Excerpts from the first pocketbook edition by Fawcett Crest Book (1969) related to key issues of the organized-crime debate, compiled by Klaus von Lampe.
Back to: Organized Crime in the U.S.
References to:
Sicilians
Political Influence/Power
Organization
Mafia
Cosa Nostra
Rackets
Gangster
Syndicate
Murder, Inc.
Mob
The other Crime Families
Control over Illegal Activities
Range of Activities
References to Sicilians:
(back to top)
"Because they know that by tradition no Sicilian
can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day. And no Sicilian
ever lets a chance like that go by." (27)
Consigliori...So high a position was traditionally
given only to a man descended from two Italian parents. (40)
the Don had broken a long-standing tradition. The
Consigliori was always a full-blooded Sicilian, and the fact that
Hagen had been brought up as a member of the (50) Don's family
made no difference to that tradition. It was a question of blood.
Only a Sicilian born to the ways of omerta, the law of silence,
could be trusted in the key post of Consigliori. (49f)
...any of the powerful Sicilian families who had
established themselves in America. (50)
-> p. 67
Blood was blood and nothing else was its equal. (99)
the Sicilians' law of omerta, the law of silence
(101)
the ten-century-old law of omerta (213)
Barzini: "Even a Sicilian sentenced to twenty
years might break the omerta and talk his brains out." (288)
omerta, the law of silence (324)
Political Influence/Power:
(back to top)
Don Corleone did not hide his pleasure that so great
a man as the Senator had shown him such respect. The Senator,
like Luca Brasi, was one of the great stones in (42) the Don's
power structure, and he too, with this gift, had resworn his loyalty.
(41f)
Woltz was not a stupid man, he was merely a supremely
egoistical one. He had mistaken the power he wielded in his world
to be more potent than the power of Don Corleone...Would actually
have him killed!...There couldn't bbe any kind of world if people
acted that way. It was insane. It meant you couldn't do what you
wanted with your own money, with the companies you owned, the
power you had to give orders. It was ten times worse than communism.
It had to be smashed. It must never be allowed. (69)
With the revenue they earn they can amass more and
more police and policitcal power. (72)
Detective John Phillips, who was on the family payroll
(82)
I need the Family political contacts more than I
need the money even. (89)
"He has the political connections they always
need and he can use them for trading. If he wants to badly enough".
(117)
Hagen... "Your Godfather is a much more powerful
in areas far more critical. How can he swing the Award? He controls,
or controls the people who control, all the labor unions in the
industry, all the people or nearly all the people who vote."
(170)
He also would be called in on special cases, where
store owners resisted the sales talks of Clemenza and Tessio.
Then Vito Corleone would use his own formidable powers of persuasion.
(212)
Like any good salesman he came to understand the
benefits of undercutting his rivals in price, barring them from
distribution outlets by persuading store owners to stock less
of their brands. Like any good busi- (213)nessman he aimed at
holding a monopoly by forcing his rivals to abandon the field
or by merging with his own company. (212f)
He had to rely on the force of his own personality
and his reputation as a "man of respect". (213)
A system of payoffs was set up and soon the Corleone
organization had a sizable "sheet", the list of officials
entitled to a monthly sum. (214)
when these Italians were puzzled and confused on
who to vote for to represent them in the state legislature, in
the city offices, in the Congress, they should ask the advice
of their friend don Corleone, their Godfather. And so he became
a political power to be consulted by practical party chiefs...He
planned for the future of his empire with all the foresight of
a great national leader. (216)
Don Corleone: "I do have some influence but
many of the people who respect my counsel might lose this respect
if drugs become involved in our relationship. they are afraid
to be involved in such business and they have strong feelings
about it. (289)
Michael: "Killed, yes; jail, no". (362)
"My father is a businessman trying to provide
for his wife and children and those friends he might need someday
in a time of trouble. He doesn't accept the rules of the society
we live in because those rules would have condemned him to a life
not suitable to a man like himself, a man of extraordinary force
and character. What you have to understand is that he considers
himself the equal of all those great men like Presidents and Prime
Ministers and Supreme court Justices and Governors of the States.
He refuses to live by rules set up by others, rules which condemn
him to a defeated life. But his ultimate aim is to enter that
society with a certain power since society doesn't really protect
its members who do not have their own individual power. In the
meantime he operates on a code of ethics he considers far superior
to the legal structures of society." (365)
The things he did can no longer be done except with
a great deal of risk. Whether we like it or not the Corleone Family
has to join that society. (365)
He was amazed at how wealthy and powerful the Corleone
Family truly was. It owned tremendously valuable real estate in
midtown New York, whole office buildings. It owned, through front,
partnerships in two Wall Street brokerage houses, pieces of banks
on Long Island, partnerships in some garment center firms, all
this in addition to its illegal operations in gambling. (391)
Michael: "political connections and power are
worth ten regimes. I think I've got most of my father's political
power in my hands now, but I'm the only one who really knows that."
