I always wondered what Luca's position was and whether he was just the best and toughest soldier the Corleones had or whether he was a capo. The same with Pentangeli (i know spelled that wrong) was he Clemenza's right hand man or what because it seems like he had to wait for Paulie Gatto to get whacked and Rocco to become a capo before he moved up. I guess he would have been considered maybe a capo or underboss?

Luca didn't have a formal title. He was a special. No one but the Don could tell him what to do. In the book he was described as "in a class by himself", an "animal" , the Don's "strongest and most feared retainer" and as the only "man in the world who could make the Don nervous".

Clemenza had numerous men reporting to him. Pentangeli likely was a formal member of the Family before either Lampone or Gatto as both Tom and Fredo remember him from the old days (presumably pre-war). This makes sense as the Pentangeli character was really a Clemenza substitute.

As to Pentangeli's formal title once Michael left for Nevada and later when Clemenza died, I couldn't say. He's at least a capo, but as he oversees the entire NY operation, he would have significantly more power and authority than most capos.

He talks of "his family" before being reminded "it's still called Corleone". Willie Cicci says of himself "at first, like everyone else I was a soldier", which suggests his rank has changed and that Pentangeli's rank has also been upgraded.

Pentangeli is listed as a "caporegime" in the FBI chart shown at the Senate hearing. That was probably correct. The back-and-forth between Frankie and Michael was ingenious and compressed: Frankie thought of himself as almost independent ("I wanna run my family without you on my back"). But Michael, the hyper-controller, wanted it both ways: he wanted to keep the NY operation at arms-length so that the criminal operations wouldn't besmirch his "legitimate" front, and he wanted to keep Frankie under his thumb.

Luca was a special operator, reporting directly to the Don. I always wondered what kind of living Vito gave him.

Luca didn't exactly look to be much of a high roller. I am sure Vito was bright enough to give him enough so that Luca would never have to ask for anything. At least we know he had enough to make a contribution to COnnie's bridal purse.

I think I (in an earlier post) described Pentangeli as a caporegime, but not in the traditional sense of the word. I can assume he was a top lieutenant in Clemenza's crew prior to Pete's death.

There was a line in an early draft that has Fredo talking about Pentangeli being a "button" when they were young, so it could be argued that Pentangeli was a very early recruit of the Clemenza regime.

Remember Tom talking to Frankie at the Army Base? He tells him that it was he who came up with the idea of the regimes, etc. If so, that almost makes Frankie a Cosa Nostra founding father.

I just can't buy Frankie as a capo heading up a family. The fact that Mike tells him that the family name is still Corleone means little. Afterall, the five families in NY are still named after dead dons. I don't think there is a real life parallel for a capo heading a family, is there? He was a don with full control of the family with Mike capable of directing things at his discretion just like Tony Accardo could direct Sam Giancana in Chicago.

Not exactly. Tom says, "You were around the old timers -- and meeting up on how the family should be organized." That certainly makes Frankie an old timer, and perhaps a voice in the organization of families, but not the inventor.


Another possible parallel: For years, Fat Tony Salerno fronted for Vincent (the Chin) Gigante as Don of the Genovese family.

Also along those lines Carmine Galante has been called boss of the Bonanno family but some dispute that he was just a capo and acting boss. Maybe Puzo thought of Pentangelli in the way he thought of Pippi De Lena in The Last Don. I guess he was the East Coast Bruglione (whatever that means) for the Corleones

I'm inclined to go with the FBI chart, therefore capo. However, I view him as a sort of Underboss, as he was pretty much the top dog in NY, answerable directly to Michael.

A question that remains about Luca: Did he control and/or command any buttonmen? (Because this would put him into some kind of hierarchy.)

In the book backstory in which Luca killed his child and his child's mother, there are references to Luca's gang of ruffians.

There are also book references to Luca's people , when he met with the Capone gunmen and "convinced" them not to interfere with the NY wars.

So in the book he had some followers but I doubt they were very many. In the movie we don't see these folks.

Movie or book, Luca's value to Vito was that "he could do a job of murder all by himself". So Vito would not have needed (wanted?) him to maintain a crew.

Since Luca's primary job was killing, torturing or intimidating people I don't think Vito would have wanted to waste those talents by having Luca worry about how much to bribe this police officer, or if he laid off enough money for that book this week, or whether or not this person was ready to be a formal associate or Family member. Those were the jobs of Tessio and Clemenza.

Yes, that was exactly Luca's value: because he could do a job of murder all by himself, he'd have no accomplices for either him or Vito to worry about.