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Donnie Gannette

Donald Gannette will only respond to Donnie which was the nickname given to him from his mother, Dorothy, who spoiled him rotten as a child and always ran to his defense whenever he got in trouble to make sure nothing would happen to her favourite boy. All his brothers and sister knew he was a mama's boy and made fun of him constantly over it and the fact that he had a stuttering problem.

Donnie never did well in school and was tested as being mildly retarded. Even though he was slower than most kids, he had street smarts and could take advantage of most people to get what he wanted. His father, Evrol, saw his son's gift for manipulation and wanted him to work for his company in the future, but was growing disturbed of his out of control behaviour.

Donnie was always getting in fights because the kids picked on him at school, but he grew tired of it and became a bully to the point even the teachers were afraid of him. His mother always bailed him out of trouble at school and did nothing to discipline him nor tell his father about the problems. Eventually, he came to high school and found other slackers then started to skip school while committing petty crimes. Again, his mother was there to bail him out of trouble. He was getting an attitude problem and started staying out all night long and a few times would leave home for a few days and no one knew where he went.

Evrol was tired of his son's behaviour and confronted him about it. Donnie beat up his own father and was kicked out of the house and told to make it on his own. At that point, even his mother could not help him because Evrol threatened to divorce her and cut her off if she did. So Donnie was a 17 year old, out of control boy, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. He tried to join the army, but with a long list of petty juvenile arrests he had a hard time getting in for about a year. He only got in after robbing a bank and they gave him the option of a lengthy prison sentence or joining the army in a special programme.

While in the army, he was constantly in trouble. He even went AWOL and was about ready to be court-martialed until he saved an officer's life who was going down Michigan Street and was mugged at knife point. That officer gave him a good reference at the hearing, but Donnie's overall behaviour was unacceptable and they decided to give him a dishonourable discharge and sent him to serve a reduced prison sentence at the discretion of the judge.

When Donnie got out of prison, he mother had died and his father married another woman. They wanted nothing to do with him. His brothers Parker and Leon were also in trouble with their father and kicked out of their lives for other reasons. In order to keep his sons out of the way, Evrol gave his sons some property that was not being used and told them they could do what they wanted with it, but they were ordered never to approach him for anything again and not to drag the family name through the mud.

His brothers never really got along as kids, but as adults forced to live next to each other it only made things worse. They were constantly fighting and often had the police called in to break things up.

As Donnie had no real job skills except dealing drugs, he decided to have a legitimate business to front his operation and opened a bar on part the lot he bought from Parker who had acquired large gambling debts. His life seemed to be going quite well, despite the fighting, the raids, the crime and so forth that was part of his norm. Then one day he met a woman that started to come into his bar on a regular basis who came into town from Boston with her husband. Her name is Susan Braccio and her husband was Frankie. They were living at Franco Towers and he was beating her on an almost daily basis.

Donnie felt sorry for her and befriended the poor lady. Soon it developed into an affair and Frankie found out about it. He beat up his wife and came to beat up Donnie, but Donnie's bar help took care of him and beat him to a pulp. Susan found out she was pregnant and wanted to leave her husband, but he wasn't going to let her. Susan ran crying to Donnie at the bar and later that night when Frankie went looking for his wife, he ended up mugged and killed. The person, or persons behind it were never caught. Donnie took Susan into his home and they have lived together ever since that night. When Teena was born, no one was sure exactly who her father was, but for the records Frankie was listed so she could receive government and insurance benefits.

He never really felt shame for using his daughter for the benefits because it gave them some extra money to make sure she had decent clothes to wear to school and it put food on the table. Most of the money made at the bar went towards business expenses, paying a staff, security, bail money, and a bad drug habit both Donnie and Susan acquired.

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