Hi there,

I have not read the book so I am not sure if it is covered there, however, who chops off the horses head and places it in the bed? It doesn't seem like something Hagen would do. Was a bodyguard sent with Tom? If so, who?

Thanks!

ML

I can't remember if it was said in the original Godfather book, been a while since I read it, but in the Lost Years it is said that Luca Brasi carried it out. Certainly seems more likely than Tom doing it, as you said.

Chak, remember the lost years was not writtne by Puzo- so that books guess is as good as anyone's.

Tom definitly did not do it himself, he had to be clean. He wouldn't be that stupid to kill ANYTHING which could tarnish his record. If he wouldn't accept a letter he is not going to chop off a head.

I remember that after Tom returned and told Don about meeting with Woltz, on the next day Don called him to his house and gave him instructions which busied his day and left him "dazed with admiration." I think that Tom worked out plan and transferred it to professionals who flew to Cal and did everything. It is said that the men on night duty at Woltz's estate claimed they didn't hear anything, but Woltz suspected that they were bought off.

Since we're talking about the horse and his head, I would like to ask a question which has probably been asked hundreds of times--but I've never heard the answer! When GFI first came out, there was a big huge broohaha over the horse's head thing. It was said that Sinatra was supposedly suing Puzo and Coppola (and probably others) for using this in their story. It was said that Sinatra was very upset because supposedly this same thing happened to him while he was a rising star. I never heard any resolution to this supposed law suit, thus no resolution to the question of whether or not this thing ever happened to Sinatra or any other Italian entertainer.

Do any of you have any insight on this?

~~ Lolly

I heard that Frank Sinatra was pissed off at Puzo for the simple fact that there was a character in the book based on him. The "band-leader" story Mike tells Kay was something very reminiscent to an event in Sinatra's life. Apparantly, a mobster named Willie Moretti held a band leader out a window, or something like that, because he wouldn't let Sinatra out of a contract. I think Sinatra went so far as to punch Puzo. As for the "horse head" thing, I'm not sure.

Do a search in one of the book threads there is a post that addresses the situation between Sinatra and Puzo, I believe it said that there was no hard feelings there.

Here is what I read a while ago on crime library regarding this matter, but it never mentions He sued Puzo or anything.
Crime library

Three years ago Carol Gino, Mario Puzo's companion, came onto our boards and answered some questions on a variety of subjects. Here's a link (below) to a question regarding Sinatra and Puzo:

MARIO PUZO AND FRANK SINATRA DISCUSSION THREAD