I wonder how Cicci got busted in II

I know that Cicci was, in I, the guy taking a shave while smoking, leaving the barbers smoking, waiting in the stairwell smoking, then finally blowing away one of the heads of the Five Families in a wazzit--turnstyle thing-y that goes round 'n round.

Cicci is also the one who approaches Tom and Tessio at the end of I and says Michael would go in his own car (Tessio: but that screws up all my arrangements!)

A fairly important member of the Corleone Family, up and rising. Apparently somewhere between I and II, he gets busted by the Feds, then testifies against Michael and the Corleone Family in II (yeah, there were a lotta buffas).

Crazy.

But what do you think Cicci got busted for? I mean, he betrayed not only the memory of Clemenza (who he apparently worked for before Clemenza died), but disgraced Frankie Five Angels (although Frankie Five Angels attempted to do the very same thing Cicci did).

If Im not mistaken, he testified because Frankie testified. He obviously felt close to Frankie, and when the failed hit on him caused Frankie to testify, Willie followed.

I think that you have your timeline mixed up. Cicci came to Nevada with Pentangeli to Anthony's communion, "that was no heart attack," remember?

He may not have gotten busted. After the hit on Frankie and because he was apparently Frankie's right hand man, he may have felt he was vulnerable. So, he sought protection and turned state's evidence.

Cicci had been told to "wait in the car" by Frankie before the fateful meeting with the Rosatos at Richie's bar. After the cop busted up Frankie's murder, there was a shootout outside the bar. The last we saw of Cicci before the Senate hearing, he was shooting, probably had been shot, and was knocked over by a huge '57 Lincoln Capri. The man had been seriously hurt.
No doubt he was picked up by police on the scene, and could have been charged with a number of felonies that were related to the gunplay in that scene alone, never mind any crimes that might have been pending against him previously. But when Frankie turned state's evidence, Cicci (or more likely, his lawyer) would have figured out that the best thing for him would be to do likewise, rather than have to face charges related to the street shooting, or be implicated in anything Frankie was blabbing about.

I always wondered what happened to Cicci after he testified. Does he enter the witness protection program? Does he take his own life as Frankie does, or does he get murdered by the Corleone family? I thought about asking this before, but I guess this is the perfect time for it.

It would almost have to be the WPP. Afterall, he flipped on national TV. Every hit man in the US would be looking for him. On the other hand, he may have been sent to prison.

He would not have lasted five minutes in prison. Willie was of limited use to the Feds because he never got a direct order from Michael Corleone to do anything illegal. The worst he could do was rat out Pentangeli who was one of the family's buffas. I think both he and Pentangeli got imuunity so they could get to Michael, and accordingly WIllie would have gone into the WPP.
Perhaps he took over that Pizza place in Buffalo.

The Witness Protection Program was established in 1970. The hearings were held ca. 1959-60. Cicci certainly would have gotten immunity to testify. After the hearings, he'd either be released to "go into the wind" on his own, or be sent to a prison in some secure and (relatively) comfortable wing or suite, as was Joe Valachi. He would have been dead real quick in general population but he could have survived, as Valachi did, in more secure surroundings. He, at least, stuck to his agreement with the Feds, and testified as he was supposed to. Maybe the Feds felt an obligation to protect him going forward. But, as dt said, he was of limited use to the Feds, and they might not have made any special efforts to protect him in prison. Sammy Da Bull Gravano, by contrast, probably got better protection in prison than the President gets in Washington--precisely because he was very useful to the Feds in ratting out other mobsters.

This leads to another interesting question: what would have happened to Pentangeli if he hadn't decided to kill himself? After breaking his agreement with the Feds on national TV (and thus embarrassing the FBI and the Senate), he'd have totally blown his credibility. He'd have been of absolutely no use to the Feds or anyone else in the law enforcement/political chain. So, there's no guarantee--in fact, no reason--that the government would have kept him in that pool-table-equipped suite on an Air Force base. I'm gussing that, eventually, they would have put him in prison, and not necessarily in a secure cell or wing.

I agree, TB. Frankie had outlived his usefulness, and in a most embarrassing way. I think that Frankie probably had suicide on his mind long before Tom's visit, but wanted to make sure that his family would be taken care of.

I think he moved to Philadelphia and changed his name to Gazza. He became a small time loan shark. A fighter named Balboa worked for him.

Are you sure about that?

I heard that he stayed in New York, changed his name to Munafo and became a Police Lt. And a detective named Deke Desilva worked for him.