Sullivan went ask Nitti to look the other way as he went and did what he had to do?

I thought it was well established there and throughout that Sullivan couldn't kill Rooney's son because the Rooneys were being protected by Capone (for whom Nitti worked). Nitti didn't like Rooney's son (whose name escapes me), but let him live because of the elder Rooney's position within the Capone organization. But younger Rooney was a pain in the ass, and all Nitti needed was a good enough reason to wack him.

That reason was that Sullivan made it economically dangerous for Capone to keep protecting him.

Furthermore, Nitti was protecting the younger Rooney because of the elder Rooney's position within the Capone organization. He wasn't protecting the elder Rooney, though that was implied. It wasn't spoken because no one, not even Sullivan, thought it would come to that. Sullivan loved Rooney, Rooney loved Sullivan. But once Sullivan understood that Rooney wasn't going to give up his son, he had no choice. Then once he killed Rooney, Nitti had no reason to protect the younger Rooney. More than that, he had an incentive to have him killed, because the dude was a prick and Nitti didn't want him inheriting his father's business.

The part that was unclear was that Sullivan's bank robbing exploits didn't work -- he didn't make Nitti give up Rooney. And this was never explicitly said. After the bank robbing didn't work, Sullivan switched to plan B: get proof that young Rooney was ripping his father off. That was in the scene when the bank manager said Capone's representative already withdrew the money. Sullivan asked who it was. And when he said the name, we were supposed to remember that that was the accountant from the earlier scene at Rooney's house, and that he would have the records Sullivan was looking for. But that realization happened off-screen.

Also happening off-screen was fact that Nitti had set that up as a trap for Sullivan, by putting the accountant in an obvious location and then having Maguire (Jude Law) across the street. But I didn't mind that little surprise.

RED
Ora et labora

RED
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