Livia Soprano, played by Nancy Marchand
Tony Soprano's mother Livia, a primary topic in her son's therapy sessions, had a poor upbringing and spent her adult life projecting her unhappiness onto others. Her husband, Johnny Boy, provided for the family but did not live up to her standards. She pressured him to make more money, but when an opportunity to move to Reno to pursue business interests arose, she eschewed the plan. When Tony placed Livia in a nursing home in an attempt to help her, she convinced Uncle Junior to put a hit on him. The hit was unsuccessful and Livia was never implicated in the crime. A year later, she died in her sleep.
Adriana La Cerva, played by Drea de Matteo
Christopher Moltisanti's fiancée Adriana had been enmeshed in the crime family lifestyle until the Feds caught up with her and she became an informant. The FBI pressured Adriana to get Christopher to turn and give up Tony, or she and her future husband would serve a five-year sentence for drug charges. With the pressure mounting, Adriana confessed to Christopher, who nearly choked her to death. For a fleeting moment, he seemed to forgive her, but in the end, he gave her up. The crew tricked Adriana into thinking she was being taken to the hospital to see Christopher after a failed suicide attempt; in fact, Silvio took her to the woods and shot her. Friends and family were led to believe Adriana skipped town, but her mother suspects foul play.
Tony B., played by Steve Buscemi
Tony Blundetto was Tony Soprano's first cousin and close childhood friend. Tony B. had had a thriving career as a mobster until he was 28, when he was locked up for 15 years. Tony S. was supposed to be with Tony B. the night he got arrested, but he was incapacitated by a panic attack.
After his release, the Leotardo family killed his former cell mate, Angela Garepe, and Tony B. retaliated by killing Billy Leotardo while Billy's brother Phil watched. Tony Soprano, knowing Phil Leotardo would savagely kill Tony B. for Billy's murder, took matters into his own hands and killed Tony B.
Ralph Cifaretto, played by Joe Pantoliano
With his inappropriate comments, misogynistic attitude and tactless behavior, Ralph Cifaretto becomes Tony Soprano's least favorite business associate. A low point for Ralph occurred when, high on cocaine, he beat a young Bada Bing dancer -- pregnant with his baby -- to death. Tony and Ralph found common ground when Ralph bought a racehorse Tony named Pie-O-My, that Tony grew to like. But when Ralph needed money and the highly insured horse died in a suspicious stable fire, Tony killed Ralph, recruiting Christopher to help dismember and bury the body.
Big Pussy, played by Vincent Pastore
According to rumor, Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero earned his nickname because he was once a cat-burglar. Big Pussy was a family man and close friend to Tony Soprano.
The Feds caught up with Pussy for smuggling heroin and threatened him with life in state prison unless he became an informant. Fearing for his children's future, Pussy agreed to get wired. When Tony, Silvio and Paulie confronted him during a boat ride, Pussy tried to talk his way out of it, but to no avail; he was shot to death. Silvio wrapped Pussy's body in chains and pushed it overboard.
Gloria Trillo, played by Annabella Sciorra
Tony Soprano and Gloria met in the waiting room of Dr. Melfi's office; the psychiatrist was treating Gloria for severe depression, which was worsened by a series of failed relationships. Gloria and Tony had an intense affair, but Gloria became jealous and threatened to call Carmela. This infuriated Tony, who nearly strangled his girlfriend while she spat on him and begged him to follow through. Several months after they broke up, Gloria hanged herself from a chandelier. She did not leave a suicide note.
Richie Aprile, played by David Proval
Richie seemed relatively mild-mannered considering his criminal lifestyle, but he was a ruthless mobster. He had been in prison for 10 years and was unhappy with the changes in the family, especially Tony's rise to the top, during his time served. Richie wanted to whack Tony and told Uncle Junior, who in turn tipped off Tony. Tony had intended to kill Richie Aprile but Tony's sister Janice beat him to it. Richie and Janice were engaged and one night an argument escalated into Richie hitting his fiancée in the face. Janice retaliated by shooting Richie dead.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Key Members of "The Sopranos"
Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini
The center of the show, Tony heads the DiMeo family, the most powerful crime organization in New Jersey. He was born in 1959 and grew up in North Jersey. Violence was prevalent in Tony's childhood; he witnessed his father, Johnny Boy, brutalizing victims, while his mother, Livia, was emotionally abusive. Johnny Boy brought Tony into the family crime business.
As the acting head of the "family," Tony has been responsible for many deaths, including his close associate Big Pussy, his cousin Tony B. and his associate Ralph Cifaretto. Meanwhile, his personal life has had its share of complications, with his marriage almost breaking up because of his infidelity, tension with his children and his own struggle with anxiety.
Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco
Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, arguably knows the mob boss better than anyone else. She is a respected doctor in private practice to whom Tony was referred by a neighbor.
Dr. Melfi hasn't had an easy time with Tony as a patient. She has self-medicated her stress with alcohol, and her own therapist prescribed medication for Melfi's obsessive-compulsive disorder. Tony has made multiple attempts to woo Dr. Melfi, but she has always refused his advances.
Carmela Soprano, played by Edie Falco
Carmela DeAngelis met Tony Soprano in high school and eventually quit her studies at Montclair State University to marry him. While she enjoys the material perks of being married to a mobster, she finds it harder to deal with the constant threat of losing her husband to business.
Tony and Carmela separated once because of his infidelity. While Tony has had numerous extramarital affairs over the years, Carmela also had a flirtation with Tony's business associate Furio Giunta and, during their separation, an affair with their son's guidance counselor. Ultimately, however, Carmela and Tony reunited.
Christopher Moltisanti, played by Michael Imperioli
Christopher is Carmela's first cousin but as Tony's protégé, Tony adopts him as his own nephew. Christopher was a baby when his father was killed and Tony became a father figure to him.
Christopher has an impulsive and sometimes violent nature, which has made for obstacles as the heroin addict has risen in the ranks of the family business. His flirtations with Hollywood have been a constant annoyance to Tony, and he also was not always sure it was the life for him. He did, however, prove his devotion to the Sopranos when he informed on his fiancée, Adriana, who was killed after she tried to convince Christopher to help the Feds.
Uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese
Carrado Soprano, Jr., better known as Uncle Junior, is Tony Soprano's paternal uncle.
Junior briefly headed the New Jersey crime family, but because his leadership was perceived as selfish and overbearing, Tony took over. Capitalizing on Junior's vulnerability, Tony's mother, Livia, manipulated Junior into ordering an unsuccessful hit on her son. Junior was also placed under house arrest on federal racketeering charges but his case ended in a mistrial. He has been diagnosed with cancer and has suffered a series of strokes. While awaiting his re-trial, he mistook Tony for an old acquaintance and shot him, nearly to death. He now lives in a mental health facility.
Silvio Dante, played by Steven Van Zandt
Silvio, one of Tony Soprano's associates, owns the Bada Bing club, the topless club where they do business.
