No matter how powerful the new york bosses are, even if you respect the guy enough not to cross him it's still respect, the genovese waited until after merlino was locked up to start talking about taking his rackets, if merlino was on the streets the thought wouldn't have crossed thier mind, and for all of the talk that mobsters don't want merlino in philly, he's still thier and no one layer a hand on him

"McGurn likes you, so I make you. So you are now one of us, if you fuck up, we take it out on McGurn. He is your sponsor. Fuck up, it's his ass. You work in his crew, he is your capo."