Mark Winegardner: The Godfather returns

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

* The Godfather II also covers the early life of Vito Corleone (1910-1939) in flashback scenes.

**The second half of The Godfather Returns also covers the early life of Michael Corleone (1920-1945) in flashback scenes.

THE CORLEONE FAMILY

Vito Corleone, the first godfather of New York ’s most powerful crime family

Carmela Corleone, Vito Corleone’s wife and mother of their four children

Sonny Corleone, Vito and Carmela Corleone’s oldest son

Sandra Corleone, Sonny’s wife, now living in Florida

Francesca, Kathy, Frankie, and Chip Corleone, Sonny and Sandra Corleone’s children

Tom Hagen, consigliere and unofficially adopted son

Theresa Hagen, Tom’s wife and mother of their three children Andrew, Frank, and Gianna

Frederico “Fredo” Corleone, Vito and Carmela’s second-born son (underboss 1955-1959)

Deanna Dunn, Oscar-winning actress and Fredo’s wife

Michael Corleone, Vito’s youngest son and the reigning Don of the Corleone Family

Kay Adams Corleone, Michael’s second wife

Anthony and Mary Corleone, children of Michael and Kay Corleone

Connie Corleone, Vito and Carmela’s daughter

Carlo Rizzi, Connie Corleone’s deceased husband

Ed Federici, Connie Corleone’s second husband

THECORLEONEFAMILYORGANIZATION

Cosimo “Momo the Roach” Barone, soldato under Geraci and nephew of Sally Tessio

Pete Clemenza, caporegime

Fausto Dominick “Nick” Geraci, Jr. (aka Ace Geraci), soldato under Tessio, later caporegime, later boss

Charlotte Geraci, Nick’s wife

Barb and Bev Geraci, Nick and Charlotte’s daughters

Rocco Lampone, caporegime

Carmine Marino, soldato under Geraci and third cousin to the Boccicchio Family

Al Neri, head of security for Family hotels, other security details as needed

Tommy Neri, soldato under Lampone and nephew of Al Neri

Richie “Two Guns” Nobilio, soldato under Clemenza, later caporegime

Eddie Paradise, soldato under Geraci

Salvatore Tessio, caporegime

RIVAL CRIME FAMILIES

Gussie Cicero, soldato under Falcone and Ping-Pong; owner of L.A. supper club

Ottilio “Leo the Milkman” Cuneo, boss, New York

Frank Falcone, boss, Los Angeles

Vincent “the Jew” Forlenza, boss, Cleveland

Fat Paulie Fortunato, boss of Barzini Family, New York

Cesare Indelicato, capo di tutti capi, Sicily

Tony Molinari, boss, San Francisco

Laughing Sal Narducci, consigliere, Cleveland

Ignazio “Jackie Ping-Pong” Pignatelli, underboss and later boss, Los Angeles

Louie “the Face” Russo, boss, Chicago

Anthony “Black Tony” Stracci, boss, New Jersey

Rico Tattaglia, boss, New York (succeeded by Osvavldo “Ozzie” Altobello)

Joe Zaluchi, boss, Detroit

FRIENDS OF THEFAMILYCORLEONE

Marguerite Duvall, dancer and actress

Johnny Fontane, Oscar-winning actor and probably the greatest saloon singer who ever lived

Buzz Fratello, nightclub entertainer (usually with his wife, Dotty Ames)

Fausto “the Driver” Geraci, a trucker in the Forlenza organization and father of Nick Geraci

Joe Lucadello, friend of Michael Corleone’s youth

Annie McGowan, singer, actress, and former hostess of puppet show Jojo, Mrs. Cheese amp; Annie

Hal Mitchell, retired Marine and front for Corleone-owned casinos in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe

Jules Segal, head surgeon at Corleone-owned hospital in Las Vegas

M. Corbett “Mickey” Shea, former bootlegging partner of Vito Corleone’s; ex-ambassador to Canada

James Kavanaugh Shea, governor of New Jersey and son of the Ambassador

Daniel Brendan Shea, assistant attorney general of New York and son of the Ambassador

Albert Soffet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency

William Brewster “Billy” Van Arsdale III, heir to the Van Arsdale Citrus fortune

ON A COLD spring Monday afternoon in 1955, Michael Corleone summoned Nick Geraci to meet him in Brooklyn. As the new Don entered his late father’s house on Long Island to make the call, two men dressed like grease monkeys watched a television puppet show, waiting for Michael’s betrayer to deliver him and marveling at the tits of the corn-fed blond puppeteer.

Michael, alone, walked into the raised corner room his late father had used as an office. He sat behind the little rolltop desk that had been Tom Hagen’s. The consigliere ’s desk. Michael would have called from home-Kay and the kids had left this morning to visit her folks in New Hampshire -except that his phone was tapped. So was the other line in this house. He kept them that way to mislead listeners. But the inventive wiring that led to the phone in this office-and the chain of bribes that protected it-could have thwarted an army of cops. Michael dialed. He had no address book, just a knack for remembering numbers. The house was quiet. His mother was in Las Vegas with his sister, Connie, and her kids. On the second ring Geraci’s wife answered. He barely knew her but greeted her by name (Charlotte) and asked about her daughters. Michael avoided the phone in general and had never before called Geraci at home. Ordinarily, orders were buffered, three men deep, to ensure that nothing could be traced to the Don. Charlotte gave quavering answers to Michael’s polite questions and went to get her husband.

Nick Geraci had already put in a long day. Two heroin-bearing ships, neither of which was supposed to arrive from Sicily until next week, had shown up late last night, one in New Jersey, the other in Jacksonville. A lesser man would be in prison now, but Geraci had smoothed things over by hand-delivering a cash donation to the pension fund of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose men in Florida had performed like champs, and by paying a visit (and a sizable tribute) to the Stracci Family capo who controlled the docks in north Jersey. By five, Geraci was exhausted but home in his backyard in East Islip, playing horseshoes with his two girls. A two-volume history of Roman warfare he’d just started reading sat next to the armchair in his den, in position for later that night. When the phone rang, Geraci was a few sips into his second Chivas and water. He had T-bones sizzling on his barbecue pit and a Dodgers/Phillies doubleheader on the radio. Charlotte, who’d been in the kitchen assembling the rest of the meal, came out on the patio, carrying the phone with the long cord, her face drained of color.