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 betrayal and subsequent demise in The Godfather Part II was due to his resentment towards Michael for being passed over. The decision to kill off Fredo was not originally in Mario Puzo's novels, but added by director Coppola for emotional impact.
In film. 1974 The Godfather Part II produced, directed, and co-written (with Mario Puzo) by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Corleone gives his brother Fredo Corleone the kiss of death after he discovers Fredo's betrayal.
Fredo is then assassinated by Al Neri at Michael's order. It is later found that Michael sent Anthony to his room, where he saw Neri killing Fredo. He had much animosity toward his father and Neri from that point on, because he realised in time that he had been used to kill Fredo.
Michael publicly appears to forgive Fredo, but later has him killed after Connie organizes a visit for Kay behind Michael's back which breaks the agreement. Connie later says that Fredo had drowned, feigning ignorance of the truth. After Michael and Kay's divorce, Connie helps care for Michael's children.
Roth secretly plans to assassinate Michael, partly to avenge Moe Greene's murder (as depicted in The Godfather). Roth instructs Ola to befriend Michael's brother Fredo, who provides Ola (and Roth) information about Michael that enables them to make an attempt on his life.
Betrayal. While in Havana, Michael learned that Fredo betrayed him when Fredo accidentally let it slip that he and Johnny Ola had been to a sex show in Havana. He confronted Fredo at a New Year's party in Havana, telling Fredo that he knew he was the traitor and giving him the "kiss of death".
Fredo was the second child of Vito and Carmela Corleone, born October 18, 1915. In his youth he was a sickly child, contracting pneumonia as a baby. In The Godfather Returns, it is implied that Fredo was molested as a child by his parish priest, and he is portrayed as having secret sexual relationships with men.
Roth arrives at the airport and prepares to be taken into Federal Custody in the U.S. Minutes after getting off the plane, he is shot point-blank by Corleone caporegime Rocco Lampone, who was posing as a reporter. Rocco was then shot and killed by federal officers as he was running away.
He would do this because he wouldn't want it to look like he was at all involved in Fredo's death. Fredo drowned while fishing and his body was never recovered. He fell out of the boat and sank and no one could retrieve him on that nice private lake.
At the end of the film, Michael has Greene killed as part of his slaughter of the Corleone family's enemies. Neri surprises Greene while he is getting a massage and shoots him through the eye. This allows Greene's casinos to become property of the Corleone family.
Michael saw Kay as his light, as the good in him. (In the books) during their relationship, they would often joke about sexist beliefs in his culture. After Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey to avenge the assassination attempt on his father in 1946, he and Kay are forcibly separated while he takes refuge in Sicily.
The third and final film in the Godfather saga, The Godfather: Part III, set in 1979, explains that Hagen had died a few years earlier. His son, Andrew, is ordained to the priesthood, and is assigned to the Vatican on Michael's recommendation. While talking with Andrew, Michael remembers Hagen fondly as a great lawyer.
Fredo would have been exiled to a position of no control whatsoever and “managed” for the rest of his natural life. Sonny and Vito would have kept him alive, in a role where he could not hurt them. They would let him live out his days fishing in the compound. Michael was much more ruthless than both Sonny and Vito.
Enraged, Sonny speeds towards Connie's apartment in Hell's Kitchen ahead of his bodyguards. At the Long Beach Causeway toll plaza, Barzini's men trap Sonny and shoot him to death. During a meeting with the other crime family dons to establish peace, Vito realizes that Barzini masterminded Sonny's murder.
The biggest clue — as events play out in the screenplay of “Godfaher II” — is when Michael realizes that Fredo is the betrayer in the Corleone organization, as revealed by Fredo's lies. Moreover, it's that Fredo's lies reveal that FREDO WAS WORKING WITH ROTH'S HENCHMAN, Johnny Ola. That is the key.
At the end of Part III, Michael dies alone in the yard of his Sicilian villa. The death of his daughter, Mary, has sealed his fate, severing his ties forever with the rest of the family, the family that he tried to save and bring to legitimacy.
A rift grows between Pentangeli and Michael, however, that eventually results in Pentangeli betraying the family. Pentangeli's character was created in The Godfather Part II by Coppola and Puzo due to actor Richard Castellano not reprising his role as Clemenza in the sequel.
Michael's bodyguard Bussetta was sent to kill Ola and Roth once this was heard because now he knew who was responsible for the attempted assassination. As Johnny Ola was on his balcony, he was strangled with a wire with a wooden coat hanger wielded by Michael's bodyguard. The bodyguard went on to break his neck.
