Tommy Gambino being on the panel would have been a figurehead position, Sinatra. Even after Gotti olive branched Connecticut to him, Braciole was the true power there. Bilotti was a moronic goon. Had Paul suggested a panel that included either Piney or Jimmy Brown, Gotti wouldn't have been so fast to reject it because they were both too well respected. Paul gets life with the other bosses in The Commission Case, and Gotti doesn't have to worry so much about the tapes. Of course, Jimmy and Piney would have eventually killed him and put Danny in the spot, then they disband the panel, step aside for advisory roles, in favor of the younger Marino as official boss. That's always been my belief.
I agree about the Piney and Failia thing. And I know what you mean, I think in Gotti's mind, Gambino would've just been a spiritual capo, meaning not the real power. But reading Mob Star, it seems like Castellano really had some weight in Tommy G, the book implies it was mostly because of his ability to earn, but do you think had things went down the way Castellano proposed, which may have been highly unlikely, which was him being the Carmine Persico of the Gambino's, having the final say from prison, that maybe Tommy would've had some real say in decision making? Like, if Gotti had agreed to the panel, and Castellano having final say, the way things were going it may have been Gotti going to visit him or a relative like Gambino. I'd lean more toward the relative. Bilotti, we can forget about , he was a goon and nothing more. Maybe if Paul had been smarter, Piney or Failia, either or, would've taken Bilotti's spot, and with one of those guys along with Gambino & Gotti, with Castellano serving a nearly life sentence in prison, yet still over seeing the family, I think possibly the family could've thrived a lot more than it did during the Gotti years. That's just my opinion though. Then again, I don't think Gambino was all that enthusiastic about Mafia life at the time, but continued to serve solely because he felt it was an obligation to his father, mother and everyone else before them who carried the Gambino name.
