I don't think Dellacroce ever aspired to head the Famliy.
In effect he already was a Boss,having been given absolute authority by Gambino over some very profitable rackets in one of the most lucrative territories in America.
He was one of the last of the old school who took the oath seriously. He would never attempted or sanctioned a hit on a sitting Boss.I have no doubt that if Gotti would have made a move on Paul, Neil would have taken him out personally.
To take it further,if Paul would have moved quicker and gave Neil the contract on Gotti, he would do it in a heartbeat.Neil managed to stall Paul over the Ruggiero tapes,and maybe he knew he was dying and figured that after he was gone,Gotti could do what he wanted. Paul's mistake was not having the stones to tell Angelo,"I want the tapes,you have 24 hrs". If it was Carlo,that whole tape nonsense would not have occurred
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Good Post. From all the studying I’ve done on Neil I never got the sense that he was obsessed with being boss. I mean he would have done it but he seemed fine being the underboss especially given the fact that Paul gave him exclusive control over a number of crews. Paul made a lot of mistakes no doubt but Paul fit the mold of what Carlo wanted. Say what you want about Paul but he had a long mostly successful reign until the end where he made errors in judgment
