Accardo had a steady reign from 1947 until 1952, or until the alleged conflict between him and Ricca occurred, manly because Accardo managed to screw up some of the most profitable rackets such as the horse meat and tobacco operations, and above all Accardo allegedly wanted to exclude the Ricca/Battaglia group from the bartenders union racket. So story goes that Ricca and Battaglia wanted for Accardo to step down as boss and thats when the conflict occurred. It is possible that Tony Capezio and Sam Giancana were neutral from both sides to an extent and tried to keep the syndicate in one piece.

The conflict allegedly ended with the murders of Labriola and Weinberg (both Accardos men) and so in 1955 the war was over and in 1956 there was a meeting on which Giancana was voted as the new boss. Also present were Ricca, Accardo and Humphreys. The next year Giancana was recognized as official rep by the national commission.

When Ricca died in 1972, some sources say that Accardo took his place with Aiuppa and Alex beneath him, while others said that Accardo allegedly nixed Riccas previous position as top boss and that Accardo became again the official boss with Alex and Aiuppa as his advisors and also took care of Accardos day-to-day operations and decisions.

When Aiuppa allegedly became official in 1975, Accardo still had the last word on all policy decisions, while Aiuppa, Cerone and Alex kept on controling the organization on daily basis.

These guys represented the governing board, with the board of directors beneath them which mostly included representatives for the Outfits four factions, north, west, south and chi heights/Indiana.