Truth be told joe turned down the title of boss when stanfa got pinched before he went away for life. joe thought it was a unwise to be the boss during that time the Feds were bring two more cases and the rats were every where his exact words were its great if you want a life sentence. He was going to take care of merlino he just ran out of time and got set up.i often here these stories about what was about.honestly merlino could not make money let alone count it if you gave the keys to fed reserve.scoops another lost cause if you look at it the ones who got killed were the only ones who made any money otherwise no one wanted anything from them.the fact that they made the series on hbo a number of books the history of work done by his crew has yet to be written....