Silvio has been around mobsters his entire life. While he is even-tempered and reasonable, he is no stranger to violence. He has recommended Tony to eliminate rivals by having them killed and he personally took part in the murder of Big Pussy. Silvio ran the crew while Tony was in a coma, but he found the stress of being the boss more than he could handle.
Paulie Walnuts, played by Tony Sirico
Peter Paul Gualtieri, aka Paulie Walnuts, has been a part of the business since age 17, under Johnny Boy Soprano, Tony's father.
Paulie has a violent temper, but perhaps what sets him apart from Tony's other associates are his issues with women. He has never been married, but has a strong bond with his "mother," Nucci, whom he discovered was actually his aunt; his real mother was a nun. Paulie considered leaving Tony's organization to become part of a New York crime operation after some of Tony's decisions led to a decreased income for Paulie. But when the leader of the New York organization did not recognize him, Paulie returned to Tony - with a wad of cash for the mob boss.
Anthony Soprano Jr., played by Robert Iler
Tony Soprano's younger child, Anthony Jr., or A.J., is a troubled teenager whose rap sheet includes crashing his mother's car while driving without a license and getting caught smoking marijuana at his confirmation party. He was expelled from high school for cheating on a test.
After his expulsion, A.J. was sent to a tough-as-nails military school, but his enrollment was cancelled when it was discovered he, like his father and grandfather, suffered from anxiety attacks. A.J. set out to kill Uncle Junior for shooting Tony but found himself incapable when he came face to face with his great-uncle. A.J. has been changing his aimless ways since becoming involved with Blanca Selgada, a single mother.
Meadow Soprano, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Meadow Mariangela Soprano is the older of Tony and Carmela's two children.
She excelled in high school and at Columbia University, but her relationship with her parents has been rocky through the years. Her parents disapproved of her boyfriend Tony, who was of mixed race, and her next boyfriend, Jackie Aprile, Jr., whose father was Tony's late boss and friend. And even though Jackie cheated on Meadow and failed out of college, she was devastated when he was found shot to death, and she blamed her father and the mob lifestyle. She is now engaged to Finn DeTriolio and living in California. She seems to have distanced herself from the family's criminal connections.
Janice Soprano, played by Aida Turturro
Tony Soprano's older sister Janice disappeared from family interaction from high school graduation until her mother, Livia's, stroke -- and the promised inheritance -- prompted her return to New Jersey. Back home, she got engaged to her old boyfriend, Richie Aprile, whom she shot to death after he hit her in the mouth. Tony sent her to Seattle, Washington, but she returned home for good after Livia's death.
Janice's trouble with her Russian housekeeper landed her in the hospital, where she found religion. She had an intense affair with Ralph Cifaretto, but that ended in favor of a relationship with widower Bobby Baccilieri. She became a soccer mom, and after being arrested for assaulting the mother of a peewee soccer player, she enrolled in counseling.
Johnny Sack, played by Vince Curatola
Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni is the head of the New York operation and an ally of Tony Soprano.
Johnny is known for his cool, calm and collected demeanor. However, a disparaging remark about his wife can trigger rage, as was the case when Ralph Cifaretto repeated a comment about her backside and Johnny ordered a hit on Ralph (which was eventually called off). The Feds busted Johnny, but while imprisoned he received permission to attend to his daughter's wedding. He openly cried there, losing the respect of many of his associates and essentially control of the family.
Phil Leotardo, played by Frank Vincent
Tony Soprano's rival, Phil Leotardo, is the head of the New York crime family.
Hostility brewed between Tony and Phil when Tony Soprano took out Tony B. before Phil could get his hands on Tony B. for torturing and killing Phil's brother in front of Phil. The animosity continued with Phil's disrespect toward Tony until Phil suffered a heart attack and Tony made a bedside appeal for reconciliation.
The center of the show, Tony heads the DiMeo family, the most powerful crime organization in New Jersey. He was born in 1959 and grew up in North Jersey. Violence was prevalent in Tony's childhood; he witnessed his father, Johnny Boy, brutalizing victims, while his mother, Livia, was emotionally abusive. Johnny Boy brought Tony into the family crime business.
As the acting head of the "family," Tony has been responsible for many deaths, including his close associate Big Pussy, his cousin Tony B. and his associate Ralph Cifaretto. Meanwhile, his personal life has had its share of complications, with his marriage almost breaking up because of his infidelity, tension with his children and his own struggle with anxiety.
Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco
Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, arguably knows the mob boss better than anyone else. She is a respected doctor in private practice to whom Tony was referred by a neighbor.
Dr. Melfi hasn't had an easy time with Tony as a patient. She has self-medicated her stress with alcohol, and her own therapist prescribed medication for Melfi's obsessive-compulsive disorder. Tony has made multiple attempts to woo Dr. Melfi, but she has always refused his advances.
Carmela Soprano, played by Edie Falco
Carmela DeAngelis met Tony Soprano in high school and eventually quit her studies at Montclair State University to marry him. While she enjoys the material perks of being married to a mobster, she finds it harder to deal with the constant threat of losing her husband to business.
Tony and Carmela separated once because of his infidelity. While Tony has had numerous extramarital affairs over the years, Carmela also had a flirtation with Tony's business associate Furio Giunta and, during their separation, an affair with their son's guidance counselor. Ultimately, however, Carmela and Tony reunited.
Christopher Moltisanti, played by Michael Imperioli
Christopher is Carmela's first cousin but as Tony's protégé, Tony adopts him as his own nephew. Christopher was a baby when his father was killed and Tony became a father figure to him.
Christopher has an impulsive and sometimes violent nature, which has made for obstacles as the heroin addict has risen in the ranks of the family business. His flirtations with Hollywood have been a constant annoyance to Tony, and he also was not always sure it was the life for him. He did, however, prove his devotion to the Sopranos when he informed on his fiancée, Adriana, who was killed after she tried to convince Christopher to help the Feds.
Uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese
Carrado Soprano, Jr., better known as Uncle Junior, is Tony Soprano's paternal uncle.
Junior briefly headed the New Jersey crime family, but because his leadership was perceived as selfish and overbearing, Tony took over. Capitalizing on Junior's vulnerability, Tony's mother, Livia, manipulated Junior into ordering an unsuccessful hit on her son. Junior was also placed under house arrest on federal racketeering charges but his case ended in a mistrial. He has been diagnosed with cancer and has suffered a series of strokes. While awaiting his re-trial, he mistook Tony for an old acquaintance and shot him, nearly to death. He now lives in a mental health facility.
Silvio Dante, played by Steven Van Zandt
Silvio, one of Tony Soprano's associates, owns the Bada Bing club, the topless club where they do business.
Silvio has been around mobsters his entire life. While he is even-tempered and reasonable, he is no stranger to violence. He has recommended Tony to eliminate rivals by having them killed and he personally took part in the murder of Big Pussy. Silvio ran the crew while Tony was in a coma, but he found the stress of being the boss more than he could handle.
