Gino Santangelo
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| Gino Santangelo | |
|---|---|
| Santangelo Novels character | |
 Gino Santangelo as portrayed by Vincent Irizarry in 1990 miniseries Lucky/Chances |
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| First appearance | Chances |
| Created by | Jackie Collins |
| Portrayed by | Vincent Irizarry |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Gino the Ram |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of birth | 1905 |
| Occupation | Gangster, bootlegger |
| Family | Santangelo family |
| Spouse(s) | Cindy 1934- 1938 Maria Grazione 1949-1955 Susan Martino 1978-1980 Paige Wheeler 1985 - Present |
| Children | Stephen Berkley b. 1939 Lucky Santangelo b. 1950 Dario Santangelo b. September 1,1951d. 1977 |
| Address | United States of America |
| Nationality | Italian-American |
Gino Santangelo is a fictional character created by novelist Jackie Collins. Known in his youth as 'Gino the Ram', Gino was a Italian-American mobster he rose to the top in the New York crime scene but later on began to legitimise his business and built The Mirage. He was forced to seek tax exile in Israel for seven years during which his daughter Lucky takes over his empire. After a heart attack after the death of his son Dario, Gino retired from activiely participating in organised crime.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early Life
Born in Italy in 1905, Gino arrived in New York at the age of three with his parents Paulo and Mira Santangelo. When Gino was five his mother walked out on the family to live with her manager at the factory she worked, an older man with three daughters. When Gino was older Gino he found these girls and had sex with them, the only revenge he could on his mother for leaving, but it was empty. As a result of his wife's defection, Paulo became violent and took out on his frustration on Gino who would became adept at hiding from his father. When Paulo took to a life of crime that sent him in and out of jail Gino lives in a series of foster homes. Gino also got firsthand knowledge at the way his father treated women, several times having been trapped in the same room with Paulo and both disgusted and excited by the experience. This probably spurred Gino at the age of eleven to have his first sexual experience, with a wrinkled old prostitute who charged him twenty cents. At the age of fifteen he was known as 'Gino the Ram' due to his many sexual conquests as well his ability to find the "magic button", something he had been taught at the age of twelve by one of his foster mothers. Later that same year (1921) Gino had his first experience of crime when he and his friends Catto and Pinky Banana Kassari stole a car and drove it to Coney Island. Gino took the blame for the crime when they were caught and he was sentenced to one year at the New York Protectory for Boys where he first met Costa who would become a lifelong friend. Gino came to Costa's rescue when their supervisor Brother Phillipe was anally raping the boy, Gino attacked Brother Phillipe with a pair of scissors and the two were lauded by the newspapers, Gino was given six months probation and was released. It was about this time that Gino met fictional character, a prostitute and his father's new girlfriend whom he lived with for six months while Paulo was in Sing Sing. When his father was released Gino moved in with Zeko, another mechanic at the garage where he worked. Zeko and Gino soon had a falling out when Gino witnessed him raping Cindy, the fight between them resulted in the scar on Gino's cheek that he was to carry for the rest of his life. Yet it was this fight which resulted in Zeko breaking his arm that Gino attracted the interest of real life mobster Charlie Luciano. Gino drove the car on a bootleg hijack job and he was paid fifty dollars, having already had the taste of money Gino was set for a life in organised crime.
[edit] The Santangelo Gang and Leonora
Gino formed The Santangelo Gang in 1924 with Aldo Dinunzio and their first jobs were mainly larceny, yet after they were betrayed and spent time in prison, Gino and Aldo moved on to bootlegging for which they were to become notorious. Four years later Pinky Banana Kassari joined them, riding shotgun and working as an enforcer. However, it was soon after he left jail that he stayed in San Francisco at the invitation of Costa's adoptive father Franklin Zennocotti and where he met his first love, Costa's adoptive sister Leonora.
