Originally Posted by Revis_Island


What misfortunes was Tom responsible for? Also, would Tom have made a good boss? Or do you think that he wasn’t ruthless enough like Michael?

Tom wasn't Sicilian, so he didn't fully understand a Sicilian's overarching need for honor and vengeance against all logic. And, as a lawyer, he was oriented toward conciliation and negotiation, not toward force.

Those two traits combined in Tom's failure to anticipate that Carlo would beat up Connie a second time to provoke Sonny losing his temper and falling into his fatal trap. In the novel, Tom, after learning of Sonny's murder, tells himself that he's "no wartime consiglieri; old Genco would have smelled a rat." I'm guessing that Tom's original sin against Michael was in that failure, which resulted in Sonny's death and Michael's having to step into the Donship in Sonny's stead. What was more, Tom failed to learn that Pentangeli had survived, and that the Senate lawyer, Questadt, belonged to Roth. He said to Michael, "Our people with the NY detectives said Pentangeli was half dead, scared, talking out loud about how you betrayed him." Duuh, Tom--how come you didn't check in with "our people with the NY detectives" before you let your one and only client perjured himself five times?


Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu,
E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu...
E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu
Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.