Keith Gandor

"He's quiet, but what he does is bigger and louder than anybody else."

- Claire Stanfield to Firo Prochainezo on Keith

Keith Gandor (キース・ガンドール, Kīsu Gandōru) is the head of the Gandor Family mafia alongside his younger brothers Berga and Luck. He first meets his wife-to-be Kate in late 1927. The same year, Keith is ‘kidnapped’ by a priest who intends to execute him as a warning against the other mafia families; it is later revealed that Keith purposefully allowed himself to be kidnapped for investigation purposes.

In 1930, Keith and his brothers become complete immortals after unknowingly imbibing the Cure-All Elixir at Firo Prochainezo’s promotion party. Nearly two years later, bad relations with the Runorata Family worsen when they start pushing drugs on Gandor turf, and Runorata capo Gustavo Bagetta wages all out war on the Gandors. Keith takes an active role in dealing with the situation.

In February 1935, Keith saves Luck’s life when Melvi Dormentaire attempts to devour him. He, his brothers, and several assassins in the Gandors’ employ later attend the Runoratas’ casino party at Ra’s Lance.

In the eyes of the surface world, he is the manager of the jazz hall Coraggioso.

Appearance
Keith has brown hair and piercing brown eyes, whose gaze is often compared to that of a sharp knife or blade. His brow is deeply furrowed, and his forehead and cheekbones are prominent.

He is normally dressed in formal business attire. In the 2007 anime adaptation, he and his brothers wear different colored suits in certain scenes; Keith wears a dark blue outfit while Berga and Luck wear a green outfit and brown outfit respectively.

In the late '20s, he is described as "a man, who, no matter how one looked at him, didn't seem like he did a proper line of business." His presence is very clearly one of a powerful mafioso’s, and he has a ‘sharp air’ that is difficult to miss.

Personality
Firo Prochainezo describes Keith as a little conservative in his thinking, clinging stubbornly to "outmoded rules and ideas" out of some sort of "old-fashioned righteousness." One way in which Keith's persistence in upholding (his own sense of) justice manifests itself in his total ban against drugs in his territory. He loathes drugs to his very core.

Keith is certainly no stranger when it comes to personally meting out violence: he has shot many a person in his line of work, and has doled out cruel punishments in the past. However, he also possesses a strange version of 'kindness' when it comes to said punishments; in one incident he gives Dallas Genoard cards to 'play' with while drowning in the Hudson - in another, he agrees to have Edith's hair trimmed as a 'punishment' for insubordination.

Such acts have led Claire and Firo to label Keith and his brothers as too soft-hearted to really be suited for the mafia life, though out of the brothers Keith is most certainly the closest to it. At the very least, Keith is highly respected by his subordinates and others around him - his name alone is enough keep Maria in check, and he is one of the only people to have made Claire issue an apology. In the anime, his brothers visibly look to Keith for his opinion (or final say), subtly reminding the viewer of Keith’s leadership role.

Keith is immediately distinguished by his taciturn nature - he is content to be silent most of the time and leave the talking to Luck. The instances in which he does speak are few and far between, and when we do see him speak he usually keeps his sentences short and to the point.

So rare are the occasions that most people always sit up and take notice when he speaks, because whatever he has to say is always of importance. When Keith visits The President of the Daily Days to exchange information in late 1931/early 1932, The President goes so far as to temporarily cut his phone lines so he can hear Keith as clearly as possible ("what you say will definitely be precious information. The last time I heard you say more than five words was three years ago").

Though it is never shown on-page, more than one character has stated that Keith is actually fairly talkative with his wife Kate, and talkative to some extent over the phone. His great grandnephew Charon Walken (whom Keith looked after during the boy's childhood, and thus inherited Keith's penchant for reticence) flatly denies the possibility that Keith talks (more) over the phone, chalking such occurrences up to 'the phone fairy' instead.

Keith's love for his brothers is made clear throughout the novels. He reacts with physical - and audible - alarm when Berga is gunned down by Dallas in 1930, and memorably stops Melvi Dormentaire from devouring Luck in 1935 with such quickness and murderous intent that he would have without a doubt devoured Melvi right then and there had it not been for Claire's intervention.

