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This page contains information based on the original Mafia game and has been archived for the sake of posterity. For the Mafia: Definitive Edition version, please see Tommy Angelo or the Mafia: Definitive Edition Portal.

"The guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life might not get anything at all."
Tommy Angelo

Tommy Angelo is the protagonist of Mafia, and a minor character in Mafia II.

History

Background

Tommy started out as a cab driver on the streets of Lost Heaven during the Prohibition. His job was tough and he invested long hours while collecting little reward. Despite his meager profits, he was grateful to be employed as the Great Depression offered few jobs and many of his colleagues were in even worse shape than he was.

Joining the Family

While he is by his cab in Autumn 1930, two gangsters, his future partners Paulie and Sam, surprise Tommy and tell him to outrun some rival mobsters chasing them. Because the men were armed and one of them threatened him he followed their orders. He is rewarded with an envelope containing cash, as well as being told that Salieri looks for dependable men like him. At first Tommy is repulsed by such an idea and returns to work as usual the next day. After a few fares, he is found out by Morello's men, who vandalize his taxi and nearly kill him, but Tommy is saved when they mistakenly follow him to Salieri's Bar.

When it is learned that the damage to the taxi was Mafia related, Tommy is fired from the taxi company. Given the recession, it seems Tommy will have a hard time finding another job, so he considers Salieri's earlier offer that he always tries to help dependable men. He soon gets involved with Don Salieri and all of his criminal operations. He does jobs such as murdering other gangsters, collecting money, entering races, stealing property, bootlegging, robbing banks, and damaging people or property.

Rise Through the Ranks

He rises through the ranks of the family by using his cunning style to overcome obstacles in the family, like their consigliere ratting on the family, and skill to do any job. He meets contacts all over the city, such as Lucas Bertone and Salvatore, who give him helpful tips and help him during his missions. Eventually, the Salieri Crime Family gets its revenge against the Morellos, a rival family that starts a war. Morello's brother is killed along with many of his partners and associates, and Morello's ruthlessness causes him to lose the war. During all of these events, Tommy becomes involved with Sarah, the daughter of the bartender of Salieri's Bar, Luigi. The couple later get married sometime between 1933 and 1935 and have a daughter.

Betrayal

Finally, in 1938, Paulie suggests they rob a bank. Sam refuses, as does Tommy. However, after Tommy finds out he stole diamonds, not cigars as he was led to believe, he decides to go along with Paulie's plan, angered by his boss' deception. He meets with his partner alone, and they make a plan. The heist is successful, but the very next day, Tommy finds Paulie in his apartment lying in a pool of blood.

Sam calls Tommy and tells him to meet at an art gallery where it is revealed that Salieri has ordered the deaths of Paulie and Tommy after their moonlighting. Sam knew about Paulie's suggestion to rob a bank, and ratted them out. Sam also reveals that the diamonds were meant to be secured for a later period, and that Salieri has lost confidence in Tommy after they learned he did not assassinate Michelle or Frank as he was supposed to.

After a shootout, Tommy comes out victorious, killing Sam's underlings then approaching Sam. Tommy at first appears to show mercy on the sniveling Sam, only to shoot him. Sam's dying words are a warning that Tommy should live in fear for the rest of his life; for Salieri's power should never be underestimated even if Tommy outlives Ennio. Tommy quickly flees to Europe with Sarah and his daughter.

He returns later in the same year where he set up a meeting with Detective Norman at a restaurant, thus returning to the intro scene of the game. During the afternoon, Tommy tells his story and agrees to testify against Salieri if he gets a shorter sentence and receives protection. He says, "If these people go to jail, or better up - death row - they won't be able to take revenge on me. At least not as easily if they were free." He then goes into the Witness Protection Program with his wife Sarah and their daughter.

In the followed trial, more than 80 gangsters are sentenced to imprisonment for at least 8 years, and some are even sentenced to die by the electric chair. Salieri is sentenced to prison for life. Tommy was sentenced to 8 years at a secret location under a no human contact order, which meant he was not allowed to associate with anyone except prison personnel, and without visitors, not even his wife and daughter. Tommy recounts that the Second World War caused an economic downturn, making life hard for Sarah and his little girl as he was unable to support them, "but we got through it".

In 1946, Tommy is released from prison. The Angelo family is moved to an undisclosed city on "the other end of the United States" (later indicated to be Empire Bay in Mafia II) under new names where he takes job as a driver "for a respectable company" (presumably a trucking firm or Empire Bay Cab & Co.).

Death

Tommy Angelo (Mafia II) 2

Tommy's final moments

13 years after his betrayal, on September 25, 1951, Tommy, who is now considerably aged, stands outside his house watering his lawn, when a car with two men, revealed to be Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro in Mafia II, stops in front of the house. The two men then proceed to get out of the car and approach him. Vito asks, "Mr. Angelo?" Tommy answers confusedly, "Yes?", somewhat perplexed at the strangers as he has not been referred to by his true name in years. Vito then answers, "Mr. Salieri sends his regards". Joe lifts a Sawed-off Shotgun and shoots him in the chest. Vito and Joe hurry back into their car and drive away.

It becomes apparent in Mafia II that the FBI was still protecting Tommy, as was seen when they and the local police pursue them immediately after Tommy's death. Tommy's final scene is where the camera is rising from the lawn as Tommy is bleeding to death and he is holding a still-running garden hose. As he lay dying, a sequence from his testimony is preserved through narration:

"You know, the world isn't run by the laws written on paper. It's run by people. Some according to laws, others not. It depends on each individual how his world will be, how he makes it. And you also need a whole lot of luck, so that somebody else doesn't make your life hell. And it ain't as simple as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values and to maintain them. In marriage, in crime, in war, always and everywhere. I messed up. So did Paulie and Sam. We wanted a better life, but in the end we were a lot worse off than most other people. You know, I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah, balance, that's the right word. Because the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life might not get anything at all."

Following his death, his assassins were chased by Agent Cox and a force of EBPD. What happened to Sarah and his daughter afterwards is unknown.

Personality

Tommy is depicted as being all in all a nice guy, but a tough childhood and life in the 1930s have changed his moral values a little, making him capable of doing things that a normal person would not understand, but his conscience sometimes haunts him. Especially key in his life was his mother, deceased prior to the events of the game but figuring she would not be proud of him for some of his actions, in particular the cold, calculated murder of the street punks.

Notable Murders

Appearances

Mafia

Mafia II

Trivia

  • Tommy Angelo is influenced by the character Henry Hill from Goodfellas.
  • Tommy is the only character from the first game to reappear in Mafia II, excluding Vito and Joe who appeared as the unnamed assassins in the first game's epilogue.
  • In the Mafia II mission A Friend of Ours, Vito says that being in the family "pays a hell of a lot more than being a fucking taxi driver"; this is a reference to Tommy.

Mafia II

Gallery


References

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