James "Jimmy" Altieri

Do you think he was a rat ?

This topic comes up every now and then on the board. The consensus seems to be that he absolutely was a rat,based on the awkward conversation in Tony's basement in which he tried to get an incriminating statement from Tony on his wire.
Also,Jimmy gets out of jail in record time after a serious Felony pinch prior to the clumsy basement attempt. No question,Chase was telling us loud and clear that Altieri was a cheese eater.

Don't forget when he tried talking to Junior about the Filone hit at a funeral. He was definitely a rat.

Was he a made guy in the show what crew was he with ?

He was Capo

You smell like paco robanne crawled up your ass and died.

Definite rat lol.

The moment before he was killed he touch as gasp of breath and said "noooo" as if to say i been found out. I think he was a rat..

he was pushing tony for information in the basement too, released early because he was a rat.

Tony had so many rats with Raymond Curto, Carlo Gervasi, Jimmy Altieri, Adriana, Eugene Pontecorvo, Jack Massarone and of course Big Pussy Bonpensiero.

Maybe Jimmy was a rat however I always understood that he wasn't an informer but was whacked mistakenly (although nobody knew it at the time) in place of Big Pussy. Pussy was talking to the FBI and Tony and others in the crew knew there was a leak but could not definitely identify who was the rat. I thought that in their paranoia or over-cautiousness Tony and the other Capos were looking for any reason to clip somebody if for no other reason than to put their minds at ease. Also by pointing the finger at Jimmy suspicion points away from any other member of the crew and I'm sure they were all eager to save their own lives. It has been a while since I've watched that season but I think I remember that Big Pussy and Skip discuss the Altieri hit and it is aluded to that Jimmy was not working for the FBI and Pussy felt guilty that somebody took a bullet for him.
I might be wrong (especially on the part about Skip talking w/ Pussy) but that was always my impression.

Although it was never confirmed, i think the actor did a great job of portraying that Jimmy was indeed a rat.

Like when he was trying to pry information about hits out of Uncle Junior at the funeral, that wasn't normal behavior really.

Same as when hes released after being pinched with a gun, i think he was already on parole, so he wouldn't have been released, at least not as quickly. Whats the first thing he does, he goes to Tony to try pry information about the Columbian hit and money.

I think his body language in these scenes was great to imply he was a rat.

Whats the matter, why don't you call for help in your radio mic you fucking rat ? He doesn't even deny it as Silvio holds the gun to his head, his only words are "ohh god". Whats the matter not wearing one tonight ? Nah he didn't have any time to put on anything decent. Again his only words are "god". Jimmy knew he was rumbled.

Pork chop boy Altieri...

I think that scene was deliberately vague to leave it up to debate if he really was a rat or not. It certainly looks like he was from the "evidence" against him, but then again the "Mother of God/Oh God" comment could have been due to the fact that between him and Pussy, he was one the one assumed to be the rat so it's that realization dawning on him.

If you re-watch the episode with Jimmy's arrest and release,as well as the very awkward "basement" scene with Tony at his house,I think that it becomes clear that Jimmy was definitely flipped by the cops and trying to get info for his handlers. I think the whole Altieri ratting scenario was a Chase curveball to make the Big Pussy reveal more dramatic.

Yeah i agree, especially the scene where Tony thinks hes messed it up and got it wrong i.e who was the rat, thinking Paulie might have already silenced Big Pussy.

But Pussy and Jimmy were both rats for sure. Its been a while since ive watched so my mind is fuzzy with the timeline, but is there any inclination of Jimmy being a rat before there pinched in the social club with the snooker table of guns ?

If not that was probably when they flipped him. I can't remember if him pressing Junior for information was before or after that. I think it was after though and by then they knew to feed him nothing.

Did I hear wrong or was Pussy informing for years before they caught on, I thought I heard someone say that he was informing since 1998, not sure?

The one strange part of the show was it seemed half of tony's capo were rats (Raymond Curto, Carlo Gervasi, Jimmy Altieri). In real life, I think I can count on two hands the number of rats that were capos, especially capos wearing wires.

It's pretty unusual, normally you see associates or made guys, and the higher ranking guys only get flipped after charges are brought against them and they are facing hard time unless they turn state's evidence and testify in the upcoming trial.

So in the end these capos as rats plot points were strange. Additionally, they would have sunk tony in ten seconds if there was really a capo in tight, small family like tonys that would have been willing to flip.

Jimmy Altieri was a informer. I don't think he was one till after the raid at the social club, which tells me the cops already had someone talking before then. (Salvatore Bonpensiero was an FBI informer)

Big Pussy became an FBI informer sometime before the 1995 meeting over who takes control of the family as the acting boss with DiMeo in prison, as the flashbacks points to this.

The video below is when Tony knew Big Pussy had first turned back in 1995.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPgC4P6jbk[/video]

Thanks for clearing that up Giacomo and Deniro

No worries..

Definitely a rat.