Peter Gotti and the current Boss of the Gambinos

[chin_gigante]

has the funeral been covered by the media?

From Gangland News, 24 July 2014 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column906.htm):

Not only is he still running the show, Amuso has no intention of giving up his post until he leaves the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, “one way or the other,” said one law enforcement official. Sources say Amuso’s mindset is the same as two contemporary mob bosses who died in prison, John Gotti and Vincent (Chin) Gigante, as well as Colombo boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, who’s been incarcerated since 1985.
“By now,” added the official, whom we’ll identify as LEO #1 (Law Enforcement Official #1), “Vic knows he’s not walking out; he’s getting out in a body bag.”
“There is no doubt, Vic is the man, end of story,” agreed a second long-time mob buster who’s been making cases against New York wiseguys for more than 20 years. “Vic has always been the (Luchese) boss,” said LEO #2.
The long-time mob buster, as well as a third official, LEO #3, noted that when Amuso’s wife Barbara died two years ago, it was “standing room only” at the one-day wake at the James Romanelli-Stephen Funeral Home on Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park on March 2, 2012. Mrs Amuso, 69, was laid to rest the following day at St Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.
Barbara Amuso, who was a vocal supporter of her husband at trial, and who got into a shouting match with prosecutor Charles Rose outside the courtroom after her husband was sentenced to life for ordering nine mob murders and numerous other crimes, died on February 29, 2012 — six days after Gang Land’s faux pas that her husband had stepped down.
“Amuso sent out word that he wanted everyone to show up, and the place was packed,” said LEO #2. “The Lucheses showed up en masse,” added LEO #3, who noted that a “sprinkling” of Gambinos from the Howard Beach, Queens area, where both Gotti and Amuso lived, also paid their respects.
Sources say that like virtually the entire crime family, Crea, the Bronx-based former boxer who owned construction companies and made millions of dollars though bid-rigging, price-fixing and kickback schemes involving construction industry union officials, and Madonna, attended the wake.
All of that jibes with what one underworld source (call him UW #1) told us: “Vic is still in the chair, still running the show,” he said. “They (Luchese mobsters) don’t like the fact that he’s still calling the shots, but he’s not giving it up. He’s the boss,” said the mob associate, a long-time cohort of the Luchese and Bonanno crime families.
It all makes sense to former FBI supervisor George Gabriel, who spearheaded the investigation that ended with John Gotti being sentenced to life in prison.
Gabriel, who was on the FBI team that scooped up turncoat acting Luchese boss Alfonso (Little Al) D’Arco two months after Amuso was arrested, told Gang Land he is not surprised that Amuso is holding on to his official title. D’Arco later was the key witness against his old mob boss at trial.
“Amuso and John Gotti are both cut from the same cloth, or similar cloth,” said Gabriel.
“They both have the kind of ego that wouldn’t let them walk away from being the boss of the family even though the rules of Cosa Nostra dictate that they should step down when they get life incarceration, or even a very long sentence — for the good of the crime family,” said Gabriel.
“And Vic knows, like John knew, that if you give it up, not only are you out of sight, you're out of mind,” said Gabriel. “The only way to ensure that their own family is taken care of is to hold onto the reins of the crime family, and maintain the access to the crime family’s money.”

[Mukremin]

has the funeral been covered by the media?

From Gangland News, 24 July 2014 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column906.htm):

