Eddie Valentine in 1938.
Eddie Valentine (1886 - 1949) was an Italian-American gangster and crime lord of Los Angeles between 1919 and his death.
Biography[]
Eddie was born in Chicago in 1886 son of an Italian inmigrant family in the South Side. in 1912, he emmigrated to California establishing his new home in Los Angeles.
In 1916, he joined the local mafia and gained power becoming the crime lord of L.A. in 1919. During the Prohibition he gained more and more power with the illegal alcahol bussiness and by destroying his competence with brutal force.
During the Great Depression, Valentine´s bussiness started to decline.
In 1938, Neville Sinclair hired him and his gang to obtain the rocket from Howard Hughes. He did not like Neville much, but did the job for the money. After their first attempt is stopped by the FBI, he demanded that Neville triple his price for getting the rocket.
When Sinclair learned that Cliff Secord had the rocket, Eddie sent his men to get the rocket. That ultimately lead Cliff to the South Seas Night Club which the ensuing melee trashes. However, during the melee, Sinclair kidnaped Secord's girlfriend, Jenny Blake. Sinclair sent an ultimatum to Secord: Come to the Griffith Observatory alone and give them the rocket or Blake dies.
Secord arrives at the rendezvous as demanded. When he shows reluctance to hand it over first Eddie told him to just give it to them "So we can all go home." Cliff turned to him and asked him "What's it like working for a Nazi, Eddie?" and asked if Neville is paying him in American dollars or German Marks. Eddie turned to Neville and asked him what is Cliff talking about and Cliff revealed what he learned from the FBI: That Eddie's gang are hired muscle for a Nazi Spy Ring that Sinclair is part of, a claim Jenny backed up. Sinclair reminded him he's paying him a fortune and therefore from his point of view it shouldn't matter to him who he's working for but Eddie said "It matters to me.", and stated that while he may be a gangster he's not a traitor and told Neville to let Jenny go. He and his men then help the FBI attack the Nazi troopers.
Eddie died in 1949 of an illness.