Hello - long time lurker, but just registered tonight.

I've read the book a lot of times. I've also read a bit about Puzo.
Apparently he didn't really know much about the mob first hand.
My guess is that he got things a bit mixed up.
His idea of capos I think was more like what Neil Dellacroce was like under Paul Castellano.

If I recall correctly one of them Tessio I think had a free hand in Brooklyn and Clemenza was under more control in Manhattan and the Bronx.
i.e. wings or factions of a family rather than single crews e.g. like some family's have a Brooklyn faction a City faction and a NJ faction each of which might be a number of crews with one capo sort of leading the faction.


Remember in the book there is only the boss and a consigliere. No underbosses or street bosses (though I guess Sonny could be either or both) so his structue was different to how the familys are portrayed today.

I think what basically happened was that Puzo got it a bit wrong and didn't really know that a caporegime controlled a smaller group than what Tessio and Clemenza control or he thought a capregime controlled a number of crews.

All that said, remember there was also Sonny's regime and at the end of the book Lampone's. So there were 3 or 4 capos not 2 for most of the book.