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"I don't have it in me to feel shame for the things I've done to others. Never have."
Sal Marcano

Sal Marcano is the main antagonist of Mafia III, and mentioned in Mafia: Definitive Edition. He is the Don of the Marcano Crime Family.

History

Background

Sal Marcano was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After moving to New Bordeaux in 1926, he began his life of crime as a teenager, living with his father Valerio Marcano and three brothers in a wooden shack on the edge of River Row. At 17 Sal was sent to the State Penitentiary at Cordoba for breaking and entering crimes committed around the French Ward. While in prison, he became friends with Giuseppe Carillo and saved his life when someone tried to shank him. In return, Giuseppe took Sal under his wing and promised to fold him into the family once they've both done their time.

When Valerio's gambling debts finally caught up with him, Giuseppe ordered his murder. However, Giuseppe owed Sal for saving his life and offered to wipe his father's debts clean. Sal turned him down, knowing full well it meant that his father would be killed. When Sal got out of prison in 1934, he rallied his brothers, insisting they needed to exact revenge, and declared war on the Carillos. While Carillo was dining in a popular Italian restaurant in the French Ward along with 18 of his men, Sal, his brothers, and some men came in and ruthlessly killed Carillo and all of his men in cold blood. This event would later be known as the All Saint's Day Massacre. After this Sal assumed control of New Bordeaux and installed his brothers as capos, establishing the Marcano Crime Family.

Family

Sal is very close with his family and entrusts most of his operations to be run by family members. Sal's wife Virginia died in 1957, and the two had one son, Giorgi Marcano. Sal and Giorgi have been inseparable since his wife's passing, with Sal doing everything he can to prepare his son for "the life" by making Giorgi his protege and Underboss.

Sal's bother Lucio was murdered in 1962, and his wife Olivia Marcano took over Lucio's position in the crime family after his death. His two other brothers, Lou and Tommy, work closely with Sal as the crime family's other capos. Sal has even brought in his nephew, the step-son of Sal's late wife's sister, Michael Grecco, to work in the crime family running River Row.

Running The City

New Bordeaux's status as a major port for the Southeast United States has made it one of the most important waypoints for smuggling between the U.S., the Caribbean, and Latin America. Pirates, bootleggers, and smaller crime bosses have tried to hold on to the city's ports and its rackets, but Sal Marcano was the first to gain total control after his 1934 takeover.

Under Sal, nothing got into or out of the city without his say-so. Marcano successfully blocked potential rivals from gaining a foothold in the city's other criminal operations, installing his brothers in the major rackets while putting loyal and well paid lieutenants in charge of secondary rackets. Sal starved out any potential competition and made his earn too attractive for The Commission to want to turn on him.

With his capos and lieutenants in control of all major districts in the city, Marcano allowed the poorer districts to be run by local gangs in exchange for a cut of the profits. Two such gangs that benefited from this arrangement were the Black Mob, whose leader, Sammy Robinson, Marcano had known for decades, and the Irish Mob, whose leader, Thomas Burke, became acquainted with Marcano in the thirties after Sal became aware of his growing bootlegging operation. A third group, the Italian Gang run by Vito Scaletta, a Made Man from Empire Bay, was given control of River Row reluctantly when the Commission forced Sal to take Vito in after he was exiled from Empire Bay.

Current Operations

Sal is growing weary of the mob life, having not had a decent night's sleep in 40 years, and he doesn't want his son and underboss Giorgi to have to go through what he did. Marcano wants to get out from under the Commission's thumb and go legitimate by having gambling legalized in the state and fulfill his dream of opening the Paradiso Hotel & Casino. The endeavor has proven quite expensive, and Sal is desperately trying to find new revenue streams to pay for not only the casino's construction, but also the bribes and kickbacks he needs for politicians and judges to legalize gambling.

To that end, Sal plans a robbery of the Federal Reserve, enlisting the help of Vito Scaletta, Thomas Burke, Sammy Robinson, and their respective crews. However, after the heist, Marcano goes back on his end of the deal and keeps the entire score for himself. After Giorgi shoots Lincoln in the head, he kills Danny Burke while Ritchie Doucet stabs Sammy's son Ellis to death. Sal then personally executes Sammy, and as the three grab the money Giorgi sets fire to Sammy's Bar, leaving Lincoln Clay for dead.

With the Black Mob out of the picture, Sal and Giorgi place the Dixie Mafia in charge of Delray Hollow, then go to work eliminating Vito Scaletta. Sal has long thought Scaletta to be a mole planted by the Commission to act as their eyes and ears. As Vito is a made man, Sal can't just kill him, so he refuses to give Vito his share of the heist and places his nephew in charge of River Row to restrict Scaletta's earnings. Once Vito could no longer kick up to Sal, the Commission would be forced to sanction his murder.

Downfall

Sal's mistakes were not ensuring Lincoln Clay was dead after Giorgi shot him in the head, and underestimating the threat to his operations once they found out he was still alive. Lincoln was slowly taking over Marcano's operations and taking out key assets of Sal's casino project like Judge Holden and Senator Jacobs. Sal's attempt to get a cash influx from Nino Santangelo is also thwarted by Clay, as is his plan to print counterfeit money with Alvarez.

After the death of Remy Duvall, Sal learns that all of Remy's assets will be going to his nephew, Stephen DeGarmo, including the land where his casino is being built. With the help of Olivia Marcano, he attempts to strong-arm DeGarmo into signing over the land to him, but Clay interferes with that as well, rescuing DeGarmo and putting Olivia in the hospital. One by one, all of his plans fail, and with his brothers and Olivia gone, Sal is all out of options.

Death

Having leveraged everything he had and calling in every favor he could, Sal realizes the end is near. Knowing he wouldn't last ten minutes out on the streets, he tells Giorgi to call up whatever men they have left and have them come to the Paradiso Hotel & Casino to make a final stand against Clay.

However, none of it makes a difference, as Lincoln takes out his remaining men, stabs Giorgi, and makes his way to Sal, who is waiting in the hotel's penthouse. The two share a drink, while Sal tells of his recurring nightmare of being at Giorgi's funeral. He's laid out in a little casket, neck cut same as Lucio's; this one comes around every three or four days. Sal explains that this all started because he was trying to keep his nightmare from coming true, but it didn't end well. He says he's buried a lot of people, more than he can count, but he never wanted to see Giorgi go down into the cold ground.

Sal describes how he's never had it in him to apologize or feel shame for the things he's done. He also knows that Lincoln didn't come there for an apology. But Sal was right about Lincoln, and he knew it the second he met him at the country club. Men like him are wired up wrong; there's only one thing they know, and one thing they're good at. Sal ends the conversation by saying that he'll be waiting for Lincoln, and that this won't be the last time they see each other.

Appearances

Mafia III

Notable Murders

Trivia

  • His character was inspired by real life mob boss Carlos Marcello, who was the leader of the New Orleans crime family in the 1960s.
  • There are multiple ways the player can kill Sal. You can approach him from either side and stab him in the knee, or approach him from the front or back and stab him in the chest. You can also wait and he will kill himself. All ways end with Lincoln pushing Marcano out his penthouse window.

Gallery

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