Corleone Family

The Corleone family are fictional characters in Mario Puzo's novels and the films based on them, first appearing in The Godfather (1969). They are an organised crime family originating from the Sicilian town of Corleone and based in New York City, and have been compared with the real Genovese and Bonanno families. The family traces its roots to 1920, when Vito Corleone killed Little Italy's padrone, Don Fanucci, and took over his territory with his friends Genco Abbandando, Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio; he then founded the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company and, around 1925, formally organised the family with Genco as consigliere and Clemenza and Tessio as caporegimes.