Let's say Paul Castellano did visit Dellacroce on his deathbed and showed his respect, but soon after had been indicted for life in the Rico case, how could that have turned out?

Who do you think would have succeeded Paul as boss? Would the mafia have been in a better shape through the 1980s and 90s?

I'm not sure Castellano paying a visit to Dellacroce would have smoothed things over with Gotti. There was still the issue of Gotti's crew trafficking in heroin and badmouthing Paul on tape.

And if Paul didn't pass Gotti over for underboss.

Or if he had stuck by his original plan for Gotti, Bilotti and Tommy Gambino to make a ruling committee.

Tommy Gambino whilst a nice guy and no doubt an ace high businessman was never cut out to run a crime family.
Bilotti had the balls but not much in the brains department.
He was however liked by Paul and so would have figured in some senior role (underboss).
Frank DeCicco would have been the sensible choice for street boss.
Now all they would need to do is keep Gotti's giant ego on the ground and things should run smoothly........

The only way to keep Gotti's ego on the ground would have been to whack him out, and whack him out fast.

Agreed. Big Paul would have been convicted in the Commission RICO indictment. He had already slated Bilotti as his underboss, and Bilotti had no love for anyone on the Dellacroce side. It'd have been war.

I agree that Paul would have been convicted in the Commission case had they not been hit. Tommy Billotti would have gone away also.

In this what if scenario, I suspect that Danny Marino and Jimmy Failla would have held very high positions with Tommy Gambino. These were the powers of the white collar crime end (Paul's faction) of the Gambino's.

According to Murder Machine, ever since the hits on Frank Scalise, there has been an agreement between the 2 factions when a new boss is named.

They would have found a spot for someone from the old Dellacroce crew to sit on the panel, maybe Gotti, maybe not.

I think that if Gotti would have never been boss then there would have been a lot of different outcomes. First, as someone said earlier I think Frank decicco would have become boss eventually. Also guys like Robert DiBernardo wouldn't have been whacked for no reason. Sammy Gravano probably would never have turned since he was close to decicco and they wouldn't have had as much heat on them as they did when gotti was boss. The Gambinos might have been stronger for a long time.