I don't know if this kind of thing's been done before, this is my first post, i've been lurking for a while... I was just thinking over the past few days about the history of the mafia in the Godfather world, and just for fun, if in this thread we could make up our own pseudo-history of the mafia. of course, there are the things established in the book, and in the films, the Corleone family has been discussed, but how about the other families? what's the history of those families? You can even make up your own incidents, hits, etc. it's kind of a silly idea but i just thought i'd pitch it out there, and maybe collectively we can make an unofficial alternate mafia history...

this might take the more creative of you...

The idea has some merit, but since we know so little of most of the other characters it would be hard to piece together some sort of history. If it is done, I would like the load down on Barzini. He has always been my favorite enemy of the family, and played perfectly by Richard Conte. I wish they would have given him more screen time.

yeah, you're right that there's not much to go on from the official stuff, i just thought it would be neat. i mean, we can make up anything we want really, since there's not much already laid out. we can make our own godfather saga, starring don barzini, or maybe the molinari family on the coast...

Phillip Tatalglia immigrated from Naples, Italy to the US in 1910. Phillip was allegedly the illegitimate son of the Archbishop of Naples. When he was 13, he was seduced/raped by the Mother Superior of the Sister of Pompeii. This event was to shape his future as Phillip soon became enthralled with the sexual conquests of all women in a sado/masochistic way. Not the most attractive young man, his own conquests were more of a rape event themselves. It was rumored that at age 14 he was caught in the act by the girls father. A struggle ensued and Phillip killed the man. To escape prosecution, Phillip fled to America.

Once in America, Phillip found the streets of NYC were a place where an ambitious young thug could make a living and satisfy his sexual perversions. He settled in Brooklyn where through a series of street fights and "contract" jobs, he developed a reputation as a ruthless leader of a small gang that took pleasure in sadistic acts of brutality. His reputation soon caught the eye of the Brooklyn mob headed by Augustus Argento. By age 30, Tataglia took over the Argento mob when the head of Augustus was found on the steps of his home. The body was never found. Phillip soon controlled the prostitution and gambling in Brooklyn.

ooh, i like that, marycas. thanks for contributing. wow, the 'pimp' had quite the childhood huh?

For some reason I have been thinking a lot about GF4 a lot lately, I have a huge notion that studio execs(Jack Woltz?)are talking about it as we speak and one of the reasons Fredo was so insecure is a major part of my screenplay. Go ahead tell me I have no life, the guys at work do.I trust you guys not to steal this but I was going to have Fredo come up to his fathers study and as he's about to knock on the door he hears a voice so he holds on for a second. This is what he hears-Vito:[to Tom]You're the son I wish Fredo had become... So he feels he always has to prove himself to his father throughout his life

hmmm, i was hoping this would be more popular...

guess not

I was at a garage sale this weekend and, as unbelievable as it may sound, I bought an original, unedited manuscript of THE GODFATHER for $3.00. I think the people selling it didn't know what they had.

Anyway, it settles the question once and for all of whether there were 5 or 6 families, by describing the "missing family" head, who attended the meeting od the Dons along with Vito, Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracchi, and Cuneo.

Here, I'll quote directly from the manuscript. If you care to follow along with your edited copy of the book, this description comes in between that of Barzini and Tattaglia.

"Next to arrive was Don Ricardo "The Chicken" Cacciatore, so named because he controlled the lucrative poultry business throughout the city. It was impossible to obtain a chicken, duck, turkey, or any other fowl, without the involvement of the Cacciatore family. Not even the protected restaurants of the Tattaglia Family could avoid the payment of the so-called "white meat tax", extracted upon the transfer of every bird in New York. From the live poultry markets, where the birds first met their end, to the salumarias and grocery stores on the streets of Little Italy in which the birds were sold to the Italian housewives, Don Cacciatore had his hand in the process. It was he who, when approached by the drug middlemen working for Sollozzo, agreed to smuggle the drugs like so much stuffing in the carcasses of the dead birds, and thus aid in the distribution of the white powder throughout the city. Although he was considered harmless and of little account, it was with the secret help of Don Cacciatore that this distribution network was being planned."

