The Commission was still in place when Neil was alive. Killing the boss without Commission approval meant he would have been targeted for death by the other families that were still very powerful. Gotti made his move in the middle of the Commission trail when the other families were in chaos and was still targeted for death.

F the rules!......Dellacroce maybe wasn't as smart as he appeared.....The moment Gambino died, Dellacroce showed have held a family vote with the capos and Voila, No anger or animosity towards the boss......Dellacroce HAD to know that anger was REALLY brewing in the family for Carlo's obvious disrespect of the rules.......My ONLY assumption is that before Carlo died, he made a pact with Benny Squint and the Chin, probably by turning over lucrative gigs for their loyalty in upholding his dying wishes....I also think that Dellacroce knew about this because I remember hearing him actually say on those tapes that if Quack Quack wasn't gonna follow the bosses orders, then there was only one option which was to go to war.......That statement is a little odd because Castellano had very supporters in his family.....BUT, taking on the Genovese family is a whole different thing......Just speculating, I have no evidenc

LCN isn't a democracy. Vic Orena tried that and there was still a war. Dellacroce was smart enough not to be killed in the streets or to die on a cold prison bed.

Yep dying from cancer right before he got 100 years was all part of his genius plan, what a master criminal.

neil was one of the most respected guy the family white collar and blue collar factions respected him he was in there opinion "a mans man" but i would not say he was dumb he was smart for a mobster but he was no genius. Neil was always on the streets meeting guys infact in the mid 70s for awhile the feds inaccreutly thought that neil was the boss not carlo gambino as neil was always out there on the streets. He also got busted for spending 200k gambling even though he was earning 40k a year when abroad cant remember the country now but he got time.


Neil was loved and most wanted him as boss but it was not to do with how clever he was neil loved carlo and respected the rules neil wanted the job he expected it but when carlo said he wanted paul neil accepted it and got the capos to agree. Now paul made a smart decision in that he kept neil underboss and made him in charge of the blue collar faction that in my opinion kept him alive for a few more years neil was able to keep everyone calm.

Remember people always forget it was not just gotti who had fallen out with paul he was disliked esp by 1985 by most of the family after he let the genovese family whack that capo and when he chose fucking tommy biletti and tommy gambino to run the family. Frankie DeCicco would have been a good boss or jimmy brown anyone but tommy biletti

Well...I stand corrected.

Yeah! Neil had a few good guys to make him moderately successful.
The big question that comes to mind was if he was Italian, big polak oaf which resembled the elder brother of Richard kuklinsky.

So yes Neil had a few money earning guys around him.

What would Capeci's source be for Dellacroce's comments to Paul Castellano during the sit down with Gallo & Gotti? It's gotta be sourced in the book. I don't believe that meeting was ever mentioned by FBI as being wiretapped. Just trying to figure out if and which informant it was who shared this information, which enabled it to get to Capeci.

That's my thoughts, he was just too old and sick to lead another charge. I think if he was perfectly healthy he lets Gotti pop Big Paul.

But that's just my worthless 2 cents.

some were wiretapped, alot of it came from sammy gravano, it may have come from gotti mentioning the meeting with neil and paul on tape and spoke about what happened, there is several sources who spoke to jerry he did not mention he says for secruity measures, maybe it was law enforcment, could have even been jackie nose i mean capeci spoke to him several times




i believe capeci he spent 10 years making this book and had been studying the mob and the gambino family since the early 80s also he was at his height at 1996 when the book came out his best book still got it at home







i recommend to everyone to get it got it when it came out the original without a doubt capecis best book i know murder machine is good but this was pure research never made it up very good very good insight into the gotti era he and gene did so much research its crazy i mean they listened to thousands of hours of just gotti speaking on tape before the book came out

Yeah, I remember reading that exchange too:
I think a lot of it was timing, Dellacroce was in jail for the tax thing when the BOss question opened up.
I think he didn't move because they showed him a lot of respect just waiting for him to come home before naming a boss. From what I understand if they tried it the other way, he woulda had to respond just to save face, by waiting for him to come home, and not doing a Costello and demoting him, his respect was kept intact, as well as his financial stake.
Also, I think DEllacroce was just saaavy enough to know he was the power in the family anyway.
It reminds me a little of what LEonetti said about Scarfo in his book, that even though Testa was boss, the most powerful guy was SCarfo, that when it came time to exercise power (murder) Scarfo called the shots, same with the Gambinos and Dellacroce, 3 capo hits, Galante....
His guys loved him, a lot of people don't understand it's very hard to win a war vs a guy with a loyal crew, it's why MAranzano beat MAsseria, shit it's why gotti got away with killing Paul, no one loved Paul enough to die for him, plus losing Paul didn't hurt enough guys financially to provoke a response.

