Paying Respects

If the Godfather trilogy were real life, and you could go to Vito's funeral near the end of Part I and pay your respects, would you go? This may seem like a bizarre question, but it's something that came into my mind while thinking about the movies. I would choose to go.

You couldn't keep me away.

I would be TB's driver & bodyguard...wild horses couldn't keep me away!

I'd have to rent one of those black limos, but I definitely would have gone. In fact I would have tried to sneak back to the compound for the post funeral meal, which must have been something.

Hey... there's the set up for GF 4 ....Michael's Funeral and the get together after....

I would definitely go and i would ask the old man getting out of the limo who is his and clear up the mystery..

Those here who know me, know that I worked in the funeral industry in New York City for almost 25 years. Anyway, I worked plenty of "wiseguy" funerals over the years, but never a guy who would have been comparable to Vito. Although, I was actually at Saint Raymonds Cemetery in the Bronx when Tony Salerno's funeral was being held. I was working another funeral. And yes, I was tempted to take a peek. But to be honest, it seemed like a very small turnout for a mob boss.

Back to Vito: Whenever I'd take a funeral to Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, I could not help but think of Vito's funeral EVERY TIME. The shot they use in the film when they enter the cemetery was at the Greenpoint Avenue entrance just off the Long Island Expressway. If you're ever out that way, ask for "First Calvary." There are four HUGE sections and about a gazillion subsections.

The old joke about Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn was that there were enough wiseguys buried there to start a sixth family . Saint Johns in Queens has a load of wiseguys as well. That's where John Gotti is entombed. Just ask for the Cloisters Mausoleum.

And that concludes Mob Burials 101 .

Yeah, I once looked at a list of famous people buried at Saint John's, and most of it was a who's who of the New York mob. Lucky Luciano and Maranzano are buried near each other, ironic considering Luciano had Maranzano killed. And not only is Gotti there, but so is Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson, a Gambino associate who became an FBI informant and whom Gotti had killed.

Carmine Galante is there too. On his grave is the word "Beloved"--you'd never know he died in a hail of gunfire while eating at a restaurant! Obviously, he wasn't "beloved" by everybody!

I've always wondered: Why are so many mafiosi buried at Saint John's? Does anyone have an explanation?

It's a Catholic Cemetery. One of only a handful in the New York City area (believe it or not). Italian gangsters are almost always Catholic (but obviously not very good ones ).

That is surprising because New York is such an enormous city, and a large percentage of the population is Catholic, so one would imagine many Catholic cemeteries.

Yeah, it surprises a lot of people, but the majority of Catholics here in New York are actually buried in non-sectarian cemeteries. There are no Church laws which prohibit Catholics from being buried with other denominations. And as you say, a large percentage of an enormous NYC population is Catholic, so it's just not feasible that they can all be buried in exclusively Catholic cemeteries.

I think that the families of gangsters always paid extra for a Catholic burial because they felt the deceased needed all the help he could get. Seriously. We Italian Catholics are a very superstitious bunch .

Is Woodlawn a Catholic cemetery? My maternal grandparents are buried there and my paternal at St. Raymond's. Woodlawn is beautiful, and I'm impressed with its history (that's where Hauptmann first met with Dr. Condon) and the list of famous people buried there.

I went to a wake last month for a guy named Anthony. I have to tell you, I've never seen so many huge flower arrangements in my life! And this is coming from someone whose Uncle Tony repaired the garbage trucks.

As for Vito's, I would have gone to pay my respects, wearing all black, and brought a tray of baked ziti or maybe some pastries by the house for Mama Corleone. Btw, do we know if he had his wake in the compound? I don't think they show you that, although I guess it could have been at Bonasera's funeral parlor.

A load of Capone-era gangsters (including Capone and his arch-enemy Dion O'Banion) are buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetary in Chicago. Many of their families had to pull strings to get them into consecreted ground because Archbishop Mundelein, a dedicated foe of organized crime, refused to allow it.

No, it isn't, Babe, it's "non-sectarian." In the last 10 or 15 years, they've actually developed a huge Hindu section, near the very south end of the grounds, right around 204th Street. Times change, demographics change. And to give non-New Yorkers an idea of just how big Woodlawn is, the north end of the cemetery is at 233rd Street. That's thirty city blocks!

Woodlawn has, by far, the most storied history of the New York City cemeteries. I love visiting the graves of the musicians, like Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. I actually worked Miles Davis's funeral out of the old Walter B. Cooke funeral home on 85th Street in Manhattan.

Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn is such a beautiful place, you'd think you died and went to heaven (silly pun intended). It also has loads of history.

Babe, Saint Raymonds, where your paternal grandparents are buried, is a Catholic cemetery.

I never knew how famous Woodlawn is. My mom and I used to go weekly to my grandfather's grave when I was little. I do remember her showing me some of the famous graves, like the Woolworth mausoleum. I also remember another one, which you may have seen, PB. Near my maternal great-granparents' grave, there was a statue of a young man sitting on a bench reading a book. My mother said that it was a teenage boy who died of leukemia, and she used to see his mother all the time. The mother used to come and leave a rose in the pages of the book. I used to sit on the bench next to "him" and feel spooked.

Yes, would go to the funeral, but I wouldn't be so foolish to get my cigarette lit by Tessio and then let him go to Michael for the meeting proposal.

Mt Carmel is a very interesting cemetery; been there many times.