Seems like Scoppa was ignoring the Mafia's politics and went over his head ordering the murders of made members while he probably was not. At the time it seemed the old Rizzuto allies were slaughtered one by one in another coordinated attack on their group while it may just have been a crazy man's act. If he was acting alone, he never had much of a change to begin with. He was a sort of Giuseppe De Vito 2.0. I think take-overs will only work when it's internal. This guy seemed like an outlier who thought he could go up against anyone while high on steroids. He probably did scare the hell out of these guys for some time.

Time will tell whether he was secretely backed by others but it wouldn't suprise me if he did do this just by himself. If he was supported, he was probably being used a la Caponigro.