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.
If by "universally decided" you mean decided by Accardo and Ricca, then I agree.
Look, you are making definitive claims about events that occurred between 40 and 60 years ago. These claims just need to be backed up with some sort of evidence. That's all anyone is asking for. What are your sources that other members can investigate and evaluate for themselves.
If there is a ton of primary and secondary source evidence (wiretaps, informants, FBI files, etc) showing that from the forties through the sixties that Chicago Outfit top bosses were Ricca and Accardo and that they turned over day to day authority to others, then someone making a different claim needs to prove it.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
