‘General Hospital’ Profile: GH’s Corinthos Crime Family Explained

General Hospital’s The Corinthos Crime Syndicate, also referred to sometimes as the Corinthos-Morgan family, was established in Port Charles, New York by Sonny Corinthos. It remains the most powerful crime family in the city and has fought off takeovers by a number of other major and minor rival crime syndicates. Sonny has largely been able to avoid being held accountable for his crimes.

Sonny Corinthos came to Port Charles in the early 1990s and set up shop. His first endeavor was a strip club called Paradise Lounge which he ran for Frank Smith and where he also trafficked in drugs. Sonny uses some of his illegal earnings to invest in the legitimate business of L&B Records, founded by then-girlfriend Brenda Barrett and Lois Cerullo. After Luke Spencer offs Frank Smith, Sonny makes his big move and takes over Frank’s organization and became a mob boss in his own right.

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This also begins Sonny and Luke’s long quasi-friendship and their on and off partnership in businesses that are mostly illegitimate in nature. He is later forced to marry Lily Rivera to stay out of jail but she died, victim of a car bomb her father planted intending to kill Sonny. Furious, Sonny then hunts down and kills her father Hernando Rivera. He inherited $30 million from Lily’s death but donated it to General Hospital for a wing in Stone’s name, his friend who died of AIDS.

Sonny’s business really changes when he takes on Jason Quartermaine, now calling himself Jason Morgan, who has suffered brain damage from a drunk driving accident and has lost his memory. Jason sold Sonny all his ELQ stock and joined the Corinthos-Rivera organization making it the Corinthos-Morgan family. They became life-long friends and Jason served as hit man for Sonny’s mob activities. Sonny later offers to leave his life of crime to be with Brenda after he breaks she and Jax up.

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Instead, he leaves her at the altar after a nightmare about her dying in a car bombing and leaves town for awhile. His life and business take another dramatic and permanent turn when he meets Carly and adopts her son with AJ, Michael. Sonny’s business is affected because of his bipolar disorder and he often struggles to keep it together and refuses to take his medication. When Sonny takes up with Jason’s sister Emily Quartermaine, Jason takes control of the crime family from Sonny.

Sonny later take out a hit on Jason then called it off and they reconciled. But after his adopted son Michael is shot, Sonny signs the whole crime syndicate over to Jason to try and protect his family. But Sonny couldn’t stay out of his life of crime and asked Jason for the syndicate back. Because Sonny was out of control emotionally, Jason said no so Sonny married Claudia Zacchara to get control of the Zacchara crime family which set he and Jason up as mob rivals.

They later worked it out and Jason gave Sonny the business back. Sonny’s coffee import business is a legitimate business but is often used as a cover for his crime activities. Jason is presumed dead after being shot and falling off the docks. Shawn Butler then steps up to take a bigger role. While in jail for the murder of AJ Quartermaine, Sonny hands the reins to the Corinthos syndicate over to Duke Lavery. Sonny was released from prison and when Duke was shot Sonny took over the business again.  Jason turns out to be Jake Doe but, as of this writing, his identity has yet to be revealed.

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