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Starting from the 1960s, the town became famous (or perhaps infamous) for its Mafia, being the town in which some familiar clans had their basis and are named Clan dei Corleonesi. One of the known mafiosi is Toto Riina.

The name of the town was also used as the surname of the main character in Mario Puzo's book The Godfather. In the book, a young boy named Vito Andolini was spirited aboard a ship bound for America circa 1901 to prevent him from being murdered as part of a local, Mafia-spawned vendetta against his family; when an immigration official at Ellis Island asked the boy where he was from, his response, or lack of one, led the officer to spontaneously change his surname to Corleone (a practice conducted in real life on many Italian immigrants during this period).

Apart from its criminal reputation, it is a medieval town (founded by the Moors as Qur la yun in the 9th Century), with a well-preserved historical center in characteristic Moorish architecture.