Wow nice.....I'll buy it for $4

$4.00? No way! I bet I can get at least five on e-bay.

interesting, i'd never heard of that.

You never heard of e-bay?

pl,
You shook a brain cell loose. I do recall hearing that once on a radio interview show. Mario Puzo was a guest on the Barry Gray show (WMCA, late night in the early 70s). He wanted to name a character after a food dish and he had several choices (entrees) that he was considering. In addition to "the Chicken", there was Vincent "Veal Boy" Scalopini, Alphonso "Meat Sauce" Bolognese, Gaetano "the Grater" Romano and Emilio "Sugar Head" Pizzelle. He was advised against it by the heads of the five major Italian restaurants. They thought is might be misunderstood as a slur on Italian cooking. E-Bay, huh? Is that near Sheepshead Bay?

Yeah, Puzo made the rounds of all the radio and TV talk shows: Barry Gray, Long John Nebel, Rambling with Gambling, Alex Bennett, Joe Pyne, Alan Burke, Barry Farber, Bob Grant.

And Sheepshead Bay is SC's ground. Where I'll be safe.

But weren't there six major Italian restaurants, not five?

That was great, plaw! Thanks for giving me the heads up!

maybe a few questions to get something going:

what really happened to Clemenza?

What's Pentangeli's backstory ie. prior to 1958?

Who took over the other families when the dons were killed? did the other families even remain intact or were a few 'dissolved'?? (i'm not an expert so i'm not sure how likely/unlikely this is)

Was there, perhaps, a 'murder inc' like entity in the godfather history?

were the rosato brothers part of a family? which one?

what's the story of joey zasa?

etc.

i found a page that generates Italian names which may prove useful:

http://www.wjohnson.freeuk.com/names/italianmod.htm

He died from agita bip caused by the Rosato Brothers.

okay, i'll try something of my own... i've been a little hesitant because i'm not too creative and i'm not an expert on the mob, but here goes:

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After the assassination of Don Cuneo in 1955, the underboss of the family, Joseph Attene, took over as head of the family, supported by Don Corleone of the Corleone family. Joe Attene was a small, portly man, but with a face that commanded attention and the notorious mole on his chin; his nickname came to be, especially amongst his detractors and enemies, "The Mole". He was one of the newer Americanized Dons. Attene was born in Chicago in 1911 to Maria and Elmiro Attene, immigrants from Castellamare del Golfo, Sicily. In 1926, the Attene family moved to New York, where Elmiro worked as an officer on the trail of bootleggers.

In June, 1928, Elmiro was killed in a firefight with an Irish gang. The 17 year old Joe, small and rather shy, was nevertheless determined to take his revenge on his father's killers. He had heard of a man in his neighborhood, a rising mob figure by the name of Cuneo, and requested his help in fulfilling his vendetta. Attene wanted to do the deed personally, though, and with Cuneo's connections and help he tracked down the killers to a warehouse in Queen's. Attene drew a Tommy gun and took out six of the members of the gang and wounded ten more; he himself was wounded in numerous places. He got out alive, though, and thus began his descent into crime.

Joe Attene, working under Cuneo, who was a capo in the Brentano family, worked diligently in labor racketeering, becoming a presence on the Brooklyn waterfront. Attene, with Cuneo, soon established their piece of territory in the Bronx, and Joe was Cuneo's right-hand man, though he was still young. In the five families war of 1933, the head of the family, Gaspar Brentano, was killed. Cuneo and another capo, Ettore DeMatteo, engaged in a power struggle for control of the family. DeMatteo initially won and was for a time the boss. In 1939, though, Attene, at his own initiative, hit DeMatteo, who was browsing in a Little Italy bookstore; he was riddled with bullets from Attene and four other men. Carmine Cuneo became the boss of the family, and installed Attene as his underboss.

Following the shooting of Don Vito Corleone, and the subsequent killing of Sollozzo and a Police Chief by his son, a gang war ensued between the families of New York. Cuneo lined up behind the Barzini family; this led to some friction between Cuneo and Attene, who preferred to stick to business interests. Also, Joe Attene craved more power for himself, and began plotting secretly to undermine and remove his boss.

