Very good points Joey Montana but first I must say that I didn't say the commission okayed drugs. Maybe I could have written it clearer but I said 'Outlawed by the commission' after I mentioned drugs, implying just that: drugs were officially outlawed by the commission.

Neil got John a pass after he spoke to Paul. Those tapes were very damaging. Neil did not know what was on them plus the indictments were over drugs, an automatic death sentence--no passes. John's crew said it was a BS charge but the facts would have came out in court. If you're telling me that Neil would have openly disobeyed Paul AFTER he and Paul heard the tapes AND it was proven that they dealt drugs then I must disagree.

As far as the Chin. In the book Underboss, it said The Chin said killing a boss was against the rules and Gotti said they were working on finding the culpret. I agree that the Chin tried to kill a boss himself and was hypocritical. He himself tried to kill Costello. He may have made the statement out of convenience but the fact remains it was a rule and he wanted to enforece it. Plus, one could argue that his attempt at killing Gotti was for killing a boss. I wouldn't argue strongly for that theory.

I respectly still maintain that Neil would have killed or would have stepped aside or whatever but he would have 'let' Gotti be killed IF the tapes became known and the drug charges were proven true. Probably just for the comments on the tape alone.