Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracchi, Cuneo....

There are descriptions in the novel about the activities of all of them which provide a few clues, but I'm not up that much on my mob history.

The book describes Cuneo as being from "upper New York State", so I assume his character was based on Stefan Magaddino, the Don of Buffalo.

Any thoughts on the others?

I wish I knew enough about gangsters to answer that question. Where's Turnbull when you need him??

Plaw, you're right about Cuneo. But, I think that the other dons are so generic that they really don't line up well with any well know real life dons.

I don't know any answers to your question, but I just wanted to say: It's StraCCi, not StraCCHi.

Silly thing to say, but the way to pronounce the names changes completely. CC = tchi (how Vito and Michael said it) and CCH= kk
That is correct, isn't it, Italians on BB?

I don't have the novel in front of me, but if I remember correctly, Cuneo was described as having a milk company. Magaddino was in the funeral home business.
Of the other Dons, the only one who might correspond is Tattaglia with Genovese--the Genoveses were into prostitution, but that wasn't the only Genovese business. But we might also argue that Barzini was like Vito Genovese, who tried to legitimize drugs as a way to unseat the current top dog (then Frank Costello) and muscle his way into the number-one spot. The link is tenuous at best.

As I've posted many times, Vito Corleone was a composite:
--He was the biggest olive oil importer in America, like Joe Profaci;
--He tried to bring his son in as successor, and had an underboss betray him, like Joe Bonanno;
--He was the victor in a 1930's war, leaving his enemy dead with his mouth full of bread, like Salvatore Maranzano;
--He was boss of gambling and unions, was the most powerful politically, was known as the top diplomat,retired after an unsuccessful assassination attempt, like Frank Costello. In fact, Costello was the Don that Vito most resembled.

So that's four other Dons for four other Families. That would make the Corleone clan the 5th Family out fo the five Families.

A comedian, huh mate?

How about where Puzo writes "The representatives of the Five New York Families were the last to arrive. Tom Hagen was struck....."

Ah, never mind

I remember when I joined the Board that one of my first topics concerned the "five" families reference although the Corleones were considered one of the five. That's never been resolved. Alot of opinions on it, but it appears to be another example of Puzo's sloppiness.

I think Puzo told it to FFC, he must have analysed the book in order to make the movie, so this must have been an issue they talked about. When anyone sees him: Ask !!

Compare for example the sentence "Tony Blair met the leaders of the G8 nations at Gleneagles". Everybody would read that sentences as meaning that he met the leaders of the other G8 nations, and not take it to imply that he was not such a leader ... it's a slightly sloppy way of writing, not proof that there were five other families.

The representatives of the Five Fammilies of New York were the last to arrive and Tom Hagen was struck by how much more imposing, impressive, these five men were than the out-of-towners, the hicks.

How about the above. That's not sloppy writing, that's a seemingly deliberate and specific reference to five other Dons besides Vito Corleone.

Here's what I'll never understand:

Sure, there's no "proof" as to whether or not Puzo intended there to be five families or six, notwithstanding the argument that the Bocchicchios were the sixth family.

But the only evidence that there were only five is the fact that Puzo didn't introduce the head of the sixth family at the meeting. And if you agree that the Bocchicchios were the sixth family - and there's really no logical argument that they weren't - there was no need for Puzo to do so, since he discussed them and their role earlier in the very same chapter.

Weigh that one bit of evidence against the numerous references in the book to five families besides the Corleones, and it seems to me that the weight of the evidence is on the side of six families rather than five.

"Tony Blair met the leaders of the G8 nations at Gleneagles. He was aware that these eight men were....".

Is Blair one of the leaders of the G8 nations now?

But was the Bocchicchio family also conspiracing with the other families against Don Corleone?

No, and one of the lines in the book

For the last year the Corleone Family had waged war against the five great Mafia Families of New York.

would indicate that the Bocchicchios that they may have even been a seventh family.

Which is also a possibility, since in the Vito flashback section, Puzo writes about "five or six families too powerful to eliminate", and then about how Luca Brasi, "operating alone when one of the six powerful families tried to interfere...."

This was during the 1935-1937 "pacification" of the New York underworld.

S it would that just ten years or so prior to the assassination attempt on Vito following Sollozzo's proposal, there were six other families, not five, for a total of seven, including the Corleones.

And then ten years later only five?

Yea thats correct

That is a real pain in the ass, I can see how Puzo may have slipped. I'm writing a mafia book and I constantly have to backspace and change "the five families" to "the other four families."

J Geoff, use al your powers to arrange a meeting with FFC. Then bring your associate Plawrence with you, and talk about the 5 or 6 families issue.

Pull some strings to get a sitdown with that pezzonovante.