I can't recall offhand, but does anyone remember if the book covers Mike's revenge on Fabrizzio? And if it does, how was he killed, and who actually carried out the hit?


Don Cardi

If I'm not mistaken, he's shot behind the counter of his pizzeria. I can't remember who carried out the hit, but I do remember that whoever did it opened up the pizza man's shirt to check his tattoo and make sure that it was indeed Fabrizzio.

Thank you SB. Now that you bring up the part about the tattoo, I remember it now.



Don Cardi

DC, I hope you will appreciate.


Upstate in the city of Buffalo, a small pizza parlor on a side street was doing a rush trade. As the lunch hours passed, business finally slackened off and the counterman took his round tin tray with its few leftover slices out of the window and put it on the shelf on the huge brick oven. He peeked into the oven at a pie baking there. The cheese had not yet started to bubble. When he turned back to the counter that enabled him to serve people in the street, there was a young, tough?looking man standing there. The man said, “Gimme a slice.”
The pizza counterman took his wooden shovel and scooped one of the cold slices into the oven to warm it up. The customer, instead of waiting outside, decided to come through the door and be served. The store was empty now. The counterman opened the oven and took out the hot slice and served it on a paper plate. But the customer, instead of giving the money for it, was staring at him intently.
“I hear you got a great tattoo on your chest,” the customer said. “I can see the top of it over your shirt, how about letting me see the rest of it?”
The counterman froze. He seemed to be paralyzed.
“Open your shirt,” the customer said.
The counterman shook his head. “I got no tattoo,” he said in heavily accented English. “That’s the man who works at night.”
The customer laughed. It was an unpleasant laugh, harsh, strained. “Come on, unbutton your shirt, let me see.”
The counterman started backing toward the rear of the store, aiming to edge around the huge oven. But the customer raised his hand above the counter. There was a gun in it. He fired. The bullet caught the counterman in the chest and hurled him against the oven. The customer fired into his body again and the counterman slumped to the floor. The customer came around the serving shelf, reached down and ripped the buttons off the shirt. The chest was covered with blood, but the tattoo was visible, the intertwined lovers and the knife transfixing them. The counterman raised one of his arms feebly as if to protect himself. The gunman said, “Fabrizzio, Michael Corleone sends you his regards.” He extended the gun so that it was only a few inches from the counterman’s skull and pulled the trigger. Then he walked out of the store. At the curb a car was waiting for him with its door open. He jumped in and the car sped off.

Thank you JustMe, I greatly appreciate it.




Don Cardi

A good story, but yet another example of Puzo's sloppy writing:
Near the beginning of the book, he makes the point that Vito never gave orders directly--only through Hagen, the better to protect himself against being directly implicated in a crime. Can you imagine Michael giving the order directly to the gunman who killed Fab, and telling him, "Be sure to tell Fabrizio that Michael Corleone sends his regards"?

Why, the order could be given as well through 5 buffers.

Yeah, the family had a lotta buffiz...

This is a little off topic, but since someone mentioned Puzo's sloppy writing, at what age did we decide that Vito died?

I don't know that we (if you mean the folks on these boards) ever reached a consensus, but Vito's age at death was discussed several times. If I'm summarizing correctly:
--The novel never states Vito's year of birth or death.
--In Vito's funeral scene, we get a glimpse of his tombstone (and Lebo reproduces a still of it in his book). His dates are April 1887 - June 1955, which made him 68 at death. That seems logical, BUT:
--The flashback scene in GFII says that Vito's birthday falls on December 7, and Geoff's timeline (http://thegodfathertrilogy.com/timeline.txt) puts his year of birth for the December 7 date at 1891 not 1887.
--A further complication: In a deleted scene from GFII, Clemenza introduces the young Hyman Roth to the young Vito just after Sr. Roberto makes his hasty retreat. Vito looks to be about 30 and Roth seems to be about 18. But at Roth's birthday party in Havana, the icing on his "Cuba" cake congratulates him on his 67th birthday. Since the scene is set in late 1958, it'd mean that Roth was born in 1891, which would make him either the same age as Vito or just four years younger--not at all consistent with the Vito and Roth portrayed in that deleted scene.

Once I actually took a novel and figured it all, considering novel only, no sequels and other bullshit. Now, what I got:
When Mike leaves Kay in the hotel, it is said that if someone told her that she will not see him until 3 years passed...
So, he spent about 2,5 years in Sicily and 6 months before she contacted him.
Then we find about his trip to Vegas: "It was almost 3 years now since he had returned home and over two years since he had married Kay." 5,5 years since the murder.
When he is back from Vegas he tells the Don, who asks him "when will you start?" - "A year from now." And then we read: "He was patient, to use the full year to prepare. But he was not to get his necessary year, because..." Here the Don dies. And after the funeral Mike says to Tom: "I needed about four more months..." So that was 8 months more. 6 years and 2 months. If the murder is near the New Year eve 1946 , that makes early spring of 1952 the date of the Great Massacre. So, Vito died in 1952.

