A Mafia Family’s Use of Violence Violence can either be used as mean of
attaining power or as means of revenge. It is a highly known fact that the main
focus of a stereotypical Mafia family should centre around the use of violence.
“The Godfather” as well as “The Last Don” are two novels which hold true
to this focus and are interestingly enough both written by the same author: the
late Mario Puzo. Although being written more than twenty-five years apart, the
two novels almost mirror each other throughout. For instance, near the beginning
of each book the only daughter of each family gets married. Aside from that we
also see one son die in each novel as well as the husband of the family’s only
daughter to be killed by the family. Throughout all these instances the only
thing dissimilar regarding the two Mafia families is their reasons for violence.
A family’s use of violence is determined by how much power they hold. In
“The Godfather”, the main purpose behind all killing and violence can be
directly related to attaining power. On the other hand, “The Last Don” is a
novel in which all cases of violence are used for the sole purpose of revenge.
The killing of one of the sons in both novels by Puzo appears to be the most
prominent deaths. The unfortunate son in “The Last Don”, Sylvio, is a very
caring and nurturing individual who wishes to have his younger sister, Rose,
marry the man of her choice. Her first choice is the son of a rival Mafia boss.
He is a part of the Santadio clan. For obvious business reasons Don Clericuzio
does not wish his daughter to become involved with the rival son let alone have
him become a part of his family. Therefore Don Clericuzio strictly forbids
Rose’s marriage to him. As a means of reconciling this difference Petie meets
Rose’s lover to seek the solution to their marriage. On the way home after
making arrangements to persuade his father to let his sister marry, Petie is
sideswiped in his sportscar by a member of the Santadios and gunned to death.
The fact that the Clericuzio clan is the most powerful family in the world means
that the killing of any Santadio would not be by any stretch for personal gain
of wealth. The Don of each family lays the seeds for generations to come which
helps explain the future killings in this book. It is Don Clericuzio who as an
act of revenge plans the total wipeout of the Santadio family. He lets the
wedding between his daughter and the Santadio’s son proceed sending only his
nephew Pippi to go as “representation” of the Clericuzios. All goes well at
the wedding as Pippi dances among his foes. Rose and her new husband go to the
wedding bed that night and only that night. In the middle of the night a band of
the Clericuzios storm the Santadio mansion and kill all of their men. They wear
masks to disguise themselves from Rose but it is to no avail as she notices
Pippi’s wedding shoes. In the end it is Pippi who kills Rose’s husband but
not before the seeds of life had been planted for Rose’s child who was to be
named Dante. Don Clericuzio had avenged the death of his son Sylvio.
Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the chain of revenge. The after
effects of the Santadio-Clericuzio war was laid to rest by all of the
Clericuzios except for Rose who was deeply in love with her husband. The hurt
was evident throughout as she shunned upon the presence of anybody but her dear
son Dante. Rose ended up going mad and became a senile old woman by the time she
was fourty years old. The Clericuzio family kept the war against the Santadios
quiet throughout Dante’s life as well as Cross’ lifetime. The exception to
this was when Dante’s mother would often whisper the truth about it to him.
For this Dante,”..dreamed of vengeance on Pippi, and though these were
fantasies, he thought them for his mother’s sake”. (P.429) Cross was
Pippi’s son and was baptized at the same time as Dante. Dante returned the
love that was shown by his mother and was obviously closer to her than any
Clericuzio. At this point Dante is in his mid twenties and has become a
cold-hearted hitman on behalf of the Clericuzio family. It is of no surprise
then when Pippi, the killer of Dante’s father, is walking up the entrance to
one of his mistresses houses that he is shot to death. Again the purpose of this
killing was revenge whether it be for the death of Dante’s father or the
mental illness inflicted onto his mother. Still, the chain of revenge in “The
Last Don” must continue. Cross was very close to his father as he had lived
with him solely during his upbringing since the age of ten. He had learned to
become a “man” just as his father was through hunting trips and so forth.
Cross had been chosen as the one to most likely succeed Don Clericuzio as the
head of the family but that was in doubt because of his inability to be the
trigger man in killings. The family thought that without this quality he was
lacking something. Therefore, Cross had been given 51 % of a casino in Las Vegas
where he was allowed to live a legal life and still provide for the family.
