From now on, Paulo Cavanio is called Paulo Ravanelli.

5: 1986-1989/1972
Unfortunately for Santino, the two hitmen, who were his personal friends, got killed only moments after the assasination of Paul DiCanio. Not only were they dead, they were also rightfully identified by journalists as Corleone members and their mugshots along with name and reference to Vincent Mancini got in all New York newspapers. From that point on, Vincent was a national suspect of the hit on Paul DiCanio, and New York police claimed to have started a full investigation on organized crime, the Corleone Family in particular.
This bad news was on the news in the entire US, including CNN. Dominic Abbandando saw it in his Rome residence, and called Connie on Sicily. Michael would never answer the phone. His life in Corleone existed of talking with fellow elderly Sicilians about common interests, as long as they weren’t crime topics, walking through the countryside with Connie and just sitting in his garden and enjoying the sun. He hated being too active because it would remind him of old times too much. It would remind him of his first trip to Sicily as a child, with his father and mother, as well as his brothers and little sister Connie. On that trip, Don Tommasino became his godfather. He always remembered the trip as a nice family holiday, a rarity in those days for mediocre families, but when he found out the reason his father Vito took his family there, he got disguisted.
In the 1940’s he had to flee to Sicily himself, where he spent days with his bodyguards Carlo and Fabrizio. Fabrizio would betray him and kill his first wife, Apollonia. Thinking of that time in Sicily also made him disgusted, even though he avenged Apollonia’s death by killing Fabrizio a decade later.
The last time he was in Sicily for a certain period, his daughter was shot, in front of him, dying in his hands saying “Daddy?”... his beloved daughter. What a life she must have had. Torn between rivaling mother and father, and yet never to have known the real truth about her Family. Nor known her real roots. It’s so tragic the way she ended, being in love with her cousin. She was naieve, she believed in mankind’s innocence. If only she saw her loved cousin now...killing respected New York Don’s...

Soon Vincent was called up for trial. BJ Harrison stood by him as his attourney. Neri though advised Vincent to be careful with Harrison. “He’s not Italian” he said, meaning that he couldn’t be trusted, as good a man as he might was. Vincent even thought of calling his favorite nephew Anthony, who studied a short time at Law School, but had no experience nor any interest in law practice anymore.
With his bodyguard Santino by his side, Vincent entered the courtroom with dozens of journalists and photographers around him. It became clear to him that the world was watching with him.
The trial itself was a mess. The DA thaught to have a fair chance of getting Vincent Mancini and his crime syndicate. Not only the murder attempt on Paul DiCanio was a subject, Vincent also was related to some illegal gambling and drug trafficking. Evidence proved to be innacurate though, and hardly enough to convict Vincent. The police and FBI tried everything. Every suspected Corleone member was questioned. The cops even tracked down a certain Victor Rizzi, who they found out to be a cousin of Santino JR and Vincent Mancini. Victor had not seen any of his Family for years. He didn’t even come to his uncle Mike’s papal honor award ceremony in 1979. Victor Rizzi fell into a life of crime at a very young age. His father was a rat - which he knew very well - betraying his mothers’ Family. His mother, while raising him, was weak and irresponsible, and divorced just as quick as she married her second husband, her third only to last longer because he never was around. Victor never really got to know his parents. His father was dead, his mother never home. He was raised partly by Theresa Hagen, partly by Sandra Corleone. In the 1970’s, he even lived in New Hampshire for a while with the Michelsons.
When Vincent was pleaded not guilty and heared about Victor, who he had not seen since the early 1970’s, he wanted him to come around. Victor agreed, and the long lost nephews were brought back together. Vincent especially was interested in Victor’s stories about Mary.

