Michael informs Carlo that the rival dons have been killed and coerces Carlo's confession for his part in arranging Sonny's murder. Carlo admits Barzini was the mastermind. On Michael's orders, Clemenza garrotes Carlo to death. With that strike, the Corleones become the most powerful crime family in the country.
However, by 1959, after the death of their mother, Connie forgave Michael, realizing that he was trying to protect the family and do what he thought was necessary and obviously found out about Carlo's involvement in Sonny's death. Carlo's death was publicly pinned on the Barzini family. Clemenza kills Carlo.
In the late summer of 1948, Sonny Corleone was lured into a trap and was killed at the Jones Beach Causeway by Barzini family hitmen in order to avenge Carlo. The hit was engineered by Emilio Barzini after Carlo, angered at the loss of his income and at the fact that Sonny had beaten him, helped set it up.
The fact: The fight scene between Carlo and Sonny being more real than expected is true, but the reasoning appears to be fabricated. Gianni Russo has said in multiple interviews, including Entertainment Weekly, that Caan really did beat him up, ultimately breaking two ribs and chipping Russo's elbow.
Carlo gets revenge on Sonny by intentionally beating Connie again. As an enraged Sonny drives to Carlo's home to kill him, Don Barzini's men murder him in a hail of bullets. Towards the end of the novel, Michael discovers that Carlo had collaborated with Barzini.
Just before his death at 15, Carlo said, “I'm happy to die, because I've lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn't have pleased God.” Although he died at a young age, Carlo's personal holiness and discipleship left a lasting legacy.
Once, when Sonny visits Connie, he finds her with a black eye after a particularly severe attack. Furious, Sonny finds and beats Rizzi up in the street, threatening to kill him if he ever hurts Connie again.
Victor Rizzi was the son of Connie Corleone and Carlo Rizzi. He was at Anthony Corleone's first communion and seen with his brother Michael Rizzi coming in the door at Carmela Corleone's funeral. Victor was arrested in Reno for theft some time shortly before Anthony's first communion.
He is also mentioned many times throughout the film; the dialogue makes it clear that Michael is tormented with guilt over ordering his brother's death, and that it has alienated him from his ex-wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), and his son, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio), both of whom know the truth about Fredo's death.
Fredo's decision is most likely a result of resentment toward Michael, by whom he felt he had been passed over. Michael was Fredo's "kid brother," and the fact that their father chose for Michael to take over the "family business" came as a great insult to Fredo, who was neither as intelligent nor as strong.
He liked him well enough, and believed him when Michael told Carlo that he would be a key part of his inner circle with the Nevada transition. However, Carlo betrayed Sonny, which was no small matter. He set Sonny up for murder. Sonny's death ended up bringing the Corleone family to the brink of destruction.
Michael removes Hagen as consigliere in favor of having Vito fill the position, restricting Hagen to handling the family's legal business in Nevada, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Michael and Vito explain that the Corleones risk inciting a fight with the planned move to Nevada, and they need a "wartime consigliere".
Carlo and Connie agreed to the ceremony due to her father's displeasure in her choice of groom (he was not only a hoodlum, but half-northern Italian). They moved into an apartment in Hell's Kitchen.
Connie (who was unaware of her husband's role in Sonny's murder), hysterical after Carlo's death, blames Michael, denouncing him in front of his wife, Kay. In the novel, Connie quickly recovers from Carlo's demise, apparently relieved to be rid of an abusive, philandering husband.
In addition to acting boldly and ruthlessly to consolidate his power after Vito's death by killing the heads of the other leading mafia families (along with the traitor in the extended Corleone family, Salvatore Tessio), Michael acts to avenge Sonny's death by killing Connie's husband Carlo for helping to finger their ...
Paulie Gatto was smart and cunning and knew how to get a job done, but he also had a greedy side, which is what Sollozzo exploited. If he had not turned traitor he probably would have risen through the ranks quickly. His vehicle of choice was the Packard Super Eight.
Carlo thought Sonny was his friend. Carlo just got a very public and very humiliating beatdown from his brother-in-law. And he was too scared of Sonny to fight back.
He then flees to Sicily, where he falls in love with Simonetta Stefanelli's Apollonia. Tragically, she's later killed in a car bomb planted by Michael's bodyguard Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti), who betrayed him to his enemies. While Michael gets revenge on those who ordered the hit, Fabrizio is never seen again.
Although he respects Michael Corleone, Tessio does not trust him to protect the Corleone Family's interests after Don Vito's death. In order to lay the foundation for his own crime Family, Tessio arranges a peace summit between Michael and Don Barzini, knowing that the latter will murder Michael there.
He did not care who he angered, as long as he was feared, and he deliberately cultured such a fearsome reputation that even the top crime boss of New York, Giuseppe Mariposa, was afraid of directly retaliating against Brasi for buying his stolen alcohol shipments, to the point where Mariposa demanded that the Corleone ...
An interesting side note is that there is no indication in the novel or the first and second movies that Michael or anyone ever tells Kay that Michael had been married in Sicily let alone how his first wife died.