Through family business Dante found himself in the confines of Cross’ hotel.
He felt as though he had nothing to worry about as the murder of Pippi had been
executed with perfection and even a clean cover up. So he thought. It was not
long before Cross and one of his counterparts were able to seclude Dante and his
aid in Pippi’s killing. Cross-was able to avenge the loss of his father by
shooting both of the men responsible and then setting the villa, which the deed
was done in, ablaze. This set of killings end the chain of revengeful murders
but does not exempt other murders in the novel from having the same theme.
Although the worst thing that you are able to do to a family is to kill of one
of their own, another horrible deed is too undermine a family’s intelligence
by stealing from them right under their noses. As was the case for “Big
Tim”. Big Tim had set up a scheme in the Clericuzio’s casino in which he was
able to thief more than a quarter of a million dollars virtually undetected. The
fact that the scheme went on for a long period of time enraged the Clericuzio
family and was able to make them look vulnerable. To seek revenge for this act
it was Dante, the most ruthless killer of them all, who was sent to take care of
Big Tim. Big Tim had set up a scheme to rig the Super Bowl but needed funding to
back up his plan. It was made to look as though Dante was a high roller by
sending him to his family’s own craps tables to lose a lot of money in a
matter of minutes without flinching. Big Tim saw this and asked to meet with
Dante in a secluded place. This could not have worked out any better for the
Clericuzios as it would be a cinch to cover up the crime. Dante and Big Tim did
have their meeting and it ended up with Big Tim swimming at the bottom of a lake
with the fishes. Again it was a killing solely for revenge in “The Last
Don”. The predecessor to “The Last Don” was “The Godfather” novel of
twenty five years earlier. “The Godfather” holds true to the family concept
of “The Last Don” and involves just as much violence, if not more. The main
difference to the killings and the violence is the purpose. Unlike the
Clericuzio family in “The Last Don”, the Corleone family is not the most
powerful family in the nation. The Corleones have a wish along with the five
other major Mafia families to become the most powerful family. Therefore, the
killings in “The Godfather” are a direct result of the attainment of power.
One of those examples does not even involve the killing of a man but rather an
animal. Johnny Fontane, the godson of Don Corleone, comes to the Don on the day
of his daughters wedding distraught as his career of singing and acting is
spiraling downward. There is a movie role that is perfect for him that would
once again skyrocket his career. The only problem is that the owner of the
studio shooting the film is upset at him for stealing a young actress from his
studios. The fact that Johnny was able to be this aspiring young beauty’s
lover made the studio owner enraged with jealousy. Johnny Fontane has come to
Don Corleone as a last resort to getting the movie role. Don Clericuzio makes a
promise to get Johnny that part and has no intentions of braking that promise.
He first sends his right hand man Tom Hagen to Hollywood to discuss the matter
with Jack Woltz who was the owner of the studio making the film. Jack Woltz took
Tom Hagen on a tour of his properties that included horse stables. The business
meeting regarding Johnny would go down at dinner later that night. At the
stables Tom was introduced to a horse by the name of Khartoum. This horse meant
much more to Woltz than most people think. This was evident when, ““he
stroked the horse’s mane and called out softly, “Kahrtoum, Kahrtoum.”
There was real love in his voice and the animal responded.”” (P. 59) Woltz
had paid an insane amount of money to buy a world class racehorse and then
retire it in it’s prime for the purpose of breeding. Later on that evening at
the negotiations Woltz made it clear that Johnny Fontane would not get the part
in the movie. Tom Hagen, who was supposed to spend the night in Woltz’s
mansion, abruptly got up and left to fly back out east and give Don Corleone the
bad news. The next morning, Tom Hagen awoke with bloodied sheets and the head of
his precious Kahrtoum beside him. Johnny Fontane was given the part in the movie
later that day. The Clericuzios had succeeded in attaining the movie role for
the godson. This was just a taste of things to come in the novel. Knowing that
the Don of a Mafia family is the nucleus means that a Don must live each minute
of his life in paranoia of who is going to knock him off. The man who would take
a stab at taking down Don Corleone would be a man by the name of Sollozo. He was
an opportunist wanting to start up a large narcotics ring in the United States
and had the backing of five of the six Mafia families. The only one unwilling to
cooperate were the Corleones. The political power and sway that the Corleones
had was enough to hinder the narcotics operation that was in the works. As a way
of continuing his narcotics business, Sollozo decides to pull a gun on Don
Corleone while he is uncharacteristically buying fruit from a street vendor. The
shots only wound the Don but they were severe enough to put him in hospital and
out of commission for a few weeks. Don Corleone’s oldest son Sonny has the
sense of mind to place guards outside of the hospital to avoid a repeat attack.
