“The Godfather” By Mario Puzo 237
Families; there had been only two execution in the last three years in that city. He
disapproved of traffic in drugs.
Zaluchi had brought his Consigliere with him and both men came to Don Corleone to
embrace him. Zaluchi had a booming American voice with only the slightest trace of an
scent. He was conservatively dressed, very businessman, and with a hearty goodwill to
match. He said to Don Corleone, “Only your voice could have brought me here.” Don
Corleone bowed his head in thanks. He could count on Zaluchi for support.
The next two Dons to arrive were from the West Coast, motoring from there in the same
car since they worked together closely in any case. They were Frank Falcone and
Anthony Molinari and both were younger than any of the other men who would come to
the meeting; in their early forties. They were dressed a little more informally than the
others, there was a touch of Hollywood in their style and they were a little more friendly
than necessary. Frank Falcone controlled the movie unions and the gambling at the
studios plus a complex of pipeline prostitution that supplied girls to the whorehouses of
the states in the Far West. It was not in the realm of possibility for any Don to become
“show biz” but Falcone had just a touch. His fellow Dons distrusted him accordingly.
Anthony Molinari controlled the waterfronts of San Francisco and was preeminent in the
empire of sports gambling. He came of Italian fishermen stock and owned the best San
Francisco sea food restaurant, in which he took such pride that the legend had it he lost
money on the enterprise by giving too good value for the prices charged. He had the
impassive face of the professional gambler and it was known that he also had
something to do with dope smuggling over the Mexican border and from the ships plying
the lanes of the oriental oceans. Their aides were young, powerfully built men, obviously
not counselors but bodyguards, though they would not dare to carry arms to this
meeting. It was general knowledge that these bodyguards knew karate, a fact that
amused the other Dons but did not alarm them in the slightest, no more than if the
California Dons had come wearing amulets blessed by the Pope. Though it must be
noted that some of these men were religious and believed in God.
Next arrived the representative from the Family in Boston. This was the only Don who
did not have the respect of his fellows. He was known as a man who did not do right by
his “people,” who cheated them unmercifully. This could be forgiven, each man
measures his own greed. What could not be forgiven was that he could not keep order
in his empire. The Boston area had too many murders, too many petty wars for power,
too many unsupported free-lance activities; it flouted the law too brazenly. If the Chicago