In Leonetti's book he states that Stanfa had the backing of NY but yet when the thing with Merlino went down he complained that there was nobody to help him.I think he's on tape in that lawyers office with Sparacio[who was basically a bookmaker] saying the he [Stanfa] was almost on his own trying to fight these young guys.One thing that was confusing to me that even Ralph Natale had connections in NY from his prison days while Joey Merlino was basically non-existant to these guys and they definetley didn't acknowledge him as a boss.