| abstract
| - The Russo Family is a mafia family based in Chicago, Illinois. During the late twenties and early thirties, the Russos' official cover job is that of a car dealership, though they also own a few restaurants and hotels under Placido's name. In December 1931, Nader Schasschule of the Lemures contacts don Placido Russo and promises to sabotage the Lemure terrorists in exchange for him and his allies joining the Russo Family. The month turns out to be problematic for the Family: Nader's plan fails; two thieves steal the Family's entire "astronomical earnings" of the month from one of the Family's cars on December 30; and several Russo capos are found in charred bits on the town outskirts (the work of Jacuzzi Splot's gang; the Russos have a bounty on Jacuzzi's head to the tune of $5,000). The family's best hitman Ladd Russo leads a hijacking aboard the transcontinental express Flying Pussyfoot on December 30 and 31, though Placido commands him to do it separately and not associate it with the family. Several Russo men take a car on December 30 and speed through the streets toward Union Station, aiming to get there before the Flying Pussyfoot leaves and nab Jacuzzi. 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. Nader shoots one of the Russos before he can hurt Jacques-Rosé. By 1933, the Russo Family has fallen on hard times, surrounded by powerful mafia organizations putting pressure on them. 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. Instead, the detective ends up getting addicted to the drugs themselves: faced with the fear of his headquarters learning of his addiction should the Russos be exposed, the detective hires the Lamia to 'take care' of the only man who knows of his addiction. The Lamia show up 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 1934 Renee Paramedes Branvillier (a scientist working for Nebula) makes an alliance with the Russo Family in hopes of using them to acquire Huey Laforet's immortal Lamia homunculi so that she can experiment on them. She gives Placido Russo and several of his executives the incomplete immortality elixir that she had salvaged from Szilard Quates' work. The Russos hire Graham Specter's gang to capture the Lamia homunculi, but ultimately fail to fulfill Renne's wishes; Renee turns against them and subsequently devours Placido. She and her allies proceed to target and devour all the Russo executives who were either incomplete immortals or otherwise knew of their alliance, and the Family crumbles as a consequence. Placido's grandchild Ricardo Russo takes up the reins of the Family and eventually restores it to power.
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