Also, from what I've read the COmmision kinda feared Dellacroce, they probably saw Paul as being easier to deal with..

Plus I mean, he had what, a little less than half the crews? So like about 10-12 capos? That's basically his own family...

The thing about Paul's whole reign, I think it was more of people not wanting to disrespect Carlo, more than it was that they respected Castellano...

NO,Aniellos faction was his old crew wich was led by Micheal Caiazza and Fatico(Gotti) crew out of Bergin hunt and fish club in Ozone park.Maybe one or two crew from Manhattan.Thats it,not half the familly.

I allways toyed with the fact how much of a mans man was Armand Rava,being that Aniello and his brother Carmine looked up to him so much.(Aniellos son was named Armand after Rava).
Armands crew was real big,affter his death it split 3 ways.In fact Jimmy Brown Failla was with Rava at first,in the same crew with Aniello.

Ayah, I see so the guys just respected him a lot, not like the family was virtually split in half, how does shit even become like widespread, like where did that even come from?
And why is it so repeated?
Also, certain things, like Paul telling Sammy you are on our side?
I'm a little confused now, so there were really three crews in the DEllacroce faction?

I read that Neil was in murder inc. it was in Albert d'meos book

Yes,about 3 crew.They all to the Ravenite social club.He had guys who were directlly under him(Eddie Lino,Sal Scala the Consalvos,etc.)They were all kind of tough guys and a lot of them drug dealers,blue collar not so much white collar stuff.

"Gotti inherited a criminal superstate, custom-designed over three previous decades by two innovative Mob entrepreneurs, Carlo Gambino & Paul Castellano....He began his reign overseeing the largest and probably the most powerful criminal organization in the nations history. When he left, the Gambino's were a disintergrating, besieged clan. And he was chiefly responsible for the whirlwind that tore apart both the borgata and his own personal family" - Selwyn Raab

I kind of agree with that assessment, Gotti started the downfall of the Gambinos, the transition hit guys in their pockets, but it wasn't until Gotti was well in place that guys began realizing it. Gotti was really no better, he demanded just as much of a cut as Castellano did out of his soldiers earnings. He was a respected gangster, and a tough guy, and had his loyalists, but he was an incompetent leader. He had nothing to rely on other than his street smarts. There must've been a reason, other than out of respect for the rules, that guys like Failia collaborated with the Westside & The Lucchese's in an attempt on Gotti's life. They must've felt that things would be better if they or someone else was in charge. Same goes for the Corrozzo's. Had Gotti beat that last trial and remained on the street, do you think he would've effectively established his plan, of an undying Cosa Nostra, a supreme family that would never be weakened? I don't think so, personally. When the Corrozzo's began to turn on the Gotti's that was a sign of the troubles that may have come had he still been around, it's also possible he could've reeled everybody in, and put everyone in line. But that family was in a state of serious decline once he was walked out of the Ravenite in handcuffs.

john did not charge the same as paul john was not a greedy boss


number 1 for example he helped pay mobsters lawyer costs and when the grand jury into the mob he paid everything all the guys paul would have never done that


number 2 paul was taxing the guys who were retired as soon as john took over he stopped taxing the oldtimers




you talk about the corezzos but they did not have the power to turn on john until john senior went away and for awhile junior and nicky got along



see nicky and john hated each other because charles carneliga stabbed a corezzo assoiate to death and when there was a sitdown neil ruled in johns favour after that there was bad blood. When john took over nicky in the 1996 loansharking tape admitted he feared he was going to be killed in 1985 because of the there hatred but john kept him around as acting capo


there is everdince that for awhile under john senior nickys guys liked john senior thats coming from andrew DiDontaro an corezzo assoiate they liked his blue collar approach thats of course if andrew is telling the truth



now when john senior went away nicky and junior got on fine the whole beef was junior against danny marino and joe watts.


