Mattresses,

I'm not sure about your post re: Sonny and Tom's relationship.

I think that in many ways, Sonny was much closer to Tom than he was to his own blood brothers. After all, there were a number of years between him and Michael, and he obviously thought of him as very much of a "baby brother". And Fredo was just an underling given light responsibility. Tom, however, was not only a friend, but a trusted advisor. Maybe when the chips were down, blood became more important. Also, though, remember that Sonny would say and do things when he was angry that he often regretted and had little or no control over.

I think that much of that came after the Don died. I think Tom was quite close to Sonny and Vito, but that changed with Michael. Tom would always see himself as an outsider looking in, as evidenced by his many scenes with Michael in GFII (quite literally in the scene with Johnny Ola). Remember how Tom almost cries when Michael says that he thinks of Tom as a "true brother"?