Weird little thing in the book, at Vito's funeral, "The Five Families sent their Dons and caporegimes, as did the Tessio and Clemenza Families." So it seems at some point Puzo was thinking of them as independents, perhaps abandoning the line later.

That is interesting Pete. Of course, in other posts we have lamented Puzo's sloppy writing. I guess this is just one example of it especially since near the end of the novel Puzo writes that "during that same twenty-four hour period Clemenza and Lampone turned loose their regimes ..."; "Neri was sent to take command of the Tessio regime."; "Now...Clemenza had his own family."

Did Clemenza live at the Mall? I thought he lived away with his wife in their own house

It does beg the question why set up the betrayal, knowing there could be one or more possible traitors? Why not take them, the long term trusted Corleone people into confidence?

My take, for what it is worth!

It is small potatoes! compared to wiping out all the Dons, Greene and Carlo in one sweep and the surprise element would have been lost otherwise
Too much of a risk There is always the possibility someone could let something slip....

I don't think anyone outside of Vito and Michael knew anything about the baptism murders, by design, even Tom was kept out of the loop
Nobody was let in on, what Vito and Michael were planning until their need to know after the traitor revealed himself

Then, after Tessio revealed himself as the traitor, whoever were picked for their specific assignments would have been assigned the task of tracking their respective targets' movements to plan out their hits

Once the plans organised and put together, the actual day of the massacre [the same day? as the Tessio brokered 'meeting' with Barzini] would have been picked and coordinated accordingly to carry out the murders pretty much simultaneously

if nobody betrays?

Then they could “all live happily for a hundred years”

But Tessio had an upcoming project called" Barney Miller"...so he had 2 go..strictly bizzness.lol..

If Tessio had succeeded, we'd all be speaking Brooklyn Italian.

Tessio

• underestimating

Tessio after his phone conversation “We're on our way to Brooklyn” striding out, leading Tom, perhaps quite arrogantly, smug that he had outfought Michael and Tom

• annoyance

• realisation

Tessio is a dead man when Tom says “I can't go either, Sal”
Abe Vigoda's acting was superb indeed almost made us feel sorry for Tessio

It was always the case, wasn't it?
The despair and pain when losing their lives or their loved ones but no hesitation in murdering others' fathers, sons, working girls
Vito at the loss of Sonny, Michael losing Apollonia, Mary and Tessio to get him off the hook

He got part out of 500 auditions

Would Clemenza do what Tessio did if Barzini's people chiselling his territory

I can't see Clemenza same as Tom ever betraying the family
That's why I reckon Pentangeli worked better also Gazzo was so good and so entertaining