History




2006 Shooting of Tony Soprano


During his house arrest and trials/re-trials, Junior developed signs of dementia. He suffered a head injury after being hit with a boom microphone and knocked down the courthouse steps. Several mini-strokes over the years increasingly diminished his capacity and led him to shoot Tony in the abdomen, mistakenly thinking that Tony was his already deceased nemesis "Little Pussy" Malanga.
The shooting of Tony Soprano set off a media frenzy, with reporters stalking the Soprano house and outside the hospital where Tony lay in a coma. Junior Soprano was arrested and questioned about the shooting, which he insisted must have been a self-inflicted gunshot by Tony, whom he labeled as a "depression case". The captains of the Family agreed to cut all ties to Junior and allow Tony to decide what happens to him. Junior was judged to be mentally unstable and was sent to a mental rehabilitation facility.
With Tony incapacitated, his consigliere Silvio Dante took over as Acting Boss of the Soprano Crime Family; however, Silvio was unable to handle the pressure of being boss, and suffered an asthma attack that put him in the hospital. Tony, after a near-death experience, would awake from his coma soon after, just in time to settle a dispute over the future of Barone Sanitation with Johnny Sack and Phil Leotardo.


Tension with New York


While in prison, Johnny Sack reached out to Tony through Phil Leotardo to whack his insubordinate capo, Rusty Millio. Tony refused at first, but had a change of heart after talking to Johnny Sack at his daughter's wedding. Tony conducted the execution of Millio with caution, bringing in two men from Naples to carry out the hit on Rusty and his soldier, Eddie Pietro. Johnny Sack later plead guilty in his RICO trial to lessen his sentence, thus making Phil Leotardo the boss in all but title.
More complications occurred in the organization when Vito Spatafore, the top earning captain of the Aprile crew and cousin-in-law to Phil Leotardo, fled New Jersey after his homosexuality was revealed. Carlo Gervasi was named by Tony as the replacement point man for the Family's construction interests. After hiding in New Hampshire for months, Vito returned to New Jersey, approaching Tony about starting up a separate operation in Atlantic City involving prostitution. Tony considered the request, but ultimately decided that Vito needed to be taken out in order to placate Phil Leotardo, who was incensed about Vito's lifestyle. However, Phil got to Vito first, breaking into his hotel room and watched while soldiers Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello and Gerry Torciano beat his cousin-in-law to death. Tony, realizing that Phil was sending the message that New York can do whatever they want, decided to hurt Phil financially as payback for Vito. Tony reasoned that a war with New York would prevent his family from earning. However, when Fat Dom went to Satriale's on a delivery stop and made jokes about Vito's death and implied Carlo was a homosexual, Silvio and Carlo killed the New York soldier.
Tony's response to Vito's murder was to blow up a wire room held by Phil in Sheepshead Bay — Benny Fazio was on the scene for the explosion. After a sit-down between the New Jersey and New York Families, a truce was nearly reached before a reference from Little Carmine to the death of Billy Leotardo resulted in Phil Leotardo storming out. At a conference with Gerry Torciano, Albie Cianfiore, and Butch DeConcini, a decision was reached to take out a high-ranking member of the Soprano crime family. Butch was particularly vocal in his desire to kill Tony, but Phil had more sense than that, and decided against it. Phil suffered a massive coronary soon afterwards and FBI Agent Harris informed Tony that someone on his crew could be in danger. In an attempt to clear the air between them, Tony paid a visit to Phil's hospital bed, telling him of his own near-death experience. During his disagreement with Phil about an asbestos removal project, Tony reminds him of their discussion in the hospital but Phil snubs him. Tony retaliates by taking two members of Phil's crew off a project payroll, after which after one of them threatens Tony's daughter Meadow. Tony retaliates by curb-stomping him on a wooden step in a restaurant in front of Butch DeConcini, shattering all of the threatener's teeth. Phil refuses to meet with Tony after this incident and war between the two families seems imminent.


The War of 2007


It becomes clear that there is no compromise available between NY and NJ, and as a result the wheels begin to turn. New York convinces Burt Gervasi to switch sides, and he approaches Silvio Dante to join in on a coup d'état attempt on Soprano. The likely idea is that if Tony is killed, Silvio will take over and make peace, and Gervasi will be rewarded. Silvio responds by strangling Burt Gervasi at his house with a garotte. Soprano knew what had to be done, and arranged for Phil Leotardo to be executed. At the same time, Phil had a war-room discussion where he arranged for New Jersey to be wiped out. Phil gives orders to "decapitate the leadership" of the Sopranos and "do business with what's left", and orders contracts on Tony Soprano, Silvio Dante and Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri. The Sopranos attempt to hit Phil went awry however when Phil's Ukrainian mistress and her father were mistaken for Phil and were mistakenly killed by the non-English-speaking Italians who were brought over from "the other side" specifically to perform this contract.
The hits on the Sopranos in New Jersey took place with more finesse, however. Bacala is killed at a model train shop when two assassins ambush him. Word comes down that Leotardo has vanished, and the Soprano Family decides to do the same. However, as Patsy Parisi and Silvio Dante attempt to go on the lam, they are ambushed by a pair of New York hitmen outside the Bada Bing. In the ensuing carnage, Silvio Dante is shot multiple times but Parisi escapes. Silvio is rushed to a hospital where he is left in a coma. Tony and some soldiers head to a safe house to hide, as the search for Phil continued. Tony, surrounded by bodyguards, attempts to sleep while holding an AR-10 rifle in his arms, which Bobby gave to him on his 47th birthday,
Tony came out of hiding shortly after and arranged a sit down with Butch DeConcini and Albie Cianflone through "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi and retired Five Families Boss, George Paglieri. During this meeting the New York Family agreed that Phil Leotardo's decision to go to war with North Jersey was a bad one, has gone much too far and that consequently the New York leadership would back off. Tony also demanded that they give him a location on Phil, but Butch refused to tell of Phil's whereabouts (either because he didn’t know or still felt loyal to his boss). Butch did, however, give Tony implicit permission to take Phil out should he find him, without retaliation from Butch and New York. Butch also agrees to financially compensate Bobby’s widow. Since Tony had previously given FBI Agent Harris information on two Pakistani men that used to be small time associates of the family, Harris eventually told Tony that Phil had been making calls from a pay phone at a gas station in Oyster Bay. The Soprano family began patrolling the area's gas stations looking for Phil. It wasn't long before Walden Belfiore, a soldier in the Gervasi crew, caught up with Phil at the gas station. Phil was shot in the head and chest in front of his wife and grandchildren. His vehicle was in gear and, while Phil was on the ground, the driverless SUV ran over his head. The New York/New Jersey war was brought to its final conclusion.












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