"Sonny" Gaccione, seen leaving a court hearing in 2012.
Joseph Carmine Gaccione (born October 25th, 1960) is a 52 year old Italian-American mobster with alleged ties to the Chicago Outfit. He was known for heading the Los Santos crime family and was renowned for his peaceful yet authoritative sense of leadership within the criminal underworld. After a prosperous criminal life for over thirty years, he decided to cut ties within Los Santos and retire from the life. He's now living within the Marina with his fiancee Joyce Gravley.
Detailed History[]
Early Life[]
Joseph was born on October 25th, 1960 to parents Carmine and Karen Gaccione. They were a middle class family residing in a small, two story home in Little Italy, Chicago. Joseph was the middle child in the family, next to his older brother Michael who had been born ten years before Joseph and his youngest brother Anthony who was born three years after himself. His parents both had full time jobs in order to supply the family with a comfortable life, his father being a fuel delivery driver and his mother a receptionist at a local pharmacy.
Living in an area of Chicago known for it's influence from the mob, Joseph began to witness crime from a very young age. He was raised never to rat out friends or family, otherwise known as a neighborhood code of silence. Playground disputes between children or even crimes under the roof of his neighbor's houses were always ignored, allowing the mob to maintain a firm control over the area.
School Life & Introduction to Crime[]
In school, Joseph was another average student. He seemed to excel in subjects which involved problem solving, mainly mathematics, but his mind was always in another place. Like many other children growing up in a mob controlled part of town, he was tantalized by the sight of the flashy cars and impeccable dressing habits of the Italian men in his town. He made his way through elementary and middle school only to drop out during his senior year in high school. Upon dropping out, he began running small illegal gambling operations such as back alley street craps games and book making. His games became noticed by the elderly men in the Outfit who enjoyed to gamble away their earnings. Due to his young age, the older men used to call him "Sonny" and his name derived from there as "Sonny Craps".
A older made member of the Outfit began to grow fond of Joseph's act for earning himself cash. This was a man by the name of Salvatore "Sammy Shanks" Pascale. Pascale took Joseph under his wing for many years, giving him insight to the mob life and teaching him right from wrong. Joseph in the meantime expanded his operations to the extortion of a chain of pornography shops across Chicago and even proposed to his girlfriend of three years, Sharon DeAngelo. It wasn't long before Salvatore and his higher ups noticed the progress Joseph had been making. He was on the road to being suggested for full membership into the mafia.
Making his Bones[]
Joseph was asked to complete a task which a majority of potential made men for the mob are asked to complete, murder. Joseph was handed the contract of an associate of the Outfit who had been threatening to go on trial against Joseph's captain. Joseph executed the murder to his boss's wishes, using the "Gemini Method" to dispose of the body, a known strategy of avoiding police involvement which was originally used by Roy DeMeo. A few months after completing the murder, Joseph was called to the basement of an Italian-American social club across town. There he met with the higher ups of the family and took the oath to become an official made man.
Life as a Wiseguy[]
After becoming an officially inducted member of the Chicago Outfit, Joseph gathered himself a small crew of connected criminals, otherwise known as mob associates. Among these men was Joseph's go to guy, George Sacchetti, who went by the name of "Georgie Stacks" due to his ability to keep a constant flow of money to the crew. Joseph began to run operations with his men such as narcotics trafficking and murder for hire, as well as expanding upon the extortion of pornography shops. It wasn't long before the FBI began to catch on to the Outfit's operations. One of the family's inducted members and trusted hitmen, James "Jimmy Lips" Lippo, was turned into a witness against the mob.
With the help of his testimony, the FBI were able to land a large group of his former affiliates in prison with sentences ranging from 20 - life for their involvements with mob related murders. Five other inducted members of the Outfit were also sentenced to smaller sentences ranging between 10 - 15 years in prison. Among those sentenced was Joseph himself, facing a charge of extortion for his business involving the pornography shops.
While serving his sentence, his crew continued to earn and even assisted in the murder of Lippo a few days after the trial. Joseph would spend the next six years of his life behind bars in the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center while his relationship with Sharon fell apart on the outside. He was finally released on parole in 2011, at which time his former fiance had fled to Miami, Florida with her new boyfriend, robbing Joseph of a majority of his assets in the meantime.
The Move[]
Upon his release, Joseph took it upon himself to begin living a more low-key lifestyle. He kept his criminal operations limited and tried to find legal loop holes to make quick cash. He was able to convince his parole officer of his legitimate life style, while on the side he received praise from his close friends within the Outfit for his nobleness when taking the fall. He was called to a sit down with the alleged boss of Chicago's crime family where he was given the task to gather a crew and head west. He was being put in charge of a westward expansion along with the promotion to the rank of caporegime within the Outfit.
Accompanied by inducted members of the family, Rudolph LoGazzo and Stefano Fratianno, Joseph made his way to Los Santos along with an array of connected criminal associates. The crew quickly settled into the eastern side of Los Santos, more specifically Saint Joseph Street. On this street, an old bar was purchased and renovated by Gaccione and turned into a respectable social clue known as the R&R Lounge, suspected to be the base of operations for the crew itself.
Other businesses quickly began to pop up across East Los Santos, including Sacchetti & Addonizio's as well as privately operated garages. Organized crime spectators grew weary of the Italian crew's closeness to the territory run by Russian mobsters for generations, an enclave known as Little Moscow. For Gaccione, the closeness to other crime groups did not seem to bother his operations. Instead, he aimed to make positive business relations to the other city's organizations. In return he gained support from the Rostovskaya Bratva and the city's Yakuza clan, relations that would point towards future success and a monopoly over crime in the city.
Becoming the Boss[]
After successfully establishing a highly profitable crew within East Los Santos, Joseph decided it was the right time to meet face to face with his superiors in Chicago to discuss the future of his operations in the west coast. He booked a flight eastward and met with the higher ups of the Chicago Outfit. After a dinner, the sit down was called to order and Joseph discussed with the group his recent success within Los Santos and the operations which had been taking place.
He passed over a large cut of the crew's profits to the higher ups, and then brought up his proposition. As the operations had been growing to a large scale than they had all originally foreseen, and Joseph suspected it would soon be large enough that a single crew would be too unorganized and generally unhealthy for the organization. He proposed that the Outfit grant him permission to become the head of his own organization, complete with a hierarchy which he would chose along with permission from the Outfit.
A move which proved to be dangerous in the future, Joseph felt confident that his proposal would gain support. He pledged with his life that the Outfit would still receive their cut off all profits inherited from his organization in Los Santos and that he would ultimately remain under control and give respect to the wish of the east coast Mafia Commission. The higher ups were surprised by the proposal, yet due to the terms which Joseph set they accepted. A middle man was chosen for Joseph to contact within Kansas where the Outfit's cut would be received along with any orders sent for Joseph. A few soldiers of the Outfit were also sent with Joseph such as his long time friend and partner in crime, Louis Garelli, to give their support to the west coast operations. He was now officially the boss of the Los Santos crime family, dubbed the Gaccione Crime Family.
Personality and Traits[]
Psychology[]
Joseph is known to be a very calm and collected individual, this is seen by his moves to be diplomatic leader rather than a violent one when dealing with business in the criminal underground. Due to his involvement in crime for a duration of his adult life, Joseph has become slightly detached from his emotions. He has trouble expressing his feelings to others, which is apparent with his nephew Christopher Gaccione who is also an inducted member of the crime family Joseph heads. He has no official diagnosis, but his symptoms are similar to those of of someone suffering from borderline personality disorder or mild Alexithymia.