Charlie Jolson

Evil-doer
Full Name	Charlie Jolson
Alias	East End Gangster
Origin	The Getaway
Occupation	Head of the Bethnal Green Mob
Powers / Skills	Power, Experience & Extortion
Hobby	Driving classic Bentley's & smoking Cuban Cigars
Goals	Complete control over the City of London
Crimes	No information
Type of Villain	Old Crime Boss

Charlie Jolson is a mob boss and the main antagonist in the 2002 PlayStation 2 game The Getaway.

Biography

Past

Charlie was born in London, England, on December 13, 1933. He had a brother who would later become the father of Jake Jolson. As a young man, Charlie was an associate of Ronnie and Reggie Kray. After the Krays were arrested in 1968, Charlie went into hiding and laid low for two years. In 1970, Charlie decided to form the Bethnal Green Mob along with close friend Harry. In 1972, Charlie's nephew Jake was born. Charlie would form a close relationship with Jake and treated him more like a son than a nephew.

During the 1980's, Mark Hammond was a member of Charlie's gang. At some point, Mark defected to the Collins Gang who were rivals of Charlie. This created a feud between the Bethnal Green Mob and Mark which would last for many years. During the 1990's and early 2000's, the Triads and the Yardies started appearing in London and this began to cause problems for Charlie.

Pre 2002, Charlie made dealings with Russian arms dealer, Viktor Skobel, and bought grenade launchers off him in order to supply his gang with decent weapons. These weapons would later be used by both Eyebrows and Jake Jolson during the prison van breakout of Jake.

Present (2002)

By 2002, Charlie felt he was no longer safe in his own city. Although he ran a fairly big gang in London, he had lost some of his former territories such as Soho. However, Charlie was still the richest gangster in London as he lived in a mansion in Mayfair, owned a warehouse in Southwark, a depot at Kings Cross, a brothel in Marylebone and a lock-up garage in Scoresby Street, Southwark. Charlie's life of crime has attracted police attention from a young enthusiastic cop called, Frank Carter, who Jolson refers to as a "weasel".

Sometime in 2002, Charlie Jolson read in the papers that Mark Hammond had been released from prison. He decided to form a master plan. To use Mark Hammond as a tool to weaken the three other gangs in London. This plan involved kidnapping Mark's wife Suzie and his son Alex. The plan came into action two months later, when Charlie sent Yasmin along with Harry, Eyebrows and Grievous to kidnap Suzie and Alex. Eyebrows stayed in the car while Harry, Grievous and Yasmin confronted Suzie outside Mark's apartment. After a brief struggle, Harry shot Suzie and Yasmin grabbed Alex and pulled him into the car. Mark, consumed with rage, chased after the car to Charlie's warehouse. On confronting Charlie, Mark called him a "fat bastard". Eyebrows knocked out Mark and Charlie made his heavies drag Mark into a chair. When Mark awoke, Charlie told Mark what he was going to do. Charlie was going to make Mark work for him, if he wanted his kid is to live. If he refused, Charlie would have Alex killed, so Mark had no choice but to obey Jolson. Charlie's first mission for Mark was to destroy Nick Collins new bar, The Republic. Charlie then had Mark steal a statue filled with heroin from the Triads at an art gallery. After this, Mark met Charlie and his heavies at the Spotted Dog pub in Whitehall. Mark attempted to shoot Charlie but the bartender, Reggie, knocked Mark out and Harry kicked him. Charlie ordered Mark to break his nephew, Jake Jolson, out of a prison van and wanted no more of his non-compliance. Later on, Charlie wanted Mark to assassinate Clive McCormack, a corrupt DCI at Snow Hill Police Station, who despite being on Charlie's payroll, had betrayed him by arresting Charlie's girl Yasmin and siding with the Yardies. Charlie was worried Yasmin would talk so he wanted her dead also. His pretext is that he is worried that Yasmin will grass on him, but Yasmin believes that Charlie is intimidated by her. Mark kills McCormack but spares Yasmin after the latter has information of Alex's whereabouts. Charlie then wanted Mark to find his girl, Layla, from a Collins gang club in Soho, the Touch of Class, and bring her back to him. Mark drove to the club with Yasmin and a shootout erupted between the duo and the Collins gangsters. Layla was unfortunately killed during the shootout. Yasmin however, came up with a brilliant idea to disguise herself as Layla in order to confront and kill Charlie. Charlie, on the other hand, had Mark do one last task for him, by stealing Jamahl's drug money from a Yardie crackhouse. This money was to be divided between Charlie and Mark, however Charlie intended to betray Mark and take the lot for himself. However, Mark knew this and decided to hide the money and give it to his friend Liam Spencer instead. Charlie discovered that Mark had betrayed him, and caught Yasmin in the act as she attempted to kill him. He then had her taken to his warehouse. Meanwhile, Mark confronted Jake, along with Eyebrows and Sparky at the depot. When Mark refused to give them the money, he turned on Charlie's men and tried to kill them. Mark managed to kill Sparky but was knocked out by Jake and Eyebrows. Jake wanted to kill Mark in retaliation for Sparky's death, but Charlie arrived at the depot having stopped Yasmin from killing him and told Jake he still needed him. Charlie then had Mark and Yasmin locked in the cellar of his warehouse and phoned the other gang leaders in London. Charlie wanted to offer the gangs a truce and claimed he would hand Mark Hammond over to them. Charlie however requested that the gangsters bring one guest only and no additional heavies.

