There is a ton that's known about Tony Salerno, more than most mobsters. He came up in the 116th Street Crew with his brothers and Phil Lombardo under Trigger Mike Coppola. That crew along with the Greenwich Village Crew (Genovese, Tony Bender Strollo, Tommy and Patsy Eboli and Vinny the Chin and his brother Mario) was arguably the most powerful crew in the Genovese family. When Tirgger Mke moved to Miami Fat Tony basically became his voice in NYC. Just like Trigger Mike he had interests all over the place, NYC, Miami, Vegas, Boston, Newport, Kentucky to name a few. It was even speculated that he owned part of the Cal Nevada lodge with Sam Giancana. He is mentioned a ton in the Mary Ferrell documents, when Paul Ricca sold his house in Miami I believe that he sold it to Fat Tony, who was back and forth alot between there and NYC. I don't know if that was the compound that he was said to have there, he also had a big place in Rhineback. He was very influential in boxing and in the Tommy James book he talks about Salerno spending a good deal of time with Morris Levy along with a bunch of other guys in the Genovese family. I think that Barney Bellomo's dad was in his crew. He and Tony Ducks Corallo knew each other since they were young in East Harlem. The Genovese and Lucheses worked very closely in that area, so much so that members of one family were often misidentified as being with the other family in early mob documents. George Barone mentioned him in him in his testimony. He said that Fat Tony kept calling shipping containers box cars or something like that and that he didn't really understand what was going on on the waterfront He also talked about Fat Tony sending him to Newport to kill some black guy who was giving him a problem and to Miami to kill Genovese captain John Biello. He was friendly with Jack Cerone and Peanuts Tronolone.

Whether he was actually ever actually number one in the family even for a brief period, who knows. Just like Tieri and Eboli, two other supposed "front" bosses, he was a mega earner and carried his own weight, they were all powers in their own right and had contacts all over the country. They didn't need a title to have power and respect.