When Mary was a teenager, she was constantly in love with New Hampshire boys. Decent, nice, young, innocent, American boys. When she was 19, Victor Rizzi came to live with them to study in Portsmouth. Kay, Mary and Anthony had been living there, and a year later, Kay also met Douglas Michelson. A 23 year old single, Victor got a lot of attention from Mary, who seemed to be a ‘Family person’ very much. She loved her aunts and uncles, her cousins and most of all her parents, altough she never really understood why they split up, now more then a decade ago. Two years earlier, Michael and Kay were at a party together. They never saw each other since.
When Victor Rizzi went to college, he took Mary with him to guide her on her way to her own school, somewhere else in Portsmouth. They discussed all sorts of topics. Mary was interested in music and literature, she was a child of the pop culture. Victor was very interested in girls of his age, even more with girls from an elderly age. He was a very dedicated student and worked hard and serious in a Rail Road company. The company took care of broken railway tracks and renovated old wagons.
What Mary never knew was that Victor Rizzi, her cousin, had some illegal businesses going on at the Rail Road Embarqments. During the nights, when the railways were deserted, Victor dealed some dope with some underground thugs. He made a fortune ripping off corrupt cops. And he took some broke prostitutes down there to ‘do business’ with them, only to beat them up safely and not paying them afterwards, disposing her unconscious body blocks away, hoping they wouldn’t remember him the next morning.
Victor lived a dangerous and anonymous life, but kept it away from Kay and her kids. He never really liked Anthony, altough Anthony did adore his cous’. Anthony had just finished his third year in Business Administration at college, and was planning to start at Law School in two or three years. Kay was a busy woman, making a living for her ‘three’ children. Later, when she moved in with Douglas, she quite her job to spend more time with Mary and Anthony, letting the experienced attorney provide a living for the three of them (by then, Victor Rizzi moved already).
But Victor always liked Mary.

Vincent just loved the stories Victor was telling him.

Mary had lots of crushes, also at college. Victor always teased here saying things like “you’ll never get them” or “you’re just a little girl, they want wise women”. In fact, Victor did mean to tell her she had to loosen up a bit. She was almost in her twenties and still not very ‘active’ with boys, or men. Victor had no really sexual interest in Mary for himself, but he knew some of his good friends had some interest in quite little, sweet innocent Mary. He even tried to persuade her to go on a blind date with one of them, but she rightfully refused the offer, for the guy she was supposed to go out with wanted to take her to the Rail Road Yards for sure.

When Vincent heared this, he got a little mad at Victor. “But it never happened, Vinnie, I tell ya! And she sure never knew this, man, honestly” He continued his memoirs.

One time Mary was really in love. With an American boy she met at college. He was very nice and polite, and Kay and Anthony also loved him. Douglas arranged a big job interview for him, and it seemed as if he was already accepted as Mary’s future husband or something. Mary also thought the boy, called Mark, was a perfect match. She pictured herself marrying, she imagined having little Markies or little Mary’s later, she daydreamed a lot about Mark, about their future life, about Victor...Victor, her handsome and cute Italian cousin, a blood relative. She remembered most of her cousins were quite nice...Victor, Andrew, Frank, Vincent, Santino JR... but they were blood relatives. And besides, she also loved Americans, and she definitely loved Mark. She decided to put away all her inpure thoughts about her relative and to never think these thoughts again. Instead, she constantly asked Victor for guidance within her relationship with Mark. It was quite new to her, and she need advise especially on when, how and where to commit ‘the act’. A romantic poetic girl she always were, she had doubts all over wether to have pre-marriage sex or not. Victor basically was the one who convinced her to do it anyway, and she did...

Again, Vincent looked very nasty at Victor, asking why he did such a thing. “I don’t know man, she was my cousin. She wanted to know...things. I liked talking about it and I always liked the stories afterwards my friends told. I was curious about a girl’s afterwards stories”

