Vincent Forlenza

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fictional gangster Vincent Forleza (1890-1961) ("the Jew") was the Don of the Cleveland syndicate from 1931 to 1961. He is the literal godfather of Corleone caporegime turned trater Nick Geraci. He appears in the novels The Godfather and The Godfather Returns.

The Forlenza family was made up almost of all Jews, which was how he got his nickname. His organization was the most powerful of strictly gambling in the U.S.. Vincent Forlenza immigrated to America from Sicily in the early 1900s. He made his rep runnnig the gambling rackets for big players but then killing them with his right-hand Jews.

Vincent Forlenza was, by the 1940s, a force to be reckoned with. At around this time he employed Fausto Geraci and became godfather to his only son. He was quitely expanding his empire without challenge. By the 1950s, he ran an extreamley efficent organization and he was not known to have fainted near the sight of blood. He ruled his organization with an iron velvet political glove.

By 1957, he had conspired with Nick Geraci to kill Michael Corleone, Sal Narducci, weaken the Cuba gambling, make the Chicago mob stronger, and wipe out Fredo Corleone and Hyman Roth. By 1959, Fredo and Roth were killed, Michael lost millions in Cuba, Nick personally executed Narduchi, and the Chicago mob seamed to be growing stronger.

By 1961, Michael had figured this out and devised a plan to kill Forlenza. As part of a sweeping revenge, when Forlenza had a heart attack, Michael sent an ambulance to get him. The ambulance picked him up, and drove him to the docks where they dragged him to a boat. They tied him to the bottom and had the boat sink. Forlenza was sucsseded by Frank Greco.