How to decipher truth in mafia history?

As I read up more and more about many topics of discussion, I am constantly hearing about different versions of the truth and I am honestly not sure what to believe.....One would think that the most factual truth would be told by someone who has flipped AND was at the scene of the crime...Right?

For instance, about the murder of Tony Bananas:

I heard Nicky the Crow say that Caponigro died a horrible death by getting hit with hammers, lead pipes, stabbed, then shot ____ times!
Now I know that The crow was very close with Scarfo. Scarfo was very close with Manna and, Manna was at the scene of the crime....I do believe that Manna would have told Scarfo the exact details of what went down and that would have been told to Caramandi.


In conflict of that:

Mad Dog Sullivan said that he personally stepped out from the shadows and said, "Hey Tony!". Caponigro, who was sitting at a table, came charging right at him. Mad Dog shot him 3 times and backed him up against the wall. Then Tony still tried to charge at him but eventually died from a lot more shots against the wall.

One of those stories can't be true because a guy who got physically pummeled by hammers and pipes and stabbed would not be sitting at a table much less be able to charge like a bull AND, if he was shot first, who beats a guy after he is actually dead?

It really isn't a huge deal not knowing EXACTLY what went down but, I really am not sure how anyone can ever guarantee that their version of the facts is 100% truthful of what went down.

Now when I buy a book, I am a little skeptical if what I bought for $20.00 is truthful non-fiction or profit driven fiction.

What it all comes down to is what and who to believe, I guess. But when examining a story one have to take multiple considerations into account. The abilty to evaluate the truthfulness in a story, comes with experience.

like anything else, how good is eyewitness testimony...about 25%..then repeating stories ..that changes person to person... two people tell the same story, most likely comes out a little different.

He was definitely shot over a dozen times. Johnny Keys talked about it before he died. The beating, garroting, stabbing and whatnot, I don't know. 12 shots all over the arms and legs is pretty bad regardless.

A lot of the answers are out there, but it depends how much you're willing to do to find them. In the example you brought up you have one version from Caramendi and another from Sullivan. Get the coroner's report. That will tell you which one (or neither) is true and which one is false. That's how you do it, you have to request actual documentation. An FBI file might have it too, but the best way is to get the death certificate and then you use that to get the coroner's report.