So, when Michael Corleone, in 1955, approached him with his plan to kill the heads of the families, Attene went along, and had a part in setting up Cuneo, who was shot exiting a downtown hotel. Joe Attene then became the boss of the former Cuneo family. As boss, Attene grew the family, getting into drugs, and branching to various places; he established successful operations in Montreal, for one. He owed his position in part to the Corleone family, though, and through the 60's he became more belligerent and aggressive in trying to escape the shadow of the Corleones. In 1964, Attene made an unsuccessful move on a Corleone-owned casino and hotel in Las Vegas. Following the attempt, Attene became more and more withdrawn and paranoid, thinking Michael Corleone would have his revenge. His worst fears came true, as, on July 4, 1965, Attene was shot with a single bullet to his head coming out of his favourite delicatessen, in front of his eight year old boy, Mario. The killer was never captured or known, but it is widely suspected that Al Neri, a Corleone family enforcer, did the deed. Joseph (the Mole) Attene was dead.

----------------

i don't know how realistic that is, i tried my best. is it only me that finds this kind of thing fun?

eh?

Not bad. 7.5/10

thanks, plawrence.

hmmm, i guess this idea doesn't appeal to many other people besides me, i just thought it would be fun to, as this is THE godfather bulletin board (are there others?), collaborate together to create the Godfather mafia 'world', and maybe we could make a site or something. i guess not (or is this board just really slow?), but i'm going to keep on keeping on...

Continuing the saga of the Cuneo family...

Part I: Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante, Rise to Power

There was Gaspar Brentano, killed in 1933. Then came Ettore DeMatteo, for a short time, until he was gunned down by a rival faction within the family in 1939. Carmine Cuneo, the leader of that faction, became the boss. He was gunned down by Corleone soldier Willie Cicci in 1955, replaced by his underboss, Joseph "The Mole" Attene. "The Mole" was assassinated in 1965, and there was a short period when the family had no boss, and was in disarray. The Commission finally approved as boss of the family Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante, a former boxer who had become notorious as a killer, and in the forties and fifties, was a member of the infamous execution squad gang the Bones Factory.

"Knuckles" was born Salvatore Francesco Durante in Palermo, Sicily, in 1917. His family moved to Rome in 1919, but fled in 1928 to escape Mussolini's Fascist Italy; they arrived in Canada and were helped across the border by family friends, the Massantinos out of Buffalo. The Durante family, Phillippa, Paolo, Salvatore, and four other brothers, came to St. Louis in 1930. During the Depression, Paolo, a grocery store keeper, struggled to provide for his family, and young Salvatore took to street fighting for money. He found he had a natural talent, and soon was recognized as an up and coming pugilist.

In 1935, at 18, Sal, with his father's blessing, moved to New York to further his boxing career. There, he was taken in by an uncle, Pietro "Hands" Daffino, a prominent underworld figure associated with Don Vito Corleone. With Daffino and Corleone's help, illegal and otherwise, Durante climbed the ranks. He was a fearsome fighter: strong, lightning quick, and with a tremendous jab that perpetually stunned and knocked out opponents. In 1940, he competed for the Middleweight championship, and won with a vicious second round knockout. He defended the title six straight times until he was defeated in 1944; his defeat would be his last bout. Finished with his career in boxing, Durante contemplated his life and his options. His eldest brother, Stefano, had been in New York since 1939 and had joined the murder-for-hire operation The Bones Factory, so called both because aspiring killers made their "bones" there, and the obvious symbolic churning out of dead skeletons from its doors. Stefano offered Sal a job in the operation, and after consulting with Daffino and his adopted godfather Vito Corleone, accepted. He was now a hired assassin.

"Knuckles" Durante was not new to killing, though. As a young street fighter in 1933, he had inadvertently killed an opponent, and had served six months in prison. In 1942, after a domestic dispute (in which he beat a man he accused of having an affair with his wife, Theresa), he served nine months, the man having died of his wounds some time after the incident. He would have served longer if not for Don Corleone, who pulled some strings to get his prison time considerably shortened.

