Originally posted by mustachepete:
I don't have the book in front of me, and I have a couple of hanging questions: 1. does the book say that the Bocchicchio negotiator arrived at the conference early; and, 2. does the narrative of the Bocchicchios support their being one of the "six powerful families" by 1937?
These are just some things I think about when I should be working........
(Then)........I finally had some time to look at these questions that I left for myself (?):
1. I don't think there's anything that says the Bocchicchio negotiator arrived early; and,
2. The "six powerful families", in Vito's long narrative, are defined in terms of just being too powerful to destroy. Short of Mussolini taking power in the US, the Bocchicchios seem to qualify.
First, mustachepete, let me say (as you must already know) that this is one of two unresolved questions (along with "Who killed the Tahoe assassins?") that I enjoy discussing the most.
That said, I was somewhat surprised (and embarrassed) to realize that apparently I had somehow missed the opportunity to respond to your post which I quoted above.
As far as your Question #1 goes, I'd agree.
There is no reference at all in the novel to the fact that any representative of the Bocchicchio Family may have arrived at the meeting early.
Interestingly, however, I was looking through the novel yesterday morning for the historical references to the Bocchicchio Family and Mussolini and his rise to power and war against the Mafia to see if I could get a handle on the approximate time that the Bocchicchios might have fled Sicily for the U.S. and whether or not that would have been early enough to gave them enough time in America to rise to the level of power necessary for them to become “one of the 5 or 6 families to powerful to eliminate.”
So as I’m looking I came across yet another passage which I don’t believe has ever been cited in these discussions before, which reinforce the idea that there are five other families in addition to the Corleones.
I refer to page 87 of the paperback 30th Anniversary Edition, right before the beginning of Chapter 3.
It’s right after Vito has been shot, and Sonny is thinking to himself, analyzing the situation, trying to figure out who might be lined up against the Corleones, where Luca Brasi might be, etc.
Anyway, Puzo writes about Sonny’s thoughts:
“It was the first challenge to the Corleone Family and their power in ten years. There was no doubt that Sollozzo was behind it, but he never would have dared attempt such a stroke unless he had
support from at least one of the five great New York families. (Bold and italics mine).
The key here is that the five families in that statement could not possibly be meant to include the Corleones since, obviously, Sollozzo would not be looking to the Corleones for support in a war
against the Corleones, so he
must be referring to five
other families.
Notice also Puzo’s use of the lower case in “five” and the lower case in “families”, which suggests that he is writing about five separate families, not using “Five Families” as a generic term meant to include the Corleones.
