- In 1957 he started seeing a psychiatrist.
- Mario Puzo modeled the character of Don Vito Corleone in his book "The Godfather" on New York mob bosses Frank Costello (January 21, 1891 - February 18, 1973), who was nicknamed the "Prime Minister of the Mob" for his deft handling of La Cosa Nostra, and Vito Genovese (November 27, 1897 - February 14, 1969), a brutal man who almost achieved his dream of making himself "capo di tutti capi" ("Boss of Bosses"). Much of the action of the book is based on actual events that occurred in the lives of Costello, Genovese and his accomplices. Costello would become one of the most powerful and influential mob bosses in history, and his appearance before the 1951 Kefauver Commission hearings into the mob, which were televised (but which only showed Costello's hands as he refused to have his face photographed), made him the most famous mobster of the 1950s.
- Is portrayed by Carmine Caridi in Bugsy (1991).
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