As a member of The Bones Factory, Durante was a key player in a number of infamous hits. Working often with his brother and his crew, which included such Jewish gangsters as "Pistol" Maxwell Gattberg and Aaron "Four Fingers" Goldwin, Durante fired the bullet that killed Philadelphia mob figure Sam Corradino, strangled personally the well-known New York banker Howard Mason, and beat to death Justice Rufus Bellows, a federal court judge. Durante had first whacked Bellows repeatedly with a wooden chair, then punched him until his face was completely disfigured, and throwing him out the sixth story window, while other crew members took care of things outside the office. While proficient with firearms, "Knuckles" enjoyed and preferred using his hands, choking, beating, punching, gouging, and everything else. In 1956, Stefano Durante was killed by Gattberg, and thinking he may be the next target, Sal left the organization and moved to Denver, under the protection of the Boccaccio family there, and lived in semi-retirement, though he dabbled in Mafia doings in Nevada and California.

In 1961, after a visit from Michael Corleone, who had succeeded his father Vito as boss of his family, Durante was persuaded to move back to New York and get in the "action". He was nominally associated with the Corleone family, but had a fair degree of independence as a killer-for-hire. "Knuckles" also in these years became more involved in the business end of things; though he had been in mafia life for twenty years he had known mostly only the enforcement side. He proved to be an adept businessman, and soon acquired a considerable fortune, in both legal and illegal businesses.

His stature grew as a fearsome and vicious killer and businessman, and he was well respected by most members of the Commission. In 1965, after Joseph Attene was removed as Don of the Cuneo family, the Commission deliberated on who to put in the position. The underboss, Nicholas Carelli, was, to them, an unreliable, almost delirious man. The strongest contender was capo William Adecci, but he declined the offer, and so, the Commission, strongly urged by Michael Corleone and Frank Boccaccio, who had a seat, chose Sal Durante to lead the Cuneo family.

---------------------

Part II: Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante as Boss

Durante was selected as Boss of the Cuneo family in mid-December, and made a number of quick moves to shore up support and rid himself of potential threats. Nicholas Carelli was replaced as Underboss by Frankie Daffino, cousin to Sal and only son of Pietro. The story goes that Carelli's chopped-up body was found in a soup kitchen serving Christmas dinner, and some even say that Durante did the deed personally. He kept Adecci as a capo, thinking him to be loyal and unambitious for the top job (after all, who would be after seeing the fates of the previous bosses of the family!!!), but he had capo Sonny Valenti, who had been loyal to Carelli, whacked, and installed his younger brother Silvio Durante in his place.

The other positions he left the same, including consigliere Paul Tremonte. Durante, though, ruled the family with an iron fist, and ran it much more like a business enterprise than a 'family', if that concept still had any meaning. Durante steadily increased the percentage of the earnings he and the top men of the family would get: by 1970, Durante was making 50% more than Attene had made in his best years.

Through the 1970's, Durante involved his family in increasingly intricate yet lucrative dealings, mostly in drugs. By 1974, the family was importing and trafficking in heroin and cocaine almost as much as the other New York families combined. This brought ever growing media and law enforcement attention: Durante was charged nine times for various drug-related offences, beating them all, until the tenth, when he was finally nailed on counts of obstructing justice. In 1977, Sal Durante entered prison, where he lived like a king, and managed to still rule his family, though Frankie Daffino did the day-to-day work.

In 1979, Durante was released at the age of 62, but he did not return to New York, opting for an extended 'vacation'. He returned to Sicily, taking in a performance by the son of the now 'legitimate' Michael Corleone, and visiting old family and friends. He spent the next few years going from one tropical island to another. All this high living did not go over too well with the 'boys' back home, though.

