Puzo’s Source Is His Imagination

Even without guarantee of immunity, Mario Puzo admits he’s a con man. What he knows about the Mafia comes from books. What he knows about the dagger, the pistol, the garrote is mostly that they can kill you.

What he knows about criminal conspiracies is limited to the time he kited checks against his credit cards, which turned out OK because he got rich before the banks started prosecuting.

“I’m against crime,” insists Puzo, 75, barefoot like an angel and sinking deep into a couch in his Long Island, N.Y., home. “I’m against criminals.”

Honesty and virtue did not prevent Puzo from writing “The Godfather,” a masterpiece of mob psychology. The 1969 blockbuster made millions and became the basis for three movies.

Puzo told anyone who would listen he had no mob sources. The term “Godfather” as a synonym for Mafia don did not exist. What may be the most famous throw-away line in U.S. publishing history - “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” - does not come from a wiretap. It came from Puzo.

“The Godfather” taught Puzo that people will believe what they want to believe. He met a couple of “gentlemen” from the mob at a party, and they were convinced the author had inside information. “C’mon,” they said, “you know Frank Costello.” It wasn’t true, says Puzo. He knows nobody.

So whose fault is it that Puzo is heading for Fat City with another big Mafia book and that he still doesn’t have any top-secret intelligence, that he hasn’t been to mob summits, that he does not consort with hitmen or huddle with “consiglieri,” that he does not frequent mob restaurants, that the most he does to observe “omerta,” the oath of silence, is to hedge a little about monthly conversations in the Hamptons with pals who include “Catch-22” writer Joseph Heller?

“Just guys hanging around,” Puzo says.

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