What about The Harwood Butcher?

[VankeX]

-From official GTA Wiki "Harwood became infamous in 1971 when Forelli Family hitman Tommy Vercetti was sent to assassinate a rival gang member on the orders of his boss, Sonny Forelli. However, Forelli had set up an ambush in an attempt to assassinate Vercetti, and when Vercetti arrived in Harwood he found that eleven hitmen had been sent to kill him. Vercetti survived the ambush and killed all eleven men, landing a fifteen-year prison sentence and gaining the nickname of "The Harwood Butcher"."

 

-https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Harwood (if you don't know much about location or characters in this "story of harwood butcher" read this from wiki)

-Now, i find this story of harwood butcher verry interesting, and i would like to say few things that are odd about the story, and i also want to hear your opinions about this...

Before all i wanna say that i completed Vice City few times and know much about story and characters in general, but i have played GTA 3 and i know location like Harwood. So here i would say what i belive that happened this day in 1971. So in that period of time its important to know that Forelli family was the strongest gang in the whole state, and probabbly people who played every 3d era game would agree. Later they lost power and became Forelli Brothers because many other family members were slain. Now in that time when they were strongest, Sonny Forelli was the Don (leader) of the mafia. Tommy Vercetti was "Made Man" full time member of the mafia, and Don's personnal Hitman, so Tommy was well known in the Family, i wouldn't say that he had power position, but he was atleast well known. Now, one day Sonny sends Tommy to kill member of rival mafia (possibly Sindacco Family or Leone Family).

Now Tommy had to kill that guy in Harwood, but why in Harwood? As we can see in 3D era games in Liberty City, Harwood is i would say popular place for murdering and heres why. So down in Harwood is junkyard and there is no people that can see or hear murdering down there, as well as police, there is also place in junkyard where people destroy cars, and leave no evidence for murdering. But question is why is that rival member in Harwood? SO! Sonny wanted to set up Tommy, with his hitmans, kill him, and get rid of his body, by destroying it in machine for cars.(idk how its called sry). So thats what Sonny wanted to do when he sent 11 hitmans. Sonny also wanted to kill Tommy because he was scared of him. He knew that Tommy is killing machine, he killed 11 hitmans all by himself, and later kills much people in gta vice city. So Sonny was scared that Tommy get  people or try somehow to assasinate Sonny. So Sonny wanted to ambush him. Now you cant get rid of evidence after you killed 11 men that easy, so police got Tommy and because of his 11 victims, he got death sentence. But Sonny, powerful mob that he is, somehow with lawyers or idk, gets Tommy 15 years in prison. Now the question i would like to ask is why did Sonny tried free Tommy death sentence, but he tried to kill him in harwood (his hitmans). Maybe its because Sonny wanted to use Tommy again, as a killing machine. Idk, i would like to hear opinions from you, and tell me do you agree with me, and why not. I will be sure to read!

 

[VenusianDream]

It was never specified why or how Tommy only got 15 years instead of a life sentence. Sonny was even surprised to hear about his release, saying that he didn't think they'd ever let him out to begin with. My guess is that Tommy pulled some strings of his own while he was inside and got his sentence halfed. However with Vice City becoming a major hub for drugs, Sonny saw an opportunity to use Tommy while at the same time keeping him on a leash and away from his operations in Liberty City. But as you already know, things didn't quite go as planned and Tommy ended up doing his own thing and took over Vice City for himself.

Edited January 10 by VenusianDream

[universetwisters]

This video does quite a good job explaining it

 

 

[Zello]

My headcanon is during those 15 years in prison he got to know a lot of the people in the Liberty City underworld. I like to think that he did some time together with Toni Cipriani's father and Salvatore.

[Evil empire]

From an immersion-friendly point of view we can imagine Sonny fears about Tommy's loyalty and imagines he maybe works or is likely to work for the police or another mafia and realises Tommy is loyal when he remains silent in jail about the Forellis' criminal activities.

[The Coconut Kid]

On 2/19/2022 at 6:14 AM, universetwisters said:

This video does quite a good job explaining it

sh*t, if I knew I could make money reading out my forum posts on Youtube in my soiree suits, I could be owning a third mansion by now.

I'll post a quick summary of the video for those who want to save 55 minutes. Then I'll provide my own speculation and cover a few areas that the video missed.