Something seems fishy as the city police captain has the guards taken away and
put in jail for the night to make the Don available. The Don’s youngest son,
Michael, arrives on the scene just before the second murder attempt is to take
place. This foils the plan to kill the Don for another night. Realizing that to
get to the Don they might have to take down his sons first, Sollozo and Police
Captain McCluskey arrange a meeting with Michael the next day to negotiate a
deal. They all go to a restaurant a few towns away and begin to have dinner.
Although never before being involved in violence, Michael knew that for his
family name to survive and climb he would have to take care of these two men.
This was evident when Michael talks with his two dinner guests by saying, “I
hope we can settle things tonight, I don’t want my father bothered anymore.”
It was all carefully planned out as Michael went to the washroom and retrieved a
gun that had been carefully placed earlier on in the day. Michael then proceeded
to exit the washroom and shoot Solozzo and McCluskey dead. This act ended the
threat by these two men against the Don. It was important for the Don to stay
alive, as his personal political contacts were crucial to the advancement of the
Corleone family. The Don was still in trouble for a while though physically and
it was not sure whether or not he would pull through. This caused other problems
for the Corleones. While Don Corleone was recuperating from his wounds it was
important to have somebody else temporarily run the family business. The man to
do this was the eldest son, Sonny. For the advancement of the other families,
Sonny was now considered the roadblock to the other family’s riches in the
narcotics business. For the advancement of their families they conspired to kill
Sonny. They decided to get to him by dealing with matters that were close to his
heart. Sonny’s younger sister Connie has been beaten before by her husband
Carlo. Upon hearing of this news Sonny had proceeded to track down Carlo and
heavily beat him and give him an ultimatum which stated, “You dirty bastard,
you ever beat up my sister again I’ll kill you.” (P. 244) Carlo again had
the nerve to beat up on his wife: this time under the protection one or all of
the other five Mafia families. After hearing of another beating on his younger
sister, Connie, Sonny jumped into his car and headed towards the town where
Carlo ran his sports betting business. He first had to cross a toll bridge. When
Sonny arrived at the booth to pay his toll he was met by three carloads of men
who unleashed gunfire into his car killing him instantly. With Sonny dead and
the Don still bed ridden, the five families figured that they were now capable
of advancing their narcotics operation. Little did they know that one man had
the brains to single-handedly take control of all Mafia related business in the
United States. After the death of Sonny it was not long before Don Corleone lost
his life to a stroke. This left the responsibility of running the family’s
operation up to the third son, Michael. To make sure that nobody was able to
stop him in his quest to have his family the most powerful in the States,
Michael orders the killing of all five leaders of the Mafia families. One man by
the name of Neri was able to wipe out all five family Dons by such means as
wearing police disguises, storming hotel rooms and just finding the right times
on the streets to shoot them. Michael Corleone had successfully advanced his
family to the head of the organized crime world. Knowing so much about the inner
workings of a Mafia family, Mario Puzo is able differentiate the needs and wants
of families in different situations. The Corleone family in “The Godfather”
had an ambition to become the most powerful family in the nation. This forces
them to use violence and kill to rise the ladder to the top. In “The Last
Don”, the Clericuzio family already had all the power that they would ever
want and therefore they are led to a life of revenging attacks against them. It
is a given fact that Mafia families are forced to get their message across
through violence. The reasons behind a familie’s use of force can be related
to how much power they hold.