Not only is he still running the show, Amuso has no intention of giving up his post until he leaves the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, “one way or the other,” said one law enforcement official. Sources say Amuso’s mindset is the same as two contemporary mob bosses who died in prison, John Gotti and Vincent (Chin) Gigante, as well as Colombo boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, who’s been incarcerated since 1985.
“By now,” added the official, whom we’ll identify as LEO #1 (Law Enforcement Official #1), “Vic knows he’s not walking out; he’s getting out in a body bag.”
“There is no doubt, Vic is the man, end of story,” agreed a second long-time mob buster who’s been making cases against New York wiseguys for more than 20 years. “Vic has always been the (Luchese) boss,” said LEO #2.
The long-time mob buster, as well as a third official, LEO #3, noted that when Amuso’s wife Barbara died two years ago, it was “standing room only” at the one-day wake at the James Romanelli-Stephen Funeral Home on Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park on March 2, 2012. Mrs Amuso, 69, was laid to rest the following day at St Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.
Barbara Amuso, who was a vocal supporter of her husband at trial, and who got into a shouting match with prosecutor Charles Rose outside the courtroom after her husband was sentenced to life for ordering nine mob murders and numerous other crimes, died on February 29, 2012 — six days after Gang Land’s faux pas that her husband had stepped down.
“Amuso sent out word that he wanted everyone to show up, and the place was packed,” said LEO #2. “The Lucheses showed up en masse,” added LEO #3, who noted that a “sprinkling” of Gambinos from the Howard Beach, Queens area, where both Gotti and Amuso lived, also paid their respects.
Sources say that like virtually the entire crime family, Crea, the Bronx-based former boxer who owned construction companies and made millions of dollars though bid-rigging, price-fixing and kickback schemes involving construction industry union officials, and Madonna, attended the wake.
All of that jibes with what one underworld source (call him UW #1) told us: “Vic is still in the chair, still running the show,” he said. “They (Luchese mobsters) don’t like the fact that he’s still calling the shots, but he’s not giving it up. He’s the boss,” said the mob associate, a long-time cohort of the Luchese and Bonanno crime families.
It all makes sense to former FBI supervisor George Gabriel, who spearheaded the investigation that ended with John Gotti being sentenced to life in prison.
Gabriel, who was on the FBI team that scooped up turncoat acting Luchese boss Alfonso (Little Al) D’Arco two months after Amuso was arrested, told Gang Land he is not surprised that Amuso is holding on to his official title. D’Arco later was the key witness against his old mob boss at trial.
“Amuso and John Gotti are both cut from the same cloth, or similar cloth,” said Gabriel.
“They both have the kind of ego that wouldn’t let them walk away from being the boss of the family even though the rules of Cosa Nostra dictate that they should step down when they get life incarceration, or even a very long sentence — for the good of the crime family,” said Gabriel.
“And Vic knows, like John knew, that if you give it up, not only are you out of sight, you're out of mind,” said Gabriel. “The only way to ensure that their own family is taken care of is to hold onto the reins of the crime family, and maintain the access to the crime family’s money.”

wow, much appreciated Chin. Good read this. It is both interesting and stupid to be honest. But that's how it goes sometimes.

[Bricktop]

The interesting question is why Amuso, but not Gotti.
Like, why Mancuso, even.

The underlying structure of their power, their network of supporters, rackets, ect.... I think it's just politics..

One's respected and feared, the other is an idiot and not respected

Are there sources, other than recordings of John calling Peter an idiot? Or is that where this whole "Peter is an idiot" thing comes from?

[chin_gigante]

As far as I know this is the last piece of information to come from Capeci on Gotti's status as boss, from his Gangland article on 27 August 2015:

Peter Gotti, residing in a federal prison in Ohio with a release date in 2032 is still the crime family's "official boss," but has nothing to do with running the family business. And what we wrote about Cefalu's ascension to acting boss in 2011, replacing longtime John Gotti top aide and then-acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico is also not in dispute.

[chin_gigante]

These are the highlights I've found from going through every mention of Pete Gotti as boss I could find on Gangland News (with him being the boss in name only by 2011 at the latest):

During a lengthy pre-trial status conference complicated by the segregated confinement of reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti, ten defendants and their lawyers retired for a sitdown in the jury room to decide then they would prefer to go to trial.
Their options – December, preferred by Gotti, or April, desired by the feds – were proposed by Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block, who said the early date might be appropriate because the Bureau of Prisons had put Gott in “the hole” while it looked into allegations of a Gotti plot to kill the prison warden where John Gotti died.
When they finally emerged, Gotti’s lawyer Gerald Shargel reported they were deadlocked 5-5, with Gotti, brother Richard V, nephew Richard G and soldiers Primo Cassarino and Jerome Brancato choosing December.
“This is conclusive proof that Peter Gotti isn’t a boss”, said Shargel, who lost the argument in July when Block ruled Gotti was the Gambino boss and detained him to await trial on waterfront racketeering charges.
“This proves Gotti is the boss” was the quick retort by prosecutor Andrew Genser. “This split is by design, and Peter Gotti is responsible for it”. (26 September 2002).