Just by the way, since originally we talk about Fabrizzio. I remember writing a lot about the situation here:

Fabrizio

I tend to favor your analysis JustMe. But there is that line about it being ten years since there had been a celebration in the house (Connie's wedding). Therefore, if Vito died in 1955 and if he comes to America in 1901 and if he is about 12 twelve when he does so, that makes him 66 at death. Then there is the line in GFII when the Senator asks Mike about the muder of the five families' Dons in 1950. I just can't fathom it being almost ten years from the time of Sollozzo's murder to the muder of the family heads. I'm more comfortable with the early fifties.

I believe that it was 1946 when Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey. Then, 9 years later, in 1955, the Heads of the 5 Families, Carlo, Moe Green & Tessio are wacked.

The line that you are talking about in GFII, when Michael is in front of the committee, is actually

"Is it true that in -- in the year 1950 you devised the murder of the heads of the so-called five families in New York."

Perhaps the key word here is "Devised" which does not neccessarily mean "carried out." I believe that he is being accused of making the "plans" to wack the heads of the families in 1950. He returned from Sicily in 1949 and probably began "planning" his revenge on the heads of the five families in or around 1950. That is why the senator uses the word "devised."


Don Cardi

I'm not so sure about those semantics. Even so, I can't see it taking four years to execute the plan.

Why not?

Vito was a deliberate man. He originally gave his word (to Barzini and the others) that he wouldn't be the one to break the peace. That bought him time to school Mike in the Family matters and time to lull the other Families into a sense of calm.

It makes perfect sense, IMO, that Mike and Vito DEVISED the plan to kill the heads of the Five Families in 1950 (shortly after Mike returned from Sicily) and act upon it (much) later when they were fully prepared to do so.

Of course you can. You're forgetting one major thing. The reason that it took four years to execute the plan was because Vito gave his word, at the commission meeting, that he would NOT be the one to break the peace. He had to keep his word. He also needed time to groom Michael. The plan was that Michael would take his revenge upon the death of Vito. Vito knew that once he passed on, the other families would then move against the Corleones. While Vito was alive, they would not make their move. So upon Vito's death, Michael had to make his move and get his revenge BEFORE they made their move on him.



Don Cardi

And what if Vito had lived another twenty years? What if Barzini died or went to prison or wiped out the Corleones? Just a chance taken? And how would the Senators know when Mike began planning the murders?

Then obviously a different plan would have been made.
And Fredo wouldn't have been killed!

As for how the senators knew when Mike began planning the hits with Vito? Well who knows. Cinematic license? Maybe. Or perhaps those like Pentangeli and Cicci, while under Clemenza, eventually came to learn, just as Clemenza did, that the Corleones were playing possum during those 2 years while actually putting this whole plan together. At some point Clemenza had to have been brought into the loop as he carried out part of the plan on behalf of Michael, as well as Willie Cicci. So Cicci and Pentangeli, in all likelyhood, came to learn that Michael and Vito had this plan in motion for quite some time, and Pentangeli probably gave that information to the Feds when he thought that Michael tried having him killed.

Don Cardi

I agree with olivant about the semantics, but I also agree with DC about it easily taking 4 years to execute. The reason I don't buy the semantics and view the Senator's line in GFII as a sloppy mistake is why would the Committee care when Michael [/i]devised[i] the plan, rather than when the murders actually occurred? Plus, how the hell do they know when Michael and Vito thought up the plan? Did Geary have to leave the committee for his daily appointment with Miss Cleo?

Think of it in real-life terms. If we ever catch Osama and he is put on trial at the UN, do you think the chairman is going to ask him if it's true that devised the attack on the WTC in 1983, or whatever year the sick bastard got the idea, or is the attack going to be referred to by the year 2001? I would have to say the WTC attacks are synonymous with the year 2001, just as the Great Massacre should be synonymous with the year 1955, not 1950.

Good analysis Jmmy. But, 4 years? What was the point of the murders anyway? Revenge! The longer you wait, the greater chance there is that some variable keeps you have exacting your revenge or that your plan gets divulged. The entire underworld scene could have changed dramatically in on eyear let alone four years not to mention that Mike himself could have gotten whacked or that someone else important to the plan could die - like Vito.

Man, this little part of the book was awesome! At first, I didn't know what was going on. Then, when the hitman asked about the pizza-man's tattoo, I immediately knew it was Fabrizzio. I really liked how he killed him, too. "Fabrizzio, Michael Corleone sends his regards." I love when gangsters say that before they kill someone. It's awesome!

Sure, it made for a very satisfying passage. But, in real life, it would have been a grave mistake for Michael to have told a button man that he--Michael--was behind the killing the button man was ordered to do. If that happened, the button man could have been in a position to testify against Michael if he'd been arrested and the cops had squeezed him. Most likely, someone far down the chain from Michael would have told him, "Kill this Fabrizzio guy, and don't ask any questions."