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Q. In the Answer Man for Aug. 17, Phil Giordano asks about a Sixth Man in “The Godfather” who is never identified when the Corleones plan the execution of a police captain. The person he is wondering about is Rocco Lampone, played by Tom Rosqui, who is uncredited in the film, according to the IMDB. Mr. Giordano will remember the earlier scene in the film where Rocco executes Paulie in the car as Clemenza urinates outside (the “leave the gun, take the cannoli” scene).
According to the book, this is where Rocco finally makes his bones. He sits in on the meeting as the family waits for news from Sonny’s contact at McCluskey’s police station to find out where Michael’s meeting with Sollozzo will take place. This shows the trust he has earned from the family. He eventually becomes one of Michael’s two caporegimes (Al Neri is the other one). Incidentally, it is Rocco who, in the second film, assassinates Hyman Roth at the airport, only to be shot in the back by a police officer as he tries to flee the scene.
Ali Arikan, Istanbul, Turkey
A. I received a lot of solutions to the question, only three persuasive — yours came in first, followed by John Fitzpatrick of Springfield, Ill., and Jorge Gamboa of Tucson, Ariz. Some of the other answers refer to an earlier scene discussing the wisdom of the killings. The Sixth Man scene begins at about 1:18:12 and continues until about 1:18:52; it’s the man on the far right, drinking from a bottle of beer.