Hopefully I don't ruin the film for anyone with this question, but there's a bit where Don Corleone is released from hospital and it's reported in the newspaper. Would it have been possible for someone to be reported as the head of a criminal organization and not face any sorts of consequences?
Were the big names of crime like Arnold Rothstein or Lucky Luciano treated this way?
Though it seems like you're talking about a specific time period in the US, you might be interested to know that Pablo Escobar was actually elected to the Colombian House of Representatives in the 80s while internationally notorious as a drug smuggler. None of his enemies could actually produce any solid proof until an old mug shot turned up.
It's the same situation with the specific groups yore talking about I imagine, where crime bosses are smart enough to run their operations in a certain way, and combine that with corruption and fear, to stop anyone getting any solid evidence against them.
it seems likely yes. There was a series on organized crime that Life Magazine did in the 1960s. they had pics and told stories of these gus but they were free to walk the streets. have heard similar stories anecdotally. I guess the time frame of the Godfather is what 1940s? so maybe close in time.