In Palermo, Sicily there was a powerful family that owned a lot of land and was considered local royalty. But this Family wasn’t like any other, it had built its wealth and power with corruption, extortion and death. This Family was lead by Salvatore “The Ox” Massimo, but before he became Don he was just a simple child.
Born as an only child in a poor one room shack on the outskirts of Palermo he always expected more out of life, he worked the land with his father Marco who was a widow because Salvatore’s mother died in child birth leaving his father to raise him alone. Working outside left the child strong and dark skinned which gave him the appearance of an ox, one day his father let him go to town to pick up some things at the market, while he was there he saw a young girl being attacked in the town square so without hesitation Salvatore ran over to help the girl. He grabbed a piece of wood near by and clubbed the attacker in the head and with his massive strength killed the man with one hit. The girl hugged and kissed Salvatore in appreciation for saving her life, just then two cops arrested Salvatore for killing the man.
While sitting in his cell a man came to him in a fine tailored suit with two large bodyguards one either side of him, “are you the boy who killed the man in the town square with one hit?” Salvatore told the man in the suit how the man was attacking a girl and he felt he needed to help her, it turned out the man in the suit was Giovanni Marcello the local Mafia Boss at the time and the man Salvatore killed worked for Marcello. “Listen, I don’t disagree with what you did Gino was always an idiot always doing drugs. But he worked for me.” Salvatore simply responded but boldly “The man deserved to die he would’ve killed that girl and if I didn’t help I would be just as guilty. So if you want to kill me do it, but I’ll know what I did was honorable.” Marcello was surprised, not many people would say that to him let only a young man. Marcello lit a cigar and patted the boy on the shoulder. “Listen Gino worked for me running a small business but since he’s dead I’ll need someone to replace him, come to my cafe tomorrow at noon and we’ll discuss about your future.”
Salvatore simply agreed but asked how will he be able to meet him since he’s still in jail. Marcello looked at Salvatore and smiled “You’ll be released, poor Gino fell and cracked his head open.”