The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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Then we’ll take it from there. Clemenza and Tessio have plenty of soldiers, we can 
match the whole Five Families gun for gun if that’s the way they want it. We’ll just go to 
the mattresses.” 
There was no problem getting the free-lance Negro bankers out of business. The police 
were informed and cracked down. With a special effort. At that time it was not possible 
for a Negro to make a payoff to a high police or political official to keep such an 
operation going. This was due to racial prejudice and racial distrust more than anything 
else. But Harlem had always been considered a minor problem, and its settlement was 
expected. 
The Five Families struck in an unexpected direction. Two powerful officials in the 
garment unions were killed, officials who were members of the Corleone Family. Then 
the Corleone Family shylocks were barred from the waterfront piers as were the 
Corleone Family bookmakers. The longshoremen’s union locals had gone over to the 
Five Families. Corleone bookmakers all over the city were threatened to persuade them 
to change their allegiance. The biggest numbers banker in Harlem, an old friend and ally 
of the Corleone Family, was brutally murdered. There was no longer any option. Sonny 
told his caporegimes to go to the mattresses. 
Two apartments were set up in the city and furnished with mattresses for the button men 
to sleep on, a refrigerator for food, and guns and ammunition. Clemenza staffed one 
apartment and Tessio the other. All Family bookmakers were given bodyguard teams. 
The policy bankers in Harlem, however, had gone over to the enemy and at the moment 
nothing could be done about that. All this cost the Corleone Family a great deal of 
money and very little was coming in. As the next few months went by, other things 
became obvious. The most important was that the Corleone Family had overmatched 
itself. 
There were reasons for this. With the Don still too weak to take a part, a great deal of 
the Family’s political strength was neutralized. Also, the last ten years of peace had 
seriously eroded the fighting qualities of the two caporegimes, Clemenza and Tessio. 
Clemenza was still a competent executioner and administrator but he no longer had the 
energy or the youthful strength to lead troops. Tessio had mellowed with age and was 
not ruthless enough. Tom Hagen, despite his abilities, was simply not suited to be a 
Consigliere in a time of war. His main fault was that he was not a Sicilian. 
Sonny Corleone recognized these weaknesses in the Family’s wartime posture but 

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