Paulie Walnuts, played by Tony Sirico
Peter Paul Gualtieri, aka Paulie Walnuts, has been a part of the business since age 17, under Johnny Boy Soprano, Tony's father.
Paulie has a violent temper, but perhaps what sets him apart from Tony's other associates are his issues with women. He has never been married, but has a strong bond with his "mother," Nucci, whom he discovered was actually his aunt; his real mother was a nun. Paulie considered leaving Tony's organization to become part of a New York crime operation after some of Tony's decisions led to a decreased income for Paulie. But when the leader of the New York organization did not recognize him, Paulie returned to Tony - with a wad of cash for the mob boss.
Anthony Soprano Jr., played by Robert Iler
Tony Soprano's younger child, Anthony Jr., or A.J., is a troubled teenager whose rap sheet includes crashing his mother's car while driving without a license and getting caught smoking marijuana at his confirmation party. He was expelled from high school for cheating on a test.
After his expulsion, A.J. was sent to a tough-as-nails military school, but his enrollment was cancelled when it was discovered he, like his father and grandfather, suffered from anxiety attacks. A.J. set out to kill Uncle Junior for shooting Tony but found himself incapable when he came face to face with his great-uncle. A.J. has been changing his aimless ways since becoming involved with Blanca Selgada, a single mother.
Meadow Soprano, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Meadow Mariangela Soprano is the older of Tony and Carmela's two children.
She excelled in high school and at Columbia University, but her relationship with her parents has been rocky through the years. Her parents disapproved of her boyfriend Tony, who was of mixed race, and her next boyfriend, Jackie Aprile, Jr., whose father was Tony's late boss and friend. And even though Jackie cheated on Meadow and failed out of college, she was devastated when he was found shot to death, and she blamed her father and the mob lifestyle. She is now engaged to Finn DeTriolio and living in California. She seems to have distanced herself from the family's criminal connections.
Janice Soprano, played by Aida Turturro
Tony Soprano's older sister Janice disappeared from family interaction from high school graduation until her mother, Livia's, stroke -- and the promised inheritance -- prompted her return to New Jersey. Back home, she got engaged to her old boyfriend, Richie Aprile, whom she shot to death after he hit her in the mouth. Tony sent her to Seattle, Washington, but she returned home for good after Livia's death.
Janice's trouble with her Russian housekeeper landed her in the hospital, where she found religion. She had an intense affair with Ralph Cifaretto, but that ended in favor of a relationship with widower Bobby Baccilieri. She became a soccer mom, and after being arrested for assaulting the mother of a peewee soccer player, she enrolled in counseling.
Johnny Sack, played by Vince Curatola
Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni is the head of the New York operation and an ally of Tony Soprano.
Johnny is known for his cool, calm and collected demeanor. However, a disparaging remark about his wife can trigger rage, as was the case when Ralph Cifaretto repeated a comment about her backside and Johnny ordered a hit on Ralph (which was eventually called off). The Feds busted Johnny, but while imprisoned he received permission to attend to his daughter's wedding. He openly cried there, losing the respect of many of his associates and essentially control of the family.
Phil Leotardo, played by Frank Vincent
Tony Soprano's rival, Phil Leotardo, is the head of the New York crime family.
Hostility brewed between Tony and Phil when Tony Soprano took out Tony B. before Phil could get his hands on Tony B. for torturing and killing Phil's brother in front of Phil. The animosity continued with Phil's disrespect toward Tony until Phil suffered a heart attack and Tony made a bedside appeal for reconciliation.
Season by Season Guide to "The Sopranos"
HBO's Emmy-winning TV series "The Sopranos" pushed the envelope in its frank depiction of organized crime by inviting viewers into the world of Tony Soprano, his family -- wife Carmela and their children Meadow and Anthony Jr. -- and his "Family." Millions of loyal followers have been tuning in since 1999, and beginning Sunday, April 8th, the show will premiere the first of its final nine episodes.
Season 1
# Tony Soprano begins visiting psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi after anxiety attacks; eventually he hires a detective to investigate her
# Tony moves his mother into a retirement home against her wishes
# Jackie Aprile dies, Uncle Junior Soprano becomes the new boss of the New Jersey family
# Meadow Soprano reveals to her brother Anthony Jr. their father's true line of work
# Tony's mother Livia persuades Uncle Junior to put a hit out on Tony, which fails
# The crew kills Jimmy Altieri for being an FBI informant
# The FBI arrests Uncle Junior
Season 2
# With Uncle Junior locked up, Tony is the new mob boss
# Tony's long-lost sister, Janice, returns to tend to Livia
# Former boss Jackie Aprile's brother, Richie, gets out of jail, challenges Tony's leadership
# Tony resumes therapy with Dr. Melfi after she refuses to see him; she resorts to drinking vodka before their sessions
# Christopher Moltisanto, Tony's "nephew" but really Carmela's cousin -- survives being shot
# Janice kills Richie Aprile after he hits her
# Tony discovers "Big Pussy" is a federal informant, so consigliere Silvio Dante and capo Paulie Walnuts whack him
Season 3
# Tony's mother, Livia, dies
# Janice steals the prosthetic leg of her Russian housekeeper, Svetlana; Russian thugs retaliate by breaking three of Janice's ribs
# Dr. Melfi is raped
# New York crime boss Johnny Sack moves to New Jersey
# Uncle Junior undergoes chemotherapy for stomach cancer
# Tony dates Gloria Trillo, whom he met in Dr. Melfi's office
# Meadow's ex-boyfriend Jackie Aprile Jr. is shot to death because of a card game robbery
Season 4
# Christopher's fiance Adriana La Cerva unwittingly befriends an undercover agent; she is faced with an ultimatum of getting arrested or informing
# Janice and Ralph Cifaretto develop a relationship; she breaks it off by shoving him down stairs
# A distraught Tony learns his ex-girlfriend Gloria committed suicide
# Tony grows fond of the racehorse Pie-O-My; when the horse dies in a suspicious fire, Tony suspects Ralph and kills him. Christopher helps Tony dismember the body
# The family stages an intervention for heroin addict Christopher
# Carmela and Furio Giunta -- recruited from an Italian gang -- become attracted to one another, leading to Furio's return to Italy
# The judge declares a mistrial in Uncle Junior's case
# With Tony and Carmela's marriage strained, Tony moves into a hotel
Season 5
# Tony's cousin, Tony Blundetto, is released after 15 years behind bars; he tries and fails to work legitimately
# Uncle Junior's behavior seems odd; it develops he suffered several small strokes
# Tony B. takes things into his own hands to revenge a friend's killing by New York's Leotardos. He kills the New York operation's Billy
Leotardo, little brother of the powerful capo Phil. Johnny Sack wants Tony B. dead
# Tony and Carmela reconcile on the condition that Tony funds her spec house project
# Adriana, threatened by the FBI with jail, tries to get Christopher to escape with her; Christopher rats on her; Silvio kills Adriana in the woods
# With a heavy heart, Tony kills Tony B. -- saving him from a torturous murder by Phil Leotardo
Season 6
# A paranoid and unbalanced Uncle Junior shoots Tony, leaving him in a coma
# Tony recovers and is released from the hospital
# Johnny Sack, arrested by the Feds, is sentenced to 15 years
# Johnny, in prison, petitions to attend his daughter's wedding; he openly cries there and loses the respect of his crew
# A.J. (Anthony Jr.) vows revenge on Junior for shooting Tony but cannot go through with it
# Christopher, once again abusing drugs, marries his pregnant girlfriend Kelli
# Word gets out that Vito Spatafore, one of Tony's associates, is gay. Vito's wife is related to Phil -- who's furious and goes behind Tony's back to have Vito whacked
# Phil has a heart attack; Tony visits him in the hospital and pleads for peace
Thanks to CNN.
