It is now well documented that Ralph Natale was not a made guy despite his ludicrous claim that he was made in a "secret ceremony" just for himself by none other that Angelo Bruno and Carlo Gambino.

Even Joey Merlino didn't really believe that story and inducted Natale right before naming him Boss.

My question is why no one in the Philly familiy or the 5 families made an official complaint about Natale's status. It is a major offense and a big embarassment for Cosa Nostra to have a non made guy becoming Boss. Inronically, he was the first Boss to testify.

My understanding is that, at the time, the Philly family was in shambles and New York didn't really care that much about who would lead it. Natale and Merlino were willing to do it and I guess that was good enough for everyone. I also understand Natale had good connections in New York to support his move. That said, i'm sure plenty of people had doubts about his made guy status. Somehow these doubts seems to never have reached the Commission.

Any thoughts ?

Genovese family started secretly backing him during the conflict with Stanfa, possibly because they were irritated by the dispute between John Avena and Carmine Franco. The Sicilian Gambinos at least recognised Stanfa as boss but at some point during the war Gotti instructed everyone to stay away from Philadelphia. According to Natale, the Lucheses were definitely not recognising Stanfa either. Also, once all the Stanfa people get locked up there's no opposition left to the Merlino faction on the street. There were only a handful of made guys still active in Philadelphia and South Jersey at that point so in order to rebuild the family they were going to have to straighten guys out and promote them to hierarchy positions immediately. Ronald Turchi tried to become boss by sending money to Lenny DiMaria but Natale found out about this and told him to stop or he'd kill him. The Merlino guys were happy letting Natale be the boss, Natale certainly liked it for his ego, there was no-one else to waiting in the wings to become boss and the Genovese people were happy with it. The deal was Natale would be the boss but on any major decisions he had to go to the Genovese people.

The Genoveses instigated Caponigro to kill Bruno and appointed Scarfo because was friend with Bobby Manna while Stanfa was alligned with the Gambinos but when was clear that the Merlino faction was winning the war,allowed Natale as front boss while Merlino started to rebuilt the family and replace the wiseguys that was arrested.

It was Phi Testa they installed with three votes for it, Genovese and Gambino are accounted for, the third vote is unknown, but more than likely it was Tony Ducks, as those three would bicker amongst themselves on deals and territories, but if there is a faster way to make peace and everyone is making money, they will go for it.

He had alot of jailhouse respect that what got him to that position...He also did almost 20 years and didnt talk and he was a stone cold killer and had built up connections in the genovese family and chicago..He jailed w Joey Lombardo from Chicago, Vito Alberti and Fritzy from the Genovese....

My question was more about the fact that Natale was allowed to be boss despite not being a made guy in the first place.

How come this issue was never raised to the Comission or even to some NY higher ups ?

As far as New York was concerned it seems Merlino straightening Natale out in 1994 was enough for them and they were satisfied. The Commission wasn't really functioning at that time and the Genovese family was backing Natale so that's all that really mattered. Natale started using Pete Caprio from the North Jersey crew as his liaison with the Genovese family and Merlino did the same once Natale was jailed.

The Gambinos reached out to Natale and Merlino soon after they took over to request that they not kill Joe Stanfa and Joey Chang. Natale, Mazzone and Tyrone DeNittis drove up to New York in 1996 and met with Billy D'Elia of the Bufalino family and some Colombo people including Andy Russo. Representatives of other families attended a party at Ben Franklin House in Philadelphia that same year to celebrate Merlino getting off supervised release.

The Lucheses still had a problem with anyone but the Scarfos being in charge of Philadelphia and word got out that Scarfo Sr was trying to use his connection to Amuso to hit Natale, Merlino and Ron Previte. Then in March 1998 Previte recorded a conversation in which Natale said this about rumours that Scarfo wanted support from the Commission:

'There is no sitting Commission right now. There is nobody reaching out, and the biggest family in New York… is the Chin's family […] The kid who runs it now [presumably Barney Bellomo] told [Scarfo] there's only one boss in Philadelphia and that's Ralph Natale. And that's where the fuck it's at.'

And for the record, in case anyone has asked, Pete Caprio has testified about the Genovese family backing Natale and Merlino so the above isn't just typical Natale bullshit. He definitely had the Genovese backing at that time and Merlino seems to still have it to this day based on the 2014 Christmas party with Genovese captains and other interactions. During Merlino's recent trial an FBI agent talked about how the Philly family was still considered to be under the Genoveses in the same way they were during Natale's time as boss.