Question about Clemenza & Tessio - Other Capos...

They talk about how many men those two guys had under them as they were capos but doesn't mention any other capos.

But then they talk about those two breaking off and starting their own families... If they did that how many men would the Corleone family have with out those two capos? It doesn't seem like they would have too many without them.

Also was Sollozzo in the Tattaglia Family? Or was he also a boss of his own family?

Thanks guys! I am about 100 pages into the book but I have already seen the movie a few times.

No other Corleone caporegimes are mentioned either in the novel or in the film. Sonny had his own regime.

The statement that Clemenza made about Tessio and he forming their own families probably was predicated on either Vito's retirement or death. I don't think Clemenza implied that there'd be a Corleone Family in addition to his and Tess's families.

Solozzo was, technically, a free-lancer--a big-time European drug wholesaler looking to get a foothold in America by allying himself with Tessio. But definitely a "man of respect." We've speculated here about what might have happened if Sol had succeeded either in convincing Vito to support him, or in killing Vito and making a deal with Sonny. My guess is that he'd probably become a caporegime under Barzini.

As I've posted elsewhere, it is one of the stretches of the novel (and film) to describe a NY mob family with just two (or even three) capos.

TB, the novel states that the big news coming out of the meeting that Michael held after he returned from Las Vegas was that Clemenza and Tessio would be permitted to form their own families from their regimes. However, that is even more of a stretch. No one Don could decide to add one or possibly two mob families to the inventory on families around the country.

Thanks for the responses guys! I know some things are a stretch since it is fiction but I just found those things interesting.

Another question. Why would Puzo describe Clemenza as immensely tall? Tall is not a typical characteristic of Italians and certainly not immensely.

Well Puzo wasn't that great a detail man. Maybe he just meant to say he was immense, as he was in the film. In fact the movie version of Tessio was taller.

Hello - long time lurker, but just registered tonight.

I've read the book a lot of times. I've also read a bit about Puzo.
Apparently he didn't really know much about the mob first hand.
My guess is that he got things a bit mixed up.
His idea of capos I think was more like what Neil Dellacroce was like under Paul Castellano.

If I recall correctly one of them Tessio I think had a free hand in Brooklyn and Clemenza was under more control in Manhattan and the Bronx.
i.e. wings or factions of a family rather than single crews e.g. like some family's have a Brooklyn faction a City faction and a NJ faction each of which might be a number of crews with one capo sort of leading the faction.


Remember in the book there is only the boss and a consigliere. No underbosses or street bosses (though I guess Sonny could be either or both) so his structue was different to how the familys are portrayed today.

I think what basically happened was that Puzo got it a bit wrong and didn't really know that a caporegime controlled a smaller group than what Tessio and Clemenza control or he thought a capregime controlled a number of crews.

All that said, remember there was also Sonny's regime and at the end of the book Lampone's. So there were 3 or 4 capos not 2 for most of the book.

I think Puzo may have just felt it was simpler to write in two caporegime so as to limit the amount of characters and not make it too complex for the reader.

My thoughts exactly.