Wow, didn't think about that. But also CJ may have also indirectly helped Claude get his revenge on Catalina. It could be irony and also poetic justice
Claude is a one man army, just like CJ was. Salvatore was afraid of Claude pulling something like CJ did with the Casino heist. But I agree Maria was the last straw.
Not just gta protagonists, but open world crime game protagonists as well. Vito Scaletta, Tommy Angelo, and Lincoln Clay from the mafia game series. Aiden Pearce from Watch Dogs. Nick Kang from true crime streets of la. Wei Shen from sleeping dogs. Tony Montana from the Scarface the world is yours video game. The playa from the Saints row series. John marston, Arthur Morgan and Red Harlow from the Red Dead series. Cole Phelps from LA Noire.
They really built the GTA 3D timeline backwards if you think about it. Even though GTA 3 is the oldest game, it was the only game in that timeline that wasn’t set in the past
@@nikto7297 Gta 4 and Gta 5 ARE in the same universe, just in completely different parts of America. Gta 4, TLAD, TBOGT, Chinatown Wars and 5 all take place in the HD Universe.
@@thealien_ali3382 but even a big hood gang cant stand with a criminal organization like the mafia, the only reason Salvator gave up killing Cj is wasting time and money, he just warned him
@@Mr.Capitalism CJ already killed hundreds of cops high trained millitary soilders all by himself and he killed the entire forelli and sindacos family. What does salvatore have against that? Hes fucked.
Salvatore: "let's use this outsider to get rid of out competitors" CJ: (outplays him and steals his money) Slavatore: "fuck! Ok, let's try this again with other guy" Claude: (kills Salvatore) In conclusion, GTA3 era games are about "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".
This makes me wonder, could this also be another reason why Salvatore wasn't entirely happy with Joey? With CJ saying he worked with Joey in LC at one point, it was another reason for Salvatore to trust CJ thinking 'Oh well my son worked with him, so he must be alright.' We all know he still loved Joey but didn't hold him in high regard within the family, do you think CJ's betrayal was also another factor why Salvatore wasn't too keen with Joey's style of things? The last person that we know who Joey worked with other than CJ was Claude, Who kinda got Claude involved with the Leone's more directly via moves against Forellis, Triads and meeting Toni rather than the odd jobs he did for Luigi at the club.
@@anislaour8538 dont nobody know what happened to Joey after Sal passed. If I had to guess? He moved his garage company and left Liberty City. Joey wasn’t feeling that shit! If anything there was a deleted scene from San Andreas. When Sweet called CJ about their moms it look like he had a grey jumper suit on. Looks like he was working on cars. And he said he ran with Joey doing work with him to Sal. If I had to guess he was working on cars with Joey in his garage in Liberty City. I think CJ and Joey meshed so well because both of them was tired of being forced into the family Mob and family gang lifestyle
Salvatore to CJ: I'm gonna use you to help me take over the casino by killing the forellis and sindaccos. Cj to Salvatore: I'm gonna rob your casino and give you paranoia
I think the backstabbing incident at Caligula's wasn't just about the money for Salvatore. The humiliation alone from such a betrayal would have been devastating, especially for someone like Salvatore. Therefore, the betrayal in 2001 makes sense if one accounts for the humiliation Salvatore experienced back in San Andreas. In addition, if one takes into account the other issues (the loss of Hepburn Heights, the betrayal of other Leone family members like Curly Bob, and the war with the Colombian Cartel + the pushing of SPANK on the streets), Salvatore is right to be paranoid. Maria telling him that she was an accessory with Claude was enough to send him over the edge.
The casino incident would be devastating to someone like Salvatore as if people found out how easily he got robbed. His reputation would taken a big hit as he would look like a fool.
CJ Betrays Salvatore Toni stays Loyal to Salvatore but is screwed over at the end with the half million dollars. Claude trys to stay loyal but Maria screws that up which leads to Salvatore's death.Also Ken Rosenberg worked for Sonny Forelli and Salvatore Leon. Also why does Salvatore still want Maria if you watch any of the cutscenes in GTA LCS they hate each other. Gta loves to tie in everything together in the end.
