A lot of informed people feel that Accardo was never even the boss, just kind of an overseer.

I personally really have no idea; the books of course all have him as the top guy, mostly, in some respect, though there are people who know far more than me who insist he never was.

I do think, though, that people make too much about the heirarchy. Gus Russo's book, while flawed in some respects, is probably the best treatise on the subject, and after reading that I was left with the impression that the Outfit at its peak probably didn't engage in a lot of the rather silly ceremony that later came to be associated with LCN.

In that book it was really more that a few extremely cunning, opportunistic career criminals--mainly Humphries, Ricca, Giancana and Accardo--were at the head of an astoundingly effective money making criminal enterprise.

By inference it seemed like it was run loosely by consensus of the above.

I mean think about it, it's unlikely that Tony Accardo ever once referred to himself as an "underboss," or a "consigliere" or any other ridiculous title in his entire life; I imagine he would have found the idea hysterical.

What do you get, a jacket with your title in it?