Fanucci had threatened to inform the police if the trio didn't pay a substantial portion of their ill-gotten gains. New York, in 1917, Don Fanucci became aware of the partnership between Vito, Clemenza and Sal Tessio, and demanded that they "wet his beak", in other words, pay tribute to him.
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The three made good money by hijacking garment trucks, Vito being vital to these hijackings since he was one of the few people in Manhattan's Little Italy at the time that knew how to drive a truck. They soon became friends and, joined by a friend of Clemenza's named Salvatore Tessio, the three soon learned to survive and prosper through petty crime and performing favors in return for loyalty. Vito's money troubles were soon solved when one night, a neighbor of Vito's, Peter Clemenza, asks him to hide a stash of guns for him, and later, to repay the favor, takes him to a fancy apartment where they commit their first crime together, stealing an expensive rug. He soon has two children, Santino and the sickly Fredo, as well as his wife, to support. Vito soon finds himself in difficult circumstances. Vito was forced to take up an unstable job doing back-breaking labor for the railroads, but he also lost this job during a mass-layoff. Vito began making an honest living at Abbandando's grocery store on Ninth Avenue, but lost the job after an intimidated Signor Abbandando was forced to employ the nephew of Don Fanucci, a blackhander and the local neighborhood padrone. When he was eighteen, Vito married a Sicilian woman named Carmela and they started a family. Vito was later taken in by the Abbandando family in New York, and he befriended the family's son Genco Abbandando, who became like a brother to him. They'll tell you I know how to return a favor." ―Vito Corleone Ask your friends in the neighborhood about me. A doctor diagnoses him with smallpox and he is quarantined for a period of time.Ĭoming to America " Do me this favor.
Unable to speak English, he was renamed on Ellis Island as "Vito Corleone" when the immigration clerks saw the tag pinned to his clothes labelled "Vito Andolini from Corleone".
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Later that night, he was smuggled away with the help of sympathetic neighbors, fleeing Sicily to seek refuge in America on a cargo ship full of immigrants. Moments later, as Vito watched, his mother was shot dead by one of Ciccio's lupara-wielding bodyguards.
Upon Don Ciccio's refusal, Signora Andolini put a knife to his throat, giving Vito a chance to escape. When she went to see Don Ciccio, she begged for forgiveness, but Don Ciccio refused, reasoning that the younger boy Vito may be harmless now, but would also seek revenge as an adult. Desperate, Vito's mother took Vito to see the Mafia chieftain herself to beg for her last son's life. His older brother, Paolo, swore revenge, but was himself murdered soon after, during the funeral procession for his father. In 1901, when Vito was fourteen, his father was murdered by a Sicilian Mafia boss named Don Ciccio because he refused to pay tribute to him. Vito was born on April 29, 1887, in the small Sicilian village of Corleone to Antonio Andolini and Signora Andolini.