Season 1
# Tony Soprano begins visiting psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi after anxiety attacks; eventually he hires a detective to investigate her
# Tony moves his mother into a retirement home against her wishes
# Jackie Aprile dies, Uncle Junior Soprano becomes the new boss of the New Jersey family
# Meadow Soprano reveals to her brother Anthony Jr. their father's true line of work
# Tony's mother Livia persuades Uncle Junior to put a hit out on Tony, which fails
# The crew kills Jimmy Altieri for being an FBI informant
# The FBI arrests Uncle Junior
Season 2
# With Uncle Junior locked up, Tony is the new mob boss
# Tony's long-lost sister, Janice, returns to tend to Livia
# Former boss Jackie Aprile's brother, Richie, gets out of jail, challenges Tony's leadership
# Tony resumes therapy with Dr. Melfi after she refuses to see him; she resorts to drinking vodka before their sessions
# Christopher Moltisanto, Tony's "nephew" but really Carmela's cousin -- survives being shot
# Janice kills Richie Aprile after he hits her
# Tony discovers "Big Pussy" is a federal informant, so consigliere Silvio Dante and capo Paulie Walnuts whack him
Season 3
# Tony's mother, Livia, dies
# Janice steals the prosthetic leg of her Russian housekeeper, Svetlana; Russian thugs retaliate by breaking three of Janice's ribs
# Dr. Melfi is raped
# New York crime boss Johnny Sack moves to New Jersey
# Uncle Junior undergoes chemotherapy for stomach cancer
# Tony dates Gloria Trillo, whom he met in Dr. Melfi's office
# Meadow's ex-boyfriend Jackie Aprile Jr. is shot to death because of a card game robbery
Season 4
# Christopher's fiance Adriana La Cerva unwittingly befriends an undercover agent; she is faced with an ultimatum of getting arrested or informing
# Janice and Ralph Cifaretto develop a relationship; she breaks it off by shoving him down stairs
# A distraught Tony learns his ex-girlfriend Gloria committed suicide
# Tony grows fond of the racehorse Pie-O-My; when the horse dies in a suspicious fire, Tony suspects Ralph and kills him. Christopher helps Tony dismember the body
# The family stages an intervention for heroin addict Christopher
# Carmela and Furio Giunta -- recruited from an Italian gang -- become attracted to one another, leading to Furio's return to Italy
# The judge declares a mistrial in Uncle Junior's case
# With Tony and Carmela's marriage strained, Tony moves into a hotel
Season 5
# Tony's cousin, Tony Blundetto, is released after 15 years behind bars; he tries and fails to work legitimately
# Uncle Junior's behavior seems odd; it develops he suffered several small strokes
# Tony B. takes things into his own hands to revenge a friend's killing by New York's Leotardos. He kills the New York operation's Billy
Leotardo, little brother of the powerful capo Phil. Johnny Sack wants Tony B. dead
# Tony and Carmela reconcile on the condition that Tony funds her spec house project
# Adriana, threatened by the FBI with jail, tries to get Christopher to escape with her; Christopher rats on her; Silvio kills Adriana in the woods
# With a heavy heart, Tony kills Tony B. -- saving him from a torturous murder by Phil Leotardo
Season 6
# A paranoid and unbalanced Uncle Junior shoots Tony, leaving him in a coma
# Tony recovers and is released from the hospital
# Johnny Sack, arrested by the Feds, is sentenced to 15 years
# Johnny, in prison, petitions to attend his daughter's wedding; he openly cries there and loses the respect of his crew
# A.J. (Anthony Jr.) vows revenge on Junior for shooting Tony but cannot go through with it
# Christopher, once again abusing drugs, marries his pregnant girlfriend Kelli
# Word gets out that Vito Spatafore, one of Tony's associates, is gay. Vito's wife is related to Phil -- who's furious and goes behind Tony's back to have Vito whacked
# Phil has a heart attack; Tony visits him in the hospital and pleads for peace
Thanks to CNN.
Sopranos Ready for Final Whacks
Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family
They're all gone now.
Big Pussy: Gone. Richie Aprile: Gone. Ralph Cifaretto: Gone.
Gloria, Adriana, Vito, Tony Blundetto: Gone, gone, brutally gone.
But not, in the mixed-up mob-family world of "The Sopranos," forgotten. Like Shakespearean ghosts, the departed haunt the living, a reminder of the thin line between their desperate, shifty lives and a place six feet under -- or 60 feet under water, or buried in the woods, or decapitated and inserted in a bowling bag.
So the survivors smile over the anger and violence that lurks just beneath the surface, and cover it up with pretty suburban estates and snappy clothes and money -- always wads of money -- and try to stay one step ahead of the ghosts. But death awaits us all, and for "The Sopranos," the moment of reckoning has arrived. The HBO series about a mob boss, his family, his crew and his therapist -- widely hailed as one of the finest shows in television history -- begins its final season of nine episodes Sunday. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.)
The stars have mixed feelings about the series' end.
"This is really hard. I've never had a job for 10 years before," Edie Falco, who plays Carmela Soprano -- wife of mob boss Tony (James Gandolfini) -- told CNN at the show's New York premiere last week. "It is really not easy."
"The Sopranos" made lots of reputations during its seven-season, nine-year run.
Creator David Chase, a TV veteran who had written for "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "The Rockford Files" and produced "Northern Exposure," can now write his own ticket in Hollywood.
Gandolfini, a beefy character actor, became a star -- as have many of his co-stars, some with such unorthodox backgrounds as guitarist (Steve Van Zandt, the longtime Bruce Springsteen sideman who plays Tony's pal Silvio Dante) and ex-con (Tony Sirico, who served time for some stick-ups before turning to acting, and now plays mobster Paulie Walnuts).
And HBO, which had had only mild success with original programming before "The Sopranos," became the go-to place for water-cooler TV series, including "Big Love," "Six Feet Under" and "Sex and the City" (which, although it predated "The Sopranos," caught fire after the mob drama began).