(414)
Organization:
(back to top)
when Don Corleone returned from the hospital, he
had informed Hagen that he was now officially the new Consigliori
to the family. This meant that Hagen was sure to become a very
rich man, to say nothing of power. (49)
Between the head of the family, Don Corleone, who
dictated policy, and the operating level of men who actually carried
out the orders of the Don, there were three layers, or buffers.
In that way nothing could be traced to the top. (50)
caporegime (86), (221), (411)
Clemenza was troubled. Not because Gatto had been
his prot‚g‚ and had turned traitor. This did not reflect
on the caporegime's judgment. After all, Paulie's background had
been perfect. He came from a Sicilian family, he had grown up
in the same neighborhood as the Corleone children, had indeed
even gone to school with one of the sons. He had been brought
up through each level in the proper manner. He had been tested
and not found wanting. And then after he had "made his bones"
he had received a good living from the Family, a percentage of
an East Side "book" and a union payroll slot. Clemenza
had not been unaware that Paulie Gatto supplemented his income
with free-lance stickups, strictly against the Family rules, but
even this was a sign of the man's worth. The breaking of such
regulations was considered a sign of high-spiritedness, like that
shown by a fine racing horse fighting the reins. (100)
It was an important promotion, that to "button"
man (101)
in the organization (101)
acting head of the family (135)
Nino..."...once I asked the Don for a job in
his organization...He says every man has only one destiny and
that my destiny was to be an artist. Meaning that I couldn't be
a racket guy." (188)
Finally Vito Corleone worked out a system of organization.
He gave Clemenza and Tessio each the title of Caporegime, or captain,
and the men who worked beneath them the rank of soldier. He named
Genco Abbandando his counselor, or Consigliori. He put layers
of insulation between himself and any operational act. When he
gave an order it was to Genco or to one of the caporegimes alone.
Rarely did he have a witness to any order he gave any particular
one of them. The he split Tessio's group and made it responsible
for Brooklyn. He also split Tession off from Clemenza and made
it clear over the years that he did not want the two men to associate
even socially except when absolutely necessary. ...Tessio understood
that Vito did not want his two caporegimes to have any opportunity
to conspire against him and he also understood there was no ill
will involved, merely a tactical precaution. In return Vito gave
Tessio a free hand in Brooklyn while he kept Clemenza's Bronx
fief very much under his thumb. (215)
And when an employee of his was arrested and sent
to prison by some mischance, that unfortunate man's family received
a living allowance; and not a miserly, beggarly, begrudging pittance
but the same amount the man earned when free. (215)
Normally the highly placed members of the Corleone
Family would never be concerned with such an operational detail.
There was at least a five-layer insulation to their level. But
since the book was being used as a testing ground for the son-in-law,
it had been placed under the direct scrutiny of Tom Hagen, to
whom a report was sent every day. (244)
Meanwhile he would guard his Family's empire, earn
the respect of his father, and, since the position was not hereditary
to an absolute degree, cement his claim as heir to the Corleone
Empire. (261)
Succession in control of such enterprise as the Family
was by no means hereditary. In any other Family powerful caporegimes
such as Clemenza and Tessio might have succeeded to the position
of Don. Or at least they might have been allowed to split off
and form their own Family. (398)
Tessio: "I think you should give us permission
to recruit new men for our regimes" (401)
Hagen: "You gave Lampone his own living, you
gave him a lot of freedom. So he needs people to help himin his
little empire. But everybody he recruits has to be reported to
me. And I notice everybody he puts on the payroll is a little
too good for that particular job, is getting a little more money
than that particular exercise is worth." (403)
In their eyes he was not yet the new Don; he had
not earned the position or the title. If the Godfather had lived,
he might have assured his son's succession; now it was by no means
certain. (412)
He was put in the Clemenza regime and tested carefully
by that masterful personnel man. (424)
He was a "special" and as such commanded
a high salary but did not have his own living, a bookmaking or
strong-arm operation. (425)
Neri was sent to take command of the Tessio regime.
