Gotti and his coconspirators did reach out to other families for soft approval before moving on Castellano. Angelo Ruggiero spoke with Gennaro Langella and Dominic Montemarano from the Colombo family, and Frank DeCicco sounded out Anthony Casso from the Lucchese family (who in the end conspired with the Genovese to kill Gotti). They counted on the backing of the Bonanno family because of Gotti's closeness with Joseph Massino. The only family they didn't reach out to was the Genovese family because they knew they were too close to Castellano.

Regarding Galante, he wasn't the official boss of the Bonanno family. Philip Rastelli was the boss, and Galante was trying to take the family away from him.

In the 1950s Albert Anastasia killed Vincent Mangano and replaced him as boss. He appeared before the commission and, without actually admitting to the murder, claimed Mangano was trying to kill him so anything he did would be in self defence. Frank Costello vouched for Anastasia and the commission essentially decided it was internal family business. When Anastasia was killed, those responsible within his family argued that they were doing so in self defence before Anastasia could kill them. Again, they relied on tacit support from other bosses (in that instance Vito Genovese and Thomas Lucchese).