No one had "authority" over Moe. It was universally decided that Moe should go away for a while. No one had any idea that Aiuppa/Cerone were going to make a play for power & force Accardo/Ricca into playing along. Moe knew he had to go away, he knew they were getting a little bit too close to the higher ups of the U.S. govt. for comfort.

Joey O'Brien's rise to power & claiming of the throne came as a surprise to everyone. Giancana treated Aiuppa & Cerone like dirt when he was in power, and it was a give-in that Aiuppa was going to take Moe/DeStefano/etc. out as his first order of business, and that's exactly what he did.

Joe Batters was a tough motherfucker, he is a top 5 Outfit figure of all-time, but he was never the main guy. No one with any real knowledge on the Outfit disagrees with that FACT.