Why isn't "Kid Erie" considered a third man in the con besides Luther and Hooker? If the guys who ask Mottola about the con think that Luther being knifed is phony, then the guy with the knife makes it 3 people and not 2. It would certainly explain better why Kid Erie is so nervous anytime he has to talk to Lonnegan.
shareYes The Erie Kid is the third, however, when Floyd tells Lonnegan what happened to the bag man Mottola, "he got cleaned by two grifters". And not long after that, they found Mottola with a knife in his eye.
So they really are only concerned with Luther and Hooker. Erie stays on alert, but he skated on this one.
In addition to Sidekickin's point, I'll add this. It is mentioned early on that once Mottola realized what had happened, he went out and got drunk. He was obviously able to give a reasonable enough description to the hitters before they killed him to put them on Luther and Hooker's trail. Mottola may not have ever mentioned Erie either because he never got a close enough look to give a good description or even possibly because he never realized he was part of it. As to why Erie was nervous around Lonnegan...wouldn't you be? Even if Erie had nothing to do with taking his money in the first place, Lonnegan had already killed one of his friends and was gunning for the other. Plus, Erie had never worked a long/big con before and was probably terrified of blowing the whole set-up. Not sure if this is what the filmmakers were thinking, but it's how I've always looked at it.
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