Originally posted by Turnbull:
Yes, complacency had set in strongly prior to the shooting. It's part of what Sollozzo meant when he said, "The Don, rest in peace, was slippin'." And what Clemenza later said to Michael (when he was practicing with the gun): "Somethin' like this has to happen every ten years, to let out the bad blood" (or something to that effect).
This was accompanied by a statement "ten years ago could I have gotten to him?" What I think that means is ten years before if the Don had said "no" to Sollozzo's proposal, the other families would not have given Sollozzo permission to hit him.
