I am very inclined believe what Serpiente posts. I get a strong He knew these guys; you can tell he did.

With that said, another side of looking at Philip is that if he had acted any differently in front of everyone else, with respect to Salvie, he would have been dead before Salvie. That's a fact. Uncle or not, Nicky Sr. told him LCN came first. Boss makes the rules. Nicky was so tied up with Genovese by that time, they may have been in his ear to get rid of Salvie; too much publicity. Think about the Chin. We all know we don't always say what we feel; Phil is entitled to that possibility as well.

But, the fact is, he knowingly participated, directly/indirectly, in every killing the minute he started in with his uncle. He was an accessory to the Reds Caruso thing; technically.