Pre-1930
The Gandor boys grew up in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan (one of the slums for Italian immigrants at the time) and quickly became friends with Firo Prochainezo and Claire Stanfield, two boys who lived in the same tenement. When Claire's parents died, the Gandors took him in and raised him as the brothers' foster sibling.

Berga and Claire often had friendly sparring matches with each other, though both frequently got a little too into the fights and accidentally hit Luck or Firo. According to Firo, Keith was the only one back then who could actually stop the two when they were over-excited. (“…he’s incredible. He could break ‘em up, just like that.”) (1935-B).

At one point during his childhood, Firo was kidnapped by an older man who had mistaken him for a girl. Keith and his father tracked the kidnapper down, busted into the hideout and saved Firo “at the last second.”

1919
In 1919, Keith, his brothers, and Firo take to the streets in search of Claire, who has gone missing. They eventually find him playing in a derelict building - he pokes his head through a hole in the roof and scares Luck in the process. Once Claire nimbly flips his way down to the ground, the five boys prepare to head home back to the Gandor father; the Gandors have a rule that the boys must be home before dark.

When Mr. Gandor (the head of the family) dies from overwork (see Trivia), the Gandor mafia is temporarily in limbo while its capos figure out what to do next. Keith visits a room where three men are drinking around a table (who these men are is unknown) and kills them with his handgun. Taking the corpses, he and his brothers head for another room (perhaps in the Coraggioso) where Nicola Cassetti and other presumably high-ranking members of the Gandor Family are discussing the future of the outfit.

Berga and Luck enter the room, and Luck recalls how their father had tried to protect the family territory until the end - and thus, it is the job of his sons to inherit his pride. As Luck talks, Keith appears in the doorway, dragging two of the men's corpses along the floor in either hand. Dropping them at the threshold, he walks into the room and wipes blood off his left cheek. Luck states that he and his brothers will take over the Gandor Family.

Over the next several years, Keith and his brothers noticeably expand their father's territory, though compared to other mafia families their turf is still quite small and their income pitiful.

1927
Keith is a fan of silent films, and at some point during his excursions to the cinema he takes special notice of a woman's piano accompaniment. He begins regularly attending the theatre specifically to hear her play. Some time after the first feature-length talkie The Jazz Singer is released in theatres (see Trivia) on October 6, 1927, Keith spots or seeks out the woman - Kate - and asks her, "at which movie theatre can I hear your accompaniment? You can't see the accompanists' faces at movies nowadays, so I don't even know who's who." He says nothing more after that. They get to know each other over the ensuing months.

Later that year, Keith and his brothers visit an eatery under their influence for a reunion with Firo and Claire, the latter of whom the brothers haven't seen for several years. Firo and Claire are already sitting at a table by the time the brothers arrive, and the three quickly take their seats beside them. Claire is surprised to learn that Firo has joined the Martillo Family instead of the Gandor Family, and wonders what will happen if the two outfits get into a fight. Berga suggests that they rope Firo into the Gandors and away from the Martillos, but Luck sternly reminds him that the brothers had promised not to talk of such things.

Firo changes the subject to the Feast of San Gennaro, a festival taking place tomorrow. Luck explains the festival's backstory to Claire, and the conversation soon turns to the rumors of "The Phantom Father," a supposed murderer who doesn't die when he is stabbed. Claire remarks that Keith doesn't look too interested in the conversation matter, and Luck smiles and quips that Keith "prefers silent movies to festivals. Apparently he's taken a shine to a certain lady pianist."

A drunken brawl breaks out between two diners nearby, and Berga quickly puts a violent end to the fight. Luck threatens the two men, who quickly flee out through the front door and down the street. The five decide to leave, and once Luck speaks with the eatery's owner they all exit the building and walk down the street. Claire demands that Luck show him where the festival is being set up and proceeds to haul him down the street with his arm around Luck's neck, Berga tagging along.

