Tommy Vercetti

Tommy Vercetti is depicted as both intelligent and temperamental; he is easily angered and quick to resort to violence. He has no hesitation about killing, though many of his victims are in turn trying to kill Tommy as well, or have done something that requires them to be killed. Despite all this, Tommy does also show a softer side as seen with his relations with Mercedes Cortez, the daughter of Juan Garcia Cortez, and Earnest Kelly, an elderly employee at the Print Works printing company that he buys later in the game: the former serves as a love interest for Tommy, while the latter is more of a father figure due to his childhood memories of working with his father at a printworks.

Tommy Vercetti was born to an Italian-American family and was raised in Liberty City, where his father worked for an unknown company (presumably the Liberty Tree) working on its printers. It is unknown whether he owned the printing company or not but Tommy used to clean its rollers and suggests he lived a normal and moral life.[5] When he was a teenager, he would befriend Mafia mobster Sonny Forelli, whom was a rising force in the Forelli Crime Family (it is unknown whether or not he was already Don, but can be assumed as police information say Sonny became Boss of the Mafia at an early age) and would start working for the Forelli family, earning the syndicates' trust and eventually becoming a made man in the Mafia.[6]

In 1971, jealous and nervous of Tommy's rising reputation inside the Mafia and the Liberty City crime scene, Sonny sent Tommy to kill a key mobster (presumably of the Leone family) in the Harwood District for unknown reasons (presumably because of the Mafia's scuffles over rackets and revenge). In actuality, what was supposed to be Tommy's clean hit would turn out to be a threat set up by Sonny. When Tommy arrived, eleven men would ambush him due to Sonny having probably warned Tommy's enemies of the impending threat posed by him (or even having organized the ambush himself). Tommy would miraculously survive after killing all eleven of them, but would end up being arrested in the process and sent to prison for multiple charges of murder.[7] He would be placed on death row, but due to the Forelli Mafia's influence and possibly interference, he only served fifteen years. He also earned the title "The Harwood Butcher" for how he singlehandedly slew eleven men on his own.[6]

Fresh out of prison in 1986, Tommy is immediately dispatched by then Don Sonny Forelli to Vice City in order to participate in a drug deal. This deal was organized due to Sonny's fear that Tommy's presence in Liberty City would cause problems for his organization (whom by this time was the most powerful Mafia family in Liberty City) as Tommy's Harwood Slaughter of 1971 was still fresh in the minds of police and would thus cause the law enforcers in Liberty City to start possibly harassing the Forelli family. Sonny orders Tommy to expand into the drug business in the south and to stay there for a while finding opportunities for a good business.

Tommy arrives at the deal as a supervisor between the Forelli Crime Family and the nearly wiped out Vance Crime Family, led by brothers Lance and Victor Vance. Just then, a group of masked assailants open fire on them, killing Victor Vance and Forelli's men (Harry and Lee), resulting in Tommy losing both the money and the drugs, from which he narrowly escapes with Ken Rosenberg, the Forellis' crooked lawyer and his contact in Vice City. With the promise to Sonny to retrieve both the drugs and money, he then sets out to find and kill the party responsible. While investigating, Tommy makes a number of allies and employers who offer him help, including retired Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez, who helped set up the exchange; music producer Kent Paul, who maintains connections with the city's criminal underworld; Lance Vance, who seeks revenge for his brother's death and to reclaim their stolen money and drugs; Texan real estate developer Avery Carrington; and drug baron Ricardo Diaz (who is later revealed to be responsible for the ambushed deal).

After Tommy and Lance lead an assault on Diaz's estate and kill him, Tommy begins to disobey Sonny's orders and enjoys the empire he claimed from Diaz, without paying any tribute to the Forelli family, enraging Sonny, who constantly demands a larger cut of the profits from Tommy, and Lance, who wants more respect from Tommy and also more control in the family. During this time, Tommy forms his own organization, called the "Vercetti Gang," from the remains of Diaz's gang, and becomes acquainted with Umberto Robina, leader of the Los Cabrones Cuban street gang, whom he helps end a war against a rival Haitian gang, as well as "Big" Mitch Baker, leader of the Vice City Bikers, whom he helps with a few favours, seeking to establish a partnership with both gangs. He also briefly works for the heavy metal band Love Fist, now managed by Kent Paul, helps Cortez leave the city with stolen military equipment, and buys out several nearly bankrupt companies to use as fronts for illicit businesses.

Tommy and the Forelli family's conflict reaches a boiling point when Tommy kills Forelli henchmen sent to seize his business revenue, and Sonny personally visits him in Vice City. Due to Lance's betrayal, he is forced into a large shootout with the Forelli crew, in which he kills Sonny, Lance, and the hit squad, finally securing his empire and gang in the city, with Ken Rosenberg as his main partner. It is also during this major gunfight that Tommy discovers that Sonny actually set up the eleven people to ambush Tommy and caused him to spend fifteen years in prison.[8]

At the end of the game, Tommy is shown to have become an extremely powerful figure in Vice City's criminal underworld. He is in charge of the Vercetti Gang, the most powerful organization in Vice City, has alliances with both the Los Cabrones and Vice City Bikers, lives in a huge mansion, owns many businesses that he uses as fronts for his illegal operations, and is also in charge of the drug trade in Vice City. Furthermore, Sonny's death marked the beginning of the Forelli family's decline in Liberty City, so most likely the Forellis never bothered Tommy again. Tommy, at the end of the game, is the kingpin of Vice City.