Furio: First, the Godfather movie and novel are fiction, based on some broad impressions of Mafia that Mario Puzo imagined. But, you are assuming--as do many people on these boards--that the Mafia has hard-and-fast "rules" that are followed by all, so that Mafiosi can appear to be "men of honor" instead of the common criminals that they really are.

The reality is there are very few hard-and-fast "rules." A Mafia Don is like an emperor, and can do almost anything he wants within his family. In that respect, the Godfather may be closer to real life. If a Mafia boss wanted to appoint a non-Italian as his consigliere, who was going to say "no" to him? Are the other families going to declare war on him? Of course not. More than a few Dons did not have formally appointed consiglieri, and just relied on people they trusted for advice. Hugh "Apples" McIntosh, Carmine Persico's bodyguard, was one of his most trusted advisers. A Don would not "make" a non-Italian in a formal ceremony, but so what? They can use anyone they choose to use. Paul Vario, caporegime and one-time street boss of the Lucchese family, used Jimmy Burke, a full-blooded Irishman, as the equivalent of a crew chief because he was a good earner and was trustworthy. No one stopped him.

BTW: Vito Corleone was a composite of several NY Dons. Yes, he was like Bonanno in wanting his son to succeed him as Don. But Bonanno was up to his neck in drugs, and Vito Corleone wanted no part of drugs. Vito was the top olive oil importer to America, as was real-life Don Joseph Profaci. But, unlike Profaci, he never had to contend with a war within his family. Vito Corleone is most like Frank Costello: politically all-powerful, anti-drug, the gambling czar, the "Prime Minister of the Underworld."