Mary’s first few experiences were positive. A tragic end of her relationship with Mark would soon come. Mark apparently couldn’t waite to begin with sex as long as Mary could, and before he had taken away her virginity, he slept with an old high school girlfriend he had, a young lady known to the entire neighborhood as “Easy Janet”. Mary was furious, devastated, heartbroken. Mark made up, and Mary decided not to tell anyone about it, not even Victor. But Mark’s behaviour wouldn’t change. When Mary found out he was sleeping with another woman again, he even asked her if she would join them. He definitely wanted that. By that time, Mark also started using drugs, and to make matters worse, to finance the drugs he stole cash from the company he worked after Douglas provided him with the job. Mary had enough of it, and wanted to leave Mark. He seemed to be under influence of drugs when he hold her and stopped her from going anywhere. Te locked the door from his appartment the two of them stayed that night, and started to call four friends telling them to come over. “Mary...” he said “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Some of my friends like you. Really really like you. A lot. They are, let’s say, kind of interested in you. Especially after I told them what an enthousiastic lady you are in the bedroom! They were wondering if they could get a piece of the cake too, and I agreed. Whatd’ya say, sweetie, you feel like having some fun? The guys are coming over soon” Mary started crying, and became very scared. Without really thinking or knowing what she was doing, she jumped out of a chair and attacked Mark like a wild animal. At first, he could get a hold of her, but one of her hysterical armswings hit him in the head and, being high on drugs at the moment, he collapsed and fell on the ground. Mary took the chance to escape the appartment, and ran off.
She immediatly went to Victor, still crying. She was crying and shouting, wanting to have Victor let her inside his home. Victor tried to calm her down, and told her he had to go for some business. He in fact was about to go to the Rail Road Yards with a hooker again. He ordered Mary to go home to her mother and to regain some sense again. She said she couldn’t, that Victor was the only one she could tell this. “Allright” he responded, “stay here then, I will be back in about an hour” “Victor, he’s a loonatic, he’s a loonatic” she kept saying. “he wanted to beat me and later have me raped by his friends” she mumbled. When Victor heard it, he stood still for a moment, absolutely shocked. “You know what, honey, stay here, and I’ll be back with some friends in 30 minutes. Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here...we’re gonna get him, okay”
Mary never understood what he ment by that. What could Victor do? He was a nice and sweet collegeboy, a decent family member and a hard working railroad employee. What contacts did he have to have a drug addict and, not to mention four of his thug friends, done any harm?
Victor met with the prostitue a few moments later, and he took her to the yards. Normally, this would not take much long, but tonight he had an appointment with some dealers concerning a big stash after the act of passion. When he and the hooker were finished, he told her to wait inside the little office they were in. He did want to pay her, and beat her unconscious to take her away, but he had to deal with his drug dealing partners first. The prostitute agreed to wait for him.
He met on the yards with some small time thugs, along with a few of his own friends. There were five of them, a few of which appeared to be high already. It was dark, and getting late in the evening. Victor remembered promising to Mary to be back in half an hour, but twenty minutes already were past and he still had to take care of two things: the deal and the hooker. When the group of five men, to whom he had never done business with, came closer and walked through some of the rare light there was, Victor recognized on of the hoods. It was Mark! And the others seemed to be his buds. Quickly he told his own partners what was going on and who they were, and they knew enough.
The negotiation started, but went roughly. Victor and his partners simply played “hard-to-get” to have some irritation arise with the five young men. One of them fell for it. “Hey listen up you sleezy wosps, you’d all better buy our shit, because you don’t wanna mess with us” while the boy was saying this he hardly could stand still which caused Victor to laugh out loud at him. Then he grabbed the bastard by the nose with his fingers and pulled it up. “What did you say? Can’t I mess with you fellows?” With a hard push he nearly broke the guy’s nose before he let him fall on the ground, when Victor kicked him hard in his stomach. At that time, Mark knew who this man was, and said “Oh shit, I know who you are”...
“Oh do you now, really?” and all of a sudden an very tensed situation arised. The three still standing friends of Mark took out knives and Victor’s partners took out some bats. Some swearing and threatening bothways started, and a big fight was about to start when the prostitute came out of the office building. “Hey, shithead guineapig, where the hell’s my money, huh?” she furiously asked. One of the three guys with knives said to another of them: “Hey Joey, ain’t that your sister?”, to which Joey reacts while his sister is in just walking into the group of aggresive men by saying: “You motherfucker” and he tries to attack Victor. He steps away and falls on the ground with the knive upwards, stabbing himself in his belly. The other men started fighting with each other know. No knives nor bats were really used effectively and most of the fights were with hands. The hysterical prostitute attacked Victor, swearing and yelling and saying it’s his fault her brother’s now wounded. The fighting men lost control over their coordination, and all person there (the prostitute, Victor, Mark, their partners) except for wounded Joey got struggled in and against each other. Some yelling occured, some cursing, when all of a sudden a big light lit up the group. “Police” someone shouts, and a few of them run off. The ones who don’t seem to be too hurt to get away. Joey bled to death, and two of his friends are also on the ground. The prostitute is stabbed in the neck and slowly her life’s bleeding away from her. Also one of Victor’s men is dead on the floor with a big bleeding wound on top of his head.

