However, Vito instructs consigliere Tom Hagen to forbid Rizzi to have any significant knowledge of the family's inner workings and only to "give him a living".

Rizzi hates how his in-laws treat him, and regularly abuses and cheats on Connie to assert his own power over the Corleone family.

In truth, Vito is outraged by Rizzi's behavior, but he feels powerless to act because Italian tradition forbids fathers to interfere in their children's marriages.

Humiliated, Rizzi seeks revenge by secretly making a deal with the Corleones' chief rival, Emilio Barzini, to murder Sonny.

Rizzi sets the plan in motion by having his mistress call his house, provoking a pregnant Connie into an argument in which he whips her with his belt.

However, Vito and Michael had determined early on that Rizzi had set Sonny up, and they brought him deeper within the family fold solely as a ploy to make him complacent.

[4] Russo's portrayal of Rizzi led him to be the spokesperson for the 2016 brand of Don Corleone Organic Italian Vodka.