The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
169
Why do we have to hand over the money we earned?” 
Clemenza explained patiently. “Fanucci has friends, real brutes. He has connections 
with the police. He’d like us to tell him our plans because he could set us up for the gyps 
and earn their gratitude. Then they would owe him a favor. That’s how he operates. And 
he has a license from Maranzalla himself to work this neighborhood.” Maranzalla was a 
gangster often in the newspapers, reputed to be the leader of a criminal ring specializing 
in extortion, gambling and armed robbery. 
Clemenza served wine that he had made himself. His wife, after putting a plate of 
salami, olives and a loaf of Italian bread on the table, went down to sit with her women 
cronies in front of the building, carrying her chair with her. She was a young Italian girl 
only a few years in the country and did not yet understand English. 
Vito Corleone sat with his two friends and drank wine. He had never used his 
intelligence before as he was using it now. He was surprised at how clearly he could 
think. He recalled everything he knew about Fanucci. He remembered the day the man 
had had his throat cut and had run down the street holding his fedora under his chin to 
catch the dripping blood. He remembered the murder of the man who had wield the 
knife and the other two having their sentences removed by paying an indemnity. And 
suddenly he was sure that Fanucci had no great connections, could not possibly have. 
Not a man who informed to the police. Not a man who allowed his vengeance to be 
bought off. A real Mafioso chief would have had the other two men killed also. No. 
Fanucci had got lucky and killed one man but had known he could not kill the other two 
after they were alerted. And so he had allowed himself to be paid. It was the personal 
brutal force of the man that allowed him to levy tribute on the shopkeepers, the gambling 
games that ran in the tenement apartments. But Vito Corleone knew of at least one 
gambling game that had never paid Fanucci tributes and nothing had ever happened to 
the men running it. 
And so it was Fanucci alone. Or Fanucci with some gunmen hired for special jobs on a 
strictly cash basis. Which left Vito Corleone with another decision. The course his own 
life must take. 
It was from this experience came his oft-repeated belief that every man has but one 
destiny. On that night he could have paid Fanucci the tribute and have become again a 
grocery clerk with perhaps his own grocery store in the years to come. But destiny had 
decided that he was to become a Don and had brought Fanucci to him to set him on his 

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