Thomas Morello

Thomas Morello is a "man of honour" within the Modafferi 'ndrina. From 1974 is the official head of the Tehran Outfit on behalf of the clan.

Biography
Morello's father, Aldo Morello (born 1920), was a soldier in the Italian Army. He was captured by Allied Soldiers during the North African Campaign in November 1941 and was eventually imprisoned in the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp in late January 1942. Like other Axis POW's held in Cowra, Aldo accepted the opportunity to be transferred from the confinements of the camp to work the land of the wealthy Smith family. He was free to live on the farm un-guarded to carry out the labour intensive work.

In April 1942 Aldo met 16 year old Esther Smith who was the only daughter of the Smith Family. She took an intense liking to the Italian resulting in a pregnancy which soon came to the attention of her family. Her father, blaming self-defence, shoot Aldo at point blank range and left him to die in a field. Esther was sent to a Catholic girls home for the duration of the pregnancy where the baby boy was born on the 15th January 1943. It was named Thomas Morello and immediately placed into state care. Esther never saw the child again and it was believed she returned to the family farm soon after.

Early Life
Thomas Morello spent his young years in the St. John's Orphanage in Goulburn (also known as the Goulburn Boys Orphanage). As he grew older he was often subject to beatings and abuse as punishment for masturbating to pornographic images and defiance. He had to live in limited clothing that was washed only once a week. Despite this, young Thomas Morello was a bright student and showed academic excellence through English but he was too stubborn for schooling and by the age of 15 he was involved with a local band of Darlinghurst hoodlems selling stolen cigarettes for then 17-year-old Giorgio Modaferri in the late 1950s. Morello and Giorgio formed an extremely close friendship during this time which would later craft Morello's destiny within the Calabrian Mafia.

Rise within the Modafferi 'ndrina
Between the years of 1962 to 1964 Morello was making enough money from the odd Modafferi jobs to live in a one room bed-sit in Darlinghurst. He had proven himself to the Modafferi 'ndrina (a powerful 'Ndrangheta clan) that he could be trusted with even the toughest and dirtiest jobs and in 1965 Bruno Modafferi made the unusual step of accepting a half-blooded Italian into the clan and so made him a "man of honour". Despite being half-Italian he soon gained the respect of the entire clan with his understanding of the Calabrian omertà.

Hashish Kingpin
Morello met Col Meadows in prison in 1971 where he told him about his middle eastern hashish exploits. Morello and Giorgio took this information to Bruno who agreed that the clan should have control in hashish importation. Morello was given control of the Tehran Outfit and in 1974, after his release from prison Morello, Meadows and Giorgio flew to Tehran. They made contact with Ramin Khadim who originally supplied Meadows and returned with 10 pounds which was undetected by customs. In order to set up a string of trafficking mules, Morello returned to Margaret Mills (whom he had lost contact with while in prison) and offered her the chance to work for the clan while keeping their relationship solely business.