It's established that Tony's father, Johnny, died in 1986. Tony had only recently become a Made Guy, probably in 1983. Jackie was 5 years older than Tony, so its possible he was made earlier too.

Is it likely that, when Johnny died in 1986, Old Man DiMeo made Jackie Capo of the Soprano crew? While Richie had already become Capo of his own crew by that point? You figure Richie was jailed in 1990 and was already a Captain.

I ask because every scene Jackie in, in the flashbacks to 1995, it is with Tony, Paulie, Silvio and Pussy - every made guy of that crew. Even during the crucial sitdown with Junior, who brings along some of his crew. If Jackie had had his own separate crew, wouldn't a member or two have been there at the sitdown? Why would he need all of Tony Soprano's crew there?

Which leads me to thinking, is it possible that Tony only became a Captain when Jackie became Boss, and that between Johnny's death in 1986 and Old Man DiMeo's imprisonment in 1995, Jackie was Tony's Captain?

From what i gathered tony and jackie were made together. They robbed feech la mannas card game and gained big points. Johnny boy soprano died in 86 and wanted his son to take over the crew. Jackie was in a different crew. So tony may have become capo before jackie but jackie may have been a bigger earner which is why he was named acting boss instead of tony

I think so. Logically, you'd think Tony would take over the Soprano crew from his father while Jackie became captain over the Aprile crew when Richie went to prison, but I think it's highly unlikely that they were in separate crews. Whenever they are talked about, you always hear that they were together in the same crew. Who knows, maybe the creators just didn't bother with all the precise details.

Maybe they split the crews and gave Tony his own or vice versa.

Everyone here makes good points. I feel like it is never fully explained.

In my opinion, Tony was in his father's crew which is inherited. That is definite.

Jackie would seemingly be a member of his brother's crew as well, most likely inheriting that and in theory maybe starting the trend of the Aprile Crew bosses dying early.

If this were the case that Jackie ran Richie's crew after the 1990 bust that put Richie away, it would explain having Ralph, a notoriously strong earner running point on Florida operations. A Jackie backed Aprile Crew would have the ability to reach out and have a satellite crew in Miami as well.

This would leave to question who was maintaining the Aprile Crew as day to day boss for Jackie both while he was Acting Boss and while he was sick, but in theory with Jackie being made Boss outright, his entire crew may have become made solider's with increased freedom. They were all kicking direct to Jackie as their Capo, now as Acting Boss they would all still be direct with him and kick up as well, but their structure from crew to individuals would likely be increased as Jackie would oversee the family day to day and continue to loanshark heavily, while his former crew were likely left to operate freely as long as they paid tribute on their various respective ventures.

This could likely explain why early on there is no Aprile crew capo involved in the meetings behind Junior's back with (Tony, Larry, Ray, & Jimmy Altieri) yet soon after Tony becomes outright Boss he begins to need to "get the Aprile Crew in line" because nobody knew who was in charge as I believe many of them had been operating more freely over the past years during Jackie's reign and were active in other areas of the state than the Soprano Crew.

Too bad Jackie died so early on in the script.