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.
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.
But by the 90's, everyone was fair game. After Lucchese captain Fat Pete Chiodo turned rat, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso and Alfonse D'Arco shot and nearly killed his sister, then shot and killed his uncle. No more civilians...
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.
Poor judgment was Sonny's middle name.
