During the production of the movie masterpiece, director Francis Ford Coppola found himself entangled with real-life New York crime families.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mafia-involved-the-godfather/

Mafia Involved in Making of 'The Godfather'?

Real members of the Mafia were involved in the making of the 1972 film "The Godfather."

^{Nikki Dobrin (Snopes.com)}