Though hesitant at first, Fredo paid her three thousand dollars to tell Johnny it was the best sex she ever had, before eventually succumbing and sleeping with her. Shortly after, with Fredo's knowledge, Marguerite had a baby , whom she put up for adoption. The Corleone family would be able to buy up the former cemetery land cheap, now prime real estate, and also be a silent partner in the graveyard business.
Fredo would propose this plan to Michael and impress him, reassuring him and others of his abilities. To Fredo's dismay, however, Michael dismissed the idea as unrealistic.
At the Christmas of , Fredo showed up at the Corleone Christmas party with Deanna Dunn , a famous but fading movie starlet. A few months later they got married. Dunn got Fredo to make appearances in bit parts in some of her movies. Later, in September , Fredo's Hollywood connections allowed him to get his own successful TV show, "The Fred Corleone Show", which aired irregularly, usually on Monday nights, until his death in , on a local television station in Nevada.
Fredo's drinking problems continued and accelerated. One day, he discovered Deanna cheating on him with her movie co-star Matt Marshall , and Fredo shot-up the Corvette he had bought her. When Deanna's co-star tried to attack him, Fredo ended up knocking him unconscious with a pistol whip and went to a local jail. Tom Hagen came to bail him out and got in an argument about Fredo's reckless activity and Tom's blind loyalty to Michael. Tom again got the charges dropped as self defense after paying off Marshall and the hotel.
If Fredo was told they could help him with his Colma vision, he'd do anything to help. Fredo met with Johnny Ola and supplied him with all the information they needed, especially financial information, about the Corleone family. Fredo ambiguously claimed that his goal in that deal was simply to get something for himself, on his own, and swore that he did not realize he was being used as part of a larger plot to kill his brother.
However, in the event of Michael's assassination, Fredo would likely have led the Corleone family, at least as a figurehead.
It is unknown if Fredo knew that they planned to assassinate Michael. Michael discovered Fredo's role in the plot during his trip to Havana, when Fredo let it slip out that he and Johnny Ola had been in Havana together earlier that year and they went to the sex show together. Michael confronted Fredo later and tells his older brother, "You broke my heart. Later, when Michael is being pursued by a Congressional Committee investigating organized crime, he has a talk with Fredo and realizes that Fredo had both withheld important information from him about Hyman Roth's connection with the Committee's lawyer Questadt , was deeply resentful and jealous of Michael's role in the family business as well as the fact that he was treated as an errand boy and that he was stepped over.
Michael therefore disowns and banishes him from the family, although not wanting any harm to happen to him while their mother was still alive. Upon their mother's death, and at the urging of their sister Connie , Michael relented toward Fredo and seemingly offered reconciliation. However, it was only a deception to draw Fredo in so as to have him murdered by Al Neri. Fredo and his nephew, Michael's son Anthony , developed a relationship with Michael's consent as part of a plan to kill Fredo and were to go fishing on Lake Tahoe.
However, Anthony is called away by Connie, who tells him that his father wants to take him to Reno. Fredo is left alone in the fishing boat with Al Neri and he takes the boat far out onto the lake. His suspicions prior to his death are left up to interpretation. As Fredo prays the Hail Mary which he claimed brought him luck whilst fishing , Neri shoots him in the back of the head, not knowing that Anthony was watching from his bedroom window.
Michael was wracked with guilt over ordering Fredo's murder for the rest of his life. When Michael had a stroke, he called out for his brother. Michael broke down in tears when confessing the crime to the future Pope, Cardinal Lamberto , in while at the Vatican.
It also irreparably harmed Michael's relationship with his son and Kay, who found about it through their son Anthony.
Described as the child Italian parents prayed to the saints for, Fredo was the weakest and least intelligent of the Corleone brothers; his own brother, Michael, dismissed him as weak and stupid. Fredo was also known for being incredibly gullible and making poor decisions, as evidenced by his secret dealings with Johnny Ola, thinking he was helping the family.
As with all Corleones, Fredo had a temper and would lash out at anyone that insulted him or his family, namely his wife. However, as Michael had commented on Fredo's weakness, he let Moe Greene slap him around in public and even defended Greene for the act at his own expense, which upset Michael greatly.
After Michael became Don, Fredo held a grudge about being stepped over and would show it when Michael berated him for choosing Hyman Roth over the Corleone family. He hatches a plot to assassinate Michael and replace him with Fredo. Crucially, he does this with Fredo's help. This lets Roth set a trap for Michael, and Michael only barely survives. Michael immediately knows Fredo helped Roth. But at first, he thinks Fredo was just a dupe, like he was with Greene, and Fredo lets him think that.
Later, however, Michael learns that Fredo has been intentionally misleading him. And that seals Fredo's fate. Michael doesn't want to murder his own brother, and he tries everything possible to avoid it. He's willing to forgive multiple betrayals, as long as they're unintentional. But nobody conspires against the Don and lives, even the Don's own brother. In the mafia , Michael ordering the killing of his own brother is perfectly justified because of Fredo's treachery.
Fredo isn't the only one who betrays a family member. After Michael discovered Fredo's betrayal, he used his own son, Anthony, to form a bond with Fredo as a way to draw him in. The godfather is so shattered with guilt that at one point he confesses the murder to the future pope himself.
If Michael were to bide by the words in this quotation and never speak to Fredo again, there would be no way that weak, insecure, fearful Fredo could touch him. As much as it appears to be a decision of ruthless efficiency, the perfect business act of the perfect don, the killing is nothing if not personal.
Michael cannot tolerate treachery and has a compulsive need for vengeance. This, more than anything else, is his fatal flaw. But Michael is never able to make a comparable decision. The significance of this quotation is that Michael is unable to abide by what he says. When vengeance becomes emotional, rather than strategic, an unending cycle of violence results. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook.
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