Runorata Family

"What are they like? Let's see... That outfit's just like a kingdom. A guy named Bartolo Runorata built it from the ground up in just one generation. The syndicate's got a huge variety of people, and Bartolo's leadership is what keeps 'em all together. If we're just comparing the strength of your organizations, you fellas are cats in front of their lion. Or, no, maybe mice."

- Vino on the Runoratas to Luck Gandor

The Runorata Family is a Mafia family based in Newark, New Jersey and New York.

Founded in the first half of the twentieth century by Italian immigrant Bartolo Runorata, the organization boasts over a thousand members by 1931. Its sheer size, coupled with its connections to the police, the press, and select government officials make it one of the most influential mafia organizations of the East Coast in the early 1930s.

Chronology
In the 1920s, the Runoratas enjoy a working relationship with the Genoard Family in which they buy and distribute cocaine and cannabis that the Genoards refine in their factories. Bartolo's first grandson Carzelio Runorata is born circa December 1922; Gustavo Bagetta joins the syndicate likely sometime in the year 1923, by which time Begg Garrott has already been established as the Runoratas' chief apothecary ('compounder'). At some point during the decade Bartolo pays the famous assassin Vino a hefty reward for dispatching the executives of various opposing Newark syndicates in the span of a single night.

Shortly after Carzelio's fifth birthday (est. December 1927), he and his father are attacked by a group of ten-odd hoodlums. Runorata bodyguards Gabriel and Juliano kill the hoodlums and pledge their loyalty to Cazze, a gesture that many in the Family feel securely portends Carzelio's eventual succession of his grandfather as Don.

When Raymond and Jeffrey Genoard take over the family business following the first-generation head's death in October 1930, disagreements over finances lead Runorata-Genoard relations to deteriorate over the ensuing year. Tensions reach their peak in December 1931, at which point Gustavo murders Raymond and Jeffrey without Bartolo's sanction and covers up their deaths as an accident. The deaths allow the Runoratas to take over the Genoards' factories and public businesses; however, Bartolo tasks Gustavo with obtaining a Runorata foothold in Manhattan—the one place where the Runoratas' influence in New York has been rendered impotent—as a tacit 'demotion'. Gustavo thus oversees the surreptitious distribution of Runorata drugs in already occupied Manhattan territories, particularly those of the Gandor Family.

With the Gandors and the Runoratas already on bad terms due to the Gandors' anti-drug policy, the Gandor-Runorata feud reaches its apex as Gustavo wages all-out war against the Gandors. He orders hits on Luck Gandor and Berga Gandor, arranges drive-by shootings of Gandor-owned properties, and—when Begg informs him that he has bought explosives from an old friend—plans on using those explosives to win the turf war. His plans fall through when the explosives are stolen in transit from the Flying Pussyfoot at the end of the month.

Another complication follows when a drug addict steals a case of Begg's powerful new drug prototype from a Runorata convoy, and Gustavo hires a freelance killer to find both the addict and the stolen case. In the meantime, Keith Gandor contacts Bartolo—with the President of the Daily Days acting as an intermediary—to negotiate a deal regarding Gustavo and the Runoratas working under him; having received multiple past requests from the Five Families to hand Gustavo over, Bartolo is more than willing to cut Gustavo loose.

The feud eventually climaxes when the Runoratas raid the Daily Days headquarters on January 2, 1932, where Gustavo faces off against Luck and Eve Genoard while Begg forces the drug addict to inject a fatal dose of the drug prototype. The addict attempts suicide as soon as he injects himself, and Begg shoots himself in the head so that the addict and his girlfriend can escape.

Gustavo survives his near-fatal injuries, but his newfound status as a suspect in the Genoard murders is enough for the Runoratas to sever their ties; in paying off various politicos, they ensure that Gustavo will be the only fallout from the incident. Having already cooperated with the Gandors to manipulate Gustavo's downfall during the raid, they officially establish a nonaggression pact with the Gandor Family.

At some point in the months leading up to November 1934, Graham Specter and his gang earn the Runoratas' displeasure after 'messing around' on their New York turf. With the Runoratas on the lookout for them, Graham and company abscond to Chicago in December; the same month, Bartolo, Begg, Gabriel, Juliano, and a sizable group of Runorata subordinates also travel to Chicago to conduct business at Nebula.

