Why do you want me to trust you? Were you or anyone else that you know present at any of these sit downs? Was Caponigro the Rocky Marciano of sitdowns? What authority do you have that would indicate that he won multiple sit downs? Also, why would you think that I would be going on George Anastasia talking points? He is a Philly writer who if anything would try and talk up Caponigro.

I never disputed that he was a big earner and a power, all that I have said is that he was never as big as Ray DeCarlo and the Boot, let alone Jerry Catena. I don't know how anyone could dispute that statement, looking at all of the available authorities. I am not sure that you could even say that he was bigger than the Gambino capo in NJ, Paterno. If anything he was on par with Bayonne Joe from the Bonanos and Abate from the Lucheses. His territory was limited to a relatively small area of Newark, Down Neck. The Genovese, Gambinos and Lucheses had interests not only in Newark but also Hudson, Passaic, Middlesex and Monmouth counties, among others.

As for all of the alleged sitdowns, most of those would have been decided by Catena and Bruno alone, not Caponigro and whoever he had an issue with in the Genovese. Who knows how the bosses worked those things out, what the give and take was there. As for any arguments that didn't involve the bosses, there were probably more of those than anyone could count involving not only those particular families but all of the others with interests in the area. As an example, when Steve Lenehan, a rat but an associate of multiple NY families with a presence in north Jersey, gave an interview he talked about one time when an associate of Bananas owed him money but refused to pay. Lenehan went to the guy that he was with, Jimmy Higgins of the Gambinos, who had a sitdown with Bananas. Jimmy Higgins told Bananas that since Lenehan was with him Bananas associate would have to pay Lenehan, and Bananas associate paid. Again, I am not disputing that there were sit downs involving Bananas and that he was a pain in the ass for the Genovese guys, but I just haven't seen any evidence that he won all of or the majority of those sit downs.

If you think about it, the Genovese always held Bananas' fate in their hands. It was a Genovese guy, Battaglia, who saved Bananas when the Boot was going to kill him after he chased him out of the ward. For whatever reason, there was enough of a reason for the Genovese to keep him alive, and so he lived. When he outlived his usefulness and it was more beneficial for them for Bananas to be dead, they killed him. Whether he knew it or not, they were in control the whole time.