The series was an unusual smash: as intricate as a novel, with flashes of fierce violence and equally uncomfortable humor. The four major broadcast networks all had their shots before Chase took the show to HBO, but all turned it down.
With the scope, the pacing, the language and the darkness of the show, the rejections were for the best, said Sirico. "It could have never happened on network," he told CNN.
Producer Brad Grey, who shopped "The Sopranos" around, agrees. "I believed that the net[work]s would be open to taking some risks at that time," he told Vanity Fair. "I was foolish. ... It was basically a waste of time, really bad judgment on my part, because even if they had taken it, it wouldn't have been 'The Sopranos.' "
The show pushed the limits of television -- and HBO's patience. It was expensive from the outset, it was full of unknown performers (probably the best known at its debut was Lorraine Bracco, who plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony's therapist) and HBO didn't like the name, believing people would think it was about opera. And nobody was safe in Chase's underworld. Characters died -- and they died suddenly, with the risk of alienating viewers. The actors who played them also walked a tightrope of emotion, knowing they could be whacked at any time. "I was really, really sad," said Steve Buscemi (Tony Blundetto) at a gathering of performers who played killed-off characters. "That's really just about missing the greatest job I've ever had."
But the show also had many moments of humor -- often directly contrasted with the violence -- and was willing to be as brutally honest in dissecting family relationships as it was in showing a mobster's corrupt world. Some of the show's most dramatic moments have come between Tony and Carmela, arguing in their kitchen.
"It really pushed the envelope. I think people were expecting it to be just a mob show, but it's really not," Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays Soprano daughter Meadow, told CNN. "David uses it as a vehicle to express a lot of his opinions on social issues and family issues and political issues. ... I think people were afraid to do that for awhile. 'Sopranos' sort of broke the mold with that."
Naturally, the show's performers -- adhering to the mob code of omerta -- have been tight-lipped as to what's in store for the final run. "Everything you were waiting for, you're gonna see. Everything you've been waiting to feel, you're gonna feel. Trust me. Trust me," was all Sirico would tell CNN.
The series may have peaked a few years ago; ratings, which began strongly and have stayed high for HBO, topped out at 11 million viewers per episode in the fourth season; last season the numbers were closer to 8.5 million. With Chase sometimes unsure of whether to continue, there were huge gaps between some seasons. And in recent years, "The Sopranos" has been attacked for not always measuring up to its own high standards. But, even with the show available on DVD and in (expurgated) reruns on A&E, it will haunt -- like a ghost.
"It's been such a big part of my life -- it's been almost 10 years. I was 16 when we started and I've been through so much through this whole ride," said Sigler. "I only hope to do something half as good."
Thanks to CNN
They're all gone now.
Big Pussy: Gone. Richie Aprile: Gone. Ralph Cifaretto: Gone.
Gloria, Adriana, Vito, Tony Blundetto: Gone, gone, brutally gone.
But not, in the mixed-up mob-family world of "The Sopranos," forgotten. Like Shakespearean ghosts, the departed haunt the living, a reminder of the thin line between their desperate, shifty lives and a place six feet under -- or 60 feet under water, or buried in the woods, or decapitated and inserted in a bowling bag.
So the survivors smile over the anger and violence that lurks just beneath the surface, and cover it up with pretty suburban estates and snappy clothes and money -- always wads of money -- and try to stay one step ahead of the ghosts. But death awaits us all, and for "The Sopranos," the moment of reckoning has arrived. The HBO series about a mob boss, his family, his crew and his therapist -- widely hailed as one of the finest shows in television history -- begins its final season of nine episodes Sunday. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.)
The stars have mixed feelings about the series' end.
"This is really hard. I've never had a job for 10 years before," Edie Falco, who plays Carmela Soprano -- wife of mob boss Tony (James Gandolfini) -- told CNN at the show's New York premiere last week. "It is really not easy."
"The Sopranos" made lots of reputations during its seven-season, nine-year run.
Creator David Chase, a TV veteran who had written for "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "The Rockford Files" and produced "Northern Exposure," can now write his own ticket in Hollywood.
Gandolfini, a beefy character actor, became a star -- as have many of his co-stars, some with such unorthodox backgrounds as guitarist (Steve Van Zandt, the longtime Bruce Springsteen sideman who plays Tony's pal Silvio Dante) and ex-con (Tony Sirico, who served time for some stick-ups before turning to acting, and now plays mobster Paulie Walnuts).
And HBO, which had had only mild success with original programming before "The Sopranos," became the go-to place for water-cooler TV series, including "Big Love," "Six Feet Under" and "Sex and the City" (which, although it predated "The Sopranos," caught fire after the mob drama began).
The series was an unusual smash: as intricate as a novel, with flashes of fierce violence and equally uncomfortable humor. The four major broadcast networks all had their shots before Chase took the show to HBO, but all turned it down.
With the scope, the pacing, the language and the darkness of the show, the rejections were for the best, said Sirico. "It could have never happened on network," he told CNN.
Producer Brad Grey, who shopped "The Sopranos" around, agrees. "I believed that the net[work]s would be open to taking some risks at that time," he told Vanity Fair. "I was foolish. ... It was basically a waste of time, really bad judgment on my part, because even if they had taken it, it wouldn't have been 'The Sopranos.' "
The show pushed the limits of television -- and HBO's patience. It was expensive from the outset, it was full of unknown performers (probably the best known at its debut was Lorraine Bracco, who plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony's therapist) and HBO didn't like the name, believing people would think it was about opera. And nobody was safe in Chase's underworld. Characters died -- and they died suddenly, with the risk of alienating viewers. The actors who played them also walked a tightrope of emotion, knowing they could be whacked at any time. "I was really, really sad," said Steve Buscemi (Tony Blundetto) at a gathering of performers who played killed-off characters. "That's really just about missing the greatest job I've ever had."
But the show also had many moments of humor -- often directly contrasted with the violence -- and was willing to be as brutally honest in dissecting family relationships as it was in showing a mobster's corrupt world. Some of the show's most dramatic moments have come between Tony and Carmela, arguing in their kitchen.
"It really pushed the envelope. I think people were expecting it to be just a mob show, but it's really not," Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays Soprano daughter Meadow, told CNN. "David uses it as a vehicle to express a lot of his opinions on social issues and family issues and political issues. ... I think people were afraid to do that for awhile. 'Sopranos' sort of broke the mold with that."
Naturally, the show's performers -- adhering to the mob code of omerta -- have been tight-lipped as to what's in store for the final run. "Everything you were waiting for, you're gonna see. Everything you've been waiting to feel, you're gonna feel. Trust me. Trust me," was all Sirico would tell CNN.
