[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

illiant boys from poor Italian families through college, boys who would later become lawyers,assistant district attorneys, and even judges. He planned for the future of his empire with all theforesight of a great national leader.The repeal of Prohibition dealt this empire a crippling blow but again he had taken hisprecautions. In 1933 he sent emissaries to the man who controlled all the gambling. activities ofManhattan, the crap games on the docks, the shylocking that went with it as hot dogs go withbaseball games, the bookmaking on sports and horses, the illicit gambling houses that ran pokergames, the policy or numbers racket of Harlem. This man’s name was Salvatore Maranzano andhe was one of the acknowledged pezzonovante, .90 calibers, or big shots of the New Yorkunderworld. The Corleone emissaries proposed to Maranzano an equal partnership beneficial toboth parties. Vito Corleone with his organization, his police and political contacts, could give theMaranzano operations a stout umbrella and the new strength to expand into Brooklyn and theBronx. But Maranzano was” a short-sighted man and spurned the Corleone offer with contempt.The great AI Capone was Maranzano’s friend and he had his own organization, his own men,plus a huge war chest. He would not brook this upstart whose reputation was more that of aParliamentary debater than a true Mafioso. Maranzano’s refusal touched off the great war of1933 which was to change the whole structure of the underworld in New York City.At first glance it seemed an uneven match. Salvatore Maranzano had a powerfulorganization with strong enforcers. He had a friendship with Capone in Chicago and could callon help in that quarter. He also had a good relationship with the Tattaglia Family, whichcontrolled prostitution in the city and what there was of the thin drug traffic at that time. He alsohad political contacts with powerful business leaders who used his enforcers to terrorize theJewish unionists in the garment center and the Italian anarchist syndicates in the building trades.Against this, Don Corleone could throw two small but superbly organized regimes led byClemenza and Tessio. His political and police contacts were negated by the business leaders whowould support Maranzano. But in his favor was the enemy’s lack of intelligence about hisorganization. The underworld did not know the true strength of his soldiers and even weredeceived that Tessio in Brooklyn was a separate and independent operation.And yet despite all this, it was an unequal battle until Vito Corleone evened out the oddswith one master stroke.Maranzano sent a call to Capone for his two best gunmen to come to New York to190