I rate him as one of the better bosses of a major family. Smart on the business side but not shy about using extreme violence. But not trigger happy like Scarfo and Amuso. Yeah he benefited from nepotism but in 1976(?) who else, apart from dellacroce deserved the top spot.
Didn't them fbi agents resign their posts when told serving agents not allowed to right books ( which is how it should be). And ,yes, writing about his penile operation was childish and wrong.
Was one of the first mob books I read. Films ok ,too.
Did he benefit from nepotism? To a degree
But he was also made a Captain under Anastasia, before Carlo took over. Which says he was seen as leadership material on merit
He was also actually elected to the position of Boss at a meeting in October 1976 that lasted six hours. The two candidates for Boss were Joe N. Gallo and himself. Joe was the favored candidate in the Family but claimed he did not want the spotlight of boss and claimed health woes. According to a top echelon informant, Gallo was the most respected figure in the family at the time. So the Captains by acclamation and voice vote chose Paul after deliberating. Neil wasn’t a candidate and the man wasn’t even free when Carlo died.
Paul had qualifications:
Capo since the 1950s
Street / Acting Boss since 1966
He had been basically groomed for a future leadership role for almost 20 years. So it wasn’t just Carlo picked his name out of a hat. He was actually elected
He didn’t start running into trouble until 1983. That year the Ruggiero heroin case happened and he also bumped off DeMeo the same year. Before that he had been sailing smooth as Boss since 1976