Durante's relationship with his inferiors was often strained, and Paulie Tremonte was at times almost magical in his ability to keep the soldiers, lieutenants, and occasionally, capos on side. While he demanded more and more from their criminal enterprises, he himself appeared to be aloof, not the same 'bloody knuckle' hood who had been an infamous member of the Bones Factory. As well, the old Sicilian concepts of family and tradition were quickly fading, and it was nowhere more noticeable than in the Cuneo family under Durante; the undying loyalty to Don and family that had once been an engrained concept had whithered in the minds of many street-level soldiers. While the post-jail rompings were to become the last straw, Durante had done this kind of thing before: he spent almost the entire year 1971 'inspecting' the drug operations in South America, when in reality, he spent, at the most, a week in Colombia.

So, in the early 80's, as the family began having major and constant battles with police and lawyers, Underboss Frankie Daffino met with the consigliere and the caporegimes to determine a course of action. The capos, including Adecci and Silvio Durante reluctantly, and the consigliere unanimously agreed that Sal Durante, who was in Tahiti at the time, would have to be removed one way or another. Daffino, a blood relative, voiced his opposition, and argued for more time. This fateful decision would pave the way for Daffino's demise, as well as, of course, Durante's. The meeting ended with a tenuous agreement to give Durante six months, but as they left the living room of Daffino's Long Island mansion, everyone knew what would happen next.

Though Silvio was, of course, Sal's brother, he had not been especially close with him, having been born in 1930. Stefano and Salvatore had been the close-knit duo as they worked their way into organized crime and murder. Silvio was exceptionally smart and shrewd, and had made his own way into organized crime, through Las Vegas and Florida; he was running several casinos succesfully by 1965. So, perhaps it is not too surprising that Silvio would go along with the plan, and indeed, be the catalyst. Though he had reservations, all hesitation and meaningful links to his older brother were cut when their mother Phillippa passed away in 1982 at the old age of 83; Paolo Durante had died many decades earlier.

After securing approval from the Commission, Silvio Durante took action, sending a group of button men led by Johnny Caccarone to Tahiti on August 13, 1982. What followed was almost farcical. As Sal Durante lay on the beach, face down, one of Caccarone's men attempted to sight him with a sniper rifle. Just as he got Durante in the crosshairs, Durante's eight year old grandchild, Antonia, stepped in the way. She lingered, and Caccarone finally sent a man to discreetly remove her from her position (not killing her, just getting her to move). This man had succeeded in doing so when he stumbled on a log and fell to the sand, where he was noticed by the few men Durante had with him and, seeing the gun in his hand, pumped him with bullets. Caccarone's men, watching from a distant hill, were in disbelief, as they watched Durante's men approach them. The sniper let off a shot that grazed Durante's leg, and was riddled with lead a moment later. A fierce gunfight ensued, and when the sand settled, all of Caccarone's and Durante's men were dead, as well as a few civilians.

Sal Durante got the message, though, and headed back to New York, where, in October 1982, he agreed to a plan with his brother and the other officials of the family. Sal would retire to Sicily, and never set foot in the US again; in return, he was assured there would be no more attempts on his life by the family. Power in the family passed to Silvio Durante, and Sal quietly and unceremoniously left for Sicily, where he died of a heart attack in 1989. "Knuckles" was knocked out.

Ant, you must have a lot of free time on your hands! Its pretty good though

yeah, i do...

Ant, I really like your idea and I'm gonna start tryin some stuff

thanks, goodfella. i look forward to it.

I like your stuff Ant. Very creative. Just keep track of all your facts.

BTW....in the real world....a made guy is forbidden to take money for a "hit" and the "mob" rarely if ever goes "outside" to contract a job.


The movies and TV have portrayed that erroneously
throughout the years. However, back in the '30's, there was, of course, the infamous 'Murder Incorporated", Jewish gangsters, so ruthless, so cunning, that although they carried out hits for hire for La Cosa Nostra, they were feared by all who associated with them.

Myer Lansky (upon whom Hyman Roth is based), Louie Lepke, Benjamin "don't call me Bugsy" Seigel (You may know him better as Moe Green),Abe "Kid Twist" Rellis, George Rosenhaus, et al... These were just a few of some of the 20th century's most notorius gangsters.

Maybe you can base some of your characters on them.