(435)
Mafia:
(back to top)
"That's the Mafia style, isn't is (sic!)? All
olive oil and sweet talk when what you're really doing is making
threats." (Woltz) (62)
"And if that Mafia goombah tries any rough stuff,
he'll find out I'm not a band leader." (Woltz) (62)
his father is a Mafia chief who has to kill bad people,
sometimes bribe high government officials (121)
Corleone was one of the biggest Mafia men in the
country with more political connections than Capone had ever had
(139)
The toughest hood in the Mafia had to stand still
if the lowliest patrolman decided to slap him around (140)
Emissaries were sent that very day by plane to Sicily
to prepare a hiding place with the Mafia chief in the hill country
(140)
In Sicily at the turn of the century the Mafia was
the second government, far more powerful than the official one
in Rome. Vito Corleone's father became involved in a feud with
another villager who took his case to the Mafia. The father refused
to knuckle under and in a public quarrel killed the local Mafia
chief. A week later he himself was found dead, his body torn apart
by lupara blasts. A month after the funeral Mafia gunmen came
inquiring after the young boy, Vito. (194)
This man was reputed to be of the "Black Hand",
an offshoot of the Mafia which extorted money from families and
storekeepers by threat of physical violence. (195)
He used the Sicilian phrase of the Mafia, "Fari
vagnari a pizzu". (199)
his own hot-tempered father who had been killed by
the Mafia in Sicily (200)
A real Mafioso chief would have had the other two
men killed also. (201)
Corleone, "Watch yourself with that bastard
of a Black Hand, he's tricky as a priest. (202)
Black Hand terrorist (203)
Vito Corleone was now a "man of respect"
in the neighborhood. He was reputed to be a member of the Mafia
in Sicily. (212)
dragged through the bloody mud of the Mafia war (258)
>The Other Mafia Families (258)
The Bocchicchio Family was unique in that, once a
particularly ferocious branch of the Mafia in Sicily, it had become
an instrument of peace in America. (276)
the Bocchicchios had contacted fellow Mafia chiefs
and extracted agreements for their aid. The heavy equipment was
sabotaged, the lighter equipment stolen. Mafia deputies in the
Italian Parliament launched a bureucratic (sic!) counterattack
against the planners. This went on for several years and in that
time Mussolini came to power. The dictator decreed that the dam
must be built. It was not. The dictator had known that the Mafia
would be a threat to his regime, forming what amounted to a separate
authority from his own. (277)
In a few short years he had broken the power of the
Mafia, simply by arbitrarily arresting anyone even suspected of
being a mafioso. (278)
as a diversification, the Bocchicchio Familiy became
negotiators and hostages in the peace efforts of waring Mafia
families. (278)
they recognized their limitations and knew they could
not compete with ther Mafia families in the struggle to organize
and control more sophisticated business structures like prostitution,
gambling, dope and public fraud. (278)
Chicago Mafia (283)
to the interior of the Sicilian island, to the very
heart of a province controlled by the Mafia, where the local capomafioso
was greatly indebted to his father for some past service. (324)
Michael was installed as a gueat in the home of a
bachelor uncle of the capo-mafioso...The capo-mafioso was a man
in his late fifties... (324)
the gabbelotto was a mafioso who for a certain sum
of money protected the real estate of the rich from all claims
made on it by the poor, legal or illegal. (325)
Don Tommasino was an old-fashioned Mafia chief and
would have nothing to do with dope traffic or prostitution. In
this Don Tommasino was at odds with the new breed of Mafia leaders
springing up in big cities like Palermo, new men who, influenced
by American gangsters deported to Italy, had no such scruples.
The Mafia chief was an extremely portly man, a "man with
a belly", literally as well as in the figurative sense that
meant a man able to inspire fear in his fellow men. (325)
Dr. Taza loved to tell stories about the Mafia and
its exploits over the centuries (325)
In this antique garden, Michael Corleone learned
about the roots from which his father grew. That the word "Mafia"
had originally meant place of refuge. The it became the name for
the secret organization that sprang up to fight against the rulers
who had crushed the country and its people for centuries. (326)
They learned that society was their enemy and so
when they sought redress for their wrongs they went to the rebel
underground, the Mafia. And the Mafia cemented is power by originating
the law of silence, the omerta. ... And the greatest crime any
member of the Mafia could commit would be to tell the police the
name of the man who had just shot him or done him any kind of
injury. Omerta became the religion of the people. (326)
the Robin Hood Mafia. And to some extent the Mafia
fulfilled this role. People turned to their local capo-mafioso
for help in every emergency. (326)
the Mafia in Sicily had become the illegal arm of
the rich and even the auxiliary police of the legal and political
struc- (327)ture. It had become a degenerate capitalist structure,
anti-communist, anti-liberal, placing its own taxes on every form
of business endeavor no matter how small. (327)
He had passed his medical exams through the good
offices of the most important Mafia chief in Sicily who had made
a special trip to Palermo to confer with Taza's professors about
what grades they should give him. And this too showed how the
Mafia in Sicily was cancerous to the society it inhabited. Merit
meant nothing. Talent meant nothing. Work meant nothing. The Mafia
Godfather gave you your profession as a gift. (327)
The shepherds of the island were often recruited
to act as the Mafia's hired killers and did their job simply to
earn money to live. Michael thought about his father's organization.
