But if I'm not mistaken, Vito was ahead of Frank on the pecking order before he went on the run but did lucky make Frank the official boss? And Frank had alot of soldiers that liked him because he gave them freedom to earn...Frank could have made alot of noise if he wanted to; he retired because he was smart, not scared, there's a big difference
I don't believe Frank ever became official boss; He was acting boss for many years with total control over the family with Lucky's blessing. Genovese was acting boss at one point but only for like a year before Frank. This is because he had pending charges and was forced to leave America. I may be wrong. This was in the mid 30's. Lucky got sentenced to a 50 years sentence around that time also I believe. Costello was promoted to Acting Boss due to Lucky's and Genovese's sticky situation. You can very well say; However. Frank was Offical Boss in all but name; He virtually controlled every aspect of the family and Lucky pretty much couldn't say much about it. Costello still listened to him though due to their friendship.
According to Valachi in "The Real Thing", Willie Morretti was briefly acting boss, then Costello was elected acting boss and in the early 50s Luciano sent word that he had resigned and Costello became official boss. Don't think he mentions this in the Valachi Papers though.
http://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing2.htmlWhat I did gather from the Valachi Papers though is that Genovese
was trying to have Costello killed and expected a war in retaliation.
