I fail to see how his standing would influence the comment one way or another, unless you think he was so out of the loop he didn't know what he was talking about.

I went back and read the comment last night, actually.

What he was referring to--this was in the late 90s--was that many of the most powerful guys were either in prison or dead, so if you got together a crew and killed about 7 guys, you could take the entire thing over.

He followed it up with saying "Them's the ones with the brains and the balls."

According to the writer he was referring to the most active, tough street bosses.

Again, I am not arguing that it really means one thing one way or the other. The only thing I find interesting about it, really, is who he had in mind.