Salvatore DeSanto

Salvatore DeSanto, played by Phil Campanella, is an Italian inmate on the HBO drama Oz.

Character overview

He is a short, muscular inmate who pretty much acts as a background prisoner until he is falsely accused of drugging inmate Augustus Hill. After the accusation, Augustus' stepfather and Homeboy leader Burr Redding arranges for his food to be mixed with a fatal amount of LSD and as a result DeSanto dies of brain failure instantly.

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DeSanto first appears in the office of unit manager Tim McManus who tells the Italians that Peter Schibetta is being released from the psych ward. Chucky Pancamo the Italian's leader is then brought into an FBI Interrogation. The result of the interrogation is that the Aryan Brotherhood led by Vernon Schillinger attack the Italians over the death of Vern's son Hank. Pancamo is hospitalized and Schibetta is raped for a second time. Frank Urbano then arrives and has the Italians hospitalize James Robson and the other Aryans for an attempted rape on a friend of inmate Tobias Beecher who has requested the Italian's protection. In the middle of all this, the Italian's allies, the Latinos led by Enrique Morales become partners with the Homeboys led by Burr Redding. The Homeboys are Black Gangsters who are the Italian's biggest threat in the drug trade so things get worse once their allies the Latinos are working with them. Later Homeboy Arnold "Poet" Jackson falsely accuses DeSanto of drugging Black inmate Augustus Hill. Hill is Redding's stepson and once Redding gets verification from a credible witness, he seeks revenge on DeSanto. At dinner that night, Urbano who is currently in charge states that the Italians should get back into the drug trade by killing Redding. DeSanto points out that Redding doesn't know how to die as they have made numerous attempts on him. As he is pointing this out, his head starts to spin. His food has been mixed with a fatal amount of LSD by the Black inmates in the cafeteria on orders of Redding and he dies of brain failure immediately. The Homeboys competently clean the kitchen so that there is no physical evidence of lacing his food with LSD. Augustus Hill in the hospital does however state that DeSanto is innocent and this causes Poet to falsely accuse the Latinos of drugging Hill. As a result the Latino/Homeboy alliance comes to a close, and they agree to work with the Italians again shortly afterwards.

External links

* [http://www.hbo.com/oz/groups/italians.shtml Official biography at Oz website]