@Themafia - apparently according to George Anastasia's interview with John Alite, John says that Ligambi and Mousie and Staino went to him to inquire about Gongs being a rat in prison as it was suspected that Gongs was working with the prison guards to help bust drug smuggling rings within the prison he was in at the time which would directly link Ligambi to setting up the hit if true. Between that and Gongs banging Joey's wife, those are the two things suspected of being the straws that broke that camels back. Furthermore, even if Gong's was just whacked over Merlino's wife's alleged affair with Gongs and if it was in fact ordered by Merlino, Joey and his guys were in jail at the time and it would have had to have been planned and orchestrated and delegated, etc by Ligambi as he was acting boss for a Merlino at the time.

@NickyWhip - I was under the impression that it was pretty much common knowledge and widely accepted that Gong's was having an affair with Joey's wife. Scott Bernstein actually recently wrote an article about it and it's supposed link to the Gongs hit for what it's worth... As a side note, it was also alleged that Mazzone's wife at the time in the 90s had an affair with Michael "Dutchie" Avicolli who was one of Merlino's closest associates and part of his crew during the Stanfa/Merlino war and was subsequently killed by Mazzone shortly thereafter. His body had never been found and the murder was never solved.

Also, you're right about Steve Mazzone and Dom Grande. I think that Dom is related to the wife of Anthony Mazzone (Stevie's brother) who was a Grande before she married Stevie's brother. Not 100% on that though...