In Sicily, zombies are more dangerous than shotguns.
shame. i’m basing this on frankie’s prison conversation with tom. it seemed tom filled him in with what really happened and set him straight. so he was always loyal to the corleone family. his brother’s strength doesn’t at all imply he’s a mobster (his record in his own country is impeccable) but to remind frankie his true loyalty.
but the above begs a new question. if pentangeli was not an intentional traitor, why would michael want him to commit suicide? my guess is the FBI will continue to lean against him and extract potentially dangerous information so frankie five angels had to be silenced.
It was absolutely 100% simply to shame him.
Threatening to kill his completely innocent non-crime-family involved honorable brother would be an act akin to exactly what Micheal was trying to stop Pentangili from doing. IOW it would be crass and against the mafia’s code. Just threatening to do it would bring dishonor to the Corleone family amongst all the other mob families.
No question about it.
I agree, it was to shame him. The threat was there though, even if only implicit. Michael knew full well that the thought would be in Pentangeli’s mind, how could it not be? It was a perfect double whammy.