this is mainly Ricardo's work

2: 1924-1926
Vito & Carmella Corleone celebrate their 10th wedding anniversay with a lot of friends. At their table are their children. Santino, Frederico, Miguele and Constanzia.
Vito’s partner and friend Genco Abbandando is there with his family (his beautiful wife Carla, who’s an stage actress, and their two daughters). Genco’s parents, Oreste and Francesca Abbandando are Vito’s special guests. When he arrived in America as a little boy, Vito got taken into the Abbandando house. Oreste was an old friend of Vito’s father Antonio Andolini, back in Sicily. Vito and Genco grew up together, and both went to work in Abbandando Grosseria when they were old enough.
Oreste Abbandando wheeled a cake over to Vito, while a tarantella played by the band. Vito gave a speech to all guests. He and Genco played Bocce with their pals Salvatore Tessio and Peter Clemenza, Vito’s old neighbour. Between two games, Vito told them to meet him the next day at Genco’s. A friend of Clemenza’s, Hyman Rothstein, asked him to, and told he had some sort of business proposition. The three men agreed to go to Genco’s the next day, to listen to what Roth’s got to say. After that, they discussed Prohibition a little bit.
Clemenza later that night got to Vito in private, telling him Giuseppe Maresia, known as “Joe the King”, forced him to pay protection he couldn’t afford anymore. Vito said he would think about the situation.
When all guest were left, Vito talked with 8 year old Santino. He told him to be a nice boy, to always respect your friends, to be a good boy at school, and be nice to little girls.

The next day at GPOC Vito & Co met with Hyman Rothstein, who was introduced by them by Clemenza. He brought with him a man called Moe Greene. He just started running molasses on Cuba, and Rothstein joined him. Rothstein saw collaboration possibilites with Clemenza’s truck smuggling activities, the main illegal business from Genco’s. Rothstein talked about this Smuggling Ring and asked Vito if he would like to participate. Vito agreed and sent Rothstein to Chicago to set up the ring with John Riotro.
Clemenza had informed Vito, after coming back from Sicily, that the local boss, Maresia, recruited Carmine Cuneo, the nephew of the slain Giuseppe Fanucci. Cuneo had been collecting protection for Maresia in Vito’s neighbourhood. Vito started the Corleone Family.

After all conversations, Genco informed the GPOC workers of the new Family, while Tessio recruited neighborhood men. Clemenza walked over to the school to walk his son, Richard, and his Godson, Santino, over to Abbandando Grosseria for Cannolies. While at the Grosseria, Clemenza talked to Genco’s brother, Ernesto, and young baker Nazorine Paniterra. Oreste Abbandando walked out from the back room with Carmine Cuneo. Cuneo and Clemenza glared at each other as Cuneo left. Oreste told the men that after working at AG for 8 years, Cuneo was quitting his job to work for Sal Maranzala. He had come back to tell Oreste that for his help he would be exept from paying protection. Later that night as Vito was having dinner with his family, Clemenza called and told him of Cuneo’s meeting with Oreste.

From the on, when Vito went to GPOC, all of the workers, and his friends, kissed his hand and called him “Don Corleone”. Carmella’s brother, Bruno DeSapio, and Augustino Coppola were members of the new Family and escorted Vito to his office. Vito hung a picture of his family in Sicily on the wall behind his desk. He told Tessio and Clemenza how his friend Tommasino was now the Don and that most of Sicily was under his control. The remaining members of Ciccio’s Family had left for America with Joe Maresia. Vito presented Clemenza with a picture of his brother Domenick, and told how he had met his cousin Stefan Andolini for the first time. Later that week, Rothstein returned from Chicago and showed up at GPOC with Ola and Greene. He told Vito that Riotro was retiring but that they had set up the operation with Ralph Capone. Rothstein told Vito that they were supposed to meet ships at the docks and then load the alcohol and molasses into GPOC delivery trucks and drive them to Buffalo, NY, where they would be smuggled into Canada and through Detroit to Chicago. Vito put Rothstein in charge of the operation and told him he would handle meetings with Capone and others if there were problems. Rothstein, his brother Sam, Johnny Ola, Moe Greene, and others took part in the smuggling operation. Sal Tessio kept an eye on them and reported back to Vito.

On a night in June, Filomena Simonetti awoke to find a huge man, Luca Brasi, knocking on her front door. He told her he needed her help, and he would pay her. She agreed and Luca rushed her to a Ford. When they arrived at Brasi’s Apartment in Long Island, he hurried Filomena into the bedroom. On the bed was an Irish woman ready to give birth. Luca told Filomena she was his girlfriend, Claire, and that he needed her to deliver the baby. She did and Luca forced her at knifepoint to throw the baby into the basement furnace. Only after Luca cut her arm did she reluctantly toss the baby into the fire and run from the house. Luca went upstairs and stabbed Claire to death. The next day Carmine Coronda who worked for Vito and lived next door to Luca told Vito that Filomena had ran to his home last night. She told him of her horrible deed, and when Coronda told Vito, Vito told him to get Clemenza to kill Luca. Clemenza told Vito that Luca was in jail, but that he was a powerful man and if Vito persuaded him he could be a great use to the family. Vito went to the jailhouse to talk to Luca, but found out that Luca had just slashed his throat with a piece of glass, and he was receiving medical attention. After that, Vito talked to Luca and told him he would help him out of his troubles. Luca told Vito he wanted to die, and that nothing could stop him. Vito persuaded Luca to work for him by telling him that either he could kill for Vito, or Vito would see to it that rather than die he’d spend the rest of his life in jail. Luca agreed and Vito posted his bail. He told Luca that if he thought a cut throat was a quick way to die, that if he ever betrayed Vito he would suffer for weeks while slowly dying. Vito was the only man that Luca ever feared.

