Germano Giovanni

Giovanni -x- Boston -x- Quebec City

Sobriquet:

Appearance: In a strange and unexpectedly vain maneuver, Germano chose to undergo the use of Vicissitude in order to regain the appearance of someone elses' youth. After emerging from the abortion clinic wherein he underwent the "proceedure" he looked and spoke very much like a twenty-something Antonio Banderas. Those who knew Germano best were somewhat shocked by this sudden obsession with image, especially that of a long dead films star. Those within the family with a sense of humor, laugh heartily and dismiss it as a late-life fad (pun intended) or perhaps a sign that the ever reliable Germano has worked the streets too long and might need some time off to sort out his "issues". However, more than one closeted Giovanni fagot has nodded at Germano's long expected emergence from the coffin, while the ladies of the family only offer sultry looks to their cousin and talk among themselves in hushed tones.

Behavior: Germano, ever a man of few words, usually a heartfelt and colorful expletive followed by a gun-shot has become something of a family recluse. With his star in ascendance and his fortunes guaranteed, he has recently found the stones to defy the elders of the family in a risky gamble to raise his personal station by risking himself on the behalf of this upstart sect called the League of the Night. What bothers the Anziani isn't he decision to kill a few Sabbat, but rather that the previously biddable family enforcer has grown a head of his own, for both business and politics. The old Germano was a cold hard tough who enjoyed the fear and respect he received as consequence of his well earned reputation. But, along with the cosmetic changes that he has purchased for himself, Germano seems to be delving into the dark art of necromancy, something old flames and past partners just cannot fathom. His detractors claim he no longer thinks of anyone but himself and note how caustic and verbose he has become since he brought Enzo Giovanni low; perhaps he sees himself ready for the title of Don Giovanni.

History: Germano was born in Venice during the spring of 1909 to one of the least affluent branches of the Giovanni family. His father Eliseo was a humble but reasonably well-off clockmaker and his mother Raffaella was a horse faced Sicilian woman born of the cutthroat Putanesca family. Neither Eliseo or Raffaella were of any particular importance except that they were at that time the latest couple to bind together the rustic Putanesca of Sicily to the cosmopolitan Giovanni of Venice. Arranged marriages between the two families bound each generation together in a mutually beneficial mercantile compact that had to be renewed periodically as the winds of fortune and circumstance dictated.

Despite the low status of Germano's parents, the occasion of his birth and baptism were heavily attended by influential members of the Giovanni family. The infant boy's entrance into this world was seen as a fortuitous event that might favor those who chose to attend for the auspicious date, April 4th. The date that the Conspirators of Issac gathered to plot the ruin of the vampires of Clan Cappadocian and honored by the family and Clan Giovanni as sacred for their momentous rise to power. While there were many luminaries present, the oldest male Giovanni to attend was Don Terzo who was nominated as the boy's godfather. His selection was not entirely honorary as Don Terzo was indeed a "godfather" and hadn't at the time of Germano's birth, breathed in over a century. However, Don Terzo took the honor seriously and thereafter the boy wanted for nothing that the old man could provide.

Having been born in Venice to a Giovanni father, Germano was seen as purely Giovanni. Physically, the boy took after his mother's people in strength, supernal hardiness and general belligerence. From his father he gained a keen mind and studious attention to detail. He was pampered until he was five, but with the outbreak of the Great War, he was shipped off to his mother's people who lived in the hinterlands of Sicily. Ultimately, it was his godfather's decision and after Don Terzo consulted the seers of the dead, it was determined that Germano had a destiny worth protecting. Over the next ten years, the Putanesca trained and treated him as one of their own and he learned their rough code of conduct and justice.

By the time he was fifteen he was considered a man with several romantic conquests to his name and the blood of more than one enemy on his hands, and ready to rise within the ranks of the Sicilian mafia. Once again, Don Terzo spoke on his behalf and arranged for him to journey to the New World, but not before spending a season with his godfather in Venice. In the intervening years of Germano's absence, both his parents had died: his mother of heartbreak or some kind of night-fever, and his father had died in the trenches north of Venice during the first world war. Germano was smart enough to know that their deaths were something other than unhappy circumstance, but it mattered little, for he had only vague recollections of either of them, while Don Terzo was always there and always would be.

With the cold dark blood of Don Turzo circulating sluggishly through his veins and a new found strength empowering his already robust frame, Germano set sail for New York City. Even with having spent a season in Venice, nothing could have prepared Germano for the Big Apple. In 1925 the city was home to six million people whereas the great city of Venice was barely 250,000 souls. Germano met with the local Giovanni family head, Donatello who at that time was ensconced in Little Italy on Manhattan's Lower East Side. As things had been arranged by Don Turzo with Donatello, Germano was taken under the wing of the Consigliere who ensured that he was made a capo with his own crew and that he received his share in all things including the bitter blood. During his stay in NYC, Germano rubbed shoulders with a number of infamous Mafia notables including: Albert Anastasia of the Gambino family, Vincent "Chin" Gigante of the Genovese family, Paul Vario of the Luchese family, "Crazy" Joey Gallo of the Colombo family, Frank LaBruzzo of the Bonanno family. While the Giovanni have never been a crime family, they have always maintained relations with organized crime in the form of the Sicilian mafia and so Germano worked with many street level capos, some of these men would later rise to positions of great power within their respective families, including the boss (don). Germano's destiny must have played a role, for he was reassigned just before the out break of the Castellammarese War, an eighteen month long bloody power-struggle between the Genovese and Bonanno families that redefined the way in which the American mafia was organized.

After four years in Gotham, the family transferred Germano to Atlantic city in 1928. Trained in Sicily and tested in New York, Germano was made the Giovanni liaison within La Cosa Nostra during its expansion into the "The World's Playground". Primarily, Germano spent his time establishing protection rackets, guarding shipments of alcohol and collecting the Giovanni cut of profits from speakeasies, underground casinos and brothels. However, when required he was the man of choice to arrange and often perform "message jobs", the act of killing someone by shooting them in the eye or mouth to convey a message to rival gangs or the authorities; a shot in the eye was a warning that the group or individual was being watched, whereas a corpse found shot in the mouth was executed for being a snitch. In the five years he spent in Atlantic City, Germano made the acquaintance of Enoch L. "Nucky" Johnson, a racketeer who was the undisputed "boss" of the political machine that controlled Atlantic City and the Atlantic County government for over thirty years.

As the saying goes, all good things must end and so did prohibition in 1933 and as a consequence Germano was once again reassigned, this time to Las Vegas, Nevada.

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