Then he continued writing books that were themed around the Godfather. The Sicilian and Last Don were commercially successful. The later was turned into a six-hour television mini-series.
Mario Puzo's descriptions in his books seemed so real that Puzo was questioned about his acquaintances with the mafias. Because of his insights into crime and crime families, it was assumed that Mr. Puzo wrote from firsthand experience. One of the oddities of his career is that when it came to the Mafia, he was very much an outsider.
He once said, ''I'm ashamed to admit that I wrote 'The Godfather' entirely from research. I never met a real honest-to-God gangster. I knew the gambling world pretty good, but that's all.''
