avalanche of development, with hotels, arenas, and a new convention center. Today, everyone knows New Bordeaux as the Las Vegas of the South. Vito still lives in the penthouse at the top of the Paradiso, looking out over the city he owns.
John Donovan
In August 1971 John Donovan was called before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify about his knowledge and participation in Lincoln Clay's murderous rampage against the Marcano Crime Family.
As the hearings were winding down, Donovan asked Senator Blake where he was when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. The Senator replies that he doesn't remember, but believes he was at home. Donovan recounts his whereabouts at the time -- being in a muddy hut in Vietnam, dismembering an old woman piece by piece because her son was an NVA officer and hurting her was the only way to make him talk.
Senator Blake attempts to speak, but he's interrupted as Donovan continues recounting the events of that day, stating that what that NVA officer told him saved the lives of an entire platoon of men. That's 42 men who lived another day because he was willing to take a saw to that old woman. Again, Senator Blake breaks in and stands up as he begins to dismiss Donovan, only to be told by him to sit down and shut up.
Donovan continues by saying that he did a lot of terrible things in the name of this country, things that will haunt him for the rest of his life, because he believed in what this nation stood for. To be sitting ass deep in mud, that old woman scattered all around him, and hearing that the President of the United States had just been murdered, he knew right then and there that he couldn't let that stand, and he would make it right no matter how long it took.
Growing impatient, Senator Blake asks Donovan what he's saying, to which he replies that Sal Marcano and a group of conspirators murdered President Kennedy. The Senator then replies that this is the most absurd thing he's ever heard. Assuming he would say that, Donovan pulls out a silenced pistol, aiming it at the Senator. Donovan tells him that he doesn't hold anyone's ambitions against them, and the Senator certainly was ambitious, having gone to law school, become a district attorney, and then a United States senator.
As he approaches the Senator, gun still pointed directly at him, Donovan explains that after Sal died, he went through his files. Imagine his surprise when he saw Senator Blake's name over and over again. The mob wanted President Kennedy dead and Blake was more than willing to help. With the cameras still rolling, and in front of all the witnesses, Donovan states that he wants everyone to know he isn't finishing with Senator Blake, he's starting with him. He then fires one shot into the Senator's chest, followed by another to his head.
Turning toward the camera, Donovan waves his gun in front of the other members of the committee, saying that they're next. He then laughs as he excuses himself and walks out of the room. What became of John Donovan after that is unknown.
Postcard Gallery
If Lincoln leaves New Bordeaux, these are the postcards he sends Father James over the years.