As a woman, in that time and place no one would have mistaken Connie for anything other than a civilian. It is even possible that had hitters been able to surprise Sonny with Connie in the car they MIGHT have waited to get him alone.
Possible. But then again, they may not even know that it was his sister, or may not even known that he had his sister in the car. Maybe they learn that he goes to visit his gumare and they think that Lucy is in the car. A million scenerios. But the bottom line is that he took a chance by attempting to put his sister in his company, outside the compound.
As late as the seventies and eighties it was considered a serious breach of mob etiquette to deal with an enemy in front of his women (wife, mother, sister). The events in Philadelphia relaxed this taboo.
Yes, to a degree. But those kinds of mob rules were more folklore more than anything else. How many times throughout Mob history have drive by shootings which were really hit attempts taken the lives of some innocent bystander? Where did that rule of not dealing with the enemy in fron of family go when they killed Crazy Joe Gallo?
If the Corleones had given Carlo a house on the mall perhaps with Sonny literally next door, Don's orders or not, he wouldn't have been so quick to lay his hands on Connie. And just possibly if the Family had given Carlo something more important (and yet completely removed from any real Family business) he wouldn't have felt the need to take his frustrations out on his wife.
I believe that in the novel it was either after after Sonny's murder or the Don's death that they did move them to the mall.
It's fun to speculate.
But in any event Carlo lived where he lived and did what he did. It was necessary to move the story along and show the critical flaw in Sonny's nature.
Yes it is. It's absolutely fun to speculate and see what others think "could" have taken place if "this" wasn't allowed to happen or "if so and so" did "this" instead of "that"!
As Turnbull said, "FFC needed a dramatic device to set up Sonny's discovery of Carlo's brutality, and the memorable beating of Carlo." But if we were talking real life here, it would have been poor judgement on the part of a Mob Boss to place his sister in harms way like that.