Once in Chicago, several Runoratas kidnap Miria Harvent, Nice Holystone, and Rail and bring them to Nebula's headquarters to be interrogated by Bartolo. Bartolo interrogates Nice on the first day and Rail on the second, with Begg, Gabriel, Juliano, and other bodyguards watching on; during his interrogation with Rail, he identifies Rail's explosives as those which have been deployed in the ongoing terror attacks plaguing Chicago—and the same explosives Czeslaw originally planned to sell the Runoratas back in 1931. As the continued use of such explosives in the terror attacks could pose a problem for the Runoratas, Bartolo requests Rail surrender all the explosives in their possession. When Rail refuses, Bartolo implies that he knows Rail's true nature.

Nebula chairman Cal Muybridge interrupts the meeting and expresses his surprise at Bartolo's unexpected visit. Bartolo vaguely alludes to Manfred Beriam 'nagging' him—Beriam being a mutual old confederate of them both—before remarking that he was similarly surprised to hear that 'something' was on the same floor as him. Cal frees Rail from their bonds; when Renee Parmedes Branvillier enters the room shortly thereafter, Rail and their friends escape courtesy of the confiscated bombs. Bartolo's men shield him from the explosion, while one of Renee's researchers staggers to his feet unharmed before running off. Begg confirms that the researchers are probably either complete or incomplete immortals, and he and the Runoratas leave before the police arrive.

In the aftermath of the showdown on the Nebula rooftop, Bartolo and Begg meet with Huey Laforet outside the skyscraper. Bartolo has no interest in Huey's immortality, having merely wanted to meet the terrorist Beriam is obsessed with, and concludes that Huey is a 'kid'. He lunches with Huey, Gustav St. Germain, and Carol, and others before he returns to the East Coast. Although the contents of their luncheon collusion have yet to be illuminated in full, it is self-evident that the lunch resulted in a deal between Huey and Bartolo: one which would see House Dormentaire sending the Runoratas Melvi Dormentaire via Huey; and would lead to a certain casino party at which Melvi would be expected to serve as a dealer.

Sometime that year, the Runoratas announce their intentions to back the construction of a multipurpose skyscraper near Manhattan Island, a difficult endeavor considering that the land they want to develop is owned by Beriam and sandwiched between large local mafia families. Eventually a Runorata-owned business acquires a piece of the land—only after it passes through several wealthy hands—and the skyscraper's construction proceeds at an impressive pace. Upon its completion in February 1935, it is nicknamed Ra's Lance. It remains likely that the Beriams and Runoratas knowingly colluded to ensure the land would fall legally and indirectly into Runorata ownership.

The skyscraper's construction cuts into a turf war between some of the local families, consequently earning the Runoratas several enemies as a consequence. The Runoratas respond by increasing security whenever they travel in New York; in the meantime, they invite all the mafia families in the area to the grand opening of the illegal casino they have built underneath the restaurant located in Ra's Lance's basement. The casino party is expected to last three days.

Before the party begins, a ship bearing the Dormentaire crest appears in a New York harbor; meanwhile, Bartolo hosts Huey as his guest over the course of the three-day-party, and Beriam plots his own machinations for the party in turn. In exchange for the Runoratas' employment of Melvi, Huey has offered the Runoratas the Larva's services for the party's duration. The tangled web connecting the Dormentaires, the Runoratas, Huey, and Beriam causes the FBI no small amount of alarm during this period.

When Bartolo passes away circa 1972 from old age, Carzelio succeeds him as Don just as his men predicted decades prior. He is said be particularly feared by the gangs of the East, known as the 'pure-hearted dictator' who tames 'savage beasts'. According to Izaya Orihara, the Runoratas remain a powerful Family in the early 2000s.

Trivia

 * The Runoratas usually use Tommy Guns when dealing with their enemies.
 * In the 1930s, Bartolo has a team of twelve bodyguards divided into three groups of four. The three groups rotate through protecting Bartolo's family, so one group is off-duty while the other two are on the clock. Due a rule sanctioned by Bartolo, no one can force an off-duty group to work.