Maria didn't cause anything, Salvatore thought Claude might betray him like CJ did, CJ wiped Forellis on Saint Marks and took out their leader and took out their plane and hitmen, Claude sabotaged that ship which was a big job and did some other things and Salvatore thought Claude might betray him so thats why he tried to kill Claude, this happened because of CJ
@Manuel Patterson well main reason why Salvatore was paranoid is CJ,he did a big job(saint marks bistro) and then sold him out, Claude did a big job (bomb da base act 2) and Salvatore thought he might get betrayed again so he wanted to get rid of Claude
I like how it trickles down to people getting betrayed. CJ went through so much stuff because he was betrayed and ended up betraying someone that happened to be the boss of someone that happened to leave him dry. Salvatore got killed because of he felt like others were betraying him and got killed because he betrayed someone. Kiled by one of the people CJ indirectly screwed over by screwing over Salvatore.
@@rainbow2.086 Originally you could say it was Maria, before CJ was even a concept. But I guess ideas changed over time and they wanted to alter the story. Now it's CJ when originally it wasn't
I always wondered why Leone never sent a crew to go take care of CJ, but then it occurred to me that San Andreas ended with CJ moving back into his house on Grove Street; which means he was almost certainly surrounded by a mob of insanely-loyal Family members. And unlike the mobsters who weren't expecting CJ at St. Mark's Bistro, the gangbangers on Grove Street likely wouldn't have allowed _anyone_ that they didn't recognise to enter the street (and that's even if they weren't told to expect Italians, which CJ probably warned them about). My theory is that Leone _did_ send at least one crew to take care of CJ after the events of GTA:SA but the crew likely failed because they weren't able to get close enough to him (or they were outright killed by resistance from the Families).
This could work, but one thing which wouldn't make sense is how one street gang could take out a crew of italian mafiosso's. The difference is Salvatore has a lot of money to fund weapons, grove street on the other hand stick with some cheaper guns like Tec-9's, AK's, Glocks, and all that. I doubt Salvatore, knowing how ruthless CJ is, would send a crew that isn't prepared to be on level with CJ (let it be noted CJ is a one man army, a crew armed to take him on would be able to take over a gang pretty easily) But that's just me, good theory tho.
@@LuminousWhispers11 Yeah but like I said, CJ is a one man army. Salvatore isn't dumb enough to send a hit crew that isn't atleast on par with CJ. And CJ has influence in all 3 cities, but only has one place to be in. Also lets not forget CJ has family he can use as leverage.
@@yeeyee6975 1st. Yep, the dude even raided Area 69. 2nd. No clue about that dude was so paranoid that he was putting his life at risk. The paranoia he develops ends up weakening his structure. 3rd. Carl Johnson's family: Sean (Sweet) Johnson and Kendel Johnson. Sweet is always deep in the hood. Kendel is normally around Cesar or in the hood. To send men reliably, he would know about CJ. Which he hardly knows anything. Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if he went hunting in LV. So, it wouldn't be impossible for him to send people but it would be a question of how many and where due to the money and influence lost.
That or Salvatore just didn’t have that kind of muscle anymore. CJ was, for all intents and purposes, Salvatore’s true weapon. Notice that Salvatore is hinted at leaving Las Ventura’s after GTA SA. He has nothing left to hold on to out there. He cut his loses, and moved back to Liberty City.
That's a good thing to go by. Don't trust everyone, but don't think everyone is your enemy. Everything must have a balance, or else you end up like Sal, or some bum that's taken advantage of.
Hey pretty lady, How much trust is needed before I can take advantage of your bum because I just got a *Mission passed* *+Respect* (Brought to you by shyguy insurance! "If she smokes! She pokes!")
I am really careful with people but still I was betrayed by people who I thought that they are my friends. Kinda similar situations like with CJ and Smoke. On the other hand my true friends became people who I saw as my enemies. Life is hard.
I must say that Rockstar was genious to make such a prequel to gta 3 that explains not only Salvatore's betrayal, but also other things (for example how Claude met Catalina and got to Liberty City). San Andreas is connected to gta vice city, too and explains what Ken Rosenberg was doing after Vice City last mission.
Dwayne and Jethro was in Vice City too, they ran the boatyard before Tommy buys it, The Truth even says this in the mission "Wear Flowers on your head".
Could you make a video explaining that CJ cannot be the made man that Toni Cipriani killed for Salvatore in LCS? Because a lot of people still believes that CJ was killed by Toni Cipriani as a revenge for the casino heist, but CJ is a home boy, not a made man. A made man is exclusively for the most formal gangster like the Leones, the Sindaccos, the Forellis, but not for the street gangs like the Grove Street, the Ballas, the Vagos or the Aztecas.
