Corleone crime family

The Corleone crime family is one of the Five Families operating in New York. It was formed by Don Vito Corleone and the two men who would later become his caporegimes, Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, who fronted their operations by starting the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company, named after Don Vito's Consigliere, Genco Abbandando.

They became the most powerful crime family in America after defeating Salvatore Maranzano in the early 1930s, and by the end of the decade the organization was run from a compound in Long Beach.

However, in the mid 1940s, a business proposition from Tattaglia drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo nearly destroyed the family, hospitalising Don Vito Corleone and forcing his eldest son Sonny in action. The situation was further escalated when the youngest Corleone brother Michael killed Sollozzo and his Police Captain bodyguard, Mark McCluskey, forcing him to flee to Sicily and starting a mob war. The war claimed the life of acting don Sonny, and the still weak Don Vito sued for peace with the other families, realising that his true enemy was not Tattaglia, but Emilio Barzini, who was attempting to crush the Corleones and take over their position as the most powerful family.

After Don Vito's retirement and later death from a heart attack, the family business was taken over by Michael, who exacted vengeance on the rival family's dons along with Moe Greene, Carlo Rizzi and Sal Tessio for conspiring with the rival heads. Micheal later moved the family to Las Vegas, Nevada. Michael was attempting to make his business legitimate, but was drawn back into crime after a failed attempt on his life by Miami gangster and old friend and business partner of the Corleone family, Hyman Roth, who was attempting to stop the takeover of Las Vegas. This action resulted in Roth's death as well as the death of Michael's own brother Fredo, who had unwittingly conspired against the Corleones.

The Corleone family continued to struggle on, and was almost completely legitimate by the end of the 1970s. During that time the boss of the Corleone crime faction, Joey Zasa, aligned with Tattaglia boss Osvaldo Altobello, and both orchestrated a major assassination attempt in Atlantic City. Shortly after, Joey Zasa was killed himself at a festival in Little Italy. In 1980 Michael Corleone finally got out, handing the business over to his nephew Vincent Mancini, requesting that he called himself Vincenzo Corleone