Hey all! Great board! anyway I am doing a research paper for a college class on who the real life organized crime individuals that Puzo based loosely or directly on, his characters from the Godfather novel. I know of some like frank sinatra being the basis for johnny fontaine, bugsy siegel basis for moe green but who was Vito Corleone based loosely on? also it would help greatly if you could let me know what books your info came from since i can further reasearch it and document it for my paper. thanks for your time!

Vito Corleone is a composite of several real-life Mafia Dons:
--In the novel, he defeats a rival whom he arranges to kill at a restaurant and who dies with a mouthful of bread. The dead gangster would be Joe The Boss Masseria, which would make Vito's character like Masseria's nemesis: Salvatore Maranzano, who won the Castellemmarese War of 1930-31.
--Vito's "the biggest importer of olive oil in the U.S." That makes his character like Joe Profaci, who was the biggest importer of olive oil in the U.S. (his family eventually became the Colombos).
--Vito has two capos, one who remains loyal (Clemenza), one who betrays his son (Tessio). That makes Vito like Joe Bonanno, whose capo, Frank Labruzzo, stayed loyal, and whose other capo, Gaspar DiGregorio, betrayed Joe and his son, Salvatore ("Bill").
--But the one Don whom Vito most resembles is Frank Costello, called "the chairman of the board" because of his pre-eminence among Mafiosi. Costello also was the biggest in gambling, and "had all the judges in New York in his pocket." He also retired after an unsuccessful attempt on his life.

Don't forget the Hyman Roth character based on Meyer Lansky. Also, Frank Sinatra sang at the wedding of Willie Morreti's daughter. It took place at Morreti's home in NJ in 1947. Does that sound familiar?

Don Marco: I never heard the story about Sinatra singing at Moretti's wedding, but it could be true. As you probably know, the most often-repeated story about Sinatra and Moretti is that Moretti got him out of his contract with Tommy Dorsey by holding a gun to Dorsey's head--the source of the tale told of Don Corleone and Luca Brasi.

I found this on the crimemagazine.com website.

Willie Moretti

Family connections led to another major underworld link that was very important to Sinatra's career. Nancy Barbato, Sinatra's first wife, was a cousin of a "key member of Willie Moretti's mob," as the FBI report put it. Moretti controlled gambling and other rackets in Bergen County and northern New Jersey and was a known associate of Frank Costello, the New York Mafia boss.

After Sinatra's marriage to Nancy Barbato, Moretti (a.k.a. Willie Moore) took an interest in the young singer's career. He arranged several singing engagements for Sinatra, giving his career a large boost. Moretti also set an example for other mobsters who would later befriend Sinatra. Sinatra several times denied that Moretti helped his career. Columnist Lee Mortimer's allegations concerning Moretti led to Sinatra assaulting Mortimer. Sinatra's private testimony to the
Kefauver Committee, on March 1, 1951, tells the true story, "Well, Moore, I mean Moretti, made some band dates for me when I first got started…."

In 1948 Moretti told undercover FBI agents that he had an "association" with Sinatra. Later that year an informant told the FBI that both Sinatra and comedian Lou Costello "kicked in" to Moretti. In 1949, when Sinatra separated from his wife and was seen in public with Ava Gardner, Moretti sent him a telegram urging him to return to his wife.

Moretti testified openly, maybe too openly, to the Kefauver Committee, admitting that he was a gambler. Ten months later he was gunned down in Joe's ElbowRoom in Cliffside Park, N.J. Later, when Mario Puzo's book, The Godfather, came out it was widely rumored that one of the characters was
based on Sinatra and that Don Corleone was partly based on Willie Moretti.

Tommy Dorsey always denied that he had been threatened in order to release Sinatra from his long-term contract; it is fairly certain that movie mogul Harry Cohn never found a horse's head in his bed. But Sinatra did sing at the wedding
of Moretti's daughter in 1948, and he clearly had a great deal of affection for his neighbor and benefactor, Willie Moretti. Moretti, in return, took a great interest in Sinatra's career and helped him wherever he could.

[ November 16, 2001: Message edited by: Don Marco ]

[ November 16, 2001: Message edited by: Don Marco ]

Interesting, Don Marco. Thanks!

I haven't read the novel in a while so my memory might be rusty on this, but wasn't that rival killed in the restaurant Maranzano??? I can't remember the name, but it rhyms with Maranzano.....If it's correct, then Vito would be also resembling Lucky Luciano for that part (as well as for doing business with Hyman Roth and Moe Greene...although the Hyman Roth wasn't in the novel)

Also, for listen to other people's woes and troubles and taking part in solving them, he'd be resembling Carlo Gambino...

For killing Carlo (or planning to do so with Mike), he could also be resembling Paul Castellano who ordered the killing of his Son-in-law who used to beat up his wife even when she was pregnant.....

Only one problem - Paul Castellano had his son in law killed after the book/movie were done. Maybe Castellano was imitating the book! By the way, if you were knowingly married to the daughter of the "Boss of Bosses", do you think you would beat her up? Was he the dumbest man on the face of the earth.

Wow! I just want to thank you guys for all the info puring in =) This helps out tremendously!

In the book, the gangster whom Vito Corleone arranges to be killed in a restaurant is called "Maranzalla." That's close to "Maranzano," but in the real-life episode, Joe Masseria was killed in a restaurant, Salvatore Maranzano arranged the killing through Lucky Luciano, Masseria's then-second in command. But Luciano didn't pull a trigger: he arranged for his pal, Meyer Lansky, to assemble a hit team, which included Samuel "Red" Levine and Bugsy Siegel.
There's another parallel in the book: Puzo wrote that Sonny made his bones and showed his "genius for urban guerrilla warfare" after the Don was wounded by a "free-lance Irish killer" who penetrated the Don's shield "with Emerald Isle elan." The parallel is that, following his elimination of Masseria, Maranzano contracted with an Irish free-lance killer, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, to assassinate Luciano, whom Maranzano had placed in charge of Masseria's family. Luciano struck first: he reached for Lansky, who reached for Levine & Co. They burst in on Maranzano's office in the Grand Central building, flashed badges that identified them as Treasury agents, demanded to see his books, and shot and stabbed Maranzano to death. The story goes that, even as Levine & Co. were fleeing down the stairs, Coll was in the lobby ringing for the elevator to take him to Maranzano for his final instructions before killing Luciano. That's how he got to be called "Lucky."
Though it's not in the book, there's yet another parallel in Part II of the Saga, with the Frankie Pentangeli garrotting: In 1960, the Gallo Brothers (Larry, Crazy Joe, Albert "Kid Blast") defected from the Profaci Family and went to the mattresses. The following year, Larry was garrotted in the back of a nightclub on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, but was spared when a cop happened by. The Daily News ran an unforgettable photo showing cops leading away Larry, with a big red line around his neck. I guess the Rosato Brothers were the Gallo Brothers, but the garrotting roles were reversed. Amusingly: Crazy Joe was a publicity hound even then. He actually invited a reporter from Look Magazine to visit and write about him and his gang at the mattresses in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The reporter wrote that he encountered a dwarf, Armando (Punchy) Iliano, in the Gallos' hideout. "What's he doing here?" the reporter asked Joe. "He's our dwarf," replied Joe with a straight face, as if to say, "Don't you guys at Look have a dwarf?" I never thought of Crazy Joe as a wit until that point.