Accardo couldn't have stopped Joey Aiuppa even if he would have wanted to. Not that he did. Again, the Outfit was run more like a board of directors, rather than one guy making final calls. If you did have to single out one top guy throughout the 70s/80s period of the Outfit, it was Aiuppa. He led the biggest, roughest crew, and if you look at who took over the smaller crews, they were all guys that were very close to Joey O. Accardo & Cerone played along & went with Aiuppas program. Again, not that they didn't want to, but even if they did, they weren't in a position to be pushing the Cicero crew around. Elmwood Park/Grand Ave (northside) may have had the fancy aldermanic/political connects, but Cicero had the muscle & the numbers to make the whole Thing go. Anyways, just take a look at the "last supper" photograph. Aiuppa is seated at the head of the table with his bosses on either side, and his consigliere (accardo closest to him).

I wouldn't necessarily say Aiuppa was a grimey snake. He was a shrewd, soft spoken guy. The people who loved him, really loved & respected the guy, and if you didn't, you didn't, and you were probably on his radar. There weren't really more than two ways about it. He certainly wasn't a universally beloved Mafia hero to street soldiers a la Mooney Giancana, Ricca, Campagna. Aiuppa liked money more than he liked the traditional Life.