As a Godfatherholic there are hardly any days when I don't think at least 5 minutes about antyhing related to The Godfather.

So lately I was thinking about these two characters which we are pretty much kept in the dark about. I always imagined what their exact role would be in The Godfather universe and after some thoughts I could only come to the conclusion that both had to be members of the Corleone family.

In the films it seems that both were initially highly respected by Michael Corleone based on how they were treated.

In Part II we see that Johnny Ola is received with the utmost respect and receives a warm welcome by Michael. We also see that he has men of his own who also seem to be Italian which suggests he had his own crew. This all suggests he had to be a "made man".

Johnny Ola is obviously based on Vincent Alo who was a caporegime in the Genovese crime family and a close associate of Meyer Lansky which we all know is the model for Hyman Roth. It's also obvious that the Corleone family is the fictitious Genovese family in their universe as they are the most powerful in the country with interests in Las Vegas, Miami and Havana.

As the Corleone family controlled at least one hotel in Miami I imagine they probably also had some men there to look after their investments. I therefore think Johnny Ola probably was their man in Florida which explains why he also worked closely with Hyman Roth.

Don Altobello was Connie Corleone's godfather which also strongly suggests he was a member of the Corleone family. In Part III it becomes clear that Joey Zasa was his puppet.

As Zasa was already pretty young for a "boss" in Part III it's obvious he hadn't succeeded Pentangeli directly which leaves a big gap in the years between Part II and III. I therefore think that it was probably Don Altobello who succeeded Pentangeli as boss of the Corleone family in New York. Due to his age in Part III I think he sort of semi-retired in the 1970s and installed Zasa as his successor. However, in reality Zasa would have been some sort of a street boss while Altobello secretly still "pulled the strings".

At least this is my theory about these two characters and I'm curious to how you guys think about it (if you have thought about them at all).

Ofcourse it's fair enough to say that both character were only created to serve their purpose in the movies. Still, it's fun to think about it.