Ian Fleming describes a Capungo as a bandit who will kill someone for as low as 40 pesos.

Alf Joint as Capungo in ‘Goldfinger’.

Film biography: Capungo, played by Alf Joint in the film Goldfinger, is a Mexican thug who attempts to kill Bond in the pre-title sequence for breaking up the Ramirez Heroin Ring, a gang he previously worked for. He hires a flamenco dancer, Bonita, to distract Bond while he sneaks up from behind and attempts to kill him. While kissing Bonita, however, Bond sees Capungo reflected in her eyes as he approaches with a club, and moves out of the way at the last second so that Bonita takes the hit. After a brutal fight, Bond then proceeds to throw Capungo into Bonita’s bathtub, before electrocuting him with a sunlamp, a fate to which Bond quips “Shocking. Positively shocking”

Novel biography: In a complete opposite to the film, the opening chapter of the novel “Reflections in a Double Bourbon” describes in flashback less than 24 hours earlier Bond killing a Mexican assassin on assignment in a serious and depressing way. Bond has travelled to Mexico where he impersonates a heroin buyer. Bond later destroys a warehouse full of heroin with a thermite bomb; the heroin being sent to England in diplomatic pouches. Fleming describes the Capungo as wearing a dirty linen suit and under the influence of marijuana who tries to kill Bond with a knife. Bond kills him with his bare hands, parrying the killer’s knife attack, hitting his chin with the heel of his palm then striking him in the throat with his other hand.