That theory is false because Cj went from being a gangster to a legitimate business man but not in a way like a mafia would do it because the reason why he robbed salvatore's casino was because of the mafia interfering with woozies casino for competition and also he did that to help woozie and secondly time that san andreas takes place is in 1992 which means toni is still in hiding away from liberty city until he returned in 1998 so at this point he doesn't know who cj is.
@@Miltypooh2001 That's exactly what I tried to said to a lot of people. But most people still believes that bullshit that Toni killed CJ, and some of them called me a CJ fanatic who don't want to believe in the sad "truth" about CJ after San Andreas.
@@ruben_zermeno my theory is that cj probably continues to live with his businesses and became famous because he's mad dog's manager and he owns half of woozie's casino and an entire air strip along with a car show business and probably the garage in Doherty
30:30 Your right about Salvatore, but you're wrong about Claude. The mere fact that he betrayed Kenji is proof enough that Claude would be willing to betray again. Claude is one of the most ruthless gta protagonist mainly because we don't know his motives. He is shadier than Michael. He was no innocent victim in his relationship with Catalina, and he is rumored to have killed Maria. When Niko was betrayed he showed much more sympathy. My point is Claude ain’t exactly a nice guy himself
my man. first we don't know if Claude actually liked Maria. second, Maria was the reason he had not been a made man in the Leone family as she had run her dumb mouth all over.
@@bigbadt392 Claude would never been made man, he’s not Italian. Salvatore lied to him and manipulated him and then decided to get of Claude like a used condom. Ship is destroyed, Leone Family are true monopolist on Portland Island, Claude did everything and… he doesn’t need them anymore. He had outlived his usefulness. Why does Salvatore need to betray Claude because of Maria? He doesn’t even love her. And he never loved her. He saw just trophy, toy and commodity in her, not a woman. Maria did a right thing. That lustful womanizer Salvatore poisoned and ruined her life. And she wanted to start all over. And Asuka helped her good.
I think Salvatore left a bomb instead of a hit squad because he was afraid Claude would kill any hit squad thrown at him, they needed a way to catch him off guard in a job, and although a car bomb still isn’t the best option, at least it makes more sense to think of it that way.
CJ is honestly one of the smartest characters to ever exist in GTA, he made the right connections, he knew the rules of the game, he knew who to fuck over and who to be friends with, he knows how people works, specially narcistic ego-inflated criminals, he gets inside insane criminal organizations that'd be suicidal to try to get in for a normal person in a matter of weeks, he gains people's trust fast and can see right through them, stays quiet when he needs and talks when he wants someone to know something, surrounds himself with loyal, relatively good people like: Truth, Cesar, Woozie. And all of them were useful somehow in on point of history. Whoever he didnt befriends with and he knew that were powerful he didnt fuck over until he had the high ground, salvatore, smoke, ryder. And apart from all that, he's an insanely skilled hitman, he simply ENDED one of the biggest families in Liberty City in a week. Im guessing the time span in GTA San andreas story is about 8 months, now tell me, what GTA character in a matter of 8 months, succeeded to: pull a heist in a mafia controlled cassino, invaded and escaped and gonverment highly protected site with a 60million dollar military project, OWNED the whole state of San Andreas and had business in all tips of the criminal underworld, properties all over the state, AND he did all that while his brother was in prision, and with a corrupt cop on his ass. Lets no forget he had nothing apart from Kendl and Cesar after tempenny screwed him over in LS. If GTA V continued san andreas' story characters like Madrazzo, Haines, Weston would be on CJ's hands easily
The weird thing about the heist that always bugged me was: How the hell did Salvatore figure out that CJ and his team were the ones responsible for the heist?
I don't know. CJ can take rejection when it is Catalina. Those cutscenes always made Claude look like he is only being used by Catalina to make CJ jealous. She even says it.
My theory is that the Casino Heist was not the only thing that pissed Salvatore off. You do remember he was also expecting CJ to kill Rosenberg, Maccer and Kent Paul. But CJ let them escape instead. Salvatore probably found out about that as well. Tell me what you think about this.
@@elperrodelautumo7511 well thats also very counterproductive and hypcritical to CJs loyalty princibals as he did the exact same thing to salvatore what Big smoke did to him.
I also blame maria for muting claude. If you noticed right when claude raised his shoulders he was going to say WHY? but then maria went "before you ask i dont know!??" hushing claude for the rest of gta 3...
