Please help with crime syndicate hierarchy. I have a mob boss who has two sons and a third lad who is not related to the family bus is set to marry the Boss’s step daughter. The youngest son is out of the running for mob boss because in the past he disrespected the family by making contact with the boss’s disgraced brother who previously was banished from the family. I need the lad that’s not connected to the family to be second in command once he marries the step daughter and then eventually will become the mob boss (obviously). But currently he’s third in line due to the older son. What can happen or how can I make the lad marrying into the family a choice that the boss would make him second inline over his other son. More still, would a rich powerful family crime syndicate ever put a non blood syndicate member (a deal to be made only if he marries the daughter) above blood sons? The third lad is like a son to the Boss and very good at what he does. There needs to be some reason or some fault with the older son that the Boss wont choose him as second in command. Sorry if this doesn’t make much sense but any help or ideas would be very much appreciated. Anyone with any information on crime syndicates or how the work who would mind sharing their information would be awesome Thanks in advance.
Sorry may I please point out that if he doesn't marry the daughter, which he is expected to and its all agreed, then he will certainly lose his position and the older son will take the place. What we don't know until the end is that he choses not to marry her in favour of someone else. I'm just not convinced why the boss wouldn't make the son second in line regardless, do you know what I mean? I need the conflict between the son in law to be and the older son throughout the story and also the battle internally where he wants the position at the head of the syndicate, it's all he's been working for but yet he's in love with someone else. blah blah blah
Consider it like royalty, and it would pass down naturally to the eldest son of the two. Unless the daughter is the eldest sibling/child then she might be the one to inherit the family biz. It doesn't make a lot of sense to simply offer it to a third party just because they marry the daughter of the kingpin. So try to keep it in the family, unless you have a good reason why third party has a shot at the title for simply marrying the bosses little girl.
Just make him the most competent of the three. In The Godfather, Sonny and... the weak brother, don't remember his name offhand, were both in line to become Boss before Michael. Sonny got it for a while, but he was too much of a hothead, and the second son was pretty much worthless. Likewise, in North Korea, Kim Jong Nam was older than Kim Jong Un, and seen as likely to succeed when their father died. However, Kim Jong Nam was a little too cosmopolitan and westernized. He might have been able to ascend to the Leader position, but in 2001 he was caught trying to go to Tokyo Disney. This embarrassment led to his exile, his younger brother's assumption of power, and his recent murder.
1/ It's your story, you can justify pretty much anything you want. 2/ If you want to apply Royalty rules, refer to Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. He succeeded to the throne despite having an older half-brother, Grufydd ap Llywelyn, who was recognised by Welsh law. Their father went to the trouble of having Henry III of England recognise him as heir, and having his marriage to Joan, Dafydd's mother, legitimised by the Pope. 3/ Under Roman law, a nobleman would adopt an unrelated, or distantly related, child and would then name him heir; Julius Caesar named his grandnephew Gaius Octavius his sole heir (hence the name Octavian), bequeathing him the immensely potent Caesar name and making him one of the wealthiest citizens in the Republic. So, great precedent in Italian law!
I agree with what's already been said. Have the person who should be first in line make a big decision in the absence of the boss, and for it to end in disaster. Trust is then lost in him. Maybe even have the non-blood relative be the one who fixes the issue, or at last minimises the damage. Then, the first in line guy could compound it by not copping to the fact he made a mistake. In the end, it's your story. As long as it makes sense to you, whatever you come up with is fine. It's not like the armed forces, or the police, where you would have to adhere to real-life hierarchies. It's your universe.
it depends what sort of character you want the non blood son to be - if hes a cold blooded and utterly ruthless gangster he could either murder the older son or conspire to have him arrested or discreditted if you want him to be more sympathetic the older son could try to kill him and get killed inself defense or the oldest son (or both natural sons) could get kiklled or arrstedin an unrelated way or you could have the mob bosses daughter firsti n line for sucession and her husband to be via her or you could have a mob war that splits the family otr you could have the oldest son decide he'd rather be a monk/writer/stripper /whatever ... its your story so just write it ghow you want
