According to Casso, it was Corallo who put Amuso in charge of the family. Because of his upcoming incarceration he wanted to name a successor and, after discussions within the family, named Amuso boss in late 1986. (In the Philip Carlo book, Casso later claims he was offered the boss spot but turned it down in favour of Amuso). Corallo then gave the order to kill Anthony Luongo because of rumours that he was planning to take over the family. Amuso, Casso, Bobby Amuso and Dom Carlucci lured Luongo to a house under the pretence of a meeting to discuss the recent attempt on Casso's life. Bobby Amuso then shot him.

D'Arco says that Amuso approached him in late October 1986 and told him he had been made the new boss (and that he had promoted Casso to captain of the old Furnari crew). According to D'Arco (who had been told this by Amuso and Casso), Luongo and Anthony DiLapi were part of a plot by Santoro to seize control of the family around the time that Santoro and Luongo were convicted. To prevent this, Luongo had to be killed. Amuso and Casso then lured Luongo to a house owned by a friend of Amuso's under the pretence of consulting with him about a dispute. Amuso then shot him and the body was buried somewhere in Canarsie.

According to William Oldham, it was up to Corallo to decide on his successor and he had to choose between the Bronx faction, the Brooklyn faction or the New Jersey crew. He settled on Amuso and Casso. In November 1986, he called the pair to a meeting and told Furnari to choose which one of them should become boss. Casso turned it down and it went to Amuso. Corallo and Santoro were not getting along at that point and Santoro wanted Luongo to become boss. Amuso and Casso decided to kill Luongo and ordered Santoro to lure him to a meeting at Dom Carlucci's home where he (Luongo) was killed.