According to a 1999 affidavit by FBI agent Betsy Morris, Gene was visited frequently by brother Peter, and many other cohorts, including two mobsters who allegedly took part in the assassination of then-boss Paul Castellano in 1985 – Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala and Dominick (Skinny Dom) Pizzonia. They often discussed criminal activities involving Gene and the crime family. Many of Gene’s discussions with Peter were animated and “caustic”, wrote Morris, noting that Gene “would yell at Peter Gotti and attempt to learn what was going on within the Gambino family regarding their various enterprises”.
Until 1999, most insight the feds learned about Gene’s activities came from informants because the Gotti crew knew they were being observed by cameras and placed their hands in front of their mouths when they spoke, or whispered in each other’s ears. But in 1999, hidden cameras and more sophisticated bugs picked up allegedly incriminating discussions that the feds are looking to use in the waterfront racketeering case against Peter Gotti and six others that starts next month. (5 December 2002).

Peter Gotti – a former garbage man who rose to the top of the crime family, as his brother Gene noted, because “there was nobody else to put there” – was convicted along with his brother Richard V, his nephew Richard G Gotti, and four others.
Gotti, who spurned his lawyers and rejected pleas of his co-defendants to take plea bargains, led them all to a virtual total defeat that may have stunned spectators and some columnists but was expected by the wiseguys and their lawyers from day one.
As a result, all seven defendants – Gotti faced 51 months under the terms of the plea deal before trial and now faces about six years, according to a quick and dirty Gang Land estimate of the complicated sentencing guidelines – face longer stretches behind bars.
And while the Gottis, the others and their lawyers publicly express confidence in reversing the ocnvictions on appeal, several observers who witnessed the hour-long reading of the verdict, noticed unmistakable glares from his co-defendants focused toward Peter.
The most ominous, sources said, emanated from Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone, the 68-year-old capo who had wanted to take nine years but now faces about 16 years.
“If looks could kill, Peter would have keeled over right there”, said one source. (20 March 2003).

“Pete was made so he could serve as a messenger between John and his troops back then”, said one law enforcement official, explaining that as a relative then-without a criminal record, Peter was permitted to visit his brother at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre.
“And Pete used to drive the real wiseguys crazy”, said the official, laughing as he recalled that on more than one occasion during Peter Gotti’s early mob career, he had to visit his brother twice to get the message straight.
After one session at the MCC, Pete travelled to Brooklyn to meet a capo prohibited from visiting the Dapper Don. After delivering greetings from his brother, and exchanging small talk, Peter got to the heart of the matter, said the official.
“My brother says, uh, uh, oh shit, I’ll get back to you”, said Peter, recounted the official.
By the fall of 1999, however, Peter was much better at carrying messages for his jailed brother. Sources said that after a visit at the prison hospital where John Gotti would die of cancer last year, Peter allegedly dispatched a hit team to Arizona to pay its respects to Sammy Bull, who was living openly in the Valley State and virtually daring the mob to try and get him. (21 August 2003).

Sources say, Squitieri is no fan of Peter Gotti, who faces 20 years for a labour racketeering conviction in Brooklyn Federal Court and is looking for a lawyer to represent him on racketeering and murder conspiracy charges in Manhattan.
Despite federal parole restrictions, sources say, Squitieri, of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, has family friends in Queens and The Bronx that may support a push to oust Peter Gotti. Among them is Peter’s brother Gene, a former Squitieri drug partner who has belittled Peter as a poor choice to lead the Gambino family. (11 September 2003).

There’s the little matter of Peter Gotti, the family’s official boss. Serving nine years for racketeering, and facing a possible 20 more for plotting to kill Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, the 64-year-old ex-sanitation worker is less qualified than Paulie Walnuts to be a Mafia boss, but he seems to relish the position, and may resist stepping down. (10 June 2004).

In March 2003, when bugs were activated in the main visiting room of the Ray Brook facility, as well as a glass-enclosed 8ft by 12 ft visiting room reserved for attorney visits, Junior told Johnny Boy that Peter Gotti had “robbed my father blind”.
He instructed Ruggiero to remind Peter and Richard V Gotti – another uncle and family capo – that they had assured their dying brother that they would provide for his widow and daughters. Thus far, the angry nephew said, “these promises were lies”.
“They better hope and pray they don’t end up in the same facility as me. I will beat them down like a cheap two-dollar French hooker”, Junior said about uncles Peter and Richard, and Richard’s son, Richard G Gotti, following their racketeering convictions last year. (19 August 2004).

