John Abruzzi
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| Prison Break character | |
|---|---|
| John Abruzzi | |
| First appearance: | S1E01 |
| Last appearance: | S2E04 |
| Season: | 1, 2
Episode Count = 20 |
| Portrayed by: | Peter Stormare |
| Back number: | 81004 |
| Crime: | Murder (2 counts) Conspiracy to commit murder (2 counts) |
| Sentence: | 120 years |
John Abruzzi, played by Peter Stormare, is a fictional character from the American television series Prison Break. He was a principal character of the series, introduced in the pilot as a privileged prisoner at Fox River State Penitentiary. Similar to Theodore Bagwell, he is less of antagonist than an unwanted ally to the main characters, although he does hinder Veronica Donovan in her investigation in later episodes.
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[edit] Background
Prior to his incarceration, Abruzzi was the boss of the Chicago Mafia, also referenced in the series as the Don of the Abruzzi crime family. He was convicted and sentenced based on the witness testimony of Otto Fibonacci, who saw Abruzzi order two men shot and killed. After he was imprisoned, Abruzzi planned to exact his revenge on Fibonacci, who entered into the witness protection program by the government, while Abruzzi was sentenced to 120 years without parole.
[edit] Appearances
Peter Stormare, Abruzzi's portrayer, was a member of the regular cast and was featured in every episode before his character's injury in the thirteenth episode of the first season, "End of the Tunnel". After his return to the series six episodes later in "The Key", Stormare became a recurring guest star, appearing in the final four episodes of the first season and in the first, second and fourth episodes of the second season. The character was later killed off in the fourth episode of the second season, "First Down". He later appeared in a brief flashback in the episode "Fin Del Camino."
[edit] Season 1
As a former Chicago mob boss, Abruzzi enjoyed celebrity status amongst the prisoner population at Fox River. He ran Prison Industry, an internal work program for the convicts, and was both highly respected and feared by the rest of the cons inside Fox River's walls, as well as influencing almost every corner of Fox River. His mobster status also allowed him to enjoy a certain extent of autonomy and freedom inside the prison's walls, especially from the head of the internal correctional officers Captain Brad Bellick, who was on the payroll of Abruzzi's associates. Abruzzi proved that he would go to great lengths to find Fibonacci, even cutting two of Michael Scofield's toes off trying to extract Fibonacci's location from him. Eventually, Abruzzi realized that Michael was not going to be easy to crack, so he decided to keep his enemy close and teamed up with Michael to break out of prison.
However, his status as the unofficial 'head' of Fox River was suddenly threatened as his Underboss and 2nd-in-command on the outside, Philip "Philly" Falzone cut off Abruzzi's cash stream and took over the Chicago Outfit while Abruzzi was incarcerated. Soon, Abruzzi's underling, Gus Fiorello, took over the Prison Industries on behalf of Falzone, and the room where all the future escapers dug the hole they could break out in, fell into Fiorello's hands. As Falzone was seen as the new boss of the Chicago Mafia after Abruzzi couldn't deliver him Fibonacci (since Michael Scofield kept the information unavalibile for him), Abruzzi arranged a meeting with Falzone and Scofield so things could be turned out, however, the sitdown almost ended with Falzone literally killing Scofield and Abruzzi was forced to stand with Falzone in an attempt to have Scofield give up Fibonacci's location. As Scofield gave Falzone the address (which was in Canada), Abruzzi was given his access to all influence within the prison walls again, making it possible for him to get the room where they dug the hole back from Bellick and Fiorello. In the meantime, Falzone and other Chicago mobsters are closing the house where Fibonacci is allegedly in hiding, only to discover police and federal agents surprising them with arrestments on them all. Turns out, Fibonacci is in Kansas, and both Abruzzi and Scofield has double-crossed Falzone in a successfull attempt to get Abruzzi in charge of the Prison Industry as well as the Chicago Outfit. As Charles Westmoreland later stated in the same episode Sleight of Hand; looks like our friend got his throne back.
