Francis Ford Coppola's celluloid drama The Godfather has provided a naive public with a romanticized version of the Mafia for forty years but the unvarnished truth about the criminal organization is better evidenced by the Neopolitan Noodle restaurant shooting, also marking its 40th anniversary, in which four innocent businessmen were mistaken for Colombo mobsters as reported by Steve Dougherty for The Los Angeles Times:
The hit man opened fire with two long-barreled pistols, killing two of the businessmen . . . and wounding their companions. * * * The explosion of violence at the Neopolitan Noodle 40 years ago this week — one of the few times in the mob's long, bloody history when truly innocent bystanders were killed in a hit gone wrong — left in its wake an outraged citizenry and a city full of moviegoers who didn't find the reality of warring Mafia families as entertaining as it was on screen.
Forget The Godfather; there is no honor in the Mafia.
