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| Sal served as second-in-command to his brother Julius in the Carbone crime family. The two were seldom in agreement. Both were present when Mickey Fondozzi introduced his cousin, Johnny Tower (actually Frank Castle, the Punisher). Sal took an instant dislike to Tower, and blamed him for the many deaths on the Carbone side when he and Fondozzi led an assault on the DePaninis. Similarly, when all present at a Carbone operation were killed, Sal suspected an inside job, possibly by "Tower" or Fondozzi. |
| Fondozzi and "Tower" followed Sal, learning that he was involved in side operations with Asian criminals. They took photographs and showed them to Julius Carbone, leading him to believe that Sal was a traitor. Julius sent "Tower" and Fondozzi to capture Sal, and they drugged him and drove him out to New Jersey to dump him there. However, Sal's past use of narcotics gave him resistance to the drugs he'd been injected with, and he recovered prematurely, overpowered Fondozzi, and leapt from the car. Fleeing from his attackers, Sal ran out onto thin ice and fell through into the freezing waters below. After seeing his body floating lifeless beneath the ice, "Tower" and Fondozzi left him for dead. |
| The next day, Sal's body was discovered still partially in the freezing waters, over four hours later. Though hypothermic , he was still alive. Sal began to regain consciousness in a New Jersey hospital. Regaining his strength, Sal escaped the hospital. Unable to remember his own name, he took the name Thorn after seeing it on a billboard. |