• Tommy Vercetti grew up in Portland. He and Sonny Forelli were close childhood friends. Because of this friendship with Sonny, Tommy does not go to work in the printing business like his father. Instead, in the 1960s, Sonny brings him into the Forelli Crime Family. Tommy soon becomes a "made man" in the Forelli Family.
   
• However, in 1971, Sonny decides to have Tommy killed. Sonny views Tommy as a potential threat to his own power. But, as boss of the family, Sonny can't just kill Tommy without a reason. So he decides to set him up. He lures Tommy to Harwood on the premise of killing a rival gang member or drug dealer and has him ambushed by eleven hitmen from out of town.
   
• Tommy survives. He is arrested for murder and is sentenced to life in prison. He refuses to betray Sonny to the police. His refusal to betray could be for a number of reasons:
  
  He's loyal to the Mafia Code of Omerta.
  
  He doesn't think Sonny set him up. Tommy and Sonny were best childhood buddies. Tommy doesn't think he could be seen as a threat because they were so close.
  
  He's scared that Sonny will kill his family. There's also the possibility that Sonny is providing money to Tommy's family while he is imprisoned.
   
• Tommy eventually receives a sentence that is much less severe because Sonny rewards his loyalty and intervenes. Tommy also potentially pulls some strings of his own while he's in jail. He serves 15 years. He returns to work for the Forelli Family because he doesn't know how to do anything else. He's also a "made man" and has to follow orders.

That's the lore according to the video.

Now I'll give my take on the events prior to Vice City. I'll be working from the game script and interviews with Dan Houser. I'm looking to stick as close as possible to information we know while speculating on events we know nothing about.

Follow the links and as ever, you're all more than welcome to pull me up. I love these discussions and always like to encourage them.

 

We know Tommy Vercetti grows up in Liberty City. We're never told exactly where.

I suspect Fort Staunton. This "Little Italy" was once the absolute stronghold of the Forelli Family.

It's also the location of the print works. We know Tommy's father worked in the printing industry and it would be very easy to picture Forelli mobsters meeting with "Pop Vercetti" to get fake election material running off the rollers.

 

Tommy and Sonny become childhood friends. Little is known about Tommy's childhood and this is where I'd like to speculate a bit.

Assume "Pop Vercetti" dies early. All that print dye ruins his lungs and he dies a slow death. Tommy's life takes a dramatic turn. He has a poor relationship with his mother ["Blame my mother - I do!"] and basically ends up fending for himself from an early age. He begins stealing, though he isn't particularly good at it, and has to hold his own and fight against gang members, predators and perverts to survive in the worst city in America.

Enter Sonny Forelli.

 

Sonny Forelli becomes a "friend" to Tommy much like Dutch Van der Linde becomes a "father" to Arthur Morgan -- ultimately for his own ends.

Sonny teaches him to drive and crafts Tommy into a skilled wheelman. He later schools him how to break into cars like a pro and where to sell them for cash. Sonny shows him how to use a weapon and takes him Upstate for target practice. He builds Tommy into a competent enforcer. Sonny stresses the importance of family and honour and loyalty -- the "Mafia Code" we hear about from Dan Houser. But Sonny Forelli isn't actually a friend to Tommy. Sonny Forelli is grooming him.

And by the late-1960s, Sonny has Tommy killing people for him.

This is what we know about Tommy and his involvement with the Forellis. He was a hitman.

I doubt very much that he was a "made man" or an official member of the Forelli Crime Family. And there's actually very little evidence to support this. The only reference which vaguely hints at this comes in Messing With The Man:

 

Quote

TOMMY: "I've been part of a family before... it didn't work out."

 

So it is possible. But it's also possible to be a part of the family as an enforcer, as a hitman... which are the more logical roles for Tommy to have been performing. Neither would require him to be a made man. Both suit someone in his age range -- teens to early twenties. And would you really be sending out someone who holds that kind of important rank to do the dirty work?

Dan Houser does also refer to Tommy as being a "confident footsoldier" -- but I would argue that a footsoldier is a long way from the prestige of being a made man. Footsoldiers are the expendables. They're thugs and muscle and totally replaceable. Made men? Not so much.

There's also the reception Tommy receives from the Forellis when he's released from prison. They aren't thinking of him as a loyal made man ready to be brought back into the family fold. They aren't even thinking of him as a member of the family at all -- they have to have a full-blown sitdown determine what Tommy is and eventually decide to treat him as "an old friend." He's a psychotic hitman with a chip on his shoulder who probably thinks he's owed something for all those years in prison. They come up with a scheme to keep him happy out of town for a while and then they're going to kill him.

