[UA] What's behind door number 1?

[Kevin White]

Ok, so my 1950s campaign is slowly coming together (thanks for all  
the ideas... btw if anyone is interested I also bumped into a thread  
on RPG.net about film noir detective ideas http://forum.rpg.net/ 
showthread.php?t=28246 which had a fair amount of info and references).

I got my first character outline in and it is the classic I-have-no- 
family idea. They were all murdered by the mob while the character  
hid in a door to some extra-dimensional place.

Whilst I have nothing against tragic backgrounds I am tempted to  
twist it a bit and had a couple of thoughts that I thought I would  
share and bounce :)

1. All his family didn't die... his sister was actually taken and  
indoctrinated into the mob and can either become a femme fatal (with  
the possibility for some incestuous dodginess) or a damsel in  
distress (heck.. with the same possibilities)
2. The dimensional portal was just a metaphor for the character and  
they actually died, killed by the mob to bring the errant father back  
into line, the whole my-family-died is a psychological construct to  
save the character who is actually a ghost but doesn't accept it
3. All family members experienced the same portal to somewhere else  
and each has lived in a universe where the rest of their family died.  
One day the portal could appear again.
4. I suppose, another more mundane avenue for levers against the  
character would be the families that they grew up with; foster or  
adoptive.

Any thoughts of other interesting options?

Kevin