All in all he was costra nostra through and through, He almost wacked his brother for something he did lol...I heard that from john jr myself, rays nephew, who is a successful lawyer in providence.... He was very respected....I am like 90% sure he was made by the bonnano's in his early years before Buccola stepped down and made ray the head man, even heard the old timers in boston like john anselmo, joe lombardo, and the original cheeseman frank, noyes and bunch more respected him enough that they was happy he became boss.. He had a federal judge in his pocket, the governer lietenent and few senators in his pocket.. I think he is underrated and not spoken about enough because many people dont know about him besides that he was boss...Does Whitey reign as rat and ruthless killer preceede over ray sr...I say no but it is more appealing because of all the connections with an agent, killing informants and etc but its nothing close to what ray sr had going on...In my opinion no one but maggadino from buffallo, trafficante from tampa and Gambino himself had control over a family like ray sr did.