Does anyone know if there's any truth to this bullshit? According to Kenny Gallo's book Breakshot, Anthony (Junior) Sirico, whom most of you probably know as Paulie Walnuts, used to belong to Sonny Franzese's crew and worked as a muscle. I personally wouldn't be surprised.

This is from Wikipedia
Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly a mob associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico and had been arrested twenty-eight times. There is a Sopranos reference to this fact when Paulie says "I lived through the seventies by the skin of my nuts when the Colombos were goin' at it."In 1967, he was sent to prison for robbing a Brooklyn after-hours club, but was released after serving thirteen months. In 1971, he plead guilty to felony weapons possession and was sentenced to an "indeterminate" prison term of up to four years, of which Sirico ended up serving twenty months. In an interview in Cigar Aficionado magazine, Sirico said that during his imprisonment, he was visited by an acting troupe composed of ex-cons, which inspired him to give acting a try. According to a court transcript, at the time of his sentencing, he also had pending charges for drug possession. Sirico appeared in a 1989 documentary about life, The Big Bang by James Toback, in which he discussed his earlier life.

Other interesting articles

From Sing Sing To Bada Bing!Tony Sirico's real-life training for his "Sopranos" role

There's a good reason Tony Sirico is so convincing as the menacing Paulie Walnuts on "The Sopranos." Because before becoming an actor, Sirico was a mob-connected thug who dealt speed, packed a loaded Beretta, and was once actually declared a "danger to society" by a New York judge.

In fact, according to court records that read like a David Chase script, Sirico was a feared shakedown artist who preyed on Manhattan nightclubs and who once gave this description of his extortion technique: "You hit them over the head with a baseball bat, and they come around." After a dispute with a disco owner, Sirico once warned, "I'm going to come back here and carve my initials in your forehead. You better learn a lesson, you better show me the respect I deserve." A Bellevue Hospital psychiatric report from that period concluded that Sirico suffered from a "character disorder."

The court records obtained by The Smoking Gun involve Sirico's 1971 conviction for felony weapons possession, a crime for which he was sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison. Sirico ended up serving 20 months in places like Sing Sing, and has, to his credit, avoided trouble since (if you don't count clipping Pussy last season).

We've included the felony affidavit filed against Sirico (who was born Genaro Sirico) and the marvelous transcript from his sentencing, which includes an entertaining narrative offered by prosecutor Gerard Hinckley--it's a must-read for "Sopranos" fans. TSG's favorite section involves a botched police tail of Sirico that ends with the future Mr. Walnuts's auto deftly forcing the unmarked car--Bada Bing!--into a traffic divider.
Tony sirico affidavit
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/tony-sirico-felony-affidavit
Sirico sentencing transcript (15 pages)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/sirico-sentencing-transcript

A few posts about him:

http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/tony_sirico/

A young Tony Sirico.

He looks like a fucking rapist..

If I remember correctly, Ken Gallo pretty much shit all over Tony Sirico and said he was basically a moron. I get the feeling the most complicated crime he ever committed was holding up a gun and saying 'give me your money'.

Want to find out about Paulie ask him he always shows up at the Santa Rosalia fiest on 18 ave here in Brooklyn.

He did minor time as a kid big deal. He is an actor now.

This is great

to be honest, ken gallo also looks like a moron to me

Kenji Gallo thinks everyone but himself is a moron.

It is true, Gallo shit all over basically everybody in his book, not just Sirico.

I read in the NY post one time where Joe Coffey said Sirico was trying to extort a shop owner and he called the cops...Coffey was waiting for him,and when Sirico came and got tough Coffey came out and punched him in the nose, and Sirico was bleeding all over a white shirt he was wearing..When he went to be arraigned the judge asked him what happened to his nose, Sirico said he fell..Coffey called him a stand up guy !!

Lol! I'd take a wide berth around the guy back in the day, but yeah, I bet he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

wasn't it rumored he also took part in someway with a murder in L.A? like helped clean the scene or something. idk

Not sure.

The way he has a bald line down the center of his head from perfectly parting his hair is so creepy.

Why does it seem Coffey was literally doing this to every major mob guy, and every associate or connected guy? He seemed to have some sort of interaction with anyone and everyone in organised crime in the 70's.

Gallo was like 3 years old when Sirico was mobbed up! What the fuck does he know?

i would say it is very possible he knows less then some and a lot more than you?

He certainly does, but he's a chronic liar, it's been proved time and time again, that's why nobody takes him serious.

Nobody as in the person who quoted him earlier to prove a point? Or the ones who hire him to do interviews and write books.

He's wrote one book, his own biography His blog doesn't get any views either. I'll say it again nobody takes him serious.

well when a publisher offers you a royalty deal to share your life with the rest of us, please let me know and I will be first in line to get your signature. I am sure it will smell nice as I use it for kindling in my fire place.

You said books, not a book. Of course someone wanted to publish it, he's a former mobster turned FBI informant, he's got stories to tell, just a shame he over exaggerates and makes things up. Which is why literally nobody views his blog anymore.

That and he sometimes comes across as a drooling retard. Have to say his book was entertaining though. Can't take that away from him. It was basically a parody, I almost lost it when he introduced Peter North into the story

I'm just curious as to what initials he would carve on the discotheque owner's forehead.
Would it have been GS? AS? Or TS? Gerard, anthony or Tony or maybe JS for junior?
On a side note...
One must come to realize that the carving of one's own initials onto an individual's forehead would, at some future point, highly impact their appearance of innocence. Lol

I'm glad I read that. It was pretty comical

For a new guy who admittedly knows very little you're quick to sarcastically dismiss the (correct) postings of a respected veteran on the boards.

Not going to help your learning curve very much. Though whether you benefit from this advice or Tommy's I'm sure concerns Tommy as much as it does my self. That is to say, not overly.