Why Was Vito Corleone Able to Kill Don Fanucci So Easily?

This is a question that should be easy for a lot of people to figure out since to be realistic, Don Fanucci wasn’t a don in anything but name, and that was obvious fairly easy to strip away. He ruled by fear and intimidation since he was apparently connected to the Black Hand, a precursor to the mafia in New York. The fact that he preyed upon his own people is another good indication that he wasn’t that great of a leader since he took what he wanted and demanded tribute from those that probably couldn’t afford it. If he was truly connected then he was obviously considered a lower-level thug that kept people in line for his bosses since otherwise, he was kind of a joke. He couldn’t fight, he obviously didn’t carry a gun, and if he did then he didn’t know when to pull it, and he liked dressing up and acting the part. The hardest part of trying to run the streets though comes from not knowing enough about the streets you’re trying to run. Don Fanucci knew how to scare people and attack those that were weaker than he was, as was seen in the back of the opera house, but apart from that, he was a very weak man that made himself appear important and knew how to act tough but couldn’t back it up.

The reason why Vito could get so close to him, bodyguards or no, is that Don Fanucci was also a very vain and careless individual, since obviously, he had no bodyguards, either because he wasn’t thought of as that important by his handlers/bosses, or because he had little to no real influence apart from what people afforded him due to his ‘connections’. Vito saw past the smoke and mirrors or was at least willing to gamble since he had an idea that Fanucci was just a bully taking what didn’t belong to him. The rest kind of boils down to details, details, details. It’s easy to be impressed by how this part of the story was written because it involves a lot of physical work being done on the part of Vito, as following Fanucci while sticking to the rooftops couldn’t have been easy, and trying to keep sight of him at all times would have been at least a little difficult despite the fact that Fanucci made himself stick out in a big way. The guy was wearing a white suit, after all, no matter that he had a dark overcoat, and among the many people that were wearing dark colors he stuck out like a sore thumb. But Vito’s plan to follow and then ambush him depended on a lot of variables, one of the most important being that people would keep their mouths shut and not alert the police. Of course, that was taken care of, in part, by the fact that he timed his act of murder just right and was anticipating the fireworks, or so it would appear, to mask the sound of his gun.

There’s also the idea of what might have happened if there was anyone else in Fanucci’s home at that time since he did mention having daughters. But Vito’s plan went off without too many problems since he struck from the dark, he acted when no one else was around, and he disposed of the evidence after breaking up the gun and tossing the pieces down several different chimneys. Even by today’s standards this would be a tough crime to solve since the evidence was in pieces, he didn’t leave much of anything behind, and if anyone is noticing this, Vito didn’t really touch much of anything, as he pushed Fanucci’s corpse to the floor with his foot. Then, he acted as calm and composed as possible and went back to his family, which tells a lot of viewers that he’s not just cool and calculating, but that he was definitely cold-blooded when he had to be. Out of all the Corleone’s, he was undoubtedly the most calculating, and this is saying something since his son Michael could rival him in many ways. The difference between them is that Vito had to find a way to survive on the mean streets and through a lot of maneuvering and learning about the streets he became a formidable and very capable Don, whereas Fanucci was simply a thug that tried to act like a Don. Michael on the other hand was college-educated, a war veteran, and had been given a good life, meaning his struggles were minimal compared to his father’s. He was definitely a smart and very capable man, but unlike Vito, Michael didn’t have to learn the ways of the street, though it does feel that this didn’t hamper him in the least.