Antonio Caponigro

Antonio Rocco "Tony Bananas" Caponigro (born January 22, 1912 in Chicago , † April 18, 1980 in New York City ) was an Italian-American mobster of the American Cosa Nostra of the Bruno family ( Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia ) from Philadelphia and was valid at the end the 1970s as the consigliere of the family, before he initiated the murder of the head of the family Angelo Bruno and was also murdered in retaliation.

Life

Early years

Antonio Rocco "Tony Bananas" Caponigro was born on January 22, 1912 to Rocco Caponigro and Rosine Squarzzi in Chicago and later lived in Short Hills of Essex County (New Jersey) . He was the son of a wealthy banana trader who owned a stall in the Italian market known as the South 9th Street Curb Market . He later directed most of his criminal operations in Ironbound , a neighborhood in Newark . Entries such as car theft, burglary, robbery, bookmaking and suspected murder in Caponigro's police file go back to 1928. For a time he was suspected of funding the illegal manufacture of alcohol in the New Jersey area, but this has never been proven. He later married a Scottish-Irish woman named Kathleen Cox and had a son and three daughters.

In 1963, Caponigro's membership in the Mafia was publicized through the Pentito named Joe Valachi . During this time he served under a capo named Riccardo Biondi.

Family coup

In 1976, Caponigro was jailed for 2 years for a crime for trying to run his car over a police officer in 1974 to avoid a subpoena. After his release, he rose to the post of consigliere of the head Angelo Bruno . At that time, some subgroups of the family began to rebel against the aging Bruno and Caponigro saw during a dispute in the methamphetamine trade, this was his chance to rise and earn more. He controlled a lucrative gambling operation in Newark, a holdover from the 1960s when the five New York families ceded parts of the Northern Jersey business to the New Jersey faction of the Bruno family. The Genovese Street Boss named Frank "Funzi" Tieri also led activities in the area. Caponigro approached Tieri with a plan to assassinate Bruno and take over the Philadelphia family. Caponigro knew that after the Don's death he could count on the support of several key figures in the family. Tieri assured Caponigro that he would support him before the so-called Mafia Commission ; In order, on the one hand, to eliminate Caponigro and, on the other hand, to weaken the local Bruno family, Tieri later led Caponigro to believe that he had permission from the commission to kill Bruno. He recruited his brother-in-law Alfred Salerno, Bruno Capo John "Johnny Keys" Simone and Bruno Soldato Frank "Barracuda Frank" Sindone and ordered the murder of Bruno.

On March 21, 1980, 69-year-old Bruno was killed by a shotgun in the back of the head while he was sitting in his car in front of his house with his driver, John Stanfa . When the commission learned of Bruno's murder, Caponigro was summoned immediately. He was informed that the murder was neither sanctioned nor considered by the commission. Caponigro identified Tieri, who attended the meeting, as the man who had authorized the murder; which was categorically denied by Tieri. The commission later decided that Caponigro had murdered a member of the commission without authorization and that he was sentenced to death.

assassination

A few weeks later the bodies of Caponigro and his cousin were in the trunk of two cars in the Bronx ( New York City found). Caponigro had been inflicted thirteen gunshot wounds and knife wounds, and several twenty dollar bills were stuffed into his mouth and anus as a sign of his greed. Caporigro was murdered by the Mafia executor Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan, which he confessed in a 2010 interview. Other members who were involved in Bruno's murder were also tortured and murdered. On September 17, 1980, John Simone was found dead. On October 29, 1980, Frank Sindone was murdered three times in the head and found dead in an alley in south Philadelphia.

additional

Caponigro ran the club The 311 and owned a huge farm, as well as a motel complex with a restaurant and is said to have been "70 million dollars" according to the former family capo named Nicholas "Nicky the Crow" Caramandi. According to former capo and later informant Andrew Thomas "Tommy Del" DelGiorno , he ran a bookmaking business that brought in up to $ 2 million a week in profits.

Caponigro had a half-sister named Susan, who married the gangster Alfred "Freddie" Salerno. In 1955, Susan was found dead at the age of approximately 38. She was believed to have been murdered, but the murder was covered up with myocardial infarction as the cause of death . People in the neighborhood assumed that Freddy Salerno murdered his wife Susan with the approval of Brother Caponigro.

In a 2012 lawsuit against the later incumbent boss from the 2000s named Joseph Anthony "Uncle Joe" Ligambi , it was found, based on old FBI sound recordings that were used as evidence, that Frank Sinatra spoke to Caponigro during a performance at 1968 said "he should stop talking" and that is why he "hated" him so much and threatened to kill him.

literature

• Stephen J. Rivele , Joseph Salerno: The Plumber: The True Story of how One Good Man Helped Destroy the Entire Philadelphia Mafia . Knightsbridge Pub Co Trade, 1990, ISBN 1-877961-00-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bitter Queen - Jersey Boy: Antonio Caponigro
2. ↑ La Cosa Nostra Database - Antonio Caponigro
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gangsters Inc. - The Trouble With Harry
4. ↑ Dailymail - 'He wanted to kill Sinatra': Mafia boss wanted crooner dead after he insulted him at concert, reveal secret tapes made by FBI informant