A purely speculative question: where do we think Sollozzo has been all these years? Hagen's rundown on him is pretty sparse, so it seems there's not a lot of Sollozzo stories floating around mob circles. Vito knows he ran some prostitution before the war, but Tom doesn't know Vito would know that, so Tom's own research trail seems to peter out at some point. We know his business is anchored in Turkey, France, and Sicily, and he has a family in Turkey, so perhaps he was stuck across the Atlantic for the duration of the war? On the other hand, he also has an American family, and very matter-of-factly knows who has the best veal in New York City, so he doesn't seem an out-of-towner. He's also done some jail time.

So: whence Virgil Sollozzo?

Yes, his background is a bit sparse. I believe Tom said he did two prison terms--one in Italy, one in the US, so maybe that's where he was for quite a while.

Pete, I imagine that most of his time was spent in Europe. Since only the Tattaglia's and Barzini seem to know of him, he probably was low profile. Also, I take it that many Dons frowned on the drug traffic just as Vito did and that contributed to his low profile. Since Barzini had some control in the Bronx, I imagine that Sollozzo met with him or his people at Louis's a few times

Coppola's notes in the Notebook estimated Vito at 55 years old and Sollozzo early 50s. That surprised me - it always seemed to me when reading that Sollozzo had to be clearly younger than Vito - a man still on the way up. Al Lettieri, of course, was mid-forties when he played the role.