Michael asks Tom how he found out about the secret regime. Tom explains, "You gave Lampone his own living, a lot of freedom. So he needs his own people to help him in his little empire....And I notice that everybody he puts on the payroll is a little too good for that particular job, is getting a little more money than that particular exercise is worth."

My question: how do you recruit guys like this without setting off a war? Certainly the other bosses would notice if Rocco was raiding them, and Tessio or Clemenza would raise hell if Rocco poached someone. Rocco's obviously not recruiting entry level tough guys.

That is a good question. The book doesn't explain it obviously so all we are left with is conjecture. But that's what some of this site is about no?

My hypothesis is that first off Vito and Michael are smarter than everyone else and Tom isn't that far behind. Sonny's regime had been disbanded and the losses suffered by Clemenza's and Tessio's regimes had not been replaced. So the Corleone opponents thought that the Corleone Family was reeling and in decline.

Pure speculation of course, but perhaps the people that Rocco recruited weren't necessarily the obvious old time thugs but people that were smart enough to work in and around the legal Corleone businesses (Olive oil, bakeries, law firms, real estate, Wall Street) and thus stay off the radar of people like Barzini/Tattaglia. Some of them may have been special recruits from overseas smuggled in or washout police officers like Neri.

It is kind of strange that Tom would have been able to suss this out and not Clemenza, given that Rocco initially reported to Clemenza but then again maybe Clemenza did figure that something odd was going on which is why he stayed loyal.

It could also just be bad writing but I think what we are meant to take away is that the Don is smarter than everyone and has the ability to identify talent (as he did with Rocco) and call upon reserves that no one knew he had.

Where were these secret regime members? They're making a living (illegal, I suppose), so how do they avoid contact with the other regime members? Are they made? Of course. So, again, how do they avoid contact with other made guys and keep their secret? For how long had they been part of this secret regime? Years? Clemenza isn't asking about them? Tessio isn't asking about them?

There are crews of associates under made guys all the time. This is New York city and there were at least 100 guys operating at a high ranking associate level of the Corleone family. The fact that Rocco had his own crew didnt mean he no longer worked under Clemenza. It was easy to tell that Rocco was next in line to be a capo after Sonny died, next to Neri of course. The fact that the guys being assimilated into a crew for Rocco were the most up and coming guys in the family is only good organization, so why would this concern Tessio or Clemenza? Then what does Hagen say? That these guys are doing jobs that are to easy for them and being paid to much, a fact noticed by him that confirms what he is thinking(a secret empire is being setup of men that should be inducted into the family but are getting paid top dollar to do low key jobs or tasks) and shows Michael's brains at the same time. By forming this crew away from the big leagues of the city Barzini would not have noticed. Even smarter is that he kept the new guys happy and in with the program by paying them more money to do low key jobs and stay out of the limelight, which most new guy want to hop into the middle do to boost his career, but why buck the program when you are already getting paid like you are in the big leagues. This also gives him the time to school them in whatever he chooses to enter them in after the murders of the bosses.

Turnbull, no comment?

If there is no response i guess i have answered the question, right?

Wrong. Don't make an ass of yourself.

Say something about the topic then. Turnbull, please turn this into a conversation!

You've got to learn a few things first. One is, don't tell moderators how to act here.

Now go home and get your shine box.

Not trying to ruffle feathers buddy, hope you dont mind me calling you buddy. Purely trying to drum up conversation on the topic. Again im sorry, new to forum and have no clue who the admid are.

It's cool. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. This board is more laid back than the RD; we've been doing this for over ten years and find that topics ebb and flow by themselves.

We ALL learn from Turnbull, and he's a good man.

I just got started on RD a couple months ago and wish i would have joined here at that point to, i had been on americanmafia.com forum and gangsterinc.com forum but could never have a decent back and forth conversation. The godfather and sopranos threads i enjoy more than anything on any site there is, so i may be a little to proactive sometimes.

k

Whatever happened to your promise about letting things die down naturally? You said a few days ago:

Just sayen.

SC,


Please check your inbox.


Daniel Perrygin

First, I endorse the good advice SC gave you.

Second, look to Occam's Razor: the most obvious answer is probably the right answer. And, the obvious answer anytime we encounter such "mysteries" is: sloppy writing. Clearly it's impossible for Rocco to build a "secret regime" right under the nose of his boss. If Tom knew it, Clemenza (and Tessio) had to know it. So, Puzo's bad writing was to call it "secret." A more likely answer is that Rocco, with the family's permission, was moving up in the world and expanding his operations, some or all of which might have been legitimate in a broad sense. Clem would approve because, true to Mafia tradition, some of Rocco's crew's earnings would filter upward to him. If they were "a little bit too good" for the jobs they were doing, what of it? Maybe that meant that Rocco was a good personnel manager (the novel says that was one of Clem's strengths).

So the answer is bad writting? Wow, i give up.

Tessio's crew was made to look like and operate like a separate family, so why would he know what is going on under Pete? The guys are a little to good for the jobs because they are up and coming guys doing menial tasks to stay out of trouble till the day Michael needs them. Clem knew he was going to have his own family soon so he would have no problem letting Michael and Rocco build a secret crew that would just move to Vegas.