The Last Don
The indictment does not charge Basciano with the plot to slay the unidentified prosecutor, although it describes in detail how the two mobsters discussed it during a meeting last year in Brooklyn federal court and in two recorded conversations this month in a Brooklyn detention center.
The Last Don
Massino was convicted of murder, racketeering and other crimes last summer based on the testimony of his brother-in-law, Bonanno underboss Salvatore "Good Lookin' Sal" Vitale, and a parade of lower-ranking turncoat mobsters.
The Last Don received a TV miniseries based on it the year it was written, which itself received a sequel, The Last Don II, in 1998.The The Last Don provides examples of the following tropes: Adaptation Distillation: Much of the novel's detailed subplots are dropped in the miniseries.
Affably Evil: Don Domenico. Also Pippi De Lena.
Affectionate Nickname: Joseph "Pippi" De Lena.
Croccifixio "Cross" De Lena.
Rose Marie Clericuzio is sometimes called "Ro".
Athena Aquitane was called "Thena" in her youth.
Lucille "Ceil" Ballazzo.
Alliterative Name: Athena Aquitane, Bobby Bantz, Steve Stallings and Falene Fante, although with the actors, their last names might just be stage names.
Ambiguous Disorder: Rose Marie's "madness" is never giving a particular diagnosis.
Cross and the people around him speculate that he may have a mental disorder after noticing similarities between him and Bethany, Athena Aquitane's autistic daughter.
Anyone Can Die: Particularly in the The Last Don II.
Big Brother Instinct: All the Clericuzio brothers dote on Rose Marie.
Break the Cutie: Poor Rose Marie... Her cousin Pippi and her brothers murder her new husband right in front of her on her wedding night as vengeance for the murder of their brother Silvio. Right after Pippi promises to make peace between the families. She also realizes that they were considering offing her too, in order to Leave No Witnesses. Her father, of course, ordered the whole thing, including giving them permission to kill her if necessary. Rose Marie's mind completely breaks after this and she frequently has violent fits, a contrast to her usually sweet and gentle nature.
Then Cross murders her son Dante, and Don Clericuzio allows the body to never be found.
To ass to that, in The Last Don II she finally finds friendship and the prospect of a new start with Father Luca, but he is sent away and dies in a rebellion in Ireland.
Calling the Old Man Out: After the Santadio war, Rose Marie frequently does this to her father.
The Chessmaster: Don Clericuzio. Especially considering the revelation that he had known that Dante needed to be killed to allow the family to transition away from crime and manipulated events so that Cross would have to kill Dante, allowing Don Clericuzio not to have to kill his own grandson.
Confessional: Where Rose Marie meets Father Luca.
Demoted to Extra: Athena, Vincent and Petie in the sequel.
Domestic Abuse: Boz Skannet to his wife Athena Aquitane.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Dante Clericuzio is a sadistic bastard who enjoys torture, rape and murder, but he really loves his mother Rose Marie, and it is his love for her that leads him to murder Pippi and try to take over the empire of the Clericuzio.
Family Extermination: What the Clericuzios do to the Santadios.
Feuding Families: The Clericuzios and the Santadios, eventually breaking out into a bloody Mob War.
Freak Out: What happens to Rose Marie after her family murders her husband on their wedding night.
Hollywood Autism: Bethany Aquitane.
Horrible Hollywood: A large section of the novel is dedicated to this.
In the Blood: Don Clericuzio ultimately accepts that Dante was doomed from the start because of his Santadio and Clericuzio blood.
Kissing Cousins: Pippi and Rose Marie were this in their youth, though it was never serious.
Dante and Cross also flirt with their cousins at family gatherings.
Laughing Mad: Rose Marie sometimes does this when having an episode.
Manipulative Bastard: Don Clericuzio, especially according to Rose Marie.
Nom de Mom: Dante Clericuzio goes by his mother's name.
Psychopathic Manchild: Dante.
The Last Title: The title.
The Other Darrin: Daryl Hannah is replaced by Mo Kelso in the sequel, whilst Alison Pill replaces Chloe Clifford.
Timeshifted Actor: Young Rose Marie is played by Emily Hampshire while her older self is played by Kirstie Alley.
