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Boardwalk Empire Wiki
1,869
pages
Explore
Main Page
All Pages
Community
Interactive Maps
Recent Blog Posts
Episodes
Season 1
Boardwalk Empire
The Ivory Tower
Broadway Limited
Anastasia
Nights in Ballygran
Family Limitation
More...
Season 2
21
Ourselves Alone
A Dangerous Maid
What Does the Bee Do?
Gimcrack & Bunkum
The Age of Reason
More...
Season 3
Resolution
Spaghetti and Coffee
Bone for Tuna
Blue Bell Boy
You'd Be Surprised
Ging Gang Goolie
More...
Season 4
New York Sour
Resignation
Acres of Diamonds
All In
Erlkonig
The North Star
More...
Season 5
Golden Days for Boys and Girls
The Good Listener
What Jesus Said
Cuanto
King of Norway
Devil You Know
More...
Characters
Main Male Characters
Nucky Thompson
Nelson Van Alden
Eli Thompson
Chalky White
Mickey Doyle
Jimmy Darmody
Richard Harrow
Eddie Kessler
Commodore Louis Kaestner
Owen Sleater
Main Female Characters
Margaret Schroeder
Gillian Darmody
Angela Darmody
Lucy Danziger
Sally Wheet
Billie Kent
Daughter Maitland
Historical Figures
Al Capone
Lucky Luciano
Arnold Rothstein
Johnny Torrio
Joe Masseria
Salvatore Maranzano
Meyer Lanksy
Bugsy Siegel
Gaston Means
Bill Fallon
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Jimmy Darmody
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===Background=== Jimmy is the son of [[Commodore Louis Kaestner]], a political power broker and one-time boss of [[Atlantic City]], and the showgirl [[Gillian Darmody]]. According to Gillian, she caught the Commodore's eye during the "Neptune's Bounty" parade in May 1, 1897 - she was thirteen at the time, and he was fifty-four - and was brought to him by then-Sheriff [[Nucky Thompson]]. After being raped and impregnated by the Commodore, Gillian raised Jimmy on her own. Gillian has admitted inappropriate sexual behaviour to Jimmy in his infancy. Gillian relied on the help of fellow showgirls and wealthy men whom she had affairs with. While both father and son were aware of the other's existence, they rarely spoke and never acknowledged each other publicly, Jimmy saying at one point he "had no father." [[File:Jimmy-Angela-1916.jpg|thumb|[[Jimmy]] and [[Angela]] in 1916. ("[[Under God's Power She Flourishes]]")]] Feeling responsible for both mother and son, Nucky took the young Jimmy under his wing - including taking him to see a speech by President [[William Howard Taft]] - and began grooming Jimmy to succeed him as the boss of [[Nucky's organization|his organization]]. Jimmy enrolled as a student in [[Princeton University]] in 1916 with Nucky paying for his tuition. While at Princeton Jimmy met [[Angela Darmody|Angela Ianotti]] and the two dated and became lovers. Gillian visited Jimmy at Princeton and attended a mixer with him and Angela. Angela told Jimmy that she was pregnant and Jimmy drank heavily. Gillian claimed to have been sexually assaulted by his professor [[Noel Pearson]] at the event and Jimmy beat Pearson up. Mother and son went home together and had sex later that night. Jimmy dropped out of Princeton and enlisted in the Army the next day. He never fully explained why he left college to Nucky and Nucky was disappointed by the decision. Jimmy also broke all contact with Gillian and Angela, not writing to her even after she gave birth to their son, [[Tommy Darmody|Thomas]]. [[File:Darmody-Trench.png|thumb|left|201px|Jimmy in the trenches of the Western Front. ("[[To the Lost]]")]] Meanwhile, Jimmy spent some months at boot camp near [[Chicago]] and was shipped off to [[France]] some time after the [[United States]] entered [[World War I]] in 1917, where he saw extensive combat as an infantryman and later a machine gunner, according to his dog tags, as a corporal in Company B, 42d Infantry Regiment (in real life, the 42d never left the United States) The experience severely scarred him; in particular, he would suffer recurring nightmares featuring a German soldier that he saw agonizing while trapped in the barbed wire for three days. However, this didn't stop him from being awarded an unknown medal for his bravery at the [[Battle of Saint-Mihiel]] in 1918. His right leg was severely damaged by fragments from a German grenade during the [[Meusse-Argonne Offensive]] near the end of the war. Top surgery in [[Verdun]] followed by a long recovery of eight months at [[Walter Reed Military Hospital]] in [[Washington DC]] managed to save the leg, but he was left with scars, a noticeable limp and occasional hurt. As the series begins Jimmy has been out of hospital and returned to Atlantic City for one month, has moved in with Angela and Tommy and is working as a driver for Nucky. He is very ambitious and expects to rise quickly within [[Nucky's organisation]].
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