If it continued to prosper it would grow into what had happened
here on this island, so cancerous that it would destroy the whole
country. (327)
The deadly Sicilian shotgun was the favorite weapon
of the Mafia. Indeed the police chief sent by Mussolini to clean
the Mafia out of Sicily had, as one of his first steps... (328)
arresting and deporting to penal colonies any male
suspected of being a mafioso. (328)
believed that anyone imprisoned by the Fascist regime
was a democrat and many of these mafiosi were appointed as mayors
of villages or interpreters to the military government. This good
fortune enabled the Mafia to reconstitute itself and become more
formidable than ever before. (328)
favorite spot for the Mafia torturers (329)
"new Mafia" (329)
With this wealth they were trying to encroach on
the country fiefs of old-time Mafia leaders whom they con-(330)temptuously
labled Moustache Petes. (329f)
The region was loaded with bandits, with Mafia partisans
fighting against each other and endangering everybody else in
the process. (330)
The Mafia, after the law proved helpless, took this
interest of the peasant under its protection and solved the problem
in typical fashion. (330)
And yet the Mafia market carts had gaily painted
scenes on their sides (331)
He (Michael) was, after all was said, a murderer,
a Mafioso who had "made his bones". (334)
Don Tommasino, knowing Michael's true identity and
deed, had always been wary of him, treating him as a fellow "man
of respect". (335)
Since the word Mafia could never be uttered aloud
by the ordinary Sicilian, this was as close as the caf‚ owner
could come to asking if Michael was a member of the Mafia. (337)
He was talking about the new-style Mafia chiefs rising
in the big cities of Palermo and challenging the power of old-regime
stalwarts like himself. (338)
capo-mafioso (338), (350)
He was still having trouble with the new Mafia in
the town of Palermo, Dr. Taza said. (346)
"I would have practiced the New England omerta.
Yankees are pretty closemouthed too, you know." (360)
Cosa Nostra:
(back to top)
"...And who are they then to meddle when we
look after our own interests? Sonna cosa nostra," Don Corleone
said, "these are our own affairs. We will manage our world
for ourselves because it is our world, cosa nostra. And so we
have to stick together to guard against outside meddlers. (293)
Rackets:
(back to top)
a crooked police official mixed up in the rackets
who got what was coming to him (132)
They had assumed it was another gang execution, and
had questioned hoodlums with records in the rackets and a history
of strong-arm. (207)
rackets (222)
Gangster:
(back to top)
Maranzalla was a gangster often in the newspapers,
reputed to be the leader of a criminal ring specialized in extortion,
gambling and armed robbery. (201)
Kay: "You're really a gangster then" (361)
Kay: "You're telling me you're a gangster"
(362)
Syndicate:
(back to top)
Cleveland syndicate, perhaps the most powerful of
the strictly gambling operations in the United States (283)
Murder, Inc.:
(back to top)
Moe Greene was a handsome hood who had made his rep
as a Murder Incorporated executioner in Brooklyn. (387)
Mob:
(back to top)
Michael: "He's not a crazy machine-gunning mobster
as you seem to think." (365)
The other Crime Families:
(back to top)
one of the five great New York families (87)
there were five or six "Families" too powerful
to eliminate. (222)
the Corleone Family had waged war against the five
great Mafia Families of New York and the carnage had filled the
newspapers. (258)
Besides the Five Families of New York, there were
representatives from ten other Families across the country, with
the exception of Chicago, that black sheep of their world. (280)
Greene: "You're getting chased out of New York
by the other Families" (388)
ever since Don Corleone had made the peace with the
Five Families, the strength of the Corleone Family had declined.
the Barzini Family was now indisputably the most powerful one
in the New York area; allied as they were to the Tattaglias, they
now held the position the Corleone Family had once held. (398)
The Five Families sent their Dons and caporegimes,
as did the Tessio and Clemenza Families. (409)
Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored
the Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families.
