Russo Family

The Russo Family is a mafia family based in Chicago, Illinois. In the late twenties and early thirties, their main cover business is that of a car dealership, though they also own a few restaurants and hotels under Don Placido Russo’s name.

Chronology
Prior to 1931, the Russos issue a bounty for Pamela, a notorious local gambler who successfully hustled one or more Russo-owned casinos.

In December 1931, the Lemur Nader Schasschule contacts Placido and promises to defect to the Russos with a large group of allies in tow. The month proves to be problematic for the Family: the delinquent Jacuzzi Splot robs eighteen Russo businesses (for which the Russos place their highest bounty yet on his head); Nader's plan fails; several Russo capos are found in charred bits on the city's outskirts in the wee hours of December 30, and two thieves steal the Family's entire "astronomical earnings" of the month come morning.

Several Russo men take a car the same day and speed through the streets toward Union Station, aiming to capture Jacuzzi before he can escape on the Flying Pussyfoot. They accidentally collide with a police car containing Nader, and upon recognizing him assume he is selling them out to the police. Passerby Jacques-Rosé Boronial intervenes, defending Nader as best he can.

Also on the same day, Placido's nephew and top hitman Ladd Russo splits from the family alongside several of his like-minded friends. He leads an independent hijacking aboard the Flying Pussyfoot that evening, for which he is later arrested and sent to prison.

By September 1933, the Russo Family has fallen on hard times thanks to interference from several powerful mafia organizations in the region. As a last resort, the Russos involve themselves in selling drugs to the Chinese Mafia, during which time an undercover detective infiltrates the organization with the intention of taking it down. The detective ends up addicted to the drugs themselves; faced with the fear of his headquarters learning of his addiction should the Russos be exposed, he hires the Lamia to 'take care' of the only man who knows of his addiction.

The Lamia arrive during a drug deal between several Russo members and other mobsters and kill them all, including the detective's target. The bloodbath deals the Russos a further blow, as the Chinese Mafia proceeds to use the deaths as leverage against them. That winter, Christopher Shaldred is treated at a hospital with close ties to the Russos.

In December 1934, Renee Parmedes Branvillier approaches the Russos and grants Placido and several of his executives incomplete immortality on the condition that they will capture Huey Laforet’s ageless Lamia homunculi for Nebula. Placido summons Graham Specter and his gang back to Chicago and orders them to capture the Lamia for him, but Graham's attempts prove unsuccessful. The Russos' failure to uphold their end of the bargain leads Renee to devour Placido, Krieck, and the other incomplete immortals of the Family.

As a consequence, the Family is all but vanquished. Placido's grandchild Ricardo Russo takes up the mantle of Don after his death and leaves Chicago for New York in early 1935, planning to rebuild the Russo Family there.