More good questions but the more we play the speculation game the further we get away from reality.
I'm not, by far, the best Gotti historian here so my opinion probably wouldn't be as valued as some others, and rightfully so. But I wouldn't be surprised if Gotti voiced ideas to Neil - they were close. But I would think they would have been shot down immediately. The fact that Gotti would not carry this plan out until Dellacroce was in the ground should tell you, I think, that Dellacroce would never have approved of any such plan.
If Gotti had done it anyway and Dellacroce was still around hard to say would have happened. Lots of other old timers fell into line and perhaps Dellacroce would have too, so long as what was done was done. Of course, if Dellacroce was still around perhaps he would have ended up being a caretaker Boss - which I'm sure would have been just fine with Gotti. The question then would be, what would Dellacroce do to address the obvious infraction of LCN rules? This was an old school guy...I wouldn't be totally surprised if he turned around and took Gotti out. Surely the commission would have demanded it and I don't think Dellacroce was going to argue with Gigante.
It's hard to say what Neil would have done for sure, although I am sure that if Castellano had ordered Neil to whack John, it likely would have happened. Probably the same could and should rightly be said of most members; what Gotti did in terms of LCN rules was absolutely outrageous.
1. That is a good question. Likely a highly debatable one, in fact. Thought I think Gotti would have done it anyway for reasons I'll give in reply to number 2. If he'd had to deal with Roy in the aftermath then I think he would have found a way to try to do that.
2. There is no chance Gotti would have been picked to be Underboss. At that time there would have been two dozen guys more qualified than Gotti, based on loyalty alone (which is the only justification for Bilotti.) Gotti actually may have made a great number two, but there's no way he would have been picked by Castellano for good reason.
I wouldn't read too much into Castellano's not attending the funeral, that was just some icing on the cake that Castellano gave Gotti to sell the hit to the rank and file. At that point, Castellano was going down anyway because Gotti didn't want to turn over the Ruggiero tapes, didn't want his crew broken up and had legitimate reason to fear that his own life was in danger. Once Dellacroce was cold, the wheels were in motion and I'm sure that was the plan all along.
Prior to the Castellano hit the assumption was that Dellacroce was keeping Gotti alive. As it turns out, he was actually keeping Castellano alive.
Is it known if Gotti voiced any thoughts of mutiny to Neil, any suggestions to take Paul out?
And would Neil have had Gotti killed if he knew a plot was underway while he was alive?
