You are correct in stating that he was a "huge earner" and it is impressive(?) that he was on the Most Wanted List while he ran the family for a considerable period of time. The Mafia Cops are also an intriguing facet of his life.
But you know what is more interesting? Being a bone fide boss and spending little to no time in prison. I think his presence on the FBI's Most Wanted List attests more to his lack of ability as a "boss" than anything else. You say "outside of one or two people Casso wasn't killing random citizens." I say that killing one or two random people is sufficient to classify you as a paranoid sociopath when you have murdered many others who are not random. Yes, the vast majority of Mafia figures (probably) have murdered. BUT they are not insane like Casso, Anastasia or Gravano. No matter how hard you try to argue otherwise, there is a distinct difference between the aforementioned individuals and people like Carlo Gambino. Gambino murdered when he HAD to. Compare his life to Casso's. Yes, Casso was not a social worker. However, he is also a far cry from the Gambinos of LCN. He and his Crony Amuso can enjoy their days in jail and will hopefully garner the negligible respect they deserve when people look back.
You have to take into account Casso's entire body of work, not just those last few years of absolute craziness. He built himself into one of the most respected and feared gangsters in NYC, if not the entire country. You also can't compare a boss from the 80's- early 90's era to pre RICO old timers like Carlo Gambino. The government had much more resources and powers to combat the mafia starting in the 80's then they ever had before. If those bosses from back then were alive in the 80's, they would most likely have faced major prison time too. The Vincent "Chin" Gigante went to and died in prison, does that make him less of a boss? I don't believe it does, because the deck was stacked against him, the Government wanted to send him to prison, and that is what they did. All bosses went down during that era, do you guys like Salerno or Tony Duck's were not good as bosses because they went to prison too? So you just can't point the finger at Casso for being on the run from the FBI, he was actually the only boss to go on the run, and stay free for a couple of years.