Left alone with Firo, Keith takes a drag of his cigarette, contemplates his younger friend and asks, ''"are you okay?" ''Once Firo's initial shock fades (he hasn't heard Keith speak in a while), he clenches his fist and says that while he doesn't have 'something' like the others do, he's still going to make it on his own as Firo Prochainezo without the help of the Gandors or God.

A thief from behind rushes past the two, bumping into Firo and knocking down a priest in his haste for a getaway. A shopkeeper shouts angrily at him amidst the crowd. Firo helps the priest up to his feet; the man introduces himself as Donatello and gratefully offers Firo a lollipop as thanks. He invites Firo to join the audience of children watching a puppet show nearby, but Firo coldly declines. A nearby festival worker calls upon Donatello for help, and before he leaves he tells Firo and Keith to be careful and to enjoy the festival to the fullest. Keith and Firo watch him depart (he trips in the process) before resuming their walk through the throng of people.

Eventually, Firo and Keith part ways. At some point later that day - or perhaps night - Donatello confronts Keith alone in an alleyway and laments that New York is full of villains and scum like the mafia. Though what happens next is not shown on screen, it is likely that Donatello attacks Keith -- when Keith's jacket (alongside a smashed lollipop) is found in the alleyway the next day (the first day of the festival), it is stained with his blood.

A search and rescue is mounted in Keith's absence, with Nicola, Claire, and Firo each actively investigating Keith's whereabouts. Though Keith's precise movements during his 'kidnapping' are unknown, it is apparent that Donatello had stashed him in his church, planning to eventually kill him at the end of the festival as a warning message to all the local mafia outfits.

Donatello's plans are completely derailed; when he returns to his church (after engaging in a rather brutal fight with Claire) he finds it completely ablaze and surrounded by firefighters and rubberneckers. The doors to the church open, and Keith steps out from the flames completely unharmed (it is very possible that he was the one to have set the fire). Stunned, Donatello inwardly compares Keith to San Gennaro himself, who had once stepped from the fires of a furnace unharmed. Claire waves at Keith from his spot in the crowd, and compliments him on having "pulled out all the stops again!".

The two walk away from the conflagration, and Claire apologizes for having let Donatello escape earlier. He vows that he'll kill Donatello the next time they meet--he'll "end him so good" he'll leave a pool of blood. Keith and Claire then return to the Coraggioso and descend into the basement. Luck and Berga immediately stand in relief upon seeing their elder brother, but Keith merely walks past them and informs them that "...no other outfits were in on it."

Berga and Luck realize that Keith had purposefully let himself be caught by Donatello in order to investigate whether he and his killings were connected to another Mafia or Camorra outfit, and Luck cries out that a crazy stunt like that is something a boss should never do. Keith turns to look at Luck. "We still had two." This is not the answer that Luck wants to hear, but Claire interjects and reminds the brothers to thank Firo later. Without Firo helping to keep the priest busy, Keith would have had a harder time "moving on his own."

1928-1930
Sometime in 1928 (or perhaps 1929), the Martillo and Gandor Families clash and only narrowly avoid all-out war with each other. During the conflict, Keith at some point speaks with the DD President. The two families eventually call for a ceasefire and establish formal friendly relations.

Keith and Kate marry, and Berga and Kalia follow around 1929 or 1930. After Berga’s marriage, the two brothers move out of the Gandors’ old apartment (leaving it to Luck). Keith and Kate take up residence in a house nearby.

1930 - The Rolling Bootlegs
In the basement of the Coraggioso, Keith and his brothers play poker while several Gandor men (including Nicola) spectate. When Jorgi - their finances manager - enters the room, Luck invites him to join their game. Jorgi does, nervously observing that all three of his bosses have joker cards in their hands.

As Jorgi sorts through his hand, Berga recalls that someone once denounced gambling just for money. He pulls out a revolver and announces that the four of them will play Russian roulette - and gamble for their lives. Terrified, Jorgi says that they should all shuffle their cards in preparation (he is secretly planning to cheat). Keith and the others all stop to stare at Jorgi’s hand.

