Senator Pat Geary

Just for claification on my part, but I've seen GF II a number of times & I don't think it's made that clear what happened with Senator Pat Geary. When the girl is dead in the hotel room, did someone drug him to kill her to get him to along with the Corleone family? And if so, who druged him & killed the girl? Or did the Senator really kill her?

Al Neri killed her. Notice how Tom motions him to leave.

Freddie C. is right. I always figured that they drugged Geary's drink (probably drugged the girl too) and Neri killed her. That way the Corleone family had a way to blackmail him if he didn't accept their "friendship".

Of course its obvious, they picked a girl with no family and no one knew she was there and it was run by Fredo, how much of a "coincidence" is that?

That's Tom Hagan as Ashton Kutcher in the Godfather version of Punk'd...the horse's head...Woltz, you been punk'd...Geary at the ranch...Senator, you been punk'd!

tony b.

As much as I hate this scene, it's an important part of the film, mainly to gain Geary's trust, but also it shows Tom's darker side. Every other scene where he is manipulative, he is almost too cool and makes you believe he is innocent to all of this.

It is this scene that convinces me that Tom could have made a great Don. It's a shame he wasn't Sicilian, I'm positive that's the only thing that held Vito back from naming him Don. If you need any further proof, just look at the scene where Mike gives full power to Tom. That shows that Mike believed that Tom had what it takes to be Don.

Who gave the order to kill the hooker? Was it Mike or Tom?

How could Geary manage to have rough sex with the hooker when he was drugged and possibly unconscious like Woltz?

When Tom entered the room, Geary was very awake and sweaty. He even said he did it many times with her like that. It didn't sound like he was drugged. How could Al Neri kill the girl while Geary was riding her?

he blacked out

I assumed he DIDN'T have sex with her that time.. remember she was tied to the bed, so he said "We'd done it before.." meaning they had done the kinky stuff other times, but this time he blacked out so couldn't remember if he did anything or not.

Wait, Woltz was druged too?? Is that the way they got the horses head in his bed without him knowing, or was he just a sound sleeper?

I don't recall anything that said Woltz was drugged.. the novel I think says Khartoum was drugged up (I guess that makes it a humane killing??)

He looked a bit stoned when he got out of bed. So he must be druged. There was no way they could have put something as heavy as a dead horse head on his bed without waking him up if he wasn't druged.

Would Vito approve the killing of the innocent hooker to muscle Geary if he were still alive?

I don't think he would have, and I also think that's why it was done.. to show how different the Family became without Vito's leadership. The fact that Tom (who was acting as Don at that time, remember) would have an innocent person killed only to make a point, nevermind Michael's killing of his brother (no matter how justified it may be) serves to show that without Vito, the Corleone family was starting on a downward spiral.

Vito would have approved of the hooker killing. He was a criminal after all, and had committed several murders himself. If it was necesary that she be killed, he would have been fine with it.

Vito wouldnt have cared if an "innocent hooker" (oxymoron) was killed. The Corleones needed Geary on thier side, and were willing to do what it took to get him there, whiether it was Vito or Michael who was in charge. Vito didnt object to the killing of an innocent horse, did he?

This is an example of FFC and Puzo showing us how ruthless Michael Corleone had become:
Woltz rejected Vito's offer in almost the same way that Geary rejected Michael's proposition, including ethnic insults ("guinea Mafia goombah," vs. "oily hair, silk suits, pass yourselves off as decent Americans"). Vito killed a horse to make his point on Woltz, Michael had a hooker killed to force his on Geary. When Vito was in charge, no civilians were killed in family wars, and Clemenza told Sonny that it was safe for Michael to visit Kay in NYC because "Sollozzo knows he's a civilian." By the end of the film, Michael's Great Massacre of 1955 saw the murder of a hooker in bed with Tattaglia; a chauffer and bodyguard with Barzini (the chauffer possibly a civilian), and (probably) the elevator operator in the elevator with Stracchi. You might argue that all those civilians were "incidental casualties" (wrong place, wrong time). But, in GFII, Michael planned the murder of the hooker for the sole purpose of snaring Geary.

So Mike gave the order to kill the hooker and not Tom?

I dont think we know who gave the order. Tom could have done it without Mike's knowledge of how he was going to pull it off, but knowing he would do something to get Gearys support or Mike could have directed Tom to do it. I don't think we find out.

I don't think Tom would order a murder without Michael's initiative or approval. Also, since Fredo ran the brothel, Michael must have known before his confrontation with Geary that Geary frequented the place.

I'm not so sure Michael was aware of the girl's murder. This happened after Michael left to go to Cuba. From Cuba I don't believe Tom and Michael had too much communication (he wasn't even aware of the miscarriage/abortion) so I don't think Tom would bother him with the specifics of gaining Gearys support. Michael trusted Tom enough to tend to all the messy details.

I think Michael gave the go-ahead for the move, but the details were devised by Tom.

What I never understood about GF I was that, why no one ever figured out it was Michael who gave the order? I mean, 4 of the 5 families leaders die in a single day & Michael Corleone is the only one left standing & no thinks, "Hey, maybe it was him. He didn't die today." However, isn't Michael not made "Don" until the end of the movie when Kay is getting them a drink & Neri closes the door as she watches?

Yes, that's why Michael confidently told Geary at their meeting that he would like Geary to pay the licensing fee. Michael, with his knowledge that the Senator frequented that brothel, knew that blackmail was surely in the Senator's future.

In a way it was personal, after the insults to his family, but it was essentially a business move. Michael probably talked over possibilities with Neri before the Tahoe meeting with Geary. Who know how Vito got officials "in his pocket"... Vito was capable of murder. And murdering with a knife. Don Ciccio probably was not Vito's first "hands on" murder.

Most ridiculous part of the movie. Why would the Senator use a bawdy house owned by his enemy and open himself to blackmail. There is no shortage of prostitutes in Las Vegas,NV(or Washington, DC). He could easily have gone somewhere else.

The man says don't talk to me deal with Turnbull then heads to Fredo's pleasure palace. I can't see it.

I don't see any inconsistency here.

I doubt that they advertised that Fredo operated (not owned) the brothel. Even if he saw Fredo around the place, it's not likely that he would have recognized him as Michael's brother. Remember, Fredo wasn't in the Tahoe meeting with him.

I think it's likely that Geary was already a customer before he and the Corleones crossed swords. He admits to a history with that particular prostitute.

Plus, he is so arrogant that he probably didn't think there would be any risk to going there, even if he knew the connection to the Corleones.

Exactly Woltz. Geary wouldn't know it was Fredo's place. That's why Tom had to tell him it was.

The movie points up Geary's arrogance and hubris: A US Senator and "family man" patronizing a brothel and thinking nothing of it. We saw an even more egregious example earlier when Geary demands a huge bribe from Michael and justifies it because "I don't like your kind of people...you come out to this clean country with your oily hair...dressed up in silk suits...try to pass yourselves off as decent Americans." This was typical behavior of some Nevadans in power who could trace their ancestry in the state back two or three generations ("pioneers") and thought they owned the state, make their own rules, and apply other rules to "outsiders." Another example was in "Casino," when County Commissioner Pat Webb, after demanding that Ace Rothstein reinstate his useless brother in law in a "juiced-in" job: "You people will never understand that you're here as our guests, and I'm gonna send you back where you came from..." Oli once pointed out that some Texas pezzanovantes think and behave the same way.