A week later Vito met with Police Chief O’Malley at Scarpato’s restaurant. Vito proposed to pay the entire force for their services and the first service would be to pardon Luca for the murder. The chief agreed but said he would not partake in any other illegal activities such as Gambling, Prostitution, Smuggling, Alcohol, Murder, or armed Robbery. While at the restaurant, Vito talked to Augustino Coppola’s cousin, Al Fontane. Fontane told Vito that his son, Johnny would be receiving Confirmation the next Easter. The boy’s Godfather, Rafilo Valenti had been murdered the year before over a disagreement with an Irishman, Seamus McGhee. Fontane’s Godchildren, Nino and Romane Valenti, lived with him and he couldn’t afford to pay protection to Maresia. Vito told him he would help, but that Johnny deserved a Godfather, and asked if he could be Godfather for Johnny’s Confirmation. Fontane happily agreed. On Easter 1929, Vito and his family, including the Abbandandos were present at Johnny’s Confirmation. Vito became the Godfather, and gave Johnny a Twenty-Dollar Gold piece.

For quite some time, the smuggling ring went without a hitch.

Then in May 1925, Santino came home late one night with a boy whom he had played with a couple of times. The boy had very bad eyes. He said his name was Tom Hagen. Santino told his father he’d found him on the street. Tom explained that his mother was very sick, blind, and died. His father, a hardworking carpenter, destroyed his Family never the less by being addicted to liquor. He past away drunk, leaving Tom Hagen parentless. Heartbroken by the story of the poor young kid, Vito decided to take him into the Corleone house for a while. He had his eyes fixed by a doctor, so he wouldn’t have to go through the same pain his mother did. While listening to Tom’s story about his father, he thought of the area the Hagen’s lived in. Perhaps his father’s drunkness got him in trouble with Maresia. When asking Tom about his father’s relationships, the only name Tom came up with was “Signor Giueseppe”. Vito knew enough. He asked Clemenza to go to the Hagen house. Clemenza found out the house was deserted. Vito feared the father had fled or worse, been murdered, for not paying protection fees to Giuseppe Maresia. Soon after, Vito met with Maresia in Central Park. Maresia said he hadn’t heard from Hagen and that he thought that he had skipped town to avoid paying him. A few days later, Bruno DeSapio ran into Vito’s office at GPOC with a newspaper. Vito read the paper and found out that the body of Tom Hagen’s father had been found in a basement in Brooklyn. The police didn’t have any suspects. Vito knew Maresia must have been involved.

Later he set up a meeting disguised as discussing Prohibition. The meeting took place in July 1929 at the Utica Zoo, in Utica, NY. Sal Maranzala, Tommy DeBono, Gaetano DiGriogio, Carmine Cuneo, Joe Maresia, Vito Corleone, Sal Tessio, Hyman Rothstein, Moe Greene, Ralph Capone, John Riotro, Philip Tattaglia, Dutch Saietta, Ceasar Malare, Gaetano Isabella, Hector Mangano, Richard Pelley, Louis Bocchicchio, Christophe Ferrano, David McKigney, and Seamus McGhee were all at this meeting. Tattaglia was a Maresian Capo like Cuneo; Saietta was a Jewish Friend of Greene and Rothstein’s who drove the trucks to Buffalo, where they were picked up by Hector Mangano. Mangano sent them to Don Malare in Detroit. Pelley was a Jewish man who was involved with Johnny Ola. McKigney and McGhee represented the Irish Mob. Isabella was the Don in the Long Island districts who informed Rothstein when the smuggling ships came in. Ferrano was an independent Don who had been pressured lately by Maresia. Bocchicchio was alone in America but was close with his brother Guido in Sicily, who sent the alcohol to America on the same ships that Vittorio Tommasino sent Olive Oil to Vito. Riotro was there to head the meeting before retiring to Sicily.
Rothstein informed the others that a man named Gianni Prodi from Carson City, Nevada, was sponsoring a man from President Hoover’s Party as Governor of Nevada who was going to legalize Prostitution, Gambling, and Alcohol in Nevada. He needed monetary backing from New York to sponsor the Governor. Maranzala, Corleone, DiGiorgio and Isabella agreed to back the Governor, but Maresia refused. He left the meeting with Tattaglia, Cuneo, Capone, Ferrano and Malare. The Irish Mob declined to get involved since they wouldn’t benefit in New York from actions in Nevada. They left the meeting. Maranzala proposed that they should eliminate Maresia to insure the rest of them that they would benefit from Nevada’s Legalization and later Legalization in New York. Vito suggested they should wait to kill Maresia. Fierra wanted Maresia killed right away to get him off his back.