When T-Bag told his cousin James about the break out plan, Abruzzi ordered one of his men on the outside to make James disappear for a week. The kidnapping went bad, resulting in the death of both James and his 5 year old son, who was being used as a human shield. Abruzzi, despite being deeply saddened, had his men inside of the prison rough T-Bag up. Badly injured and fearing for his life, T-Bag finally agreed to back out of the escape plan. Abruzzi, recently finding religion as an outlet for his pain, decided not to kill him -- this proved to be a big mistake, as T-Bag immediately took the opportunity to slash Abruzzi's throat.
Abruzzi was evacuated from Fox River by helicopter to receive treatment for his injuries. This complicates Michael's escape plan, as a plane Abruzzi owned was the planned getaway vehicle. Abruzzi however survived and rejoined the escape attempt about two weeks later, apparently a changed man (returned six episodes later). Upon his return he appeared to have become extremely religious, after having seen what he perceived as the image of the face of Jesus in a water stain on his cell wall. Although his religious faith was surely not fake, his overly friendly demeanor was. Abruzzi was in fact every bit as ruthless as before, going as far as to set up the kidnapping of Veronica Donovan as a means of forcing Fibonacci's location out of Michael. Michael never came to learn of this, since Veronica escaped from Abruzzi's clutches. It is also implied that he had planned to kill most of the team, as he only arranged for a three-seater plane. Nevertheless, Abruzzi continued to act benign while still inside the prison walls.
He later escaped with Michael, Lincoln Burrows and other inmates. Abruzzi planned to kill T-Bag during the escape, but T-Bag handcuffed himself to Michael to ensure his safety, knowing that Abruzzi needed Michael. However, Abruzzi used an axe to chop off T-Bag's hand, simultaneously taking his vengeance and ridding the group of T-Bag. Abruzzi was one of the group of five who was forced to run on foot after the plane left them behind.
[edit] Season 2
On the morning after the escape, John Abruzzi found himself with his fugitive comrades, continuing to evade the authorities on foot. After narrowly passing a freight train to create more distance between themselves and the authorities, the group of five escapees were trapped by an armed hunter who was aware of their fugitive status. Abruzzi quickly took matters into his hands by taking the hunter's daughter hostage. As the hunter lowered his weapon, the fugitives hijacked his SUV and continued on to Oswego to find Michael's hidden cache in the cemetery where they all found a change of clothing. The fugitives went their separate ways soon after this. Surprisingly, he showed no further interest in finding out Fibonacci's location.
Abruzzi met up with his family in Brooklyn, New York and together they planned to catch a cargo ship to Sardinia. Before he and his family could leave, however, Abruzzi was informed by one of his mafia associates of Otto Fibonacci's residence at a motel outside of Washington D.C. and that Fibonacci is going to testify there. The information is claimed to be from New Jersey and that "Fish Head Tommy wants to pay tribute". Abruzzi at first questioned the validity of the claim, but proceeded on to track down Fibonacci when the source was confirmed -- ignoring his wife's pleas. However, as he reached the motel, it turned out to be a trap set up by Agent Mahone and the FBI in an attempt to recapture Abruzzi. Before walking out of the motel room he was trapped in, Abruzzi demanded, "I deserve to know who turned on me." Brazenly, Abruzzi walked out of the motel room with a gun in hand. Mahone asked Abruzzi to put down his gun, place his hands behind his head and kneel. Abruzzi scoffed at this and remarked, "I kneel only to God. I don't see Him here." Just as Abruzzi raised his gun in an aggressive manner, Mahone took cover and watched on as the FBI team riddled Abruzzi with bullets, killing him with a cross in his hand. Abruzzi is the first member of the Fox River Eight to be taken down by the authorities and the second main character to be killed off in the series.
[edit] External links
- John Abruzzi's biography at Fox.com
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