I honestly don't know how to kill people, but there's something that seems strange to me.

1. The killing of Paulie: leave the gun, take the cannoli. I'd rather leave the cannoli and take the gun, since this is evidence. They also leave the car behind. Who's car is it anyway?

2. The killing of Sollozo and McClusky. Michael has to drop the gun, as Clemenza told him. Again: evidence...

As we see Vito in action in GFII, after he killed Fanuci, he smashed the gun in 100 pieces and spreads those. No evidence at all, and he can go home and eat spaghetti in peace...

Can someone explain this?

Yeah but they are untracable evidence,gun that leaves no prints and car thats probley lisence to other people.Also the forencis(sp)evidence wasn't as good as today

With the killing of Paulie, Sollozo and McClusky, the guns used in those murders were untraceable and clean. Clemenza even put special tape on the gun for Michael so that that no fingerprints would be left on the gun. Probably did the same to the gun that was used to kill Paulie.

As for young Vito, the gun he used may have or may have not been traceable. And at that point in his life, Vito was not yet in a position to have connections of that kind. He didn't have people around him or under him who could provide him with an untraceable gun. And besides all that, Vito plotted and killed Fanucci without letting ANYONE else in on it. I also believe that this was the first killing that Vito had ever committed. So he was not experienced and was probably nervous as hell. And that was another reason that he broke up that gun and discarded it's pieces in several different places.


Don Cardi

As DC said, Clemenza had a stash of "untraceable" guns and "special tape" to keep prints off of them. He gave Michael one for the S&M killings. There's every reason to believe he gave one to Rocco for the Paulie murder.
The most damning evidence in a murder case is if the cops catch the suspected killer with the murder weapon on him. They can retrieve a bullet from the victim, examine it microscopically, then fire a fresh round from the gun they lifted from the murder suspect. If the rifling markings on the bullets match, the defendent's finished. That's why Clemenza (and Sonny) were adament about Michael dropping the gun. In the novel, Sonny goes even farther: "If they get you with the gun on you, there's nothing we can do [to help you]."

As far as leaving the cannoli, the police may have been able to trace it back to a bakery and asked who frequently bought cannolis. Thereby, it may have been very detrimental to leave the cannoli in the car with Paulie.

Plus, you can't just let a good cannoli go to waste!

Clemenza didn't want to have to deal with his wife who asked him to pick up some cannolis.

Also, Clemenza told Paulie to pick him up in his own car; nothing hot.

If paulie was found shot in his own car with a weaopn that was untraceable, the most the police could determine is that it was a mob hit. They would have no way of knowing which side of the incipient war Paulie was on and they would not know which family had him whacked. Since he was a low level bodyguard for the Corleones, they probably would not have put many resources into that particular murder.

As for the cannoli, Clemenza already had eaten one, and he had his fingerprints on one of the others as well as all over the box.

Exactly! Plus, the Corleones wanted Paulie's body to be discovered. It was intended as a message to the other side that they'd discovered the traitor in the family.

The Corleone's also had the cops in their pocket. Not that they buy off a cop after killing one, but the connections they did have helped out, no doubt.

They also had connections in the media that could spin the story to make it sound like McClusky "had it coming to him." So the family wasn't too worried about the evidence being left at the crime scene.

How do you make a gun untraceable in regards to fingerprints?

Special tape on the butt and trigger.

Don Cardi

In Puzo’s book, it is clear that Clemenza and Lampone leave Pauli in the car to make his murder more exposed - to frighten would-be traitors and prove that the Corleone Family had not gone “soft.”

Welcome bionicjones. You're absolutely right, however, we have a thread dedicated solely to the book that you might enjoy.

Who's to say the gun what killed paulie was untraceable.

Logic would dictate that just in the same manner that Clemenza gave Michael a gun that was untracable and specially taped as not to leave fingerprints on it, he would also have done the same thing for Rocco. After all it was Clemenza's job to take care of these kinds of details. If he did it for the hit on Sollozo and McCluskey, surely he would do the same for the hit on Paulie Gatto.