Willy Cicci

Frank Pentangeli had no choice to kill himself because he has talked about the Corleone Family thinking Michael gave the order to kill him. So has Cicci but we don`t see the killing of Willy Cicci, was he killed behind the scenes? Even if we did not see it?

He was probably better protected by the FBI. Pentangeli could talk to Tom cause he was a big-shot, Cicci wasn't.
A bit simple perhaps, but it seems logical.

Cicci didn't know much other than the fact that the family had lots of buffas. He probably went into the witness protection program and is currently living somewhere near you.

Michael was not the type who would let Cicci get away with it so easily. He probably found Cicci, maybe a few years after, and sent Al Neri with the appropriate instructions.

Anyway, did they have the witness protection program back in 1959?

Who knows what happened to old Willy Cicci. Though Joe Spinell died in 1979.

Buffas, Yeah the family had lot`s of buffas.

I also wondred what happend to this guy.
But he was probably only a soldier and a bodyguard to caporegime Frank Pentangeli.

But Willy Cicci also did a good job in the first GF when he killed, eh, who was is he killed in that door?

Ottilio Cuneo

Logic is on your side, MC. Logically, Michael would hunt down Cicci. We didn't see that happen because Frankie was a more important target (and because it set up that unforgettable scene with his brother, and later with Tom).
BUT:
It's possible that Cicci helped Michael at the Senate hearing. Remember, he testified that he never got an order from Michael--"I never talked to him." But Cicci did get orders from him--apparently. Near the end of GF, when Tessio's getting in his car, Cicci says, "Sal, Tom, the boss says for you to go on ahead..." Sounded like he got a direct order from Michael that would implicate Michael in Tessio's murder. So his telling the Senate that he never talked to Michael would be a deliberate lie to get Michael off the hook. Maybe Michael recognized it as such.
No, there was no Witness Protection Program in 1959 or 1960, the time of the Senate hearing in GFII. Cicci probably got a reduced prison term, and would have been put in solitary or in the "canary wing" of some Federal prison.

But, as stated by Plaw before: "The boss" could also be Clemenza, who was Ciccio's boss.
I'm not saying Ciccio didn't know who Michael was, but the only boss gangsters care about is their own boss.
Cicci was a Capodecine (or lieutenant, or crewcaptain, whatever), and as such, had to respond only to his Capo, who was Clemenza.

I agree with Turnbull, Cicci's testimony doesn't really hurt Michael as much as Pentangelli's had the potential to. At least what we heard in the movie. Hopefully, Michael gave him a pass. Granted, that is a somewhat fanciful thought given that Michael had turned into someone who sought venegance on everyone who remotely crossed him, even some who didn't. I choose to think that Cicci was smart and vanished somewhere into the wilderness of America and opened a nice Italian restaurant somewhere like Greenville, Mississippi. Cicci was cool, if a killer and a thug can be termed as such.

He moved to Philly and changed his name to Tony Gazzo. and became a loan shark

hey i read somewhere on this board that an early script of the third godfather had old willy in it, but they changed it after he died...could that hold any truth?

I think that in the novel, Michael talks to Tom about killing the heads of the 5 families and Tessio and tells him "Call Clemenza. I will instruct him personally." So, Clemenza must have been the necessary "buffa".

Turnbull, even Cicci didn`t say he never talked to Michael face to face(whether he did or did not), he said HE IS THE BOSS OF THE FAMILY.
People, don`t forget that.
It does not matter the way or circumstance you talk about the family, you are talking anyway. I choose to think Michael whacked Cicci after the end of GF2.

Cicci said "No, I never talked to him."
Cicci had admitted that he was "a button"--that he "killed people at the behest of his superiors." The answer that would have gotten Michael in trouble was not that he was "the boss" but whether or not Cicci, the admitted murderer, had gotten a direct order from Michael. And Cicci said NO.

I know but he has talked, whatever he could say, it is unforgiveable. Even if he is talking about just a soldier, he is talking.

As an aside here:
This is one of many threads that center on Willie Cicci. He's a minor character and doesn't have a lot of lines. Yet he looms large here because he's an example of FFC's perfect casting in GF and II. Joe Spinell looks perfect for the part, acts perfectly, and his few lines are perfect for his character.
There are lots of other examples of FFC's casting genius. Sollozzo is an important character, but only in the beginning of GF, and he appears in only three scenes. Yet, Al Lettieri is unforgettable in that role. Even Alex Rocco, a mediocre actor, was el perfecto in his three minutes as Moe Green. Take a bow, FFC!

To address the earlier question about whether Cicci could have possibly been considered for a role in the GFIII . . .

This could have been considering that his character was sort of left without a defenite ending in GFII. Also, I should point out for any who do not know that the first drafts of GFIII were written before Joe Spinell's death in January 1989, so it doesn't completely rule out that his inclusion was considered.

Whether they chose not to reintroduce Cicci because they had no interest in the story or because of Spinell's death, we may never know.

I personally would like to have seen more about him, but as Turnbull mentioned, he also does work perfectly as a minor character.