Organized crime groups...

I've just been reading about Sammy Gravano and the beef he had with the biker gang before Gotti. You probably all know the story about how he got in a bar fight with a group of bikers and how he sought retaliation by killing one of their members and wounding another one.

What I found questioning about the story is how Paul Castellano later paid off the biker gang in order to settle the dispute. I know the mafia is all about making money and tries to avoid conflict as much as possible, but Castellano paying off the bikers striked me as somewhat weak? Regardless of Gravano killing a member I would have expected Gravano to go through with the turmoil until they won instead of just paying them off and calling it even.

I am only slightly new about learning about LCN but I always assumed that they had the power to muscle out any other type organzined crime group/gang, granted they don't always cross paths with certain types (crips, bloods etc). But would you say that in a beef would a certain crew within one of the five families be able to take on a group like the bikers or are they just seemed more powerful than they are by hollywood?

I ask this because I read a similar story like this with the Rudaj Organization in which they moved themselves in on some of the Gambino and Lucchese rackets and only got off on a warning and no violent repercussions were made other than the armed confrontation they had at that gas station (semi-violent).

Thanks!