But what jumps out at me the most is the relationship between Sonny and Tommy. I feel like Tommy was Sonny's hitman. He wasn't working for the entire Forelli Family as a hitman, but solely on Sonny's behalf.

Look at their exchanges. Sonny "owns" Tommy. Sonny sent Tommy to kill that man. Those fifteen years were Sonny's to spend. Sonny constantly reminds Tommy that they're old friends, that Tommy is someone he "trusted" and eventually "disappointed me." It's all on a personal level.

 

Sonny is a very controlling character. He prizes reliability and constantly feels let down by "unreliable people." He's worked hard to cultivate his reputation and is furious that Tommy is now making him "look like an idiot." And when it comes down to that final shootout, he claims Tommy "never understood a thing." He never "got it" -- Sonny owned him and was his to use and to set up when he no longer had a use for him. He was never going to be a part of the family.

What else do we know about Tommy before he went to prison?

We actually hear a few throwaway lines from the hitmen in Cap The Collector that paint us a picture of Tommy in his younger days.
They taunt, "You always were a jerk, Vercetti." They refer to him as a "psychotic prick."

Add to this Sonny's claims about Tommy's "temper" and it's easy to imagine him as a loose cannon. Dangerous. Someone who could easy cause bad blood between rival gangs and families.

 

We also know that Tommy is a natural leader. Intelligent. At least more so than your average gangster. I can see him bending all kinds of rules, talking his way out of trouble, and basically running rings around all the old men at sitdowns, pissing everybody off.
All of these are reasons for Sonny to eventually dispose of him. And Sonny could absolutely justify his reasons if he was required to, but he chooses to have Tommy killed on the down-low.

So what exactly happened in 1971?

Let's start with Sonny.

Sonny, in my opinion, wasn't boss of the family in 1971. And this is completely open to interpretation. All we know for sure about Sonny is that he "rose to power young." But 25-30 is far too young to be full on Boss. Power could mean Soldier. Power could mean Capo. I'm going to go with Capo. For Sopranos fans, think back to Tony Soprano plotting to run the family as the most powerful capo from an entire group of capos. He doesn't need to be Boss in name to possess major influence.

Sonny is a very ambitious mobster. He's gaining in power and stature and he eventually wants to control the family. He can't get rid of the boss, especially if that boss is a member of the Forelli Family [whether it actually was the "Forelli" Family at this point is also up for debate], but he can place himself in the position to take over when the time comes.

Sonny is also a sworn member of the Mafia. He's bound by its codes and rules. He can bend them a little but he can't break them entirely. So he keeps someone close who can -- his young "friend" Tommy Vercetti.

Sonny outsources all the dangerous, dirty and risky jobs to Tommy. And Tommy excels. Sonny is able to amass "major influence" in the rackets, in the unions, in gambling and in prostitution. We know that he has "ordered several mob killings" but "only minor charges have ever stuck." In other words, Sonny knows how to keep his distance.

All along, Sonny has promised Tommy a piece of the action. For the risks he has taken, there will be rewards. But now that Sonny has the power, he begins to see Tommy as a potential threat. He's intelligent. He's charismatic. He's capable and ambitious. He's boss material. If he brings Tommy into the organisation, he could usurp him. Instead of the Forelli Family, it could end up being the Vercetti Family. So Tommy has to go.

Sonny lures Tommy to Harwood on the premise of killing one man. We know nothing about this man and it's fair to assume they could've been a rival or a low-end pimp or drug dealer.

We also know nothing about the men preparing the ambush. But given that Sonny is skilled in outsourcing "dirty work", I agree that they were probably out-of-towners -- the boys from Carcer City or the San Fierro crew.

 

We know that Tommy kills eleven men and that the incident is "extremely gruesome." We don't know for sure that eleven men were there to kill him. It's completely possible that he killed a high number of hitmen and also murdered a couple of unlucky witnesses. I doubt any police were killed because they would've executed him there and then.

Tommy is arrested and, for the severity of his crimes, is sentenced to death. @VankeX does well to pick up on this but the video completely overlooks it.

If you look closely during the Marco's Bistro cutscenes, you can actually see a framed newspaper article with the headline "VERCETTI TO DIE" and an implication that he's going to be executed by electric chair. Here's a clear picture.

 

 

Let's look at this from Tommy's perspective first.

