Tony, Silvio, and Paulie





Story Backround




The Soprano Crew was founded in about 1960 by Giovanni 'Johnny Boy' Soprano. Johnny Boy had been good friends with Ercoli 'Old Man Ekley' DiMeo (the Boss of the family) for several years pre-1960, and had a huge amount of respect for him. When Ercoli decided to increase the family's population, he split it into four different crew (La Manna, Curto, Junior and Soprano). Johnny ran the Soprano crew and his older brother, Corrado 'Uncle Junior' Soprano the Junior crew. Johnny, along with Michele 'Feech the King of Breadsticks' La Manna, was known as one of the most ruthless and respected mobsters in the entire family. Although well liked, he had a mean streak as well, and wasn't afraid to reveal it from time to time. Johnny was also known to have ruthless, yet liked, side kicks; notably Richard 'Dickie' Moltisanti (who was supposedly murdered by a policeman in 1975), Patrizio 'Uncle Pat' Blundetto (Johnny's partner-in-crime and cousin), and Peter 'Paulie Walnuts' Gualtieri (Johnny's and Uncle Pat's bodyguard throughout the 60s and 70s). During the 80s, Johnny also brought his son (Anthony 'Tony' Soprano) along with his friends (Silvio 'Sil' Dante and Salvatore 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero) into his crew. The two proved capable mobsters and Johnny was proud of his work. Ercoli, although he never had an Underboss of Consigliere, named Johnny his sworn successor as Boss, were he to die or get arrested (this was after Feech been arrested, explaining why he wasn't Johnny's successor, rather than Johnny, who was not as experienced or old as Feech). However, Johnny soon got emphysema and died of cancer in 1989. The whole family was taken by shock.


After Johnny's death, Tony his son was pronounced as the Capo of the Soprano crew, with Sil as his second-in-command. Tony was very well liked by the rest of the family and was thought to be the greatest of all the Capos, with the exception of Giacomo 'Jackie' Aprile Sr., who was later promoted to Boss in 1995, after Ercoli's arrest. Tony and fellow Capo James 'Little Jimmy' Altieri, were the youngest yet most successful Capos during the late 90s. In 1998, Jackie was diagnosed with lung cancer, and by 1999, was in and out of the hospital daily. Jackie and Tony and been like brothers they were at high school together, and at deaths door, Jackie thought it might be a clever idea to start picking a successor. He picked Tony, which thoroughly angered Junior, who had never been considered for Boss, despite being the most experienced mobster in the whole family (though he was hated by almost all). Jackie died in mid-1999, and Tony himself promoted Junior to Boss instead of himself. With Junior in the top position, the FBI would always have the spotlight on him, rather than Tony, who actually ran the organisation. This meant Tony was less likely to get in trouble than Junior. However, later that year, an assassination attempt was made on Tony, though it fail, leaving Tony only with a small ear injury. When Tony found out who had hired hit men to assassinate him, he was shocked and angry - Junior and his Consigliere, Michael 'Mikey Grab Bag' Palmice (a mobster Tony thoroughly hated), had created a conspiracy against Tony, after it was revealed to Junior that Tony was seeing a therapist. Junior therefore believed Tony was working for the FBI, which was not true. Tony took violent action, demanding the death of everyone in the conspiracy. By the end of the week, all but one of the six members of the conspiracy had been killed: Junior had been arrested and was awaiting a re-trial; Joe 'Beppy' Sasso, the family's Underboss, had been given a life sentence; Mikey was murdered; Charles 'Chucky' Signore, a Soldier in the Junior crew was murdered; Donnie Paduana, an Associate in the Junior crew was murdered. Philip 'Philly Spoons' Parisi, the Capo of the Junior crew, was only man remaining. Tony spared him since his twin brother, Pasquale 'Patsy' Parisi, was loyal to him, and he didn't want to create any social conflicts. Due to Beppy Sasso's imprisonment for life, Tony promoted himself to Underboss, his second-in-command Sil to Consigliere, and Paulie Walnuts to Capo. In 2000, Paulie and Tony had Spoons murdered by Gigi Cestone, another Soldier, for spreading nasty rumours about Tony in an attempt to start a mutiny. He got an answer.


