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omerta. But before the matter could progress any further the wholesaler
disappeared, never to be seen again, leaving behind, deserted, his devoted wife
and three children, who, God be thanked, were fully grown and capable of taking
over his business and coming to terms with the Genco Pura Oil Company.
But great men are not born great, they grow great, and so it was with
Vito Corleone. When prohibition came to pass and alcohol forbidden to be sold,
Vito Corleone made the final step from a quite ordinary, somewhat ruthless
businessman to a great Don in the world of criminal enterprise. It did not happen
in a day, it did not happen in a year, but by the end of the Prohibition period and
the start of the Great Depression, Vito Corleone had become the Godfather, the
Don, Don Corleone.
It started casually enough. By this time the Genco Pura Oil Company
had a fleet of six delivery trucks. Through Clemenza, Vito Corleone was
approached by a group of Italian bootleggers who smuggled alcohol and
whiskey in from Canada. They needed trucks and deliverymen to distribute their
produce over New York City. They needed deliverymen who were reliable,
discreet and of a certain determination and force. They were willing to pay Vito
Corleone for his trucks and for his men. The fee was so enormous that Vito
Corleone cut back drastically on his oil business to use the trucks almost
exclusively for the service of the bootlegger-smugglers. This despite the fact that
these gentlemen had accompanied their offer with a silky threat. But even then
Vito Corleone was so mature a man that he did not take insult at a threat or
become angry and refuse a profitable offer because of it. He evaluated the threat,
found it lacking in conviction, and lowered his opinion of his new partners
because they had been so stupid to use threats where none were needed. This
was useful information to be pondered at its proper time.
Again he prospered. But, more important, he acquired knowledge and
contacts and experience. And he piled up good deeds as a banker piles up
securities. For in the following years it became clear that Vito Corleone was not

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only a man of talent but, in his way, a genius.
He made himself the protector of the Italian families who set
themselves up as small speakeasies in their homes, selling whiskey at fifteen
cents a glass to bachelor laborers. He became godfather to Mrs. Colombo’s
youngest son when the lad made his confirmation and gave a handsome present
of a twenty-dollar gold piece. Meanwhile, since it was inevitable that some of
his trucks be stopped by the police, Genco Abbandando hired a fine lawyer with
many contacts in the Police Department and the judiciary. A system of payoffs
was set up and soon the Corleone organization had a sizable “sheet,” the list of
officials entitled to a monthly sum. When the lawyer tried to keep this list down,
apologizing for the expense, Vito Corleone reassured him. “No, no,” he said.
“Get everyone on it even if they can’t help us right now. I believe in friendship
and I am willing to show my friendship first.”
As time went by the Corleone empire became larger, more trucks were
added, the “sheet” grew longer. Also the men working directly for Tessio and
Clemenza grew in number. The whole thing was becoming unwieldy. Finally
Vito Corleone worked out a system of organization. He gave Clemenza and
Tessio each the title of Caporegime, or captain, and the men who worked
beneath them the rank of soldier. He named Genco Abbandando his counselor,
or Consigliere. He put layers of insulation between himself and any operational
act. When he gave an order it was to Genco or to one of the caporegimes alone.
Rarely did he have a witness to any order he gave any particular one of them.
Then he split Tessio’s group and made it responsible for Brooklyn. He also split
Tessio off from Clemenza and made it clear over the years that he did not want
the two men to associate even socially except when absolutely necessary. He
explained this to the more intelligent Tessio, who caught his drift immediately,
though Vito explained it as a security measure against the law. Tessio
understood that Vito did not want his two caporegimes to have any opportunity
to conspire against him and he also understood there was no ill will involved,
merely a tactical precaution. In return Vito gave Tessio a free hand in Brooklyn
while he kept Clemenza’s Bronx life very much under his thumb. Clemenza was
the braver, more reckless, the crueler man despite his outward jollity, and needed
a tighter rein.
The Great Depression increased the power of Vito Corleone. And
indeed it was about that time he came to be called Don Corleone. Everywhere in
the city, honest men begged for honest work in vain. Proud men demeaned
themselves and their families to accept official charity from a contemptuous

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officialdom. But the men of Don Corleone walked the streets with their heads
held high, their pockets stuffed with silver and paper money. With no fear of
losing their jobs. And even Don Corleone, that most modest of men, could not
help feeling a sense of pride. He was taking care of his world, his people. He had
not failed those who depended on him and gave him the sweat of their brows,
risked their freedom and their lives in his service. And when an employee of his
was arrested and sent to prison by some mischance, that unfortunate man’s
family received a living allowance; and not a miserly, beggarly, begrudging
pittance but the same amount the man earned when free.
This of course was not pure Christian charity. Not his best friends
would have called Don Corleone a saint from heaven. There was some self-
interest in this generosity. An employee sent to prison knew he had only to keep
his mouth shut and his wife and children would be cared for. He knew that if he
did not inform to the police a warm welcome would be his when he left prison.
There would be a party waiting in his home, the best of food, homemade ravioli,
wine, pastries, with all his friends and relatives gathered to rejoice in his
freedom. And sometime during the night the Consigliere, Genco Abbandando,
or perhaps even the Don himself, would drop by to pay his respects to such a
stalwart, take a glass of wine in his honor, and leave a handsome present of
money so that he could enjoy a week or two of leisure with his family before
returning to his daily toil. Such was the infinite sympathy and understanding of
Don Corleone.
It was at this time that the Don got the idea that he ran his world far
better than his enemies ran the greater world which continually obstructed his
path. And this feeling was nurtured by the poor people of the neighborhood who
constantly came to him for help. To get on the home relief, to get a young boy a
job or out of jail, to borrow a small sum of money desperately needed, to
intervene with landlords who against all reason demanded rent from jobless
tenants.
Don Vito Corleone helped them all. Not only that, he helped them with
goodwill, with encouraging words to take the bitter sting out of the charity he
gave them. It was only natural then that when these Italians were puzzled and
confused on who to vote for to represent them in the state legislature, in the city
offices, in the Congress, they should ask the advice of their friend Don Corleone,
their Godfather. And so he became a political power to be consulted by practical