The Godfather

Luca Brasi has been working undercover for Don Corleone, gathering information about the situation with Sollozzo and the Tattaglias. No one else in the Corleone family knows this. He has started spending time at a strip club owned by Bruno Tattaglia and seeing a woman who works there. He tells her about being unhappy with the Corleone family, and soon the Tattaglias ask if he would like to work for them. He strings them along for a while and then says he is not interested. In the meantime, he reports to the Don that he has seen no evidence of Sollozzo or his proposed narcotics operation. But on the night before the Don is shot, the Tattaglias ask Luca Brasi to come to the club after hours to meet a friend. When he gets there, Sollozzo is already there and pretends to offer Luca Brasi a job. Then he and Bruno Tattaglia restrain Luca while another man strangles him. After Luca Brasi is dead, Sollozzo says that the body cannot be found yet.

The day after the Don is shot, Michael is at the family home, answering phones and relaying messages to Sonny. Meanwhile, Tom is trying to set up the negotiation with Sollozzo. Fredo is still under sedation, and his brothers are shocked at his condition, Michael equating it with soldiers he saw in the war coping with trauma. Kay calls Michael, and they make plans to see each other that evening. Kay finally understands fully the reality of the Corleone family business. Sonny, Tom, Michael, Clemenza, and Tessio are trying to figure out Sollozzo’s next move. Michael has the insight that Sollozzo seems to have something else up his sleeve. They think that perhaps he has managed to get the other families on his side, in which case the Corleone family would be forced to accept Sollozzo’s proposal. They wonder what happened to Luca Brasi until the end of the chapter, when a fish wrapped in Brasi’s bulletproof vest is delivered to them, an old Sicilian message that means that Brasi is dead.

Michael goes into New York that night to see Kay and to visit his father. When Kay asks when they are going to get married, he tells her to go back to Hanover and think about whether she really wants to get involved with this family. They part, and the reader is informed that Kay will not see Michael for the next three years, although she does not know that yet.

Michael goes to the hospital to visit his father, but it is deserted. Tessio’s men are gone, and the police are gone too, leaving no one to protect the Don. The nurse tells him that the police made Tessio’s men leave and then the police themselves were called away. Michael calls Sonny and tells him the situation. Sonny tells Michael to lock the door and stay with the Don until he can get men there. Instead, Michael and the nurse move the Don to a different room. The nurse stays with the Don, who is conscious and asks what is happening. Michael tells him and says not to be afraid. The Don is too weak to respond but reflects that he is not afraid—men have been coming to kill him since he was 12 years old.

Michael waits downstairs outside the hospital, to be visible so that Sollozzo’s men will see that the Don is guarded. Enzo, the man who Nazorine pled for at the beginning of the book, comes to visit the Don. He stays with Michael outside the hospital. A black car drives slowly by, and then several minutes later the police show up. The man in charge, Captain McCluskey, tries to arrest them, and Michael accuses him of being Sollozzo’s man. McCluskey hits Michael in the face with enormous force, breaking his cheekbone. A car pulls up, and Clemenza’s lawyer gets out with private detectives hired to protect the Don. The lawyer asks Michael who hit him, and he says he slipped. Then he passes out, and when he wakes up in the morning, his jaw is wired shut and he is in the hospital. Tom is with him, and tells him that the previous night, they killed Bruno Tattaglia, and now Sollozzo wants to negotiate. Together, they return to the Don’s house.

Sonny has received word from Sollozzo, who wants Michael to meet and negotiate with him and has guaranteed his safety. The Tattaglia family has agreed to forget about Bruno’s death and maintain their willingness to work with the Corleones. Sonny wants to kill Sollozzo, but Tom points out that Sollozzo has McCluskey on his payroll. The police captain will be acting as his bodyguard, and they cannot kill a police captain and expect to get away with it. If they kill McCluskey, the police will descend on their business.

Michael points out that they cannot move the Don back home yet, and he is not safe in the hospital until Sollozzo is dead. Michael then says that he will go to the meeting and kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. Sonny laughs, and says he was wondering when Michael would show his true self. Tom points out that is a logical plan, and they know there is no one else who can get close enough to Sollozzo to do it. They decide that Sonny will procure a gun for Michael to use. After he kills the men, Michael will immediately disappear to Sicily. He will not be able to say goodbye to anyone, including Kay. Michael agrees.

Captain McCluskey is in his office, dealing with bookmaker business. He is on the take and always has been, and his father was the same. He considers it “clean graft,” meaning that he takes care of his area of the city and gives them the “protection” that they pay for. He leaves to meet Sollozzo for their negotiation with Michael that night.

While Michael is getting ready for the assassination, Tom arranges for his travel to Sicily. They all know that once Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey, total war will begin between the Corleones and the other New York families. But they all agree that this is the best way to handle the situation and prevent even more trouble. They discover where Sollozzo will hold the meeting and arrange for a gun to be in the bathroom so that Michael can retrieve and use it. After shooting the men, he will drop the gun and leave. Tessio will pick him up and Michael will travel directly to Sicily. They all know it will be at least a year until he can return, depending on how the Don recuperates.

Michael finds the gun in the bathroom, and although everything does not go exactly to plan, he kills Sollozzo and McCluskey. Tessio picks him up, and within just a few hours he is on his way to Sicily. With the death of Captain McCluskey, the police declare war on all the illegal activity the families are involved in. The families, angry at how their business has been affected by the Corleone family’s troubles, declare war on the Corleones. Their retaliation begins with a bomb exploding near the Corleone family home and the deaths of two Corleone button men. It is 1946, the beginning of what will come to be known as the Five Families War.