the MARINO family.
Nobody can entirely pinpoint the origins of the Marino crime syndicate. Or at least, they aren't saying. The most recent rise in power began with one Vincente Marino, brother to Giuseppe Marino. Sons born just twelve months apart, both were conditioned from a very early age to run the family business one day. Born and raised in Sicily, Italy, their family ran a very successful business ranging from gambling, drugs, prostitution and illegal weaponry. They were poised, feared yes, but respected almost as royalty in Italy. Vincente and Giuseppe grew to be sharp businessmen, following in the footsteps of their ruthless and cunning father. In 1971, when the time came for Vincente or Giuseppe to step in for their ailing father, there was no power struggle (at least not outwardly), nor was there some sort of fight to the death over which son would take over. No, the solution was simple.
Vincente, having one child of his own, would move his family to New York. There, he would start to branch out the family business with some of the assets they had made there. Giuseppe, father of two sons by then, would stay in Sicily and continue to build the business and maintain it in Italy. Giuseppe would thrive in place of his father, building the family business ten times larger than it ever had been before. Married to the love of his life, Ana Contadino Marino, the pair would have four children together, all taught to be scholars, put in private schools, taught several languages, and made to be picture perfect models after their parents. Giuseppe would groom each and every one of them in the skills he had learned from his father, and his father had been taught before him. His eldest sons were specifically taught to tread right in his footsteps, as by the time they were teenagers, Vincente had three daughters, with no real hope of having a son in the time it would take to carry on the family legacy.
The eldest Marino sons, Lucio and Leonardo Marino were practically running the business under their father's watchful eye in the fall of 1998. A phone call came from Giuseppe's wife Maria, telling the family that Vincente had been killed. Something had to be done, and immediately. Leonardo, stepping up during his family's time of need, volunteered to take over in New York. Having attended college there, he knew the area and the business there well. It had always been their intention to send him there, while keeping Lucio as head of the family in Sicily. Leonardo packed up his family, consisting of his wife and two sons, and assumed the position as capo dei capi in New York. Things took on a new vigor in the business with Leonardo in charge, beginning with the death of the man responsible for his uncle's death. Leo had bigger plans than his uncle, and even his father could have ever dreamed for the business.
In the fall of 2005, Leo and his family began to move down into Boston. It started slowly, but soon they had settled in, just barely under the radar of the Connelly family. The Irish did not take kindly to them, but Leo was determined to take the business that was even more lucrative than in New York City. The war had begun, and neither side was willing to give to the other. Leo's sister Carlotta (or Charlie) moved down to Boston, their family lawyer and all around brains of the operation. Her role would be far more important than any of them would anticipate or even want.
In March of 2008, tragedy once again struck the Marino family. Leonardo was stabbed to death during a black-out storm at a very public party. No leads on the killer were found, not a fingerprint or DNA sample. Whoever it was did the job, and they did it clean. But in the Marino family's mind, there was only one culprit. The Connelly family had ordered the hit. With Leonardo gone, Charlie was forced to step in and assume the position as head of the family, at least until her youngest brother was ready to take on the role himself. The death of brother, husband, boss ... left the Marino family hurting, but determined. If the Connelly family wanted a war, they got it.
