Virgil "the Turk" Sollozzo (1902-January 1946) was an Italian-American narcotics smuggler and Tattaglia crime family associate. He was murdered in 1946 in retaliation for his assassination attempt on Don Vito Corleone, who had declined to work with Sollozzo.
Biography[]
Virgil Sollozzo was born in Sicily in 1902, and he became involved with narcotics smuggling in Europe. Nicknamed "the Turk" for his scimitar-shaped nose, he had poppy fields in Turkey and laboratories in Sicily and France, and he was involved in prostitution before World War II. He had a wife and children in Turkey, and he began to make American contacts during the 1930s.
Sollozzo Intrigue[]
Sollozzo in 1945
In late 1945, Sollozzo arrived in New York City and enlisted the aid of the Tattaglia crime family for his new heroin business, purchasing a warehouse on University Place and 20th Street in Midtown Manhattan, as well as several fronts in every borough of the city (in addition to Hoboken, New Jersey). Sollozzo succeeded in acquiring some police protection when he put Captain Mark McCluskey on his payroll, and he also had the muscle of the Tattaglias. He went to Don Vito Corleone to obtain money and protection from the police and the courts, but Corleone politely refused his business offer, as his political allies would desert him if he engaged in narcotics trafficking. During the meeting, however, Sonny Corleone expressed interest in the deal, and Sollozzo plotted to have Don Vito murdered so that Sonny would become boss and accept the deal.
Vito Corleone sent his enforcer Luca Brasi to infiltrate the Tattaglias, and he met with Sollozzo and Bruno Tattaglia at the Luna Bar in Midtown. Although Brasi agreed to the deal, Sollozzo predicted his deceit, and assassin Guido Lucci strangled Brasi to death with a garrotte wire. Sollozzo and his men then kidnapped Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen and twice attempted to assassinate Vito Corleone (once at a market, again at the hospital). These attempts failed, and Michael Corleone - Vito's son - decided to trick Sollozzo into a peace meeting (Michael was a "civilian", and was seen as neutral), where he would be murdered.
Death[]
Sollozzo's death
Sollozzo, Captain McCluskey, and Michael Corleone decided to meet at the Louis Restaurant in Midtown, where they would talk about peace. Sollozzo and Corleone conversed in Sicilian, and Sollozzo claimed that the attempts on Vito Corleone's life were purely business. In English, Corleone asked for a guarantee that there would be no more attempts on his father's life, and Sollozzo said that he only wanted peace. At that point, Corleone excused himself to go to the bathroom, and McCluskey assured Sollozzo that he had already been frisked. However, Corleone retrieved a pistol hidden on the back of a toilet, returned to the table, and shot Sollozzo once in the forehead and McCluskey in the neck and the forehead. Their deaths caused Michael Corleone to go into exile in Sicily as the Five Families War broke out between the Five Families of New York City.
Gallery[]
