Vercetti's efforts are rewarded with him becoming one of the richest and most powerful figures in Vice City, heading a large well-armed gang, controlling a local protection racket, and owning several successful businesses around the city. With the help of "bonkers ambulance chaser" Ken Rosenberg, Vercetti met up with various underworld figures and began his own vast criminal empire dealing with drugs, stolen vehicles and guns, to name but a few, in order to claim Forelli's money back. When it is learned that Vercetti emerges without the millions in cash or the drugs he was sent to buy as a result of the ambush during a drug deal, Sonny is enraged and promises to kill Tommy if he doesn't get both back. Tommy was released in 1986, 15 years later, and was quickly sent by mob boss Sonny Forelli to Vice City to set up a drug outpost. That's how you get to be called the Harwood Butcher!" Because Sonny called in favors and pulled strings, Tommy never received the death penalty or a life sentence. While under the employment of the Forelli crime family of the Liberty City Mafia, Vercetti was sent to prison in Liberty City in 1971 for multiple counts of homicide, which Sonny Forelli claimed totaled at eleven deaths: "How many was it? Ten? No, eleven men.
Tommy Vercetti is the protagonist and playable character of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Introduced in: Introduction, airport cut scene.For information on listed characters in later Grand Theft Auto games, see their respective "see also" link(s) at the end of each section (when available). Note also that facts covered in this article is as of the release of GTA Vice City in 2002, and as such, primarily discusses the characters based on information in Vice City and earlier Grand Theft Auto games. (The order in which some of these characters appear in-game depends upon the sequence in which the player completes certain missions.) Prominent characters are listed here in rough order of appearance. A number of recurring characters appear during various missions or cut scenes in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.