Ever since C.J. double cross him and stole his money, Salvatore never fully recover from this betrayal and became paranoid. He spend 10 years of it in which lead to his death. So C.J. indirectly caused Salvatore to be paranoid in which lead to his demised at the end. Salvatore took a gamble and lost big if you know what I mean.
@@daviscameron713 Fair point.........i suppose...........he couldn't fly his men out because he was fighting a war back in liberty city.....hmmm.........i could have seen CJ Being Exiled from las venturas with hitmen waiting for him
@@AlexisStreams By he end of Gta San Andreas CJ became an influental man. He was the co-leader of the GSF, which was the strongest organization in Los Santos after fight off the Ballas. CJ was also a co-owner in the Four Dragons Casino, and he was involved in the music industry too. So he wasn't just a street gang leader, but he was an important businessman. Maybe he purchased other companies after the events of SA, like Tommy Vercetti did it in vice city. And he was a maddafuckin one-man army too :-) It is impossible to kill such an influental man like a simple street level wise guy.
Maria is the true end villain of the 3D Universe. She also contributed to Sal's paranoia which eventually ended up getting him killed by Claude and in turn ruined Claude's chances of fully getting back up. She was ignorant, careless, and borderline narcissistic as shown in both Liberty City Stories and III. I wouldn't be surprised if she were to backstab Claude at the last possible second. Very similar to Samuel Hayden in The Ancient Gods Part 1 minus the drugs.
Once I've read a theory that Maria was Asuka's spy inside the Leone family. When Claude showed up on the screen, she and Asuka decided to trick Salvatore and Claude against each other. Their evil plan worked and they could get rid of Salvatore. But personally I don't believe in this theory, I think she just naturally attracts trouble because of her stupidness. I think she hallucinated because of drugs that Claude is his boyfriend(if you heard her speech in Chatterbox FM you know what I'm talking about). We can say she is a curse. If Claude is clever enough, he broke any relations with her after the events of Gta 3(if we assume that he didn't kill her at the end).
@Jai Senai Maybe this shot was just a joke from the Rockstar boys. Perhaps Claude shot in the air to shut up Maria. Or he killed her... Nobody knows exactly what happened there. But if you and Maria sit in a car right after you took out Catalina's helicopter, Claude, Maria and the car will spawn to your warehouse. And Maria just walks away in this case. You can decide to kill or spare her. I don't know if it is a glitch or what. In my opinion it would be very cool if Claude would say 'Shut up' instead of that gunshot sound.
This just proves how incredibly dangerous CJ is. I've known for years that CJ betraying Salvatore caused his paranoia, but this put a bunch of different perspectives into place. But the thing is, I don't think it'd have changed anything if events had've been different. Claude has sociopathic tendencies, and part of that is he doesn't show much emotion. His goals are unknown, and that's why silent people are very dangerous, is because you can't predict what they'll do. If they don't show emotion or talk, how will you know? That's what makes Claude one of the deadliest protagonists. He and Catalina played Bonnie and Clyde for 9 years, and that may explain her drastically different appearance between San Andreas and III. I have a theory they done a job that went horribly, skipped country a while, and she got extensive plastic surgery. This is a good explanation, at the very least, especially if you're super OCD like me with canon discrepancies. But yeah, Sal's last mistake was failing to kill the quiet sociopath.
Sad cuz Salvatore could have helped Claude on getting revenge on Catalina. Plus Claude helped 8Ball escape at the start of GTA3 so it shows he can be loyal.
@@mariomejia8809 yeah I understand that. But it is sad how everyone gave him jobs and did them without question, with Luigi's girl even saying how they have a driver they can trust. If anything, maybe have people keep an eye on him.
1:10 I always thought that GTA III was 1970’s (NYC like Mean Streets) while San Andreas was 1990s LA/California (like Boyz n the hood) (where Vice City was 1980s Miami a la Scarface)
Although GTA 3 takes place in early 2000's Northeast it definitely has some of the feel that 70's NYC had, I think Rockstar may have been inspired by the old New York for the game
@@NeighborSenpai I respectfully disagree, GTA III had gritty crime ridden Subways (70s NYC had crime rates akin to a 3rd world country) and most of all Payphone/Phone Booths and Afro and fashion on the “working girls” I always thought GTA IV was 2000s NYC Edit: you can tell (pre smartphone, pre social media, Desktop PC Internet cafes and website based chats)
When you think about it Claude being betrayed by Sal could be Karma getting back at him for how he screwed CJ back in San Andreas since CJ (the man Claude Cons) is the reason why Sal becomes so paranoid in the future.....
