[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

was impossible for him not to be involved in the drug smuggling traffic. Of the five New YorkFamilies opposing the Corleones his was the least powerful but the most well disposed.The Family that controlled upper New York State, that arranged smuggling of Italianimmigrants from Canada, all upstate gambling and exercised veto power on state licensing ofracing tracks, was headed by Ottilio Cuneo. This was a completely disarming man with the faceof a jolly round peasant baker, whose legitimate activity was one of the big milk companies.Cuneo was one of those men who loved children and carried a pocket full of sweets in the hopesof being able to pleasure one of his many grandchildren or the small offspring of his associates.He wore a round fedora with the brim turned down all the way round like a woman’s sun hat,which broadened his already moon shaped face into the very mask of joviality. He was one of thefew Dons who had never been arrested and whose true activities had never even been suspected.So much so that he had served on civic committees and had been voted as “Businessman of theYear for the State of New York” by the Chamber of Commerce.The closest ally to the Tattaglia Family was Don Emilio Barzini. He had some of thegambling in Brooklyn and some in Queens. He had some prostitution. He had strong-arm. Hecompletely controlled Staten Island. He had some of the sports betting in the Bronx andWestchester. He was in narcotics. He had close ties to Cleveland and the West Coast and he wasone of the few men shrewd enough to be interested in Las Vegas and Reno, the open cities ofNevada. He also had interests in Miami Beach and Cuba. After the Corleone Family, his wasperhaps the strongest in New York and therefore in the country. His influence reached even toSicily. His hand was in every unlawful pie. He was even rumored to have a toehold in WallStreet. He had supported the Tattaglia Family with money and influence since the start of the war.It was his ambition to supplant Don Corleone as the most powerful and respected Mafia leader inthe country and to take over part of the Corleone empire. He was a man much like Don Corleone,but more modern, more sophisticated, more businesslike. He could never be called an oldMoustache Pete and he had the confidence of the newer, younger, brasher leaders on their wayup. He was a man of great personal force in a cold way, with none of Don Corleone’s warmthand he was perhaps at this moment the most “respected” man in the group.The last to arrive was Don Phillip Tattaglia, the head of the Tattaglia Family that haddirectly challenged the Corleone power by supporting Sollozzo, and had so nearly succeeded.And yet curiously enough he was held in a slight contempt by the others. For one thing, it was249