When Don Fanucci got his throat cut

I was watching this deleted scene he other day, and I noticed a few things:

1. He barely fights back
2. How did everybody know?
3. Why did Vito hide himself?
4. Why was Don Fanucci never guarded?

I'm not really sure about the 3rd, but I think he diden't say anything to Genco because he wanted to take care of Don Fanucci himself.

Genco said: "Nobody can stop Fanucci." But it were just little kids who cut his throat.

Hope it doesen't sound too stupid.

MC14, I believe this scene was created to show that Fanucci, despite his fearsome reputation in the neighborhood, was just a punk at heart. He didn't fight back because he was afraid for his life. Notice how he holds his hat under his chin, so that his blood won't stain his white suit--a sure sign that his vanity overcame his courage (if he had any). The reason Vito hid was because it wasn't his fight. He didn't want to get involved in an affair that had nothing to do with him, and that could easily have gotten him into trouble. (Remember: when Clemenza asked him if he looked in the sack of guns that Clemenza threw to him through the window, Vito replies, "I'm not interested in things that don't concern me"--a strong Sicilian tradition.) Fanucci wasn't guarded because he didn't have a mob--he was a one-man operation. This was typical of New York gangster activity in the pre-Prohibition era. Immigrants were preyed upon by their fellow immigrants. Most often the criminals acted alone, or in very small groups. They invoked the names of dreaded crime organizations from the home country, like "the Black Hand," "Mafia," "Camorra," "Bruderbond," etc., to scare their victims into thinking that they were part of a big outfit. Probaby that's what Fanucci did.
That scene also was used to set up Vito's decision to kill Fanucci. He saw that Fanucci failed to protect himself against the two kids. Later, he learns that Fanucci permitted one of the two kids to pay with money, rather than his life. "In my town, if you try to kill a man, you better finish him off," says Vito to Genco. And he tells Clemenza and Tessio that he knows of at least two neighborhood businessmen who don't pay off Fanucci.
I don't know how the kids knew that Fanucci wouldn't fight back. Maybe they were just reckless. Certainly they had more courage than he did.

Thanks Turnbull! You've answered all my questions. To be even more frank, I don't think there is no further reason to continue this thread, you've explained everything possible!

lol yeah that was a thorough explanation, thanks Turnbull

That's Mr. Turnbull for ya. He'll answer new member's questions ( Though yours was a great one MC14!) and he'll answer questions that he's answered before. If a question has been answered before in-depth and at length he'll tell you politely where to search, and he'll try to tell you before some other member gets a holda' you and starts, "You stupid newby son ofa @$#%*, *^%$@!!!"

That's why I call him MR. Turnbull...

In a reaction to Bronxking, again, thanks Mr Turnbull.

Couldn't it also be that Fanucci was cocky and didn't believe something like that would happen?

Don Fanucci reacted in the ways you have listed for the following reasons:

1. He barely fights back
2. How did everybody know?
3. Why did Vito hide himself?
4. Why was Don Fanucci never guarded?

1. Fanucci is shot in the heart with the first shot and slowly dies, a bull of a man. (the average person would of been dead before they hit the floor)

2. Fanucci was a Don and boss of the neighbourhood. He was more famous than anyone else virtually. Infamous may be a better term. The only defense against all Fanucci's aggression was to bulletin each other about him. People are very sensitive to being controlled under threat of death.

3. Vito hid before the killing of Fanucci because Fanucci was his own Luca Brasi (Vito's enforcer before he was shot) that is he did his own enforcing to the extent that Vito was metaphysically intimidated by him. This was all kept a secret like all the hits as death is always the payback from someone for these kinds of aggressions.

4. Don Fanucci seemed to provide his own secuity. He seemed to be far more active, criminally (the night in the theater) etc... than most of the mob guys. He probably could of easily hired bodyguards if he felt he needed them. Vito scored by calling Fanucci's bluff and winning. Vito probably was suspected throughout the mob as the hit man, eventually, and this was a major incident in which Vito deepened his involvement in the criminal underground.

good answers there. But you are talking of the wrong scene. It was supposed to be about a deleted scene on the DVD

Sorry, but the last two posts are way off. None of this is true for one reason: Fanucci was a fraud. He had no part of the Black Hand or any other organization. He had no family and no people that backed him. He was a big lie, which is why it was so easy for Vito to clip him.