Who were some famous "front" bosses or fake bosses, and how would such a scenario work with the front boss not finding out?

Front boss not finding out what? Anthony Salerno is probably the most famous example of a front boss, Carmine Galante was a fake boss, as was Funzi Tieri, Carmine Tramunti. There's been several who acted in a boss capacity, but were never THE MAN, if you know what I mean.

Chicago used a similar system where Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo were the real powers behind the throne.

Also Merlino used Ralph Natale as front boss.

Tom DiBella fronted for Carmine Persico.

He was still able to make members; and had a lot of power.

Junior Soprano

Like somebody mention Funzi Tieri is one of the best examples especially how he manipulated the Philly mob to be aligned with the Genovese family

To be completely honest, I've always felt the concept of a "front boss" is somewhat overrated. If everyone in New York knew Salerno was a front boss, how good of a front boss could he have been? I think what really existed was a pattern of delegation and collaboration in decision-making between several high-ranking individuals in the family.

Pete Savino's account in *The Five Families* comes to mind. When he was called in to account for the Shorty Spero murder, he met with Salerno, Gigante, *and* Tieri at the same time, and Savino wasn't even a made man. Similarly, Salerno was caught on tape grousing to Corallo about being overruled by "Ben" (retired boss Phil Lombardo) and "downtown" (Gigante).

Well if Salerno was overruled by Lombardo and Gigante then he was just a front boss, not to mention front bosses among other things helped Gigante stay out of prison for decades. So apparently there is a point to front bosses. What a ridiculous comment 🙄

He was overruled on a decision he thought he had latitude to make independently. I'm not saying Salerno was really the boss or on Gigante's level, but he had a considerable amount of power and influence in the family and the ability to make decisions on non life-or-death matters.

What are the benefits of being a front boss? I can't understand why a person would take the heat that comes with the position despite any benefits. Both Salerno and Tieri had a lot of pressure on them, it seems it started the second they took a boss spot.

Both Tieri and Salerno had long, prosperous mob careers before their eventual downfall, which didn't come until they were already old and didn't give a fuck. And of course they had considerable clout even though they weren't the official bosses.