Luca Brasi

Luca Brasi
File:Luca Brasi.png Luca Brasi, as portrayed by Lenny Montana in The Godfather
Died	New York City, New York, U.S.

Luca Brasi is a character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as its 1972 film adaptation (portrayed by Lenny Montana).

In The Godfather, Luca Brasi is one of Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcers. Brasi is portrayed as slow-witted and brutish, but his ruthlessness and his fierce loyalty to Don Corleone means he is both feared and respected. Fluent in Italian and able to handle himself in any fight, he has a dark reputation among the underworld as a savage killer.

At Connie's wedding, Michael Corleone explains to his then girlfriend Kay Adams, the story of how Don Corleone helped his godson Johnny Fontane. Michael explains that his father went to convince an unnamed bandleader to release Johnny from a personal service contract that was holding back Johnny's singing career. After refusing an offer of $10,000 Don Corleone returned the next day with Luca Brasi and within an hour the bandleader signed a release for a second offer of only $1,000. Luca Brasi had held a gun to the bandleader's head while Don Corleone assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the release contract, calling it "an offer he couldn't refuse".

Shortly before Vito Corleone is shot, Brasi (on Vito Corleone's instructions) intends to draw out rival mobster Virgil Sollozzo and the rest of the Don's enemies. Brasi then meets with Bruno Tattaglia, the son of one of the Don's rival bosses, Philip Tattaglia. Sollozzo shows up, and after promises of friendship and a job offer, rams a knife into Luca's hand, pinning it to the bar. An assassin then garrottes him from behind (more than likely because Brasi is wearing a bullet proof vest). They then throw Brasi's lifeless body into the sea.

A Sicilian message is later sent to the Corleone family: a fish wrapped in Brasi's flak jacket. The meaning is made clear to the Corleones: Brasi is now at the bottom of the ocean (or as Clemenza puts it in the film, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes"). Sollozzo has Brasi killed as it is the best way of ensuring Vito Corleone's vulnerability. When Tom Hagen is kidnapped by Sollozzo, Hagen warns of reprisals from Luca Brasi about Vito Corleone (not knowing Luca had been killed), saying that while he'll try to persuade Sonny to let the family go into narcotics, "even Sonny won't be able to call off Luca Brasi."

It is mentioned in the novel and implied in the film that Brasi is perhaps the only man Vito Corleone fears and vice versa. It is also implied that Brasi was created to portray Real life Gambino Mafia Hitman Santo "Sonny Boy" Ricchiettore although truth to that is not certain.

Brasi's talent, it was said, was that he could do a job, or murder all by himself, without confederates, which made a criminal conviction almost impossible. He is also known for killing, in two weeks, six men who attempted to kill Don Corleone. These six deaths ended the famous "Olive Oil War".

Many years before The Godfather opens, Brasi impregnated a young Irish prostitute and later murdered her, but did not stop there; on the day of his daughter's birth, he forced the midwife, under pain of death, to hurl his own daughter into a furnace, an act for which she never forgave herself, describing him as an unholy demon that night.

Another early incident involved Brasi killing off two of Al Capone's henchmen hired to kill Don Corleone. Brasi subdued both of them and tied and gagged them with towels stuffed in their mouths. He then hacked one of them to pieces with an axe. When he went to finish off the other one, he found that the man had gone through a shock convulsion and choked to death on the towel.

Brasi's role as personal enforcer/bodyguard to the Don was later filled by Al Neri. Tom Hagen once said to Michael following the completion of Neri's training, "Well, now you've got your Luca."

Cultural References

Music

• The Washington, D.C. band, Urban Verbs had a song titled Luca Brasi.
• The song I Am The Mob by Welsh band Catatonia, contains the line "Luca Brasi, ah, he sleeps with the fishes".
• The song Come Get Me by Nas contains the line "I'm like Luca Brasi, Vito's best hitman".
• The song Luca by Brand New is a reference to Luca Brasi, with the line "Unless you have friends among fish, there'll still be no air to breathe."
• The song Click Off Gone by Sleeper contains the line "Luca Brasi's got nothing on you"
• Luca Brasi are a UK metal band.

Television

• During the very first episode of the Sopranos, Christopher Moltisanti tries to dispose of the body of his first murder victim Emil "E-Mail" Kolar with the aid of Big Pussy Bonpensiero. Pussy is not enthusiastic about the idea of putting the body in a Kolar garbage bin, to which Christopher replies by refering to the fate of Luca Brasi by saying "Louis Brasi sleeps with the fishes". Pussy corrects him by repeating Luca's name correctly, and explaining the differences betweeen the two situations.

Video Games

• In the official game, the player is mentored by Brasi and both witnesses the murder of Luca and also has the chance to avenge him by killing the assassin.
• In the Godfather: The Don's Edition, when the player is about to perform a hit on Big Bobby Toro, the cops outside the station are talking about a crime scene where two men were gagged and one was hacked to pieces while the other was not. This could be a reference to Luca Brasi's murder of Al Capone's assassins.

Sports

• Professional wrestler, "Big" Vito's finishing move was called "The Luca Brasi DDT."