When taking of Victor saw Mark, desperately trying to get away, ran the same direction as he did, and he decided to wait for him. He surprised him around a building corner and grabbed him by the neck. “You come with me”

The police found the dead bodies on the Rail Road Yards. Victor’s partner was linked to him very soon and Victor lost his job, but remained free from any accusition. The fatal night he took Mark with him to his appartment, confronting him with Mary who was still waiting, very scared. He had humiliated him in front of her, and beaten him so hard and much that Mary even asked Victor to stop the torture. But he wouldn’t listen. Victor took an entire childhood of dispear and frustration out on poor Mark, who succumbed. Victor fled the appartment with Mary just before it happened, so she would not have to see it. He brought her home, and just before getting there, he asked her not to tell anyone about his aggresive actions against her future husband. But in her mind, Mary already decided never to tell anyone anything about all what happened that night between her and Mark...and Victor, eventually. Victor went back to his house, grabbed some personal belongings and set his house on fire. He claimed quit some money from insurance company, got rid of Mark’s body completely and then moved away from New Hampshire, to find his luck in Boston, and later in New York. It took over a year before Mary started dating again.

Vincent was sorry he heard all these stories about Victor’s past. He wanted to hear the sweet and beautiful stories of his little cousin from the old times, the years he missed out on. From the early 60’s till 1979 he had not seen his favorite cousin. When they met again, they sort of fell in love. Vincent was furious to hear these stories. But it also convinced him of Victor’s cold-blooded mentality. If it would ever come to a war again, he could use a man like Victor. And he’s a blood relative. Together with Santino JR, the three of them could act as strong, influential gang members.

Vincent had some important contacts in other parts of the world he wanted to secure before another trial would come up. He knew he wasn’t allowed to leave the country very long. He asked Victor if he could join him on a trip to Columbia and Japan. He did.

In Columbia the two cousins and some bodyguards met with Alex Rodrigo Cuesta. Vincent thought of this visit to the Cali drug baron as a formality. But Cuesta had bad news. “The travellers are being robbed or killed a lot lately. And there’s some pressure from young and ambitious rookie traffickers here in Columbia. I can’t handle wars on three fronts. One here, one on the boats and one in New York. You have to help me!”
“How can I help you?” Vincent asked. “Take over control of my men in Harlem. I cannot run them on my own anymore. I will have someone deal with the travellers, and take care with my enemies here in Columbia and in Peru myself.” Vincent didn’t like the offer, nor the tone of Cuesta. What was in it for him? Why should he risk more men and more days as a free man? “I can’t do it, Alex. The New York Police Department has an eye out for all of my men! The Fed’s are investigating a lot of activities linked with my Family. Rightfully linked, might I add!! I had to tell my men even to keep a low profile for a year, man, I can’t start up new businesses now! You have to buy your own protection!” The police investigations weren’t aware yet of Corleone’s involvment in the drug transporting, and therefore the agreement with Cuesta wasn’t at stake yet. Besides, if a smuggler would get arrested, there would be no way Vincent Corleone would be linked with it. The transporters themselves did not know they worked for him. They all had their leading capo’s, and some of the capo’s told about the control of Neri, but most of these men were young and did not know who Neri was. Vincent was actually keeping his Family out of a lot of businesses for a year.
The meeting with Cuesta wasn’t a pleasant one. When they left on a plane to Kobe, they discussed it a bit. Victor, who was also informed by Neri and Santino JR a bit about the Cosa Nostra history, said that Cuesta was not to be fully trusted anymore in the future. Vincent himself knew that much, his Columbian partner would be very dissapointed with his disagreement. But he convinced hismelf he was right, this offer was too dangerous.

