Sam Battaglia is an interesting case. Not much is known about him except he was a street guy and absolute, positively brutal. When his juice customers were behind on debt, they would either be severely beaten with a bat, or killed on the spot. But anyway, towards the end of Giancana's reign Accardo was giving more and more power to Battaglia. Ostensibly he was a huge Giancana supporter, but in a sense he was helping Accardo sap Giancana's power. Maybe he didn't put it together, I don't know.

Giancana's real support came from the original members of his 42 Gang. It was probably an oversight on Accardo and Ricca's part to have promoted so many of these men to high positions, at any point in time. Luckily, you're right, they were conveniently dead or in jail. Most of them.