The only plot i have ever heard of nicky going against junior was in 1997 a meeting with nicky c lenny d mikey y andrew d and the rest of there crew. Andrew was on the run after the feds wanted to question him for drug trafficiking and the 1996 murder of robert arena( turns out andrew d was not the killer it was mikey y on nicky cs orders)


anyway andrew said that nicky said he knew that the feds were going to bust him any day. Nicky said if he goes to prison he wants mikey y and andrew d to kill "baby huey" (junior gottis nickname in the corezzo crew) as he felt he was getting cheated out of the phone scam they were running. Nicky also said he wanted to be the boss but he never made it he was arrested weeks later. Lenny d was also arrested.

The plot never had the chane though junior was soon arrested nicky never gave the go ahead to kill junior andrew d was arrested while on the run









[b]my opinion the demise of the gambino family starts with paul castanalo the man helped destroy that family and john just carried on the damage with his press loving bullshit and when he went away in 1992 he should have stepped down then and someone should have stepped up that ruling panel bullshit hurt the family no clear leader in the 90s/b]

According to Raab, Gotti also taxed his soldiers. And demanded just as much of a cut of their earnings as Castellano did. Not only that, but the demise began with Gotti, and rapidly progressed. He demanded that all of the soldiers and capos came to the Ravenite, to "touch base" and pay tribute one day out of every week, many in that family didn't want to do that, being aware of the chances of FBI surveillance, but Gotti demanded it from them. And this allowed soldiers and capos who weren't previously known to law enforcement, to be identified and labeled as Gambino associates and made men. Gotti only paid the legal fees of those who were on trial with him, and his closest men. He didn't do that for every single soldier in the family.

He wouldn't allow Gambino family members to take plea deals. Because he didn't want them acknowledging the existence of the Cosa Nostra, and it's illegal activity. Guys also began to turn on him for this rule, as guys couldn't get any breaks, they had to follow the orders of Gotti, and if they did take a plea, they were persona non grata. But Gotti also contradicted this with the weekly pow-wows at the Ravenite. And he allowed his closest men, including his son, to take plea deals without any penalties.

Didn't Megale take a plea that made Gotti go ballistic? The Westside stop doing that and got less sentences on their pleas.

yes he made his guys come to seem him on a weekly basis that is true and the feds found amazing info capecis book said the same thing


i have already agreeded with you i believe that john caused damage with his public attention


he taxed his soldiers the same? that is true to a certain degree the capos kicked up the same under john than under paul


but paul was ten times greedier than john he shook down old retired men and demanded a piece of everything. Not only that paul was selling out the entire family to the genovese family





my entire point is john is just as bad as castnanalo they BOTH buried the gambino family if you want to blame john paul desevers alit of blame

yes john was old school he did not believe in admitting the LCN existed problem was by this time everyone knew it existed but john was admant. The westside were the first family to start the plea deals


the luchese family also under casso and amuso were against the pleas part of the reason they tried to kill pete was because he was taking a plea

The first time I really understood the idea behind structured pleas was on the show the wire, at the end of the first season Avons lawyer advised him to do it;
It's like a turniket that stops the bleeding, it stalls the investigations at a certain point, so as to protect the higher ups.
If gott I was boss in the 40s-50s, it makes sense, but the commission case should have alerted him that he was living in a new world...

I consider That a win. He was on streets for how long and the feds couldn't get him locked up before he died as an old man. There's never been a book written on him because info we have on him couldn't fill up one chapter. You take in to account he's buried more gangsters then St. Johns, I'd say he wasn't as dumb as some are making him out to be. I consider Joe Colombo, or even Gotti dumb these guys were so out there their kids still get harassed.

Well, he did 5 years for tax evasion earlier, it's not like they never locked him up. But still, hadn't he died so "conveniently" for himself, 100 years would be guaranteed for him just like for all the others. He barely missed it.

By the way, even though it's off-topic: I hate Colombo! He shouldn't have betrayed Bonanno and Magliocco to the commission. The mafia history would have been much more interesting imo if Bonanno managed to "behead" the whole organization as he planned.

Sorry, made me laugh. Was sitting here wondering who the hell Carol was and why Neil cared what she thought! 😕

Consensus and history seems to show that Dellacroce lived and played by the rules. But if he decides they have no choice but to go to war over the tapes....does he play by the rules and approach the commission first? Or does he figure Paul has too many friends there? Particularly as the Chin is making money with him?? In my mind, I've answered my own question! Anyone think differently?

Prob more than the Lukes, Banana's and Columbos were fielding.
Dell had the 3rd largest family on the East Coast.

And he didnt contest because Carlo wanted Paul. End of story.