CJ is the reason why GTA 3 exists. He betrayed Salvatore which led him to many trust issues so Salvatore tried to kill Claude because he thought Claude was going to betray him like CJ.
Rockstar watching this and they are like yeah we definitly did that connection and charachter development in those 3 games on purpose. We definitly didnt just put familiar faces and easter eggs from previous games xD. We were aiming for that for sure haha xD.
Salvatore betrayed Claude because CJ betrayed him before by robbing his casino in Caligula. Salvatore grew paranoid after the robbery. Saved you 32 minutes.
@@zorgapb4691 That’s what pisses me off with Rockstar they build up a lore only to abandon it for new shit. New shit is ok but got damn go back cause a lot of us would love to know what happened to previous characters.
Its Kind of funny how there is always one gta protagonist that pulls a dick move to another in a game. Claude scams CJ and tommy vercetti screws over kent by leaving him alone without any help in gta CJ is the reason why claude has to flee from portland Niko doesn't sadly since there is no one before him in the HD universe Toni has a even more paranoid boss screwing him because of CJ. Tommy gets screwed and betrayed because of victor vances death from vice city stories. if it wasn't for vik's death Lance wouldn't be working with tommy and he wouldn't get backstabbed.
GTA3 needs a remake with extended story. Toni is loyal to Salvatore and did all the stuff he did in LCS for Salvatore yet after Claude murders him Toni and seemingly the rest of the family seem to be like "well it sucks to be Savatore" lol
It seems like they actually took note on how empty was the reason for Salvatore to betray Claude in GTA III and developed on it, at least to make the betrayal more consistent with the character, by building up his paranoia in the other games. Genius!
Salvatore was a great character. He seemed like an old yet intimidating old mobster in GTA 3. He had a special aura of power about him, and in the end, he was very shaped by his paranoia. He was cool and trustworthy in San Andreas’ story, but while he was calculating for his goals, he wanted to have dominance and power. Because Carl greatly impressed him, he became very trusting of him, and it put Sal in a good position against the Forellis and the Sindaccos, which was seemingly greatly jeopardised by Johnson’s betrayal. He became weary of others, especially outsiders, and only trusted other wise guys when they proved themselves to him, like Vincenzo and Toni. When Claude was seemingly involved with Maria it sent him over the edge, like Carl’s situation, and perhaps he thought they were associated somehow, and his paranoia caused him to betray Claude, against his better judgement. Salvatore was the most powerful mob boss in Liberty City, surpassing Sonny Forelli’s influence, but his paranoia destroyed him. I wish he was a bigger antagonist and would help Catalina against the Yakuza.
In a mission for Asuka, in the Ps2 version it is the Leones who attempt to kill Claude and spy on the Yakuza after Salvatore's death. In others, it's the FBI. Even the dialogue is different. I don't know why the change, it is baffling. To make the change utter half-assed, the FBI have the Leone model.
The Sicilian Mafia also did several bombings in Italy in the 90s targeting judges that were involved in important anti-mafia trials ( en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capaci_bombing en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_D%27Amelio_bombing ) but yeah nowadays they draw way less attention
Even if Maria telling Salvatore about her affair was the straw that broke the camel's back Salvatore was paranoid from CJ's betrayal and probably had this plan to kill Claude as soon as he met him
yes what i was thinking, salvatore did say as soon as he met claude, he told luigi to tell his woman down at the club, as soon as this legitimate business is taking care of we’ll go down to the club and celebrate.
I've spent so many hours of my life (I'm 27) reading and rereading the gta wiki pages because the story is so interesting. Thanks for making this video, great job! Edited to say I wish they had included the stories games in the new remaster coming out, would have been perfect.
You know...it's funny you mention having no idea why Salvatore would use a car bomb on Claude, when you already answered the question for yourself earlier on in the video. Think about it. Why would Salvatore use CJ to do his dirty work and eliminate the Forellis? Because he's an outsider. Someone who won't be traced back. So why would Sal, who's smart enough to cover his tracks, use such a loud, dangerous, liable and attention grabbing weapon to kill Claude? The answer: He didn't. He hit up an outsider. Someone who won't be traced back. Who do we know who specializes in putting bombs in cars? 8-Ball. And it's perfect. Not only are they both outsiders, they have a history with each other. They escaped prison together. Sal could easily frame 8-Ball if he wanted to.
