The reason why Paul had to deal with them was because they were killing associates of the Gambinos ie Ruby Stein and Paul didn't want anymore unsanctioned hits since there was a lot of money at stake (and we all know how much Paul loved his dollars)
And seeing they were considered cowboys- it was probably felt nobody other than the boss himself could get thru to them/ control them and that's exactly what the Gambino's did. To show them force
Show them force? How do you show force to insane drug addicts (not coonan obviously) who don't care if they live or die? Even coonan who wanted to work together more than anyone was one inch from turning their meeting into a slaughterhouse.
Imho if you remove coonans wants the gambinos would have had to kill them all and maybe some innocent family members too. The gambinos were organized sociopaths. The westies were just complete maniacs. This may sound ridiculous but coonan probably saved a lot of lives. Jmho.
Wasn't big Paul secretly happy that they whacked stein? Since coonan was his new inroad to the javits center? Demeo told them to plead ignorance but Paul had to know the truth right?
