To be completely honest, I've always felt the concept of a "front boss" is somewhat overrated. If everyone in New York knew Salerno was a front boss, how good of a front boss could he have been? I think what really existed was a pattern of delegation and collaboration in decision-making between several high-ranking individuals in the family.

Pete Savino's account in *The Five Families* comes to mind. When he was called in to account for the Shorty Spero murder, he met with Salerno, Gigante, *and* Tieri at the same time, and Savino wasn't even a made man. Similarly, Salerno was caught on tape grousing to Corallo about being overruled by "Ben" (retired boss Phil Lombardo) and "downtown" (Gigante).