[QUOTE]Originally posted by dontomasso:
I think Tom dropped the ball big time, as did Neri and even Michael.

That was my first choice for an answer to the original question.

Everyone was aware that Frankie was going to make peace with the Rosato Brothers. So off he goes with Willie Cicci and he never comes back. There was no body found, there is no proof he is dead, just some kind of presumption. Frankie had a wife and a family. Didnt they ask questions about what happened to him? Wouldnt they have wanted a funeral? Didn't the fact that Frankie simply disappeared raise some eyebrows?

A likely explanation is that, in order to keep Frankie's survival secret, the police told the news media that he'd been killed. Only Frankie's wife and daughter would have need of finding his body--and I'm guessing that the cops provided them with protection after Frankie started "talking out loud."
And if Frankie did disapear wouldnt Tom (or someone) have contacted "their people" with the NYPD to find out what they knew about what really happened to Cicci and Pentangeli? Did they know Cicci was alive and in some kind of witness protection program or in jail?

If the police did tell the news media that Frankie'd been killed, and if the media reported it as such, Michael and Tom would have no reason to think he'd disappeared. They'd simply assume that he was dead and buried. And neither Michael (who was in Cuba) nor Tom (who had to look after things in Tahoe) would have any incentive to attend his funeral.

Also, in a rare disagreement with the estimable Turnbull, I think you are mistaken on the Statute of Limitations issue.
The Statute of Limitations on first degree murder in most jurisdictions is forever. In reality, however it would have been difficult to pin the murders on Michael so many years later (people forget things, witnesses die, etc) so they were definitely going for perjury.

You could be right, my estimable friend. But the New York State legislature only recently (within the last 5 or 10 years) removed the statute of limitations on murder. In late '58, when Frankie started singing, I believe the statute of limitations for murder was seven years.
Although the McCluskey/Sollozzo murders occurred in late '45 or early '46 and were thus beyond the statute of limitations, the NYC authorities had nothing on Michael anyway because, as we learn from the novel, Vito and Tom had arranged for someone else to take the fall. The "murders of the heads of the Five Families" as the Senator called them, occurred in 1950, according to the Senator--putting them beyond the statute of limitations at the time of the Senate hearings. [N.B.: we all know that the murders occurred in '55, but time has a way of shifting mysteriously in sequel films--just look at Vito's birthdate )
But the beauty part, as you note, was the potential for perjury. Even though the statute of limitations for murder had run out on Sollozzo/McCluskey and the "Five Families" Dons, Michael's denial of involvement in same was a current crime--perjury--and could have been prosecuted as such.