There were three killers of Fernandez, the Scaduto brothers and the Carbone character, a cousin. I think one cousin was used as an extra shooter and he's the one who flipped. Pietro Scaduto was one of the shooters, both he and Carbone (The other shooter) were from Toronto and were former bodyguards of Michele Modica. So they knew of Fernandez, and Scaduto was the one Fernandez hooked up with upon his arrival to Bagheria. The guy wasn't dealing with regular soldiers here, he reportedly was among those at a "table" which consisted of Bagheria's Mafia bosses. He'd been met early on during his stay in Sicily by two Canadian mobsters, Dani Ranieri & Dominic Fabiani. It wasn't just his ability to earn tha t made these Sicilians comfortable with dealing with him, while he's claiming to be one of them, it was also the Rizzuto name, which still held weight in Sicily. The guy was caught on wiretap, telling bosses to "show some respect, I sit at the right hand of God. That's how close I am. The boss makes the rules", in direct response to being questioned because of his ethnicity and told "there are rules"...And they could do little about it, because he still had Vito backing him.

Keep in mind, Fernandez was alive and thriving, business wise while in Sicily prior to Rizzuto being released and making amends with those who destroyed his family. The order didn't come from any Sicilian boss, despite Fernandez' supposed middle finger to tradition. It came from Montreal, only after he was ducking Rizzuto and refusing to meet and blurring the lines of his allegiance. That right there is enough to consider Fernandez' claim as an actual possibility. That's all I'm saying.