In Japan the two Corleone’s met with Masahiro Tanasuke. Vincent had met Tanasuke once in his town Atlantic City, where the Japanese mobster was on a ‘business-holiday’. They talked a bit and Tanasuke asked Vincent if there were some prospects on future collaboration. Vincent didn’t agree nor disagree with anything, but accepted the offer to stop by a time. Now they were in Japan. It turned out the Yakuza, the crime organization Tanasuke was part of, was quite powerfull, and definitely much bigger than Vincent and Victor expected. Tanasuke was the “oyabun”, the father to which all members, “kobun”, plead their infinite loyalty, of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicat. This was by far the strongest faction from the Yakuza. Their symbol is a rhombus-shaped pin worn on the lapel of the suits of Yamaguchi-gumi soldiers. In the past, a Yamaguchi-gumi oyabun who was seen as the Yakuza boss of bosses, “kumicho”, survived an assasinatino attempt when he was shot in the neck during a limbo dance contest.

Tanasuke had a major rival, called Hiroshi Yamamoto, who turned against Tanasuke’s gang and started his own crime syndicat called the Ichiwa-kai. A bloody gangwar was going on in large area’s of all of Japan. Tanasuke’s syndicat had about 20.000 members, twice as much as Yamamoto’s, but the military strength of the Ichiwa-kai was bigger than the Yamaguchi-gumi. Tanasuke needed more military power. He wanted to collaborate with an American crime big shot, buying loads of weaponry in exchange for amfetamines and other narcotics. A few of the men he approached refused, mainly telling the mob leader they didn’t have enough power. He then heard about Vincent killing DiCanio, and thought of him as the perfect collaborator. Altough Vincent was eagered to get rid of some of his heavy weapon equipment so the police investigation could never get a hold of it, he wasn’t really pleased with the offer Tanasuke made in return. He ordered Victor and Tanasuke’s men to leave the room.
Kazuo Toake was Tanasuke’s “saiko komon”, his senior advisor. Victor was pleased to hear from the man, who resided in Osaka normally, what power he had as the ‘consiglieri’ of the Japanese supreme boss. He told in return he was practically the advisor/underboss to the New York Family himself, which wasn’t quite accurate yet. But Victor did study Law School back in Portsmouth and Boston, before moving to New York.
In Tanasuke’s office, Vincent talked to him. “I can not accept your offer, my friend. It’s too dangerous. I’m a famous person in America. I’m on the news practically every day, I’m on trial at least twice a year...they are after me, Masahiro. They accuse me of horrible, horrible things, and I am treated as a criminal. You see, I’m still the head of my Family and I don’t want these bad things to be said about my Family. I have an uncle living in Italy who would die if he saw all the reports on American Television. Federal Intelligence agencies are investigating my businesses, my income, my link to organized crime... Please understand, I can not act in such operations in these awful periods.”
Tanasuke answered. “Don Vincenzo, I admire your honesty and your intelligence. You’re a wise man, I can see. I know you have some deals with that Colombian drug baron you want to get rid of. I know there are some.... ‘stones’ in your shoe” the two men start giggling a bit. Tanasuke obviously knew the Corleone history well “who you would like to dissapear. Men who are putting your organization to disgrace. Men with lots of heavy machinery!” Vincent thought the conversation was going to go this way. He still liked the fact Tanasuke could take over his weapons. “And I need those weaponry, my American friend” the Yamaguchi-gumi obayun went on. “Maybe, I can pay you in some other way?”
Vincent thought of the question. Now he had two partners wanting to import narcotics via him into the United States, and he wanted to stay away a little. “There’s some good money in these narcotics, isn’t it?” “Yes, Don Vincenzo, the authorities here can’t take a hold of it” Vincent continued: “Would you be interested in importing some other narcotics? Other then amfetamines? From outside of Japan?” “Mister Corleone” Tanasuke responded, “we allready import from other countries, all over Asia!”
“I’m not talking about Asia, Masahiro. Have you ever considered working with South American dope?” Vincent explained the situation of Cuesta to him. He offered Tanasuke a major deal. Instead of trafficking the drugs from Columbia to the United States, Vincent would have Cuesta send the drugs mainly to Japan. Tanasuke would run the importing and trasnporting businesses there the exact way Vincent and Pochettino did in NY. In order to do so, Vincent provided the Yamaguchi-gumi with lots of weapons and knowledge. This way, Tanasuke’s syndicat was able to resist the terror from the Ichiwa-kai, and make about twice as much money in narcotics then before. Vincent’s army in NY would be a lot less armed, which was good if any governmental investigation would interfear with them. He got rid of drug dealing, made a fortune while at it, and was no threat to fellow Don’s in America anymore, who got off his back. It was a perfect solution. Vincent had a few of his good capo’s cooperate in Kobe and Osaka. Back in NY he did not much. Santino JR and Victor Rizzi stayed with him a lot. He sent Al Neri back to Vegas, who hired a young and succesfull business man to take over most of his activities. The three cousins spent much time in Atlantic City, gambling a little. Santino JR also had lot of interest in the Atlantic City brothels. The next few months were easy yet fortunate for Vincent and his Family...
After Tanasuke agreed to the deal, he suddenly brought up another point. “We will be able to resist the Ichiwa-kai here...but they have some major contacts with Alexandre Golubnev. You know who that is, Vincent?” Vincent had heard of him, but did not know much about this Russian. “Sure, we are close with Korean gangs, but the Russian mob is much bigger, and much more powerfull. They have contacts in Europe, Asia and the Middle-East. They are much bigger in quantity then your American mafia, I tell you! They started interfearing in some foreign business a couple of years ago. Due to a conflict with the Korean’s, they wouldn’t join us, and by joining the Ichiwa-kai they were persuaded into a very hostile way of dealing things here! They might be our biggest fear, when you and I start work together!?!”