It was Peter who triggered his decision to become a turncoat after DiLeonardo was indicted on racketeering charges and jailed in June 2002. By then the official Gambino boss, Peter busted Mikey Scars from capo, put him “on a shelf” and made him a “nonentity”, falsely accusing him of stealing mob money to justify the demotion. (9 December 2004).

Gigante is dead. Once powerful Bonanno boss Joseph Massino has defected. There is no Commission to prod current boss Peter Gotti, who like his brother is doomed to die in prison, to step down. (18 October 2007).

Last year, Kasman recorded conversations that link Corozzo, who represents his father, family consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, to an extortion scheme, and to funnelling crime family proceeds to relatives of imprisoned family boss Peter Gotti, according to the prosecutors. (27 March 2008).

[TommyGambino]

The interesting question is why Amuso, but not Gotti.
Like, why Mancuso, even.

The underlying structure of their power, their network of supporters, rackets, ect.... I think it's just politics..

One's respected and feared, the other is an idiot and not respected

Are there sources, other than recordings of John calling Peter an idiot? Or is that where this whole "Peter is an idiot" thing comes from?

Not just John, Gene too, Scars also. Very clear he wasn't cut out to be a boss or even a captain

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

chin-gigante, thanks fro the research and great reading this morning.
So Peter Gotti continued his brother John's rule that prohibited members
to take plea deals. If I were Zeke or Ciccone, I would have taken the plea
in spite of Peter Gotti's stupid rule. Peter Gotti was too stupid and weak
of a boss to ensure that either defendant would be murdered IMO. Ciccone-
9 years on plea vs. 16 years at a for sure losing trial sentence. I'd say fuck Peter
Gotti and plea out.

[Bricktop]

Thanks, guys. Good information.

[Wiseguy]

A couple excerpts on Peter Gotti -

The whole thing was a riot to old-time mafiosi: “Pete was just a bagman” (graft collector), according to my old soldier: “A chidrule [dope] his brother could trust not to steal money, not a leader!” Before John’s fall in 1991, Pete would see him about once a week, on Sundays, at the Bergin Hunt & Fish Club in Ozone Park, to turn over the weekly extortion and shylock tributes collected from capos in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and lower Manhattan. It was enough brotherly contact for John: “If it doesn’t have to do with our mother or father, stay away from me!” he famously told Pete on a bugged FBI tape, also referring to him as a “moron.” “Yeah,” Mikey Scars testified at the Gotti-Carbonaro trial in December, “John had a condescending attitude. He talked down to everybody.”
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/10869/


Bruce Mouw, a former FBI agent who was in charge of the agency's Gambino investigations from 1980 until his retirement last year, described Peter Gotti "as not exactly a Rhodes scholar nor particularly aggressive. But just by the process of elimination, he is actively running the family now," Mouw said. "Does he have the capabilities? Absolutely not."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.desere ... rother.amp


However, as Pogo has pointed out before, at least Peter never got caught on tape like John did.

[Pogo The Clown]

However, as Pogo has pointed out before, at least Peter never got caught on tape like John did.

Yeah and for as dumb as everyone makes him out to be he did manage to last almost 12 years in an administration spot at a time when guys were going down left and right. And unlike many of his contemporaries he does have a chance (slim as it may be) of getting out of prison some day. Not to bad all things considered.


Pogo

[Frank]

However, as Pogo has pointed out before, at least Peter never got caught on tape like John did.

Yeah and for as dumb as everyone makes him out to be he did manage to last almost 12 years in an administration spot at a time when guys were going down left and right. And unlike many of his contemporaries he does have a chance (slim as it may be) of getting out of prison some day. Not to bad all things considered.


