The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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garbage business though providing a living, was not really enough to pay for the finer 
things America had to offer. And so, as a diversification, the Bocchicchio Family became 
negotiators and hostages in the peace efforts of warring Mafia families. 
A strain of stupidity ran through the Bocchicchio clan, or perhaps they were just 
primitive. In any case they recognized their limitations and knew they could not compete 
with other Mafia families in the struggle to organize and control more sophisticated 
business structures like prostitution, gambling, dope and public fraud. They were 
straight-from-the-shoulder people who could offer a gift to an ordinary patrolman but did 
not know how to approach a political bagman. They had only two assets. Their honor 
and their ferocity. 
A Bocchicchio never lied, never committed an act of treachery. Such behavior was too 
complicated. Also, a Bocchicchio never forgot an injury and never left it unavenged no 
matter what the cost. And so by accident they stumbled into what would prove to be 
their most lucrative profession. 
When warring families wanted to make peace and arrange a parley, the Bocchicchio 
clan was contacted. The head of the clan would handle the initial negotiations and 
arrange for the necessary hostages. For instance, when Michael had gone to meet 
Sollozzo, a Bocchicchio had been left with the Corleone Family as surety for Michael’s 
safety, the service paid for by Sollozzo. If Michael were killed by Sollozzo, then the 
Bocchicchio male hostage held by the Corleone Family would be killed by the 
Corleones. In this case the Bocchicchios would take their vengeance on Sollozzo as the 
source of their clansman’s death. Since the Bocchicchios were so primitive, they never 
let anything, any kind of punishment, stand in their way of vengeance. They would give 
up their own lives and there was no protection against them if they were betrayed. A 
Bocchicchio hostage was gilt-edged insurance. 
And so now when Don Corleone employed the Bocchicchios as negotiators and 
arranged for them to supply hostages for all the Families to come to the peace meeting, 
there could be no question as to his sincerity. There could be no question of treachery. 
The meeting would be safe as wedding. 
Hostages given, the meeting took place in the director’s conference room of a small 
commercial bank whose president was indebted to Don Corleone and indeed some of 
whose stock belonged to Don Corleone though it was in the president’s name. The 
president always treasured that moment when he had offered to give Don Corleone a 

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