Emilio Barzini

### Assassinated:

1 August, 2011/11 AH, Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, New York, United States (aged 52)

## Career Information

### Occupation:

Mobster, politician, investor, former assassin

### Years Active:

1990's-2011

Don **Emilio Barzini** (born as **Hermann Napoleon Emilio Ludwig van Barzini I**; 1959-2011) was an Italian-French mobster who was the boss and founder of the Barzini Crime Family from its founding in the 2004 until 2011. For many years he was the most powerful mob boss of New York City's Five Families. In 2011, he was murdered after the Five Families War to cement Corleone Crime Family's power over NY.

## Biography

#### Early Life

Emilio Barzini was born as Hermann Napoleon Emilio Ludwig van Barzini I in Little Italy on 12 March, 1959/41 BH and moved with his family to Midtown during Little Italy's recession. He adopted his first name as Emilio rather than Hermann. Not wanting to live an "honest life", he quickly became involved with Giuseppe Mariposa's criminal organisation, rising to the rank of caporegime by the early 1990's. After Mariposa killed off an ageing mob boss and displayed his naked body on the street, most of his men were ashamed and outraged for Giuseppe's disrespect, and that included Emilio. Emilio helped Vito Corleone set up Mariposa at a restaurant and assisted the Corleones in killing him in October, 2001/1 AH.

#### Rise to Power

Barzini took over the family after three years after returning to the life of crime, re-naming it to the Barzini Crime Family, building it into the most powerful Mafia family in the United States and made it so powerful that they were able to control weaker families as their puppets, like the Tattaglia family. Barzini's family operated in markets such as narcotics, gambling, diamond smuggling, exotic fruit and car selling, selling golden watches, stock marketing, computer repairing and prostitution, with other interests in Las Vegas, Cuba, Wall Street, Spain, Holland, politics (Emilio being a member of the Democratic Party), and the French mafia clans. The remainder of 2004/4 AH saw Barzini, Vito Corleone, Phillip Cuneo, William Stracci, and Sammy Tattaglia absorb or destroy the other major criminal syndicates and gangs in New York, like the Westies and the Thongs, reducing the several Italian mobs down to the "Five Families". These families had strained and tense relationships, with the Barzinis being known as great and powerful allies, but also as terrifying and brutal enemies. In 2008, the Barzini family murdered a Corleone worker named Johnny Trapani after bombing his bakery in Little Italy and selling it to the Straccis. Trapani left behind a son, Charlie, who would later become a well known member of the Corleone family.

#### Five Families War

By 2009, Barzini was respected enough by Antonio Corleone to be invited to his son, Michael's wedding to Connie MacTavish in March of that year, about a week after Don Emilio's BD. Barzini had an interest in making drug trafficking a major business in New York City for several years by this point, introducing Virgil Sollozzo to the Tattaglia crime family through William Stracci. The Barzinis used the Tattaglias as a means of approaching Vito Corleone, with the Tattaglias attempting to murder Vito after he refused Sollozzo's offer of a business relationship in the expanding drug trade for the fear of frightening off his friends in the politics. Corleone's son Sonny, showed his disdain for the Tattaglias, while his other son Frederico, showed interest in the deal, but after the Tattaglias tried to murder Corleone again, this time in the hospital, the Tattaglias and Corleones went to war. After Michael murdered Sollozzo, it beginning the Five Families War.

Charlie Trapani, Johnny's son, played a key role in much of the street combat during the war, taking over businesses, warehouses, factories and killing rival mobsters. Trapani disrupted business from Manhattan to New Jersey, sparking many mob wars, weakening the Barzini family even more. Barzini approached George Jovino, a Corleone trucker, to lure Sonny into a trap. At around this time, Michael beat his wife and an angry Sonny beat him in return. Jovino was happy at the brothers' bickering. The next day, Sonny drove out of the Corleone Mansion alone and towards a toll plaza where he was shot to death by Barzini hitmen. During a meeting of The Commission, Tattaglia made peace with Corleone, and Corleone swore that he would do nothing to break the peace established that day. Unfortunately, the Barzinis and Tattaglias began to chip away the Corleone territories in New York, and so to would the Cuneos and the Straccis. This would only lead to further tension between the families as they grew more and more hostile and Michael, Vito's son, was thinking of breaking his father's promise.

## Death

By 2011, after his papa's retirement, Michael Corleone had become boss of his father's family and it's operations. Corleone had let Barzini take away the territory to lure him into a false sense of security, all the while plotting the deaths of the five families' bosses to establish total dominion over NY. Corleone had his police hitman Al Neri, dress in his police uniform and start shooting at Barzini's men at Foley Square Courthouse. While Neri was fighting Barzini's bodyguards, Trapani ran after Barzini, who just came out of the courthouse and the two fought. Emilio, defeated on his knees, told Trapani that he should kill him and have his revenge, but not before warning him that this wasn't the end of the Barzinis. Charl then used a shotgun to shot him in the head. Following his death, Paul Fortunato took over the family, and the war was brought to an end along with the lives of all the other bosses, for the time being, before Fortunato put his own plans in motion.