Some people believe the model for Lucca Brasi was Willie Moretti, a feared NJ mob boss who was, in Joe Bonanno's words, "Frank Costello's strength." Moretti was alleged to have gotten Frank Sinatra out of a contract with the bandleader Jimmy Dorsey by threatening his life, just as, in "The Godfather," Lucca got Johnny Fontaine out of a contract with a bandleader by holding a gun to his head.

Moretti had tertiary syphillis. After an embarrassing appearance before the Kefaufer Committee in 1951, the Commission ordered his death.