Pogo

If he ever got out of prison, it would be more interesting than Gene getting out, since he is still the official boss. He would probably be to old to do much, and probably still have an acting boss that runs things, but it would lead to some interesting posts on the forum

[slimshady_007]

These are the highlights I've found from going through every mention of Pete Gotti as boss I could find on Gangland News (with him being the boss in name only by 2011 at the latest):

During a lengthy pre-trial status conference complicated by the segregated confinement of reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti, ten defendants and their lawyers retired for a sitdown in the jury room to decide then they would prefer to go to trial.
Their options – December, preferred by Gotti, or April, desired by the feds – were proposed by Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block, who said the early date might be appropriate because the Bureau of Prisons had put Gott in “the hole” while it looked into allegations of a Gotti plot to kill the prison warden where John Gotti died.
When they finally emerged, Gotti’s lawyer Gerald Shargel reported they were deadlocked 5-5, with Gotti, brother Richard V, nephew Richard G and soldiers Primo Cassarino and Jerome Brancato choosing December.
“This is conclusive proof that Peter Gotti isn’t a boss”, said Shargel, who lost the argument in July when Block ruled Gotti was the Gambino boss and detained him to await trial on waterfront racketeering charges.
“This proves Gotti is the boss” was the quick retort by prosecutor Andrew Genser. “This split is by design, and Peter Gotti is responsible for it”. (26 September 2002).

According to a 1999 affidavit by FBI agent Betsy Morris, Gene was visited frequently by brother Peter, and many other cohorts, including two mobsters who allegedly took part in the assassination of then-boss Paul Castellano in 1985 – Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala and Dominick (Skinny Dom) Pizzonia. They often discussed criminal activities involving Gene and the crime family. Many of Gene’s discussions with Peter were animated and “caustic”, wrote Morris, noting that Gene “would yell at Peter Gotti and attempt to learn what was going on within the Gambino family regarding their various enterprises”.
Until 1999, most insight the feds learned about Gene’s activities came from informants because the Gotti crew knew they were being observed by cameras and placed their hands in front of their mouths when they spoke, or whispered in each other’s ears. But in 1999, hidden cameras and more sophisticated bugs picked up allegedly incriminating discussions that the feds are looking to use in the waterfront racketeering case against Peter Gotti and six others that starts next month. (5 December 2002).

Peter Gotti – a former garbage man who rose to the top of the crime family, as his brother Gene noted, because “there was nobody else to put there” – was convicted along with his brother Richard V, his nephew Richard G Gotti, and four others.
Gotti, who spurned his lawyers and rejected pleas of his co-defendants to take plea bargains, led them all to a virtual total defeat that may have stunned spectators and some columnists but was expected by the wiseguys and their lawyers from day one.
As a result, all seven defendants – Gotti faced 51 months under the terms of the plea deal before trial and now faces about six years, according to a quick and dirty Gang Land estimate of the complicated sentencing guidelines – face longer stretches behind bars.
And while the Gottis, the others and their lawyers publicly express confidence in reversing the ocnvictions on appeal, several observers who witnessed the hour-long reading of the verdict, noticed unmistakable glares from his co-defendants focused toward Peter.
The most ominous, sources said, emanated from Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone, the 68-year-old capo who had wanted to take nine years but now faces about 16 years.
“If looks could kill, Peter would have keeled over right there”, said one source. (20 March 2003).

“Pete was made so he could serve as a messenger between John and his troops back then”, said one law enforcement official, explaining that as a relative then-without a criminal record, Peter was permitted to visit his brother at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre.
“And Pete used to drive the real wiseguys crazy”, said the official, laughing as he recalled that on more than one occasion during Peter Gotti’s early mob career, he had to visit his brother twice to get the message straight.
After one session at the MCC, Pete travelled to Brooklyn to meet a capo prohibited from visiting the Dapper Don. After delivering greetings from his brother, and exchanging small talk, Peter got to the heart of the matter, said the official.
“My brother says, uh, uh, oh shit, I’ll get back to you”, said Peter, recounted the official.
By the fall of 1999, however, Peter was much better at carrying messages for his jailed brother. Sources said that after a visit at the prison hospital where John Gotti would die of cancer last year, Peter allegedly dispatched a hit team to Arizona to pay its respects to Sammy Bull, who was living openly in the Valley State and virtually daring the mob to try and get him. (21 August 2003).

Sources say, Squitieri is no fan of Peter Gotti, who faces 20 years for a labour racketeering conviction in Brooklyn Federal Court and is looking for a lawyer to represent him on racketeering and murder conspiracy charges in Manhattan.
Despite federal parole restrictions, sources say, Squitieri, of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, has family friends in Queens and The Bronx that may support a push to oust Peter Gotti. Among them is Peter’s brother Gene, a former Squitieri drug partner who has belittled Peter as a poor choice to lead the Gambino family. (11 September 2003).

