It occured to me......

I hate to resurrect a thread a while back which talked about whether Connie knew about Fredo's murder.
But today it suddenly occured to me that Kay alread knew the murder at the start of Part III and that Vincent also knew about it. It would be very natural for Connie to know it was a murder then.
PS:But it is still a little weird that Kay knew it was a murder.

I don't beleive that Connie was in on the plan to kill Fredo. She knew absolutely nothing about that plan. The family was told that Fredo drowned in a boat accident while fishing.

However I do believe that eventually Connie (as well as a few others who were "inside" the family), came to realize that Michael ordered the death of his own brother. Carefully read the exchange between Connie and Michael in GFIII where Connie and Mike are talking on the balcony and Connie is preparing Mike's insulin shot. More importantly, to get a better feeling, watch the scene when you get a chance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

MICHAEL: I made confession, Connie. I confessed my sins.

CONNIE: Why Michael, that's not like you. You don't have to confess your sins to a stranger.

MICHAEL: It was the man. A good man. A true priest. He changed things.

CONNIE: Michael, you know, sometimes I think of poor Fredo, drowned. It was God's will. It was a terrible accident. But it's finished.

(then, after Michael sighs)

Michael, I love you. I'll always help you.

<They hug. Connie starts crying and Michael comforts her.>
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Now all Michael says was that he went to confession and that the Cardinal was a good priest who changed things. And what does Connie bring up to him? Fredo's death. Almost as if she knows that Michael was struggling with his own guilt in having Fredo killed and that is why he needed to confess to Lamberto.

It was as if Connie was really telling Michael "Don't worry about it, I don't hold it against you, it's finished, let it go, it's over with and I love you anyway."

Why would she bring up Fredos death unless deep down inside she knew that Michael had him killed and that Michael was struggling with guilt. She attempts to ease Michael's conscience with her reply.

I think about how it got out in the open though.What i mean is the truth behind Fredo's death.Even Mary and Vincent know about it,Kay says"Anthony knows you killed Fredo".How did it get out in the open?

I too think that Connie deduced Fredo's murder and was trying to assuage Micahel's guilt over it. Kay deduced it also. I'm sure that when the boat returned without Fredo there was an explanation by Neri and the inevitable questions that must have followed.

A good bet is that Kay told them. In Washington, when Kay told Michael she was leaving, she finally knew all about him and his ways. There is no doubt that, when Fredo turned up missing, Kay concluded that Michael had him killed. Since Michael grabbed the kids and made Kay out to be a pariah (note the Dreaded Corleone Stare when Kay's about to leave the compound after her visit), Kay had an incentive to tell the kids her side of the story. At some point, I imagine, one or both of them might have said, "Dad says you had an illegal operation and killed our brother-to-be," at which point Kay might have retaliated with, "Your father is a murderer--he killed your Uncle Fredo." Apart from that, Anthony may have been a mediocre tenor but he wasn't stupid--his resentment and fear of his father, which we see glimpses of in II, would have led him to conclude that Fredo's disappearance was no accident.

Thanks TB.Makes sense.

I always used to ponder that.

Anthony was supposed to go fishing with Uncle Fredo when Connie took him out of the boat. Although he may not have understood the implication of the boat returning without Fredo, he certainly could have put the pieces together when he was older.

I don't think Mary knew about Fredo's murder. She had a blind love for Michael, the type of love that only a very spoiled and sheltered daughter could have for a father.

Then the question arises. How would Mary react if she knew for sure that his Uncle was murdered?
We have seen a doubt in her heart in his father when she conversed with Micheal about the legitimacy of the fund. Would she act like Connie. You see their characters were very similar.

She may have not known for sure about Fredo's murder, but she suspected that he was murdered because in GFIII she asks Vincent if the rumors of her father having Fredo killed were true. Vincent of course dismisses those rumors ( and I think that he really knew it was true) and Mary accepts Vincents dismissal because as you said, she had a blind love for her father and really did not want to believe that her father could ever do something that terrible to his own brother.

It seems that the cause of Fredo's death was common knowledge among the Corleones. It is curious that Mary would ask Vincent if it was true that Michael killed Fredo. After all she probably heard it form her mother and her brother. Connie certainly knew, and Hagen and Neri knew from the beginning.

Michael lures his brother and sister into a sense of security about Fredo. He then arranges the murder of his brother using his son and his sister as part of that deception and arrangement. How insidious! How in the world do people reconcile themselves to such people as Michael who have commiitted such sins and crimes!

It runs rampant in the world of the mafia.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.