Spot on. I don't think it can be said any better than Mr. Neil's own words. I honestly think he was happy with what he had. Like some other posters said, he was making good money and he still had an immense amount of power at the #2 position. And he had guys that were fiercely loyal to him until the very end. I think that was just as satisfying to him as any other title would be. And hell, who knows, like someone else speculated he may have been happy that he controlled what he did, was essentially more respected than Big Paul anyway, and he had Castellano out front to take the heat from the FBI. I think that had it come down to it, before Dellacroce died, that if Paul legitimately wanted to hit Ruggiero, John, and Gene Gotti - that Dellacroce would have given them the green light to hit Paul first. I don't believe in any way that he would have allowed Gotti or Angelo to be whacked, no matter how much he respected the rules.



I don't think Paul was a shit boss. Obviously I think everyone can agree that when it comes down to the core values of cosa nostra, he was a better boss than Gotti was. The opinions can be split both ways - most believe that John's guys loved him, but he was too flashy and out front and an LCN boss shouldn't be on the cover of Time magazine. He drew in too much attention from law enforcement. When it comes to Paul, he may have been too much of an anti-version of Gotti. He was too far away from the streets. Always at the "White House", and never coming away to mingle with some of the "lower level" guys in the family. Most things I have read said that a lot of the soldiers resented him. But, when it comes down to the white collar rackets and making money, Paul sure knew business. So it's hard to say that he was a bad boss. However, having the family split into two factions like that definitely isn't helpful, especially if the other guy (Dellacroce) is more respected across the board. I'm sure it's been discussed here before, but how many captains (and who) did Neil have in his wing/faction of the family? Other than the Bergen crew, I've always wondered how the Dellacroce faction broke down, and exactly which guys he had.