There’s the little matter of Peter Gotti, the family’s official boss. Serving nine years for racketeering, and facing a possible 20 more for plotting to kill Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, the 64-year-old ex-sanitation worker is less qualified than Paulie Walnuts to be a Mafia boss, but he seems to relish the position, and may resist stepping down. (10 June 2004).

In March 2003, when bugs were activated in the main visiting room of the Ray Brook facility, as well as a glass-enclosed 8ft by 12 ft visiting room reserved for attorney visits, Junior told Johnny Boy that Peter Gotti had “robbed my father blind”.
He instructed Ruggiero to remind Peter and Richard V Gotti – another uncle and family capo – that they had assured their dying brother that they would provide for his widow and daughters. Thus far, the angry nephew said, “these promises were lies”.
“They better hope and pray they don’t end up in the same facility as me. I will beat them down like a cheap two-dollar French hooker”, Junior said about uncles Peter and Richard, and Richard’s son, Richard G Gotti, following their racketeering convictions last year. (19 August 2004).

It was Peter who triggered his decision to become a turncoat after DiLeonardo was indicted on racketeering charges and jailed in June 2002. By then the official Gambino boss, Peter busted Mikey Scars from capo, put him “on a shelf” and made him a “nonentity”, falsely accusing him of stealing mob money to justify the demotion. (9 December 2004).

Gigante is dead. Once powerful Bonanno boss Joseph Massino has defected. There is no Commission to prod current boss Peter Gotti, who like his brother is doomed to die in prison, to step down. (18 October 2007).

Last year, Kasman recorded conversations that link Corozzo, who represents his father, family consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, to an extortion scheme, and to funnelling crime family proceeds to relatives of imprisoned family boss Peter Gotti, according to the prosecutors. (27 March 2008).

Awesome research and great post

[Lupara]

Do you know if Pete makes any policy decisions/directives for the family, or is he just a figurehead at this point?

Peter Gotti has no say over the family anymore. Cefalu is technically only acting boss but for all intents and purposes he's the ultimate authority behind the brugad. Gotti only holds onto the title because it is his right to do so. If this were twenty or thirty years ago the other families might have sent word to suggest he resign as boss, but the landscape of New York isn't what it used to be.
I'm interested to know if his family still gets tribute. With Gene still alive the Gottis might get something every now and again.

If he has no say over the Family anymore like you stated, then he is not the Boss. His Title then is only out of respect and in reality maybe he is more like a senior advisor in the background?

It's not out of respect, Peter having the official boss title can help the likes of Cefalu and Cali if they get indicted

i never understood this line of thinking, especially in this day and age. the feds arent dumb. The Lucchese boss position is still being held by Amuso but the entire admin got indicted. whether or not madonna and crea were calling shots on their own or involving Amuso is unclear, but Amuso wasnt in the indictment. I dont think title has much weight on charges or sentencing at a conviction; murder is still murder, scams are still scams...whether you're a street boss or titular boss.

i mean, if we're on here, out of all people saying "pete is boss because they're using him as a lightning rod, its a smart ploy" and everything else out there says the same, the feds are the only one not in that secret?

i think in this day and age its a combo of letting him keep the title to allow him to keep his dignity, and out of respect, combined with him probably refusing to give up the title.

has there ever been an instance where a family "voted out" someone as boss? a situation where someone was disposed as boss, but he wasnt actually killed and didnt step down himself? the only one i can think of was Massino and its because he ratted

Good points.

[Frank]

Sam Ferrara was voted out by the Milwaukee Family in 1952. That vote was backed up by the Chicago Outfit who ruled also that yes you were voted out and you must step down.

[chin_gigante]

Sam Ferrara was voted out by the Milwaukee Family in 1952. That vote was backed up by the Chicago Outfit who ruled also that yes you were voted out and you must step down.

Very different situation over fifty years later though. To paraphrase Capeci, there's no Commission to tell Pete to step down anymore. It's always been the rule that a New York boss holds the title for life unless he opts out or the Commission intervenes. The latter doesn't really exist anymore.