Victor "Toothpick Vic" Vega (1957–1992), also known as "Mr. Blonde", was a criminal and stickup artist affiliated with the Cabot Gang in Los Angeles. He was shot to death in 1992 by undercover LAPD officer Freddy Newendyke after he had tortured fellow policeman Marvin Nash for information in the aftermath of the failed Los Angeles diamond heist.
Biography[]
Vega was born in 1957 to an Italian-American family in Los Angeles, California. The younger brother of fellow criminal Vincent Vega, Vic ended up working as a robber and enforcer for Irish Mob boss Joe Cabot and his gang, and he formed a close link with him and his son and right-hand man Eddie. A psycopathic individual known for his unpredictability, Vega was intensely loyal to the Cabots, and when he was arrested in a warehouse in 1988 for possession of stolen property while on a job for them, he refused to turn on them and served his four-year prison sentence. After being released in 1992, Joe Cabot offered to set him up with a no-show job as a dockworker to mislead his parole officer Seymour Scagnetti, but Vega insisted that he wished to get directly involved again, and he was recruited for the robbery of Karina's Wholesale Diamonds jewelry store with five other people. In order to avoid any inside leaks about the job, every member of the heist crew was given color-coded aliases, and Vega was called "Mr. Blonde", being put in charge of crowd control along with "Mr. Blue". However, the day of the heist, the situation devolved into chaos after some hostages pressed the alarm button against Vega's orders, so he became paranoid, shooting and killing many of them and attracting a ruthless police response. While escaping, Vega managed to hold one rookie officer, Marvin Nash, hostage and take him back to the warehouse meeting place where he caught up with fellow crew members Larry Dimmick, Mr. Pink and Freddy Newendyke, who was really an undercover police officer and had been wounded and bleeding severely. After strapping him to a chair, he and the others began beating him hoping he could disclose information about the mole among them, but Nash didn't have any. After Eddie came along and took Dimmick and Pink to dispose of the getaway cars, Vega, left alone with Nash and an agonizing Newendyke, decided to torture Nash simply for his own amusement knowing full well he didn't have anything useful to tell him.
Death[]
Vega after being shot dead by Freddy Newendyke
As a terrified Nash begged and agonized, Vega duct taped his mouth and took a shaving knife to torture him. He then began slashing Nash's face repeatedly before cutting off his right ear. Afterwards, he walked outside and took a gas can from his car trunk, then went back inside and doused gasoline all over Nash's body. When he pleaded with Vega not to kill him, he simply laughed and turned on his lighter ready to burn him alive. At that point, Newendyke regained consciousness and unloaded his pistol into Vega, shooting him 13 times in the chest and killing him.