After Tony's promotion to Underboss and Sil's promotion to Consigliere (due to Mikey's assassination), Paulie Walnuts was promoted to Capo of the crew. Paulie was a reasonable earner, and an overall good Capo, though sometimes certain Soldiers and Associates thought he took too much pleasure when pulling rank. An example of this was in 2001 when Chrissy had just been promoted to the rank of Soldier. While most of the family applauded his achievement, Paulie simply told Chrissy to take off his clothes, in order to do a full scale inspection of Chrissy, to check he wasn't wearing a wire (a recorder that is placed by the FBI when working for them). Paulie also enjoyed giving particularly hard tasks to Chrissy. It seems Paulie felt that Chrissie had risen too fast in the Family and hadn't necessarily "earned" his promotion, instead believing that he had gotten it mostly due to his family connection to Tony and Tony's personal loyalty to Chrissie's father. In Paulie's mind - and this was based on his own personal experience - rising to the top levels of the Family required many years of toil, steadfast loyalty, and a willingness and ability to successfully and without question complete all manner of "dirty work" for the organization. For this reason, Paulie determined that HE would make Chrissie earn his promotion and understand that the perks he was receiving as a Soldier do not usually come so easy. Paulie also had an obsession with being the highest-earning Capo, which he rarely ever was - the Aprile crew was always the high earning crew no matter who was running it, and the Barese, Junior and Curto crews all brought in a hefty amount of cash. This made Paulie angry and jealous, continuously arguing with the other Capos and claiming that he always had a share of their profits (which wasn't always true). In about 2003, Paulie got cancer, though he 'beat it' and was soon active again. Paulie's loyalties was another downfall of his - at one point in 2003, Paulie wanted to move to the Lupertazzi crime family, and abandon Tony's family (this plan failed since Paulie hadn't been noticed or had made an impression on Boss Carmine Lupertazzi Sr.). As for murders, Paulie was always ready for anything, though sometimes going too far (notably killing a waiter for giving him a large bill). Although he was Capo of the largest crew, Paulie certainly wasn't the best, and by 2006, Paulie started to fall dramatically down in Tony's estimations. During the War of 2007, however, Paulie was loyal to his family, deciding not to join the Lupertazzi side, but to stay with the DiMeo mobsters instead. With Underboss Robert 'Bobby Bacala' Baccalieri Jr. dead and Sil in a coma, Tony needed a new Underboss. He gave Paulie the position (though it wasn't a great achievement, since the only other option was Albert 'Ally Boy' Barese, who got on Tony's nerves). Hence Paulie was promoted to Underboss in 2007.




Albert "Ally Boy" Barese



Patsy Parisi








Patsy was promoted to Capo of the crew after Paulie's promotion. Patsy and Albert Barese as of 2007, are the only Capos left in the family, with Patsy in charge of most of the criminal organizations.









Richard "Dickie" Moltisanti

Former soldier in the Soprano crew. Supposedly died in the mid-1970s but fled instead to avoid jail time. Married Joanne Moltisanti née Blundetto, father of Christopher and cousin to Carmella. Dickie was in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and later served time in prison, leaving little time with his family. When the FBI threatened to put him in jail unless he wore a wire, he fled to Canada for 30 years. Everyone in Jersey was told by the Soprano crew he was killed during Christopher's infancy, right outside the house while bringing TV trays home. Years later, Tony Soprano told Christopher that Dickie's killer was Detective Lt. Barry Haydu, who had just retired from the force. Tony delivered Haydu to Christopher Moltisanti as a part of his process of bonding Chris to him and slowly easing him up the family hierarchy. However, when confronted by Christopher, Haydu denied ever having heard of Dickie Moltisanti and claimed that someone was "obviously" setting him up. Tony calls Dickie a "stand up guy" and describes a lot of his positive qualities to Christopher. Dickie once took on a whole crew from New England and brought the war home to their turf.



A young Richard "Dickie" Moltisanti




Last edited by Rotcho; 05/10/14 08:39 AM.