Vincent listened to the oyabun, and told him he would go to Moscow to see this Golubnev and to talk with him. Vincent and Victor have been away from home for about a month now. They flew to Moscow, where it was very cold. They met with Alexandre Ivanovic Golubnev in secret, in a Moscovian warehouse. The man wasn’t too tall, nor too thin, nor to hairy. Vincent’s height made him look upon Golubnevs baldy head during the whole conversation. The man had a very low and quite voice, but did say some hard and tough things. He warned Vincent that the Russians are not to be dealed with. After Vincent saying he wasn’t intented too Golubnev responded, with a heavy Russian accent: “You already are! I have some major interests with Yamamoto. I have heard about your little deal with the Yamaguchi crew...the war in Japan would escalate. I have thousands of my men walking over there, I have billions of yen invested there. If I would lose any of those, I don’t know what I’m about to do! You better tell your Japanese friend to keep his nose out of Yamamoto’s territories! Let me be clear to you!” Vincent was surprised by the fact Golubnev was so well informed, only a few days after he was in Kobe. He told Golubnev not to worry, and especially not to get unfriendly with him, since their primary interests did not conflict with each other. “It’s like Vietnam again huh, comrade? Americans and Sovyets, fighting in a war on Asian territory! Let’s not fight each other, let’s just stay away from each others businesses.” “Do you want a drink, Mister Corleone? Perhaps some real Russian whiskey?” Golubnev asked. “Da!!” Vincent answered with a big laugh. Victor, who was sitting behind him, gniffled a bit. While Vincent drank his drink, Golubnev stated: “This could be your last drink ever, Mister Corleone!” Vincent was shocked, and stood up wanting to take some action against this threat, but three of Golubnev’s bodyguards stood very close to him already with guns and rifles pointed to his face. “Like I said, stay..away..from my business.” Vincent’s face looked like exploding, as he was taken away by the bodyguards. Victor Rizzi, unarmed as always, was carried away too. Golubnev shouted something as they were taken off: “Da zvidanje!...Good Luck!”
“That slimey bastard, what the hell does he think he is?” Vincent told Victor on their way to the Moscow International Airport. Victor calmed his cousing down. He saw how tempered he could be.

Before going back to New York, Vincent and Victor went to Palermo. They took the train to Corleone, and went to visit Connie, Anthony and Michael.