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Verne Gagne's Mafia Connection

The film, The Godfather, is based on a book of the same name by Mario Puzo. The book was released in March of 1969 and became a huge success. It reached #1 on the New York Times best seller list in September, 1969 - holding that ranking for 21 weeks and remaining on the list for a total of 67 weeks. To this day, the book has sold over 21 million copies.

Before the book was even released, however, Paramount Studios made an offer to buy the rights, in March of 1967, in the hopes of making it into a film.

In March of 1972, Paramount Studios released the film The Godfather. The movie (and the subsequent sequels - Godfather II & III) follow the story of Corleone crime family over multiple generations, beginning with the family’s patriarch Vito Corleone.

The Godfather went on to become, what many consider to be, one of the greatest films of all time. The film won 4 Academy Awards including best picture and it currently ranks as #2 on the American Film Institute’s top 100 films.

But… that film almost never made it to the screen.

Francis Ford Coppola, an Italian American, initially turned down the offer to direct the film because he thought Puzo’s book was “sleazy”. Even when Coppola agreed to direct the film, there were battles over budget, script, delays, and casting – particularly over who would play Michael. Michael was the son of Vito Corleone - who would eventually become head of the family. Studio execs wanted a popular actor. Coppola wanted and fought for Al Pacino to play the role. Studio execs were losing patience with Coppola and there were even rumors that he might be fired from the production.

But those problems were miniscule compared to the “sit down” that Producer Al Ruddy was about to have with a real life Mafia family.

Joe Columbo, the boss of the Columbo Crime family at the time, had recently started the Italian American Civil Rights league. Columbo claimed that the political advocacy group was formed to promote and advocate for Italian Americans as well as combat stereotypes.

During filming of the The Godfather, Columbo threatened to use his influence with the unions and shut down the production because he felt the movie may be portraying negative stereotypes of Italian Americans. In the TV series “The Offer” which details Al Ruddy’s journey while making The Godfather, it’s suggested that Ruddy was even threatened by the Columbos. Eventually, a deal was reached between Columbo and Ruddy to not use the word “Mafia” or Cosa Nostra” during the film. During one of those meetings, Ruddy and Coppola met a Columbo enforcer and bodyguard by the name of Lenny Montana and became enamored with his stories, particularly one in which he described how he would set fire to a building. After spreading gasoline, he would tie a tampon to a mouse's tail, set it fire and let the mouse go. Ruddy and Coppola eventually cast Montana to play Luca Brasi, the loyal bodyguard of Vito Corleone.

In the film, Brasi is sent on a mission to pretend to defect to the rival Tattaglia family, and ends up getting killed – in one of the most shocking death scenes of the time, and producing one of the film’s most famous lines, “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.” According to one source, Montana even stole a camera lens worth $50,000 while on set.

So what does all this have to do with legendary Minnesota wrestler, Verne Gagne?

Before becoming an enforcer for the Columbo crime family and an actor in one of the greatest movies of all time, Lenny Montana (aka Luca Brasi), was a professional wrestler. In his mid 20’s, Montana started wrestling in New Jersey under the name, the Zebra Kid. Initially when Montana wrestled as the Zebra Kid he wore a mask, but during a match against Antonino Rocca in 1952 he was unmasked and the world was shocked to learn that The Zebra Kid was really Lenny Montana.

Throughout the late 1950’s Montana traveled the country wrestling and eventually ended up in Minnesota.

On September 24, 1960, Montana and Gene Kiniski were set to face AWA Tag Team World Champions Stan “Krusher” Kowalski and Tiny Mills (aka Murder Inc.) at the St. Paul Auditorium. But for some reason, Kiniski wasn’t able to wrestle that night and “Hard Boiled” Haggerty (Don Stansauk) stepped in as a replacement. Haggerty and Montana defeated Kowalski and Mills that night, but Kowalski filed a protest with promoter Wally Karbo claiming that Haggerty had not signed the contract so the win was not legal. Ten days later Montana and Haggerty officially defeated Kowalski and Mills for the AWA World Heavyweight Tag Team title at the Minneapolis Auditorium.

Montana and Haggerty held on to the Tag Team title for 6 months. On March 18th, 1961, Montana and his partner that night, Gene Kiniski participated in a tag team match against Verne Gagne and Leo Nomellini at the St. Paul Auditorium. While wrestling Gagne during that match, Montana’s leg got broken and he had to be taken from the ring on a stretcher. Gagne and Nomellini won the match. While Montana was out recovering, Haggerty was forced to choose a new partner to defend the title, and chose Kiniski. They held on to the Tag Team title until May 23, 1961 when they lost to Nomellini and Wilbur Snyder at the St. Paul Auditorium.

Following his recovery Montana went on to wrestle in Florida where he briefly reassumed the Zebra Kid character until he was again unmasked. This time by Eddie Graham in a Texas death match on July 4, 1961, at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa.

Montana later wrestled in Georgia and had some success winning tag team titles with Gypsy Joe (Gilberto Melendez) in 1962 and with Tarzan “The Boot” Tyler (Camille Laurent Tourville) in 1963.

According to newspaper records, his wrestling career began to wind down in the mid 60’s with some matches on the east coast, most notably Maine and New York. He briefly tried to revive his career in Birmingham Alabama in 1964, but there is very little information available about his wrestling career after that.

Unfortunately, there is also very little information on when and how Montana became associated with the Columbo crime family. However, if he was in New York trying to keep his wrestling career alive, it might make sense that he became connected with some of the mob associates. According to records, Montana spent some time in Riker’s Island prison in the late 60’s as well.

Verne Gagne went on to win multiple AWA titles, and was the head of the AWA promotion for 30 years. In the mid 80s, Vince McMahon’s WWF started pilfering the best wrestlers from promotions around the country, including the Gagne's AWA. In 1993, Gagne filed for bankruptcy and the AWA officially ceased to exist.

What if?

What if Montana hadn’t broken his leg in that match with Verne Gagne? Would his life path have been different? I grew up watching the AWA and was a huge fan. Had he stayed with the AWA, would the name “Len Montana” be synonymous with the likes of Mad Dog Vachon, Baron Von Raschke or Nick Bockwinkel? If so, would the picture we have in our heads of Luca Brasi, be something completely different? What or who would that be?

Unfortunately we will never know. It’s just another great Minnesota sports “what if”.

Lenny Montana (nee’ Passafaro) died in August of 1984. in Lindenhurst, New York. Unlike Luca Brasi, Montana does not sleep with the fishes. He is buried in St. Charles cemetery in East Farmingdale, NY.

Sources

The Offer – Paramount Plus – April 2022

Len Montana Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Montana

The Godfather Book Stats

https://boothnews.eiu.edu/2014/10/30/new-york-times-bestsellers-of-the-1960s/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_number-one_books_of_1969

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_number-one_books_of_1970

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Godfather-novel-by-Puzo

Paramount purchased rights

https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-lauderdale-news/168029917/

Ruddy/Columbo