Barzini Family

Infobox Criminal organization
name =Barzini Crime Family


caption =
founded on = 1920
founding location = New York City
founded by = Emilio Barzini
years active = 1920-1979
territory =Midtown , New York City
ethnic makeup =Italian, Italian-American
criminal activities =Racketeering Conspiracy Loansharking Gambling Bookmaking Money laundering Drug dealing Murder
allies =Tattaglia Family Stracci Family Cuneo Family
rivals =Corleone Family

The Barzini Family is one of the fictitious Five New York Families in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and the movie of the same name.

Role in the Story

In both the novel and movies "The Godfather", The Barzini Family is the second most powerful crime family of the Five New York Families, second only to the Corleone Family. From its beginings the family's don was Emilio Barzini. The Barzini Family, along with the Tattaglia Family are the first to families to invest on Virgil Sollozzo's heroin trade market, and thus is one of the families that declares war to the Corleones after Michael Corleone assassinates Sollozzo and his contact in the NYPD Captain McCluskey. The Barzini Family fight in the war against the Corleones along with the Tattaglia Family and in part with the Cuneo Family and the Stracci Family, but start losing the war due to Sonny Corleone's battle tactics which rob much of the Barzini's turf.

When the Barzinis realize that the only way to win the war was to assassinate Sonny, the Barzinis contact Carlo Rizzi and use him to set up Sonny by having Carlo beat up his wife and Sonny's siter Connie Corleone. Sonny drives towards Carlo's home in a fit of rage, but is assaulted in a toll booth by Barzini and Tattaglia assassins half way there. Sonny's assassination is the declaration of victory for the Barzini Family.

After Don Vito Corleone declares peace between all of the Five Families, he promises not to break the peace and thus, Emilio Barzini has his family start taking away territory from the Corleones. Later, after Don Corleone's death, Barzini decides to assasinate Vito's son and heir Michael in order to get hold of all Corleone turf, to do this, he summons Mike to a fake peace summit where Michael will be assassinated.

Michael, however, had already forseen this move thanks to his father's deduction and Michael has Barzini and all other Dons in New York (including Don Emilio Barzini) assassinated, eliminating almost all of the Five Families interests in New York, therefore, almost completely destroying the Barzinis. Paulie Fortunato suceeded Emilio Barzini as Don, since Emilio Barzini Jr., Don Emilio's son, had also been assassinated.

In the video game, Emilio Barzini murders Aldo Trapani's father and when the time comes to assassinate Emilio Barzini, Aldo gets to execute Emilio Barzini the way he wants and thus gets his revenge.

Known Barzini Family Members

*Emilio Barzini (Don, 1920-1955)
*Paulie Fortunato (Caporegime, 1930-1955), (Don, 1955-1979)
*Emilio Brazini, Jr. (Underboss, ????-1955)
*Domenico Mazza (Consigliere, 1920-1950)
*"Big" Bobby Toro (Caporegime, 1920-1948)
*Pietro Testa (Caporegime, 1920-1950)
*Larry Cataldo (Caporegime, 1955 - 1975), (Underboss, 1975 - 1979)