
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.


A number of recurring characters appear during various missions or cut scenes in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
