I understand the reason for the thread Julio, but if you imply again that Weingardner's book is in any way, shape, or form, authoritative or "official", or include any of his characters or ideas in another timeline or discussion, then I may have to kill you (j/k).



(Sorry, this is a bit of a sore spot with me.)

BTW....excellent point, Don Cardi, about all of those characters on the silver platter.

Maybe "The Return of The Godfather's Return" will be better.

As far as your question above goes, Julio.....

The movie doesn't give us an answer, so we can only speculate.

From the end of the novel, I have the impression that the Barzini and Tattaglia families are "broken up", altho GF II contradicts this when Neri (I think it was) saya to Michael at one point that Fabrizzio's entrance to the United States was sponsored by the Barzini Family.

My guess is that Zasa was an "up-and-comer" within the Corleone Family itself, a Capo perhaps, who was considered capable of taking over the NY operations, and was granted a large (but not complete) degree of autonomy to do so, in exchange for a percentage of profits to Michael.

As far as who would run the family upon Michael's death goes, I think Michael figured by the time he passed on that the family would be completely legitimate, and aside from lawyers and executives to look after the family business interests, there would be no need for anyone to run the family in the way that you're thinking.

Probably a top executive along the lines of someone who was capable of heading a company like General Motors or U.S. Steel would have done the trick.