While Charlie is making Mark work for him, Frank Carter is trying to arrest him. Charlie uses his police connection, Clive McCormack to keep Frank away from the Jolson's case by suspending him. However, Frank decides to become a vigilante in order to defeat Charlie. He slowly uncovers the truth and finds himself at Charlie's warehouse where he overhears Charlie discussing his plan and the fate of Mark Hammond. Frank discovers Charlie's true intentions on his meeting with the other gangs. Charlie really wants to lure the gangs to an old cargo ship, the Sol Vita, in order to blow them up with a bomb of his. The result will mean Charlie and his gang can completely take over London as there will no longer be any competition. After Charlie leaves, Frank releases Mark and Yasmin from their cell and makes a deal with them to stop Charlie. Charlie arrives at the Sol Vita and goes into hiding once he realises Mark has broken free and the other gangs have brought more than only one guest. Frank, Mark and Yasmin all arrive at the Sol Vita and kill many of Charlie's men including Eyebrows, Jake and Harry. Charlie tries to sneak off the boat but is caught by Nick Collins and his gang, who is furious about the situation. Nick has Liam hold Charlie at gun point and Charlie leads them to the cargo hold below the ship where Alex and the bomb are located. Charlie takes them there and they confronts Mark, Yasmin, Alex and Frank. Nick orders them to drop their weapons when suddenly the Yardies and Triads arrive with their gang leaders furious at Charlie. Mark then explains what happened and tells them his story and how it was all Charlie's doing. Charlie tries to defend himself by saying that Mark went on a crazy rampage and killed his own wife. Frank however tells the gangs Charlie's real intentions, which were to lure the gangs to the Sol Vita in order to blow them all up. Nick Collins, Jamahl and Shan Chu Lee, the leaders of each gang, then decided to let Mark, Yasmin and Alex go as he did what he did because of Charlie and had no choice. They refuse to let Frank go however because he is a cop and want to deal with Charlie and Frank themselves. Yasmin then says goodbye to Charlie and mocks him by asking him not to cry.

Death

Charlie Jolson met his Death on board the Sol Vita. With the imminent prospect of being executed at the hands of the other gangs, Charlie knew that he was not going to leave the boat alive. However, Charlie did not want the other gangs to live either. If he was going down, Charlie was going to take everyone down with him. After being pushed to the middle of the room by Liam, Charlie started to go mad. He insulted all the gangs in the room, claiming that London was his town and that the other gangs had no right being in London. In order to deal with all the gangs as he had originally intended, he was going to blow them all up. Charlie took out the detonator that Jake had given him earlier and pressed the button to kill everyone, including himself. Everyone panicked and tried to flee, leaving Charlie alone with the bomb. Charlie sang Land of Hope and Glory and then died in the explosion, bringing an end to the Bethnal Green Mob.