Background (TO BE CONTINUED)
Daniel was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in East Boston. His father was a welder working for a shipping business, so he was always working on new freighters and rarely home. His mother had her hands full with him and his two brothers and four sisters. His family were atheists (and communists!), not accepting the idea that an all-powerful god controlled their lives. The lack of a spiritual backbone was always something that troubled Daniel.
The main theme of his adolescence was curiosity. Daniel questioned everything, all the time. He wasn't impatient about his questioning, but he refused to accept "because" as an answer. His intelligent, sharp mind helped him gain scholarships to prestigious schools, an education he would normally have been denied because of his family’s social standing. However, when he was 20 he felt that he lacked something. A spiritual component. So he began to investigate various religions with the same approaches he would examine everything else.
He approached questions of spirituality with the same fervor that he approached scientific dissertation. Learning everything that he could about a religion, then questioning the leaders of that religion on those "sticking points" of the religion - the innate hypocrisies and flaws inherent in any form of Faith.
As a young man, Daniel started a gang in his East Boston neighborhood called the Sling Blades, and began running "protection" and numbers rackets under the pseudonym “Alexis Slade”. Rackets that actually had some basis behind it. When the Latin Kings tried to move in, it was the Sling Blades that kept them out. When the O'Connor Tenement burned to the ground because of faulty wiring it was the Sling Blades, not the Red Cross that made sure that the tenants had roofs over their head.
As time passed, The Gang diversified. A little drugs, a little weapons, a good deal of prostitution. Never anything too heavy - this was his territory, after all, and it wouldn't do to destroy his territory by poisoning it. And as time passed, they changed how they did business with the other gangs. Made it unprofitable (and on occasion, unsurvivable) for rivals to take their territory.
He quickly attracted the attention of La Cosa Nostra, and they wanted him to work for them. At the same time, he was approached by the Irish Mob, who wanted the same thing. But he had other ideas. Approaching both under the name “Alexis Slade” he offered to manage business for them. He just didn’t let them know that he approached BOTH of them.
With a ruthlessness born of devotion to his chosen mission Daniel made sure that the businesses of the two never clashed, and helped prevent many misunderstandings between the two. In a way, it was Daniel who ensured that the Italian and Irish Mobs ended up in their current “friendly” attitude towards each other.
In 1935, Daniel began working for the Boston Police Department. This actually gave him the training he needed to solidify his hold on the various crime syndicates by both teaching him the skills he would need to blackmail various mob entities as well as the more subtle but no less rewarding position of being a corrupt cop that they could trust to get them out of trouble for minor offenses and to help defer the damage from major crimes.
During the training of Charles Fried in the basics of the Lancea Sanctum, Daniel is also exposed to the teachings of Longinus. When the opportunities present themselves, he discusses faith and the teachings with Marcus. Because of his questioning nature, Marcus introduces him to a further truth - the Lamia Monastica, an order within the Lancea Sanctum that has done away with the Catholic trappings and expouses the Testament of Longinus as its principles. Daniel took to this philosophy like a fish to water. After all, to his scientific mind, what further proof did one need of evil than to look at the vampire that was his “Master”.
1939 Saw the beginning of World War Two, and a certain prosperity to the Criminal organizations under Alexis Slade. Where many were being hit hard by the start of war, Slade made allies and acquaintances amongst those who were smuggling Jews out of Nazi held areas - along with anything and everything that could be sold in lieu of cash. The Irish Mob and La Cosa Nostra both profit from the hoards of skilled, cheap labor that they “acquire”. As the war progressed, they would also expand into salvage and profiteering operations.
The Coconut Grove fire was particularly disquieting for Alexis Slade as one of his lieutenants owned the building. However, investigation quickly proved that the fire, while a tragedy, was accidental. Because of the police involvement in investigating the fire, this was the closest that Detective Daniel Constantine came to being linked to a Slade operation.
In 1952, several upstarts began becoming problematic for Slade. Members of the various families who were bucking for status within the families. Slade assassinated most but not all. The few he kept, he trained as “apprentices”. However, not one could meet to his expectations. Sooner or later, they were killed as well. To keep the impression that they were alive, Daniel stole their identities and declared one of those he had killed the “new Slade”.
