abstract
| - Raul Marina is the Don of the Marina family. After killing a police captain in Medellín, Colombia for his uncle Mateo in 1962, he came to New York. Through his uncle's underworld contacts, he eventually made big money smuggling liquor. He was approved by The Commission to start his own family in 1969. Though powerful, the Marina family is still seen as second-rate by the others. This is mostly due to Marina's crooked business practices, even by mob standards. Following the end of the Vinci-Falcone War, the Vinci Family controlled over eighty percent of the Mafia's business in NY, but the war had weakened them considerably. Marina took advantage of this vulnerability and took over many of Vinci's operations and casinos. In 1971, Toothy, a assassin of the Marina family, met with Frank Vinci and Leone Galante at his mansion. Toothy tried to turn Frank against the Falcone Family, claiming that Falcone is involved in the drug trade. Knowing that Vinci is strongly against this, Toothy suggests something be done about it. The Marina family were already in the drug business at the time, and Toothy and Marina were attempting to get rid of the competition. Marina is the first to act as he orders Lucas Hernandez to kidnap Carlo Falcone's accountant Harvey Epstein, along with his bodyguards Tony Balls and Frankie the Mick. They take them to the Hernandez's Slaughterhouse to be tortured for information about Falcone's drug business, but before they can get anything useful, Vito Corleone arrives and stops them. The resulting gunfight ends in the death of Hernandez and most of his crew. On June 15th, 1975, Falcone ordered Corleone and Joe Clemenza to kill Marina and his men while they're holding a family meeting at the Cody's Hotel. They plant a bomb in the meeting room but the blast fails to kill Marina and his brother and the two chase them through the hotel and out onto the streets of Midtown. They eventually stop their car after taking out their driver and Joe empties his Tommy Gun into Don Marina at point blank range, killing him instantly, while Marina II escapes death by running away into the unknown. With Marina and most of his men dead, the Marina family effectively grows weaker, and Raul Marina II becomes the new Don.
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