Corleone family

The Corleone Family is a fictitious Sicilian Mafia family settled in New York City. The family was created by Mario Puzo and appears in his 1969 novel The Godfather. It is said that the Corleone family is inspired by the real-life Borgia family from Renaissance Italy in the late 15th century.

Compared with the real-life Five Families of organized crime, the Corleone family draws comparisons with the Genovese and Bonanno crime families.

The Corleone crime family traces its roots to 1920, when Vito Corleone assassinated Little Italy's padrone, Don Fanucci, and took over Fanucci's territory along with fellow hoodlums Genco Abbandando, Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio. Shortly afterward, he founded the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company as a front for his criminal activities. Around 1925, Vito formally organized the family, with Genco as his consigliere and Pete and Sal as caporegimes. They became the most powerful crime family in New York after defeating Salvatore Maranzano during the Olive Oil War in the early 1930s. It was during this time that Vito's eldest son, Santino, made his reputation and eventually became a capo himself. Upon becoming successful, the family moved to a compound in Long Beach.

In 1945, drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo's narcotics business proposal that Don Vito Corleone declines, nearly destroys the family. Sollozzo, believing Vito's eldest son Sonny Corleone wanted to accept the deal, has his men gun down Don Vito outside his office. He survives and is hospitalized. Sonny takes over as acting boss of the Corleone family. After a second assassination attempt on Don Vito, Sonny has Bruno Tattaglia assassinated. The situation further escalates when Don Vito's youngest son, Michael, murders both Sollozzo and corrupt police Captain McCluskey during a meeting in the Bronx, forcing Michael to flee to Sicily. This triggers the Five Families War, which claims Sonny's life. The still-recuperating Don Vito makes peace with the other families, realizing that his true enemy is Emilio Barzini, who wanted to crush the Corleones to become the most powerful Mafia don in New York.

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