The series may have peaked a few years ago; ratings, which began strongly and have stayed high for HBO, topped out at 11 million viewers per episode in the fourth season; last season the numbers were closer to 8.5 million. With Chase sometimes unsure of whether to continue, there were huge gaps between some seasons. And in recent years, "The Sopranos" has been attacked for not always measuring up to its own high standards. But, even with the show available on DVD and in (expurgated) reruns on A&E, it will haunt -- like a ghost.
"It's been such a big part of my life -- it's been almost 10 years. I was 16 when we started and I've been through so much through this whole ride," said Sigler. "I only hope to do something half as good."
Thanks to CNN
Ray Ryan Book Still Under Development
Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo
It's been nearly two years ago since we first wrote in this column about a book that was to be published about Ray Ryan, one of the biggest names connected with Watertown's rich history.
It was back in May of 2005 that Herb Marynell, a freelance writer and photographer from Newburgh, Ind., stopped by our office at the Daily Times to discuss Ryan as part of his information gathering process which is to lead up to a biography of Ryan.
Herb has been fascinated with Ryan for many years and has collected a vast amount of information about his life. Herb's fascination with this “larger than life” personality came about while he was a reporter for the Evansville Courier & Press in Evansville, Ind. It was back in October of 1977 when Ryan was killed when a bomb went off in his car in Evansville. The explosion and Ryan's death were widely speculated to have been the work of the mob, which had been intertwined in Ryan's life for a long time. (Joey the Clown Lombardo has been widely regarded as the top suspect by law enforcement authorities.)
Herb's visit to Watertown included a number of stops and interviews with people, and he said he learned a great deal.
Back when he visited two years ago, Herb had hopes the book would be in print by this time, but that hasn't been the case. A number of our readers have been asking us about the book and when it might be available, and as a result, we visited with Herb recently, and he said he continues to gather information on Ryan and that he has a fair amount of work to do before the book is published.
At the present time he has over 100,000 words in the initial draft of the book, and plans to add thousands more before it's ready for editing and final proofing. His estimate is that the book could still be a year away from publication.
Herb told us in recent days, “Last fall I visited Hot Springs, Ark., and two important oil towns of Tyler and Snyder, Texas, to get the feel of those places. Just before the end of the year we visited Las Vegas and Palm Springs, Calif. to learn more. I didn't think much of Las Vegas but Palm Springs is a wonderful place. If only we had the money to live there permanently - I can see why Ray Ryan loved that place.”
Herb told us one of the best parts of those trips was meeting the old-timers, the folks in their 80s and 90s with great stories about life in those communities back in the 1950s and 1960s when Ryan was around.
He said, “Through the folks I ran into in Las Vegas I got to meet Tony Montana, a Chicago guy who grew up in The Patch and knew the important guys in the Chicago Mob in the 1940s and 1950s. Tony is a hoot! He lives in Vegas and will be working in Chicago this year doing a movie about the 42 Gang from which several of The Outfit's later top mob guys started their ‘careers.'”
Herb said he's still looking for more information on when Ryan testified in 1964 against two mob guys who tried to extort money from him. That chapter will likely lead Herb to Washington, D.C., where he wants to take a peak at some U.S. Tax Court documents from when the Feds went after Ryan in the late 1960s.
Herb also appealed to me to see if anyone in Watertown could help fill in a few more blanks about his years in this community. Questions Herb raised included:
Did Ryan attend college in the area after high school and did he graduate from Watertown High School? (The indications are he did not.)
Did he play sports in high school or college?
Was he a “ladies man” as a youth?
When did he become interested in horseback riding?
He was also interested in the time when Joe Davies came to Watertown to announce his plans to form the scholarship foundation that has been so big here in Watertown. Herb believes Ryan was one of the speakers when the announcement was made and we're checking into that for him.
Herb said he still doesn't have a publisher for the book but because it's not quite ready for publication, he has not been looking for one. He said Tony Montana is affiliated with a publishing company and would help to make it happen if that becomes necessary.
Herb also said he would be e-mailing to us some sections of the book that pertain to Watertown to check on accuracy and to see if there is anything more local residents can add to the story.
He's excited about the book, and we told him there will probably be some good sales of it right here in Watertown. Old-timers remember Ryan well. He was a pretty “flashy” person and he was always dealing with huge projects, and that often kept him in the news, not only in Watertown but throughout the country. As a result, there is a lot of interest in this Watertown man who made it big and made news even in the way he died - probably at the hands of some disgruntled mob boss. But, we'll never know that for sure.
If any of our readers have more information they can share on the life of Ray Ryan, and especially his years in Watertown and his return visits here, drop a note to us here at the Daily Times. We'll be sure to pass everything along to Herb as soon as we receive it.
So, we hope this update helps our readers to know just where Herb is with publishing the biography of Ray Ryan. From what Herb told us in our recent conversation, we shouldn't get overly anxious about the book any time soon. It will likely be at least a year before it makes it in print and it's actually available for purchase. We'll keep you posted if there are any other new developments on the quest to get this book published.
Thanks to WDT
It's been nearly two years ago since we first wrote in this column about a book that was to be published about Ray Ryan, one of the biggest names connected with Watertown's rich history.
It was back in May of 2005 that Herb Marynell, a freelance writer and photographer from Newburgh, Ind., stopped by our office at the Daily Times to discuss Ryan as part of his information gathering process which is to lead up to a biography of Ryan.
Herb has been fascinated with Ryan for many years and has collected a vast amount of information about his life. Herb's fascination with this “larger than life” personality came about while he was a reporter for the Evansville Courier & Press in Evansville, Ind. It was back in October of 1977 when Ryan was killed when a bomb went off in his car in Evansville. The explosion and Ryan's death were widely speculated to have been the work of the mob, which had been intertwined in Ryan's life for a long time. (Joey the Clown Lombardo has been widely regarded as the top suspect by law enforcement authorities.)
Herb's visit to Watertown included a number of stops and interviews with people, and he said he learned a great deal.
Back when he visited two years ago, Herb had hopes the book would be in print by this time, but that hasn't been the case. A number of our readers have been asking us about the book and when it might be available, and as a result, we visited with Herb recently, and he said he continues to gather information on Ryan and that he has a fair amount of work to do before the book is published.
At the present time he has over 100,000 words in the initial draft of the book, and plans to add thousands more before it's ready for editing and final proofing. His estimate is that the book could still be a year away from publication.
Herb told us in recent days, “Last fall I visited Hot Springs, Ark., and two important oil towns of Tyler and Snyder, Texas, to get the feel of those places. Just before the end of the year we visited Las Vegas and Palm Springs, Calif. to learn more. I didn't think much of Las Vegas but Palm Springs is a wonderful place. If only we had the money to live there permanently - I can see why Ray Ryan loved that place.”
Herb told us one of the best parts of those trips was meeting the old-timers, the folks in their 80s and 90s with great stories about life in those communities back in the 1950s and 1960s when Ryan was around.
