Hey serp!
If Phil whacked his uncle he ultimately knew that the Commission would kill him right away. He saw it first hand with Bruno. So he might have said he wanted to at times, but Phil never would have done it he's smarter than that.
With regards to Joey and Mike, they were still scared of Scarfo and you guys are right, the streets still feared Scarfo. I remember one of Joey's guys was quoted in an article back in the mid-90s when Scarfo and Chucky and the rest were retried and later acquitted of the Frankie Flowers murder in like 1997. He said Joey was nervous about being in the same courtroom as Scarfo and was still legitimately scared of/respected him. The difference was, Nick Jr was the conduit and Joey wasn't scared of nor did he respect Nick Jr. Joey and Mike had the muscle and that was left, which ultimately was what became the "Young Turk" crew. Nick Jr was scared of them and Joey and Mike knew it. Jr was actually recorded talking to Scarfo Sr and Leonetti in prison about how Joey and Mike were moving in on south philly and starting to push people around. You always hear about the Scarfo guys in the 80s and all the shooting, but these young guys were doing beatings and helping with hits, etc, during that same time as well so it's not like they didn't have a reputation or know what they were doing...
Rhiht on PHL MOB.They were the guys just under Scarfo guys the younger brothers and nephews and cousins etc. And Skinny was not made in the beginning!!! Trust me if Phil don't flip the five families get behind Scarfo !!!!! Not even a question !!!
Not saying it would have worked, but they could not take that chance . If they let non made members make a move on one of the biggest city's on the east coast and do nothing then The Albanians could come and take a NY family, they just would not let it happen.
But when you have two skippers and a underboss and a soldier that knows almost everything testifying they are NOT going to help !
Hence Nick having his legs cut out from under him .
The NY families even lost some big north jersey rackets when they turned there back on Nick some major cash !!!