There's probably another reason: A truce between the Mafia and the Cartel. If you recall the mission where you track Curly Bob, he mentions the Leones are in a terrible spot losing territory, war in two fronts one between the Forellis and the other against the Triads and they're losing influence and power. So Claude getting sacrificed in a carbomb would be a favor to Cartel, since Claude has history and heat with the Cartel especially Catalina, she probably requested it to stick it to Claude one more time, mind you she even tried to get him blown up by those drugged up suicide bombers so she wanted to give him a hard time and painful fearful death. Or she's just insane. A terrible stew of associates, one paranoid the other insane.
I wish the original trilogy Mafia families stayed in the HD era, because if we got a game like LCS, where you're in the mafia, or even some kind of GTA IV DLC, with fully fledged characters and families, I'd play it over and over. Having Frank Vincent voice Salvatore was incredible, he really brought Salvatore to life.
How is anyone even sure that Salvatore betrayed Claude in the first place? I mean, you just blew up the main operations hubs of the two gangs he's at war with. Then he decides to have you killed because he's jealous and/or paranoid. Maria just so happens to tip you off after you've left Salvatore's place and tells you to come see her. Oh, and right away she's introducing you to a high-ranking Yakuza member, who she just so happens to know. Uh, is this ringing any alarm bells for anyone? It's just as possible Asuka planted a bomb in that car once Maria told her about it, so that it would look to you like you were set up by Salvatore and so _they_ could use you for _their_ benefit - and if you didn't believe her and took the car, there'd be no evidence of Maria escaping or what she told you. I mean, the first thing Asuka has you do is kill Salvatore, despite having no obvious personal axe to grind with him. Why? So if you find out what they did later, it'll be too late to go back. If this sounds like too much of a stretch, consider that despite what Maria says, you are in fact _not_ a "marked man on Mafia turf" until _after_ you kill Salvatore. Take a walk through Saint Mark's anytime before you do that mission, and it'll be like a nice Sunday stroll.
@@theinceptor3672 It's not a perfect theory. For instance, if Salvatore spots you during the mission "Sayonara, Salvatore" he alerts his goons and they will attack you, suggesting he's hostile towards Claude by that point. Still, interesting to think about.
@@TheDapperSwindler Tbh I actually think that your theory makes a lot of sense . Because tbh I am pretty sure Salvatore must have gotten news about Claude seen being around Asuka . Salvatore might think that Claude is a betrayer by that period (due to the fact he is probably seen with Asuka and Maria together) (note that Maria had told that they were having an affair)
This video, your way of explaining things, your knowledge about GTA Lore, is amazing! You actually made me love the games more! I didn't know half the things you've said in the video. I'm definitely gonna be returning to San Andreas sometime soon. Great video!
You are mistaken about the car bombs, they happened well past the 1930s. They happened in Las Vegas in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the various other cities including in Italy & Sicily as well. They were also used by the Hells Angels (which were associated with the Montreal Mafia) in the 1990-2002 Rock Machine war (one famously killing a child bystander). Car Bombs (particularly remote controlled bombs, not ignition bombs) are popular because they are extremely hard to trace, even though they tend to bring a lot of heat. They are also easy to assemble (though they are risky to place), and the killer does not need to be very close when it goes off. 2 to the head is far more risky, and really more of a film thing. You would more likely be ambushed and gunned down while vulnerable, such as while walking on the street, getting into your car, at the barber, in a restaurant or bar (or just outside), that sort of thing.
I think there are alot of factors playing here. Maria and Carl did play a role in this but I think Salvatore did want to kill Claude to tie up a lose end. Remember Claude basically killed Cartel members and destroyed their operations. Salvatore probably saw that if the Cartel finds Claude was involved they would trace it back to Salvatore. So Salvatore tied up a loose end to dispose evidence of his involved. I think Maria was only a sub factor Salvatore used to dispose of Claude and used their relationship as a reason to kill Claude. I dont think their relationship was the sole reason for this I think Maria misunderstood or took it as the reason
The money that's in the casino is money that's already been laundered. That means, as far as the authorities are concerned, there's no way to prove that money was illegal. That's why they call it "laundering". Taking dirty money and making clean.
