Vito Corleone carried a coin purse. (Fredo made it for him when he was a kid in day camp).
In one of the original scenes that was cut out, right after Vito is shot and The Turk says "5 shots, and he's still alive"....... we learn that Vito indeed had a coin purse on the inside pocket of his overcoat, which deflected one of the bullets that would have hit him right in the heart and killed him!
So while Fredo was unable to react and dropped his gun while Vito was being shot...ironically he saved him because of the purse that he had made for his father when he was a child.
Go figure!