Villain with Good Publicity: Jim Losey is a California detective who is considered by journalists to be a fearless defender of law and order, almost a "super detective", and there are plans to make a movie based on some of his cases. But he is actually a corrupt policeman who works for the Clericuzio, as well as being horribly racist.
White Sheep: Claudia De Lena, though she is more accepting of her status as a Clericuzio by the end.
Writers Suck: The opinion of everyone in Hollywood towards writers, except for the writers, of course.
You Killed My Father: Dante's motivation for killing Pippi.
Some of the images are trenchant: the living room of a posh villa covered completely in plastic, including all the furniture, so that there won't be bloodstains after a multiple hit. Or Rose Marie discovered by her little boy standing in the bathroom, her wrists slashed and dripping blood onto the floor. Later, after telling the family members, "I would like to see you all dead," she bites her brother Pippi on the cheek.
Untouched by good sense are Joe Mantegna, whose repellent character, Pippi De Lena, was snuffed last year but who returns, like some Sicilian version of Hamlet's father's ghost, to haunt son Cross; and the breathtakingly miscast Kirstie Alley, as Don Domenico's deranged daughter, Rose Marie.
Add a birthday party, another explosion, many shootings, one character who gets tossed off a balcony and another who's squashed like Wile E. Coyote under a 10-ton weight, and you've got a regular Don-o-Rama. If this one's as big a hit as the last one, get ready for "The Last Don III," with Gedrick coming back to haunt Jonathan Lipnicki.
OFF TO SEE THE `WIZ': It's hard to believe this will be the last time you can see "The Wizard of Oz" (Friday, May 8, 7:30 p.m., Ch. 2) on network TV before Ted Turner spirits it away to his cable empire. No one's ever made a better kids' movie, certainly not one that can make adults smile, shiver and sigh 59 years after its debut.
To the Clericuzio family, life is like a box of hand grenades. Mario Puzo is back with a vengeance in his first Mafia novel since The Godfather, a thrilling saga of the last great American crime family and its reach into Hollywood and Las Vegas.
Twenty-seven years ago, Mario Puzo created a popular classic with the publication of The Godfather. Now, after writing bestselling novels about Las Vegas, Sicily, and Washington, Puzo has at last returned to the subject he knows best--the inner workings of an American crime family. The Last Don is the most ambitious novel of Puzo's legendary career, the product of five years of work and a lifetime of research into the mores of the mob, Vegas, and Hollywood.
The last don is Domenico Clericuzio, a ferocious old man who is determined to secure his family's future in an era of legalized gambling, motion-picture investments, and the threat of government informers. The don is close to achieving his vision when secrets buried in his family's past threaten to undermine his plan and spark a war between two blood cousins.
The Last Don author NYT Crossword Clue Answers are listed below and every time we find a new solution for this clue, we add it on the answers list down below. In cases where two or more answers are displayed, the last one is the most recent.This crossword clue might have a different answer every time it appears on a new New York Times Crossword, so please make sure to read all the answers until you get to the one that solves current clue.
Track your spending. If you're close to the upper end of your budget and you're not quite sure what's happened, go through those receipts. Maybe you and your partner or spouse are shopping independently, spending too much on gas, meals out or failing to coordinate on the items you need. Maybe the kids are adding items to their lists at the last minute. It's toughest to say no to kids, so see if there are adult gifts, decorating items or seasonal specialty food you really don't need to purchase. In other words, if your budget is tight, identify the expenses you can alter and adjust your spending plans.
Mario Puzo's 'The Last Don II' (CBS, 9-11 p.m.): Crime, sex, and violence, Mario Puzo's recipe for "The Last Don," worked well for CBS during sweeps month last May. Now comes the sequel. It's an offer that can easily be refused. Reprising their roles are Kirstie Alley, Danny Aiello, Joe Mantegna, and Jason Gedrick. Concludes Tuesday. (TV-14, LSV)
The Wizard of Oz (CBS, 8:30-11 p.m.): It's your last chance to follow the yellow brick road on network TV. Ted Turner bought the rights to the family classic, so the Emerald City and all its denizens are packing up and moving to TNT. (TV-G) 041b061a72