Here's a link to the article that works. NY Daily News might have changed the one that was retrieved by the wikipedia contributor.
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news...rticle-1.878352And, here's some text from the article that further demonstrates the first season of the Sopranos was based on the '90s DeCavs.
"Palermo, 54, was appointed one of three captains of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family in December 1998 while the boss, John Riggi, served time in prison. Members of that family were secretly recorded last year on government wiretaps talking about how the hit HBO cable TV series "The Sopranos" was based on their clan, according to transcripts. They ticked off similarities between the fictional family and their own, such as an aging gangster in both clans who died of stomach cancer, and the nagging suspicion that one of their own was wearing a wire. "You are in there," Anthony Rotondo, one of Palermo's closest allies, told an associate. "Every show you watch, more and more you pick up somebody. Every show."
