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. After Michael returns from Sicily, he assumes Sonny's place as Vito's heir apparent.
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.
Mikey once attempted to make an incest joke for which he is lambasted by Sonny and then even kicked and pushed out of the room by him. However, as always, Sonny's actions towards Michael paid a price, and he was sadistically kicked 800 times in the face by Vito.
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.
The Jones Beach Causeway is a state parkway where a tollbooth was located in Long Island, New York City. It is notorious for being the spot where Sonny Corleone was murdered by assassins of the Barzini crime family.
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. After Michael returns from Sicily, he assumes Sonny's place as Vito's heir apparent.
In truth, Michael had discovered early on that Carlo had fingered Sonny for his assassins, and was only keeping him close as a ploy to make him vulnerable. After Vito's death, Michael moved into the main house in the Corleone compound, and allowed Carlo and Connie to move into the smaller one he'd shared with Kay.
Rizzi hates how his in-laws treat him, and regularly abuses and cheats on Connie to assert his own power over the Corleone family. When Connie complains to her parents, Vito refuses to intervene, presumably to punish her for her poor choice in a husband.
Having Paulie brought to the Corleone compound Sonny Corleone deduced that Gatto had sold out his father. Sonny ordered Clemenza to have Gatto killed as soon as possible, saying he did not want to see Gatto again.
It was later found out that this had been a set-up: Carlo had been paid by Emilio Barzini, the Corleones' largest rival, to force Sonny out into the open by beating Connie.
Soon after, while Fredo and Neri are fishing on Lake Tahoe, Neri executes Fredo, while Michael watches from his house. Fredo makes a final appearance in the movie's penultimate scene, a flashback to Vito's birthday party in December 1941.
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.
The most violent onscreen male death, in terms of the abject, is the death of Sonny Corleone. Seemingly punished for his own insatiable rage and confidence in elements of traditional masculinity, Sonny is murdered in full view.
This recklessness gets him killed, as he walks right into a death trap by hurrying out of the house without bodyguards. A man of strong appetites and passions, he cheats on his wife and is barely able to restrain himself from beating his brother-in-law to death when he learns that his sister has been abused.
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.
However, Paulie didn't know that the family had several phone company employees on the payroll, one of whom alerted Sonny. When Sonny found out, he ordered Clemenza to have Paulie – "that stronz" (Italian for «turd»), as Sonny called him–killed on the spot.
The show's creator David Chase instead offered him the role of Paulie Gualtieri, which Sirico accepted with the condition that his character “would not become a rat”. Sirico is survived by a daughter and brother.
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.
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".
Ultimately, Tessio betrays Michael by helping arrange his assassination at a peace summit with Barzini and Philip Tattaglia. The summit will be held in Tessio's fiefdom in Brooklyn, where Michael will presumably be safe. In return, Tessio was to inherit the Corleone family upon Michael's death.
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 ...
She was killed by a car bomb intended for Michael after he was betrayed by his bodyguard Fabrizio. During his exile, Michael is also given the distressing news by Tommasino that his brother Sonny was killed.
