The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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father’s house, in Long Beach, about to face his father’s wrath. 
Chapter 17
The war of 1947 between the Corleone Family and the Five Families combined against 
them proved to be expensive for both sides. It was complicated by the police pressure 
put on everybody to solve the murder of Captain McCluskey. It was rare that operating 
officials of the Police Department ignored political muscle that protected gambling and 
vice operations, but in this case the politicians were as helpless as the general staff of a 
rampaging, looting army whose field officers refuse to follow orders. 
This lack of protection did not hurt the Corleone Family as much as it did their 
opponents. The Corleone group depended on gambling for most of its income, and was 
hit especially hard in its “numbers” or “policy” branch of operations. The runners who 
picked up the action were swept into police nets and usually given a medium shellacking 
before being booked. Even some of the “banks” were located and raided, with heavy 
financial loss. The “bankers,” .90 calibers in their own right, complained to the 
caporegimes, who brought their complaints to the family council table. But there was 
nothing to be done. The bankers were told to go out of business. Local Negro 
free-lancers were allowed to take over the operation in Harlem, the richest territory, and 
they operated in such scattered fashion that the police found it hard to pin them down. 
After the death of Captain McCluskey, some newspapers printed stories involving him 
with Sollozzo. They published proof that McCluskey had received large sums of money 
in cash, shortly before his death. These stories had been planted by Hagen, the 
information supplied by him. The Police Department refused to confirm or deny these 
stories, but they were taking effect. The police force got the word through informers, 
through police on the Family payroll, that McCluskey had been a rogue cop. Not that he 
had taken money or clean graft, there was no rank-and-file onus to that. But that he had 
taken the dirtiest of dirty money; murder and drugs money. And in the morality of 
policemen, this was unforgivable. 
Hagen understood that the policeman believes in law and order in a curiously innocent 
way. He believes in it more than does the public he serves. Law and order is, after all, 
the magic from which he derives his power, individual power which he cherishes as 
nearly all men cherish individual power. And yet there is always the smoldering 
resentment against the public he serves. They are at the same time his ward and his 
prey. As wards they are ungrateful, abusive and demanding. As prey they are slippery 

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