Virgil Sollozzo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. In the novel, it is said that he got his nickname because he has a nose like a Turkish scimitar and also because he does much of his business (growing poppy) in Turkey. In Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation, he is portrayed by Al Lettieri.
Sollozzo arrives in New York and enlists the aid of the Tattaglia family for his new heroin business. He then goes to the Corleone family to obtain money and protection from the police and courts. Vito Corleone refuses, however, feeling that the drug business is bad for the neighborhoods.
Sollozzo's men then attempt to murder Vito Corleone, assuming that Vito's oldest son Sonny, who seemed to want to go into the heroin trade, would take over the family. When they succeed only in wounding him, Sollozzo sends agents to the hospital, where the guards are off duty thanks to strings pulled by McCluskey, a police captain on his payroll, and try again to kill Don Corleone. Vito's son, Michael, however, arrives on the scene and prevents his father's murder.
Soon thereafter, Sollozzo, under McCluskey's protection, meets with Michael in a restaurant. Though Michael is frisked before the meeting, a gun has been planted on the back of a toilet in the lavatory of the restaurant. Michael excuses himself to the bathroom, returns, and kills Sollozzo with a well placed shot to the middle forehead and the captain as well.
