Russo Family

The Russo Family is a mafia family based in Chicago, Illinois.

During the late twenties and early thirties, the Russos' main cover business is that of a car dealership, though they also own a few restaurants and hotels under Don Placido Russo's name..

In December 1931, the Lemur Nader Schasschule contacts Placido and promises to defect to the Russo Family with a large group of allies in tow. The month proves to be problematic for the Family: the deliquent Jacuzzi Splot robs eighteen Russo businesses (for which the Russos issue a bounty on Jacuzzi's 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 later that day.

Several Russo men take a car the same day and speed through the streets toward Union Station, aiming to arrive there before Jacuzzi can escape on the Flying Pussyfoot and capture him. They end up colliding with a police car containing Nader, and upon recognizing him assume he is selling them out to the police. Jacques-Rosé Boronial interferes and attempts to stop the Russos from attacking Nader.

The Family's top hitman Ladd Russo leads an independent hijacking aboard the Flying Pussyfoot' between December 30-31''', for which he is arrested and sent to prison.

By 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 an Asian-based crime family in a different area, 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.

In December 1934, Renee Paramedes 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 her. Placido summons Graham Specter and his gang 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, Klik, and the other incomplete immortals of the Family.

As a consequence, the Family is all but vanquished. However, Placido's grandchild Ricardo Russo takes up the reins of the Family and eventually restores it to power.