Mickey Shea

Shea was born into a poor family in Ireland in 1890. [1]At age 10, he immigrated to America and moved into the infamous Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. [1]By the age of 30, he become the United States Ambassador to Canada by exploiting the powerful political connections of the Irish-American community, meeting a young Vito Corleone and forming a partnership with the young man by using his olive oil trucks to import whiskey from Canada. He also fathered two sons, James and Danny. [1]By the end of Prohibition, his family was one of the richest in America; the knowledge that their fortune was made entirely through crime was successfully kept from the public. Shea also did business with Robert Moses, expanding his empire in the process. [1]By the 1940s, he began guiding his sons into political careers, seeing potential especially in James. By the 1950s, James had been elected as Governor of New Jersey and Danny became the Assistant Attorney General of New York. In 1956, Shea retired to Manhattan. [1]

In the novel The Godfather Returns, Shea approaches the Corleone crime family for help. He asks them to get James elected President; in return, the new president would block federal efforts to crack down on organized crime. [1] He and Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen reach a deal: James would win the upcoming 1960 presidential election while Hagen would stand for election himself as a Congressman. Ultimately, Hagen loses the election, but James is elected President in 1960.[1] Many people suspect election fraud was involved and demand a recount, but the effort is stopped under pressure from Shea and the Corleones.

In his final years, Shea becomes an investor in Michael Corleone and Hyman Roth's efforts to set up illegal gambling operations in Havana, Cuba. He dies in 1959, not living long enough to see James being inaugurated as president.[1]