He's survived a serious attempt on his life. It's reasonable to assume he was badly hurt in the process. He's now being held by the police and facing major charges. But even though he's up against life imprisonment at best, and the death penalty at worst, he refuses to admit his connections with the Forellis and refuses to make any deals. The courts subsequently sentence him to death.

I think there are a number of reasons why Tommy refuses to talk and is basically willing to die. And I wish above anything else in Vice City that Rockstar had expanded on this part of Vercetti's character.

 

Like the video suggests, he's completely bought into the "Mafia Code." He's been totally indoctrinated by Sonny to believe in honour and loyalty. Keeping his mouth shut, doing his time or even accepting death, is the honourable thing to do.

 

He's psychologically hardened enough to accept any punishment thrown at him.

 

But it's also entirely possible that Tommy is absolutely distraught at the prospect that he's been betrayed. Without his relationship to Sonny, he has nothing, and death is simply preferable to him. He doesn't talk because he's unable to. He just sits there, equal parts heartbroken and furious. In years to come, these feelings inform his desire for revenge.

Now let's look at it from Sonny's perspective. This is the question being asked in the OP.

I've looked at this in an older post. What it comes down to is this -- it looks bad on Sonny if he doesn't intervene.

Think about it. One of his men is all over the news. Column inches are being dedicated to his alleged connections to the Forelli Family but Tommy refuses to admit to them. Even though he is eventually sentenced to death, he still refuses to give Sonny up.

 

We know Sonny has "major influence" in corruption -- and so do his men. If he doesn't use that influence to pull strings and call in favours for someone who is publicly displaying extreme loyalty to him, they're going to start wondering if they should stay loyal to Sonny when they're facing prison time too.

It's also a shrewd power move. Nothing highlights your leadership credentials like intervening to save a loyal footsoldier from a death sentence. It shows that Sonny Forelli, future boss, rewards loyalty.

But it's also completely possible that it wasn't Sonny's choice at all -- especially if he wasn't yet Boss. The family Don could've been very angry about all the negative press placed upon the Forellis from "that goddamned Vercetti thing" and he warns Sonny to nip it in the bud. Sonny puts pressure on his political connections, has Tommy re-sentenced to life imprisonment and the whole thing gets buried. Sonny continues his rise to power without giving Tommy a second thought.

I think the OP does an excellent job of capturing all the little details and I appreciate the space you've given us to add to it.

[The Coconut Kid]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:53 PM, Zello said:

My headcanon is during those 15 years in prison he got to know a lot of the people in the Liberty City underworld. I like to think that he did some time together with Toni Cipriani's father and Salvatore.

Who else do you think taught Salvatore the recipe for grilled cheese off the radiator?

He did FIFTEEN F*CKIN' YEARS! And it's a crime worthy of capital punishment that we learn absolutely nothing about Vercetti's time in prison.

For what it's worth, I think he kept it low key, kept his head down and let people forget.

He does most of his first year on death row. He goes in a tall, skinny kid, but they fill him out with the special menu. He hardens mentally in the constant company of condemned men who preach prison survival philosophy.

He escapes the chair and enters gen pop with a big rep. The established cons quickly test this out, but Tommy shows balls and holds his own. The Italians come on strong with food and comforts but Tommy turns them down. He's been in prison before and knows not to take a gift. He keeps them at arm's length and does his own time.

He pounds the track [for that lightning fast sprint speed!], he does endless dips and chins [the size of the shoulders on him!] and he plays a whole lot of handball for that deadly hand-eye co-ordination. He picks up some martial arts and meditation from an old Asian gentleman he cells with. He passes the rest of his time reading anything he can get his hands on. Unfortunately, opportunities to learn to swim are limited.

He's assigned to a number of sh*tkicker jobs -- garbage, laundry, fuelling the furnace with coal and splitting wood in the harsh winters -- but eventually charms his way into the prestigious position of a typist in the Warden's office. He gains a degree of power without the violence.

 

He meets and learns from professional criminals. He gains a working knowledge of explosives and how to plan a big score.

He'll have his skirmishes. The prison population changes dramatically through the 1970s thanks to the Rockefeller Laws. Overcrowding, anguish, racial tension and eventually random violence become common. It alters again in the final year of his sentence, with the passage of Reagan's Anti-Drug laws, and it's a real battle for him to survive to parole.

But you just know he left Liberty State Pen with some serious connections for doing business up north.