He said, “Through the folks I ran into in Las Vegas I got to meet Tony Montana, a Chicago guy who grew up in The Patch and knew the important guys in the Chicago Mob in the 1940s and 1950s. Tony is a hoot! He lives in Vegas and will be working in Chicago this year doing a movie about the 42 Gang from which several of The Outfit's later top mob guys started their ‘careers.'”
Herb said he's still looking for more information on when Ryan testified in 1964 against two mob guys who tried to extort money from him. That chapter will likely lead Herb to Washington, D.C., where he wants to take a peak at some U.S. Tax Court documents from when the Feds went after Ryan in the late 1960s.
Herb also appealed to me to see if anyone in Watertown could help fill in a few more blanks about his years in this community. Questions Herb raised included:
Did Ryan attend college in the area after high school and did he graduate from Watertown High School? (The indications are he did not.)
Did he play sports in high school or college?
Was he a “ladies man” as a youth?
When did he become interested in horseback riding?
He was also interested in the time when Joe Davies came to Watertown to announce his plans to form the scholarship foundation that has been so big here in Watertown. Herb believes Ryan was one of the speakers when the announcement was made and we're checking into that for him.
Herb said he still doesn't have a publisher for the book but because it's not quite ready for publication, he has not been looking for one. He said Tony Montana is affiliated with a publishing company and would help to make it happen if that becomes necessary.
Herb also said he would be e-mailing to us some sections of the book that pertain to Watertown to check on accuracy and to see if there is anything more local residents can add to the story.
He's excited about the book, and we told him there will probably be some good sales of it right here in Watertown. Old-timers remember Ryan well. He was a pretty “flashy” person and he was always dealing with huge projects, and that often kept him in the news, not only in Watertown but throughout the country. As a result, there is a lot of interest in this Watertown man who made it big and made news even in the way he died - probably at the hands of some disgruntled mob boss. But, we'll never know that for sure.
If any of our readers have more information they can share on the life of Ray Ryan, and especially his years in Watertown and his return visits here, drop a note to us here at the Daily Times. We'll be sure to pass everything along to Herb as soon as we receive it.
So, we hope this update helps our readers to know just where Herb is with publishing the biography of Ray Ryan. From what Herb told us in our recent conversation, we shouldn't get overly anxious about the book any time soon. It will likely be at least a year before it makes it in print and it's actually available for purchase. We'll keep you posted if there are any other new developments on the quest to get this book published.
Thanks to WDT
Friday, April 06, 2007
The Sopranos Day of Reckoning
Friends of mine: Soprano Crime Family
As "The Sopranos" enters its final chapter, Tony reluctantly faces his past -- and we reluctantly face the end of this brilliant series.
SPOILER ALERT! Includes spoilers from the first two episodes of the final season of "The Sopranos." Don't read this if you don't want to know what happens in these episodes.
"All those memories are for what? All I am to him is some asshole bully." -- Tony Soprano
As the curtain rises on the final season of HBO's "The Sopranos," Tony is considering his legacy more than ever before, even more than he did after his brush with death. He's wondering not just how he's seen by Christopher, who portrays him as an aggressive thug in his new mob-horror movie, but how his other associates and his wife and kids see him. How will he be remembered? What will he leave behind? With all of the unrealistic expectations we each have of our lives, the big goals we want to accomplish, the hopes we have for those we love, how can we not be a little disappointed in the end?
The same questions apply as we near the end of this epic mob drama, a TV series that redefined our understanding of the Italian mob and explored the fragile nature of family -- the kind we have with blood relatives, and the business relationships that are sometimes just as intimate and as complicated. Expectations were enormous at the start of the first half of this final season. A two-year hiatus didn't help, of course, nor did the fact that television dramas in general were improving, following in the path cleared by "The Sopranos" itself, which brought a smart, imaginative, dark sensibility to the small screen and broadened people's perspectives on what a drama could be. The show set the bar so high that the low stakes of Vito's disappearance and Christopher's falling on and off the wagon felt downright anticlimactic after such a long wait.
What could we do? We expected a lot. For eight years now, Tony Soprano has been so much more to us than "some asshole bully." He's been this big, bearish patriarchal figure with a soft, vulnerable center, an angry, violent man who also loves little ducklings and frets over doing right by his men. We've watched Tony growl and sigh and snicker and gorge himself and quarrel and get drunk and tell bad jokes and become depressed. We've watched him lust after women and order hits on old friends. After years of seeing this man glower and chuckle and mope, he's become such an archetype, such a larger-than-life fixture, that it's hard to imagine him suddenly disappearing. More than anything else, Tony has captured our sympathies over the years. He may hang out with self-serving thugs and aggressive, one-trick ponies, his wife may be self-righteous and hypocritical, his son may be a shortsighted, shallow dummy, his daughter may be wishy-washy and overly dependent, but Tony, even at his most merciless, dodges our harshest judgments. We forgive him for his countless crimes and mistakes, for his recklessness and his rage. The man is full of sadness and longing and we can't turn away from him, no matter how depraved or unfair he becomes.
As the first of nine final episodes opens, we find that Tony (James Gandolfini) may not be looking back as fondly as we are. Most memories aren't welcome for him. When he and Carmela (Edie Falco) join Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa) and Janice (Aida Turturro) and their daughter Nica at Bobby's lake house to celebrate Tony's 47th birthday, Tony seems relatively calm and happy, but there's a feeling of dread hanging over the man. While the other three adults laugh and bring up old times, Tony glares out onto the lake. He doesn't want to talk about Bobby's father, because it reminds him of his own dad. He doesn't want to talk about the house at the shore that he and Carmela almost bought, because it reminds him that they almost got divorced, or it reminds him of old friends he's dumped into the waves -- the past is so littered with emotional potholes and tragic turns, it's hard to tell which one he's avoiding. He doesn't want Janice to tell crazy anecdotes about his dad "because it makes us look like a fucking dysfunctional family" -- as if anyone is under the illusion that they aren't dysfunctional. And when Janice gives Tony a DVD of home movies of their childhood, he struggles to act grateful, but you can see an uneasy look spread over his face. His childhood is the last thing in the world he wants to think about; it feels dangerous to even consider it, particularly when he's been drinking.
"I'm old, Carm. And my body has suffered a trauma that it will probably never fully recover from," Tony later says to his wife, but it's hard to tell if he's talking about his gunshot wound or the burden of so many gloomy recollections and regrets he carries with him. While it might seem odd that the final episodes would begin with a trip to the lake, for a man who works hard to distract himself from the heaviness of his past and the weight of his mistakes, vacations can be more harrowing than day-to-day life.
Meanwhile, Carmela is up to her usual tricks, battling to keep things on an even keel, busying herself with her real estate work, turning a blind eye to Tony's doubts and dark moods, and putting on a happy face. When Tony indulges in some bad behavior, Carmela is the first to scold him, but she's not about to admit his most troubling flaws to the outside world, least of all to someone as untrustworthy as his sister. "Tony is not a vindictive man," Carmela tells her, willfully ignoring the past 20-odd years with the man. The doubting, wishy-washy Carmela of the first few seasons is gone; buoyed by a streak of warmth and relative peace in her marriage, she's determined to convince herself of her husband's solid character. Even so, we see hints in the second episode that she continues to be plagued by Adriana's death, suggesting that this murder, which Tony and Christopher and the rest of the men have clearly put behind them, could prove devastating to Carmela if she discovers the truth.