(435)
Control over Illegal Activities:
(back to top)
The call was from the bookmaker licenced by the Family
to operate in the district of the Don's office. (83)
an enforcer who worked with the colored policy bankers
in Harlem...This man got along too well with the black people,
which hinted at some flaw of character. Also he would be too hard
to replace in the position he now held. (101)
When he became a Don and asked opponents to sit down
and (203) reason with him, they understood it was the last chance
to resolve an affair without bloodshed and murder. (202f)
They knew he had killed Fanucci and though they never
spoke about it to anyone the whole neighborhood, within a few
weeks, also knew. Vito Corleone was treated as a "man of
respect" by everyone. But he made no attempt to take over
the Fanucci rackets and tributes. (208)
Vito Corleone made the final step rom a quite ordinary,
somewhat ruthless businessman to a great Don in the world of criminal
enterprise...by the end of the Prohibition period and the start
of the Great Depression, Vito Corleone had become the Godfather,
the Don, Don Corleone. (213)
The great Al Capone was Maranzano's friend and he
had his won organization, his own men, plus a huge war chest.
He would not brook this upstart whose reputation was more that
of a Parliamentary debator than a true Mafioso. Maranzano's refusal
touched off the great war of 1933 which was to change the whole
structure of the underworld in New York City. (217)
The underworld did not know the true strength of
his soldiers and even were deceived that Tessio in Brooklyn was
a separate and independent operation. (217)
there were five or six "Families" too powerful
to eliminate. But the rest, the neighborhood Black Hand terrorists,
the free-lance shylocks, the strong-arm bookmakers operating without
the proper, that is to say paid, protec-(223)tion of the legal
authorities, would have to go. And so he mounted what was in effect
a colonial war against these people and threw all the resources
of the Corleone organization against them. (222f)
He was underworld apostle of peace and, by 1939,
more successfull than any Pope, he had achieved a working agreement
amongst the most powerful underworld organizations in the country.
Like the Constitution of the United States this agreement respected
fully the internal authority of each member in his state or city.
The agreement covered only spheres of influence and an agreement
to enforce peace in the underworld. (224)
Nobody wanted the old day back again with all its
turmoil and trouble (262)
The death of Santino Corleone sent shock waves through
the underworld of the nation (276)
Since the New York Families were the most powerful
in the country, it was understood that their welfare affected
the welfare of the country as a whole. (276)
grand council (276)
Other dons were arriving. They all knew each other,
they had met over the years, either socially or when in the pursuit
of their businesses. They had always showed each other professional
courtesies and in their younger, leaner days had done each other
little services. (281)
ambition to supplant Don Corleone as the most powerful
and respected Mafia leader in the country and to take over part
of the Corleone empire. (285)
Barzini:"Sollozzo and the Tattaghlias could
not go into their new business without the assistance of Don Corleone.
In fact, his disapproval injured them. That's not his fault of
course. The fact remains that judges and politicians who would
accept favors from Don Corleone, even on drugs, would not allow
themselves to be influenced by anybody else when it came to narcotics.
Sollozzo couldn't operate if he didn't have some insurance of
his people being treated gently. (288)
It was agreed that Las Vegas and Miami were to be
open cities where any of the Families could operate. They all
recognized that these were the cities of the future. It was also
agreed that no violence would be permitted in these cities and
that petty criminals of all types were to be discouraged. it was
agreed that in momentous affairs, in executions that were necessary
but might cause too much of a public outcry, the execution must
be approved by this council. It was agreed that Families would
do each other services when requested, such as providing executioners,
technical assistance in pursuing certain courses of action such
as bribing jurors, which in some instances could be vital. These
discussions, informal, colloquial and on a high level, took time
and were broken by lunch and drinks from the buffet bar. (291)
they were slyly whittling down the power of the Corleone
Family, muscling into their gambling areas, testing the Corleone's
reactions and, finding them weak, establishing their own bookmakers.
(398)
Barzini bookmakers were put out of business. (435)
He was respected not only for his tactical brillance
but because some of the most important caporegimes in both the
Barzini and Tattaglia Families immediately went over to his side.
(435)
The bloody victory of the Corleone Family was not
complete until a year of delicate political maneuvering established
Michael Corleone as the most powerful Family chief in the United
States. (440)
Now the Corleone Family was unchallengable, and Clemenza
had his own Family. (440)
Range of Activities:
(back to top)
The Corleone Family doesn't need it (drugs), we have
the gambling, which is the best business to have. (115)
For the Tattaglia Family dealt in women. Its main
business was prostitution. It also controlled most of the nightclubs
in the United States and could place any talent anywhere in the
country. Phillip Tattaglia was not above using strong-arm to get
control of promising singers and comics and muscling in on record
firms. But prostitution was the main source of the Family income.
(285)
If everything goes right, the Corleone Family will
be completely legitimate in about five years. (363)