[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Chapter 21But it was to be nearly another year before Don Corleone could arrange for his sonMichael to be smuggled back into the United States. During that time the whole Family rackedtheir brains for suitable schemes. Even Carlo Rizzi was listened to now that he was living in themall with Connie. (During that time they had a second child, a boy.) But none of the schemesmet with the Don’s approval.Finally it was the Bocchicchio Family who through a misfortune of its own solved theproblem. There was one Bocchicchio, a young cousin of no more than twenty-five years of age,named Felix, who was born in America and with more brains than anyone in the clan had everhad before. He had refused to be drawn into the Family garbage hauling business and married anice American girl of English stock to further his split from the clan. He went to school at night,to become a lawyer, and worked during the day as a civil service post office clerk. During thattime he had three children but his wife was a prudent manager and they lived on his salary untilhe got his law degree.Now Felix Bocchicchio, like many young men, thought that having struggled to completehis education and master the tools of his profession, his virtue would automatically be rewardedand he would earn a decent living. This proved not to be the case. Still proud, he refused all helpfrom his clan. But a lawyer friend of his, a young man well connected and with a budding careerin a big law firm, talked Felix into doing him a little favor. It was very complicated, seeminglylegal, and had to do with a bankruptcy fraud. It was a million-to-one shot against its being foundout. Felix Bocchicchio took the chance. Since the fraud involved using the legal skills he hadlearned in a university, it seemed not so reprehensible, and, in an odd way, not even criminal.To make a foolish story short, the fraud was discovered. The lawyer friend refused tohelp Felix in any manner, refused to even answer his telephone calls. The two principals in thefraud, shrewd middle-aged businessmen who furiously blamed Felix Bocchicchio’s legalclumsiness for the plan going awry, pleaded guilty and cooperated with the state, naming FelixBocchicchio as the ringleader of the fraud and claiming he had used threats of violence to controltheir business and force them to cooperate with him in his fraudulent schemes. Testimony wasgiven that linked Felix with uncles and cousins in the Bocchicchio clan who had criminal recordsfor strong-arm, and this evidence was damning. The two businessmen got off with suspended263