Background: Joe's stint in the Army might have let him be all that he could be, but it didn't exactly prepare him for the real world. He returned to his native Los Angeles, at a loss for what to do. He drifted into odd jobs, and eventually found himself working as a bellhop at the Beverly Hills Hilton. The work seemed to suit him. Not the carrying bags part -- anybody could do that. But Joe always kept his ears open, and was able to help the guests out, help them find things, places, people; help them make the connections they needed.

Joe stayed away from the really illegal stuff; he didn't hook folks up with drugs, for example. But if you needed to score a couple of invites to the hot party in town, if you wanted to known where to go to see and be seen, if you had to "bump into" that certain director, and wanted to know where he'd be eating that night, Joe was your go-to guy. He knew just about anything that was going down in LA or Hollywood.

It went deeper than that. If you needed to "borrow" a hot car for a date (or a job), Joe could hook you up. Safe houses, street docs, hardware, it didn't matter. He was Mr. Downtown, and his fingers were on everyone's pulse.

He stepped on some toes along the way; it was bound to happen. Juan San Lucas was not amused when DT "lent" the crimelord's limo to a friend for a quick ride down the coast and reached out to crush the foolish fixer like a bug. It was a miscalculation on San Lucas' part.

Mr. Downtown had been turned onto the Blackboard by a grateful client, and had been helping its users fill their LA needs. Now, he turned to it for some help of his own. He got the Four Horsemen riding to his rescue. The five of them put San Lucas down for good, but pissed off the rest of the Diego-San Lucas Crime Organization even more. No big deal to the Horsemen; they were used to it. But it was more heat than DT was used to. He started hanging out with the Horsies more and more, and became their eyes on the street. When the Blackboard got even more organized, Mr. Downtown was there to be a part of it.

Skills: Mr. Downtown is the ultimate source for information in LA and its surroundings. If you need to find out something, he's the first place to check. He's also an excellent scrounger and can come up with almost anything, given time. A lot of strange stuff finds its way to LA, and Mr. Downtown can get his hands on it.

DT was an 11-Bravo in this man's army, and is comfortable with rifles, pistols, grenades, machine-guns, and small mortars. In addition, he's gotten used to shotguns and SMGs. He's not the combat star that many of his compatriots are, but he can certainly hold his own. He's had his share of street scuffles, but he's not a train martial artist. He leaves that stuff to folks like Rudy, who are psycho enough to get good at it.