he survived the scarfo era by going to prison
i am not saying he was a bad boss he defo tried to bring the family back after the scarfo mess but it is dysfunctional how a soldier who was supposed to leave the country after being released from prison can end up as boss.
I'm confused. How do you consider it dysfunctional that Stanfa ended up as the boss? Because he went to prison and was supposed to leave the country after being released from prison, like you said? Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly does any of that make it dysfunctional? And, how is his prison sentence/possible deportation relevant to any of that?
The family was in complete disarray after the prosecution of Nicky Scarfo and the majority of his top men. The Pennsylvania Crime Commission actually believed/wrote in it's report in one of those years (late 1980's) that it was a strong possibility that the Philadelphia family would be absorbed into either the Gambino or Genovese families at that point. Tony Buck Piccolo was the interim boss - he was offered the title on a full time basis, but he didn't want the troubles or the hassle that came with it. He supported Stanfa being installed as boss; more importantly, Gotti and the Gambino's backed Stanfa into being crowned the new boss in Philadelphia.
If Stanfa didn't have to fight the war with Merlino and his faction he may have ended up as a pretty successful boss with a longer run on the streets. The fighting caused him to be reckless - the simple fact that he needed more men on his side to win the war with Merlino became his ultimate downfall. He ended up bringing in guys that he didn't know enough about and who ultimately couldn't be trusted. On top of that, he was left with junior varsity gangsters that were the remnants of the Scarfo era (ex: Frank Martines). Like I said earlier, the family was decimated pretty badly by the time he inherited the position. He didn't have enough soldiers to fend off the Young Turks, and the guys he ended up bringing in to help him hold on to power actually ended up being the guys who would help to destroy him. In my opinion, Stanfa wasn't given a fair shake. He inherited a family that was basically a small street crew when he took over, and tried to do the best he could to re-build it while fighting a street war at the same time.
