Cosa Nostra News

Here's a story I wrote for  Mob Candy's  celebration of the  Godfathe r's 40th Anniversary issue, a profile of Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo and the great actor who played him,  Al Lettieri , who died too young. Lettieri knew how to speak Sicilian fluently. You have to see Lettieri in Sam Peckinpah's 1972 violent masterpiece "The Getaway," based on the brisk book written by iconic pulp writer Jim Thompson.  T he Getaway , in which Lettieri plays a hood named Rudy Butler, the film's "heavy," was somehow released with a PG rating; this was quickly corrected and replaced with an R rating. The actor, who spoke Sicilian, put on weight (you won't believe you're looking at the sleek, barrel-chested guy who played the Turk when you see the film).

Michael Corleone's second victim in a one-two hit; he's readying to fire another round into the corrupt detective's face. Attorneys for former Bonanno crime family boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano's upcoming death-penalty case have formed a defense we call: "The Captain McCluskey defense,"  Fans of The Godfather will understand. But we will explain, just in case....Remember the scene where Michael (Al), Sonny (Jimmy) and Tom (Robbie) are trying to figure out how to kill arch-enemy Virgil Sollozzo before he can take another shot--literally--at their father, who is recuperating in a hospital protected by legal bodyguards licensed to carry firearms? "The Turk," proposes dinner with Michael; Michael proposes to Sonny and Tom, through clenched teeth held together by wire -- the result of a busted jaw from, who else, Captain McCluskey --  that he actually go ahead and meet Sollozzo for this dinner and whack him there in the rest...