The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
370
rolled the window down to let out the stink. 
The victory of the Corleone Family was complete. During that same twenty-four-hour 
period Clemenza and Lampone turned loose their regimes and punished the infiltrators 
of the Corleone domains. Neri was sent to take command of the Tessio regime. Barzini 
bookmakers were put out of business; two of the highest-ranking Barzini enforcers were 
shot to death as they were peaceably picking their teeth over dinner in an Italian 
restaurant on Mulberry Street. A notorious fixer of trotting races was also killed as he 
returned home from a winning night at the track. Two of the biggest shylocks on the 
waterfront disappeared, to be found months later in the New Jersey swamps. 
With this one savage attack, Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored the 
Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families. He was respected not 
only for his tactical brillance but because some of the most important caporegimes in 
both the Barzini and Tattaglia Families immediately went over to his side. 
It would have been a perfect triumph for Michael Corleone except for an exhibition of 
hysteria by his sister Connie. 
Connie had flown home with her mother, the children left in Vegas. She had restrained 
her widow’s grief until the limousine pulled into the mall. Then, before she could be 
restrained by her mother, she ran across the cobbled street to Michael Corleone’s 
house. She burst through the door and found Michael and Kay in the living room. Kay 
started to go to her, to comfort her and take her in her arms in a sisterly embrace but 
stopped short when Connie started screaming at her brother, screaming curses and 
reproaches. “You lousy bastard,” she shrieked. “You killed my husband. You waited until 
our father died and nobody could stop you and you killed him. You killed him. You 
blamed him about Sonny, you always did, everybody did. But you never thought about 
me. You never gave a damn about me. What am I going to do now, what am I going to 
do?” She was wailing. Two of Michael’s bodyguards had come up behind her and were 
waiting for orders from him. But he just stood there impassively and waited for his sister 
to finish. 
Kay said in a shocked voice, “Connie, you’re upset, don’t say such things.” 
Connie had recovered from her hysteria. Her voice held a deadly venom. “Why do you 
think he was always so cold to me? Why do you think he kept Carlo here on the mall? 
All the time he knew he was going to kill my husband. But he didn’t dare while my father 
was alive. My father would have stopped him. He knew that. He was just waiting. And 

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