No one even noticed it was him. How ironic.
Daniel stayed out of mortal politics as much as he could. The only thing he was interested in was the criminal underworld.
The main theme of his adolescence was curiosity. Daniel questioned everything, all the time. He wasn't impatient about his questioning, but he refused to accept "because" as an answer. His intelligent, sharp mind helped him gain scholarships to prestigious schools, an education he would normally have been denied because of his family’s social standing. However, when he was 20 he felt that he lacked something. A spiritual component. So he began to investigate various religions with the same approaches he would examine everything else.
He approached questions of spirituality with the same fervor that he approached scientific dissertation. Learning everything that he could about a religion, then questioning the leaders of that religion on those "sticking points" of the religion - the innate hypocrisies and flaws inherent in any form of Faith.
As a young man, Daniel started a gang in his East Boston neighborhood called the Sling Blades, and began running "protection" and numbers rackets under the pseudonym “Alexis Slade”. Rackets that actually had some basis behind it. When the Latin Kings tried to move in, it was the Sling Blades that kept them out. When the O'Connor Tenement burned to the ground because of faulty wiring it was the Sling Blades, not the Red Cross that made sure that the tenants had roofs over their head.
As time passed, The Gang diversified. A little drugs, a little weapons, a good deal of prostitution. Never anything too heavy - this was his territory, after all, and it wouldn't do to destroy his territory by poisoning it. And as time passed, they changed how they did business with the other gangs. Made it unprofitable (and on occasion, unsurvivable) for rivals to take their territory.
He quickly attracted the attention of La Cosa Nostra, and they wanted him to work for them. At the same time, he was approached by the Irish Mob, who wanted the same thing. But he had other ideas. Approaching both under the name “Alexis Slade” he offered to manage business for them. He just didn’t let them know that he approached BOTH of them.
With a ruthlessness born of devotion to his chosen mission Daniel made sure that the businesses of the two never clashed, and helped prevent many misunderstandings between the two. In a way, it was Daniel who ensured that the Italian and Irish Mobs ended up in their current “friendly” attitude towards each other.
In 1935, Daniel began working for the Boston Police Department. This actually gave him the training he needed to solidify his hold on the various crime syndicates by both teaching him the skills he would need to blackmail various mob entities as well as the more subtle but no less rewarding position of being a corrupt cop that they could trust to get them out of trouble for minor offenses and to help defer the damage from major crimes.
During the training of Charles Fried in the basics of the Lancea Sanctum, Daniel is also exposed to the teachings of Longinus. When the opportunities present themselves, he discusses faith and the teachings with Marcus. Because of his questioning nature, Marcus introduces him to a further truth - the Lamia Monastica, an order within the Lancea Sanctum that has done away with the Catholic trappings and expouses the Testament of Longinus as its principles. Daniel took to this philosophy like a fish to water. After all, to his scientific mind, what further proof did one need of evil than to look at the vampire that was his “Master”.
1939 Saw the beginning of World War Two, and a certain prosperity to the Criminal organizations under Alexis Slade. Where many were being hit hard by the start of war, Slade made allies and acquaintances amongst those who were smuggling Jews out of Nazi held areas - along with anything and everything that could be sold in lieu of cash. The Irish Mob and La Cosa Nostra both profit from the hoards of skilled, cheap labor that they “acquire”. As the war progressed, they would also expand into salvage and profiteering operations.
The Coconut Grove fire was particularly disquieting for Alexis Slade as one of his lieutenants owned the building. However, investigation quickly proved that the fire, while a tragedy, was accidental. Because of the police involvement in investigating the fire, this was the closest that Detective Daniel Constantine came to being linked to a Slade operation.
In 1952, several upstarts began becoming problematic for Slade. Members of the various families who were bucking for status within the families. Slade assassinated most but not all. The few he kept, he trained as “apprentices”. However, not one could meet to his expectations. Sooner or later, they were killed as well. To keep the impression that they were alive, Daniel stole their identities and declared one of those he had killed the “new Slade”.
No one even noticed it was him. How ironic.
Daniel stayed out of mortal politics as much as he could. The only thing he was interested in was the criminal underworld.