Jorgi splutters out a question, and it is quickly revealed by Luck that they know that Jorgi has been embezzling money from the Family over the past two years. He places his hand down on the table: five aces. Berga: five kings. Keith: five jokers, matching the two jokers in the middle to make seven. The brothers sigh - they can never win against Keith.

Since Jorgi’s hand is obviously the worst one, he is the first to play roulette. Berga shoves the revolver over to him, and Jorgi raises the gun to his temple - only to then am the muzzle directly at Keith and pull the trigger. Once, twice, six times total. Clearly upset, Luck points out to Jorgi that the cartridges are empty, and explains that this had all been a test he and his brothers had devised. Jorgi’s fate had completely depended on what he did with the gun, and he’d chosen the worst action of all the one’s they’d considered.

Berga kicks Jorgi off his chair and onto the ground, knocking him out. A few onlookers stuff Jorgi’s body into a prepared gunnysack and carry him up the stairs and out of sight. Aware of Jorgi’s fate (to be dumped into the sea), Keith murmurs “…damn fool,” but only his brothers hear him.

A few minutes later, Dallas Genoard and his cohorts arrive and ask for an audience with Luck. In the anime, only Luck and Berga are present for this conversation - in the light novels, Kieth and the other spectators are not explicitly described has having left the basement.

That night, Keith and his brothers leave to attend Firo’s promotion party from associate to executive. At the party, they and others unwittingly drink the Cure-All Elixir, becoming complete immortals. The evening is spoiled upon their return to the Coraggioso, where they are confronted with the murders of Mike and a few other subordinates. When the police finally leave the scene the next day, Berga viciously breaks a wooden stool in his rage, and Luck admits that he is filled with such terrible anger that he wants to rip the perpetrators apart with his own hands.

Though Keith seems to have something on his mind, he refrains from speaking and simply listens to his younger brothers talk. Luck resolves to inform the neighboring mafia outfits of what has transpired, starting with the Martillos.

The three brothers head for The Alveare. Approaching the back entrance to the building, they end up running into Dallas and his men - who are pointing their tommy guns at Firo and Ennis. Keith presses the muzzle of his gun into the back of one of the goons’ head, Berga does the same for the next, and Luck does the same for Dallas. Luck asks where exactly Dallas and company acquired their guns; Dallas lies and blames Firo for the murders of the Gandor men, claiming that he’d tried to stop him.

Luck immediately proves the lie to be false, and he and his brothers discharge their guns. The three thugs crumple to the ground, and Luck apologizes to his brothers for not keeping his cool. Keith (who has not spoken for almost an entire day) replies, “don’t worry.”  Before Firo can explain what’s going on, Ennis desperately injects that they need to tie up the corpses. Her warning comes too late; Berga’s victim regenerates and guns Berga down from where he is lying on the floor.

Keith shouts Berga’s name and moves towards him, but he and the others are almost immediately gunned down by Dallas and company. Once they regenerate, they turn the corner to witness Firo devouring Szilard Quates and the subsequent celebration of the others present.

1931 - The Grand Punk Railroad
Keith and his brothers head to Pennsylvania Station on December 31, 1931  to pick up Claire, who is working on the Flying Pussyfoot as a conductor. They are accompanied by Maiza, Firo, and Ennis, all of whom are also expecting friends back on the same train. While the brothers are looking forward to seeing Claire again, there is also an underlying sense of urgency to the day — they need Claire’s assistance in their current war with the Runorata Family.

The Flying Pussyfoot fails to arrive on schedule (12 PM), and the brothers talk with the others to pass the time (in the process learning that the terrorist Huey Laforet is immortal). The train finally arrives two hours late at 2 PM, with Claire nowhere to be seen. A courier delivers a note from Claire to the brothers, asking them to meet him outside the station. There, he explains that ‘Claire Stanfield’ is dead and that his brothers should call him Vino or ‘Rail Tracer’ until he finds a new name. Claire adds that he’s eager to get a headstart on killing whomever the brothers need him to kill, since he wants to search for his newfound love.

1932: Drugs and the Dominos
(Under revision)

1935
(Forthcoming)