For the moment, the family is united in support of their patriarch. Even Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), the only vaguely ethical family member and the one who's always been skeptical of Tony's behavior, has taken her place at her father's side as one of his fiercest defenders. As it was last season, it's unclear where Meadow is headed or what exactly she wants from her life, but we can see that she's closer to the fold than ever, as is A.J. (Robert Iler), who looms around the Soprano residence with his wife and kid, looking like a teenager playing house. In contrast, Christopher (Michael Imperioli), who's always seemed like more of a son to Tony than A.J., is lost in his Hollywood fantasy, putting the final touches on his movie, which looks just awful enough to become a huge hit. In a few artful scenes, we're shown Tony's ambivalence toward Christopher: He's glad to see the kid doing something with himself, safe from drugs, but there's a tinge of jealousy over the attention Christopher's getting, particularly when it looks like he's leaving Tony and the mob behind.
Like Tony, the heads of the New York family are struggling to make peace with aging, death and what they'll leave behind when they're gone. Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) has grown sick in prison and seems to be questioning every decision he ever made. "I got here, I quit smoking after 38 years. Exercised. Ate right. And for what?" he asks, but no one can give him an answer. Later, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) stares at old pictures of relatives on the wall and echoes Johnny Sack's sentiments. "I'd like to do it over, boy, let me tell you. I fucking compromised everything. Twenty years inside, and not a fucking peep. And for what?" The repetition of this question "For what?" is clearly intentional, as it connects these aging mob leaders, wrestling with the meaning of their past decisions. The question also serves as an omen of big changes to come: When the patriarchs of a family start questioning the basic fabric that holds the chaotic mess together -- to stay the course, no matter what, and never, ever rat on your brothers -- it seems clear that a catastrophic shift may be in the works.
The future is so uncertain for the New York crime family that Tony actually wants Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo), a man whose power he's undermined for years, to step up and run things. Little Carmine tells Tony about a dream he had in which his dead father gives him an empty box and says "Fill it." Tony assumes the dream means that Little Carmine should finally take over and become the New York don. But Little Carmine has a different interpretation: "That dream with my father, the empty box? It wasn't about being boss. It was about being happy."
Much as "The Sopranos" explores the absurdities and ugly realities of mob life, the show has focused, above all else, on the struggle for happiness. At the start of this last chapter in the family's history, we can see that, as they age, Tony and his family may seem more at peace than ever, but they also have to work harder than ever to keep a grip on their happiness. And unlike the first half of this final season, in which peripheral stories like Vito's murder distracted from the bigger picture of Tony's ultimate fate, the ominous mood is hard to miss in the show's final run. At every turn, characters refer to the meaning of family and the haunting lure of memories, looking back and laughing at old scars while trying to make fresh wounds disappear overnight. "We're family! Jesus, these things happen!" they tell each other, as if trying to convince themselves. "The whole thing's already forgotten!" But the troubled history of this family seeps into every detail of the landscape, and Tony, for one, can't escape it.
The first two episodes mark a return to "The Sopranos" we fell in love with, every scene rich with humor and sadness, every moment heavy with echoes of the past and omens of things to come. Creator David Chase and the other writers have always done an exceptional job of coloring each scene with the vivid palette of distant memories, and this skill comes into play now more than ever. Even as Tony sits, staring blankly out onto the water at the lake, we hear Nica in the background, singing with her nanny: "Four little ducks went off one day, over the hills and far away..." The doleful memory of those ducks in Tony's pool in the show's first episode sneaks into the edges of our consciousness. We're invested in Tony as a character, for better and for worse.
Viewers have predicted countless twists and tragedies that might await Tony and his clan, and expectations are running impossibly high. Even so, the engrossing details and resonance of these first two of nine final episodes make it clear that, no matter what happens, if the events that unfold have a profound impact on Tony -- and it's hard to see how they won't -- then they'll have a profound impact on us as an audience as well. Like the ducks in his pool, the smallest symbols and relics from Tony's past have the power to move us. His darkest fears and nightmares feel like our own. Recognizing this, Chase signals in these episodes that we'd better hold on tight, because we're in for a breathtaking, bittersweet ride.
Thanks to Heather Havrilesky
As "The Sopranos" enters its final chapter, Tony reluctantly faces his past -- and we reluctantly face the end of this brilliant series.
SPOILER ALERT! Includes spoilers from the first two episodes of the final season of "The Sopranos." Don't read this if you don't want to know what happens in these episodes.
"All those memories are for what? All I am to him is some asshole bully." -- Tony Soprano
As the curtain rises on the final season of HBO's "The Sopranos," Tony is considering his legacy more than ever before, even more than he did after his brush with death. He's wondering not just how he's seen by Christopher, who portrays him as an aggressive thug in his new mob-horror movie, but how his other associates and his wife and kids see him. How will he be remembered? What will he leave behind? With all of the unrealistic expectations we each have of our lives, the big goals we want to accomplish, the hopes we have for those we love, how can we not be a little disappointed in the end?
The same questions apply as we near the end of this epic mob drama, a TV series that redefined our understanding of the Italian mob and explored the fragile nature of family -- the kind we have with blood relatives, and the business relationships that are sometimes just as intimate and as complicated. Expectations were enormous at the start of the first half of this final season. A two-year hiatus didn't help, of course, nor did the fact that television dramas in general were improving, following in the path cleared by "The Sopranos" itself, which brought a smart, imaginative, dark sensibility to the small screen and broadened people's perspectives on what a drama could be. The show set the bar so high that the low stakes of Vito's disappearance and Christopher's falling on and off the wagon felt downright anticlimactic after such a long wait.
What could we do? We expected a lot. For eight years now, Tony Soprano has been so much more to us than "some asshole bully." He's been this big, bearish patriarchal figure with a soft, vulnerable center, an angry, violent man who also loves little ducklings and frets over doing right by his men. We've watched Tony growl and sigh and snicker and gorge himself and quarrel and get drunk and tell bad jokes and become depressed. We've watched him lust after women and order hits on old friends. After years of seeing this man glower and chuckle and mope, he's become such an archetype, such a larger-than-life fixture, that it's hard to imagine him suddenly disappearing. More than anything else, Tony has captured our sympathies over the years. He may hang out with self-serving thugs and aggressive, one-trick ponies, his wife may be self-righteous and hypocritical, his son may be a shortsighted, shallow dummy, his daughter may be wishy-washy and overly dependent, but Tony, even at his most merciless, dodges our harshest judgments. We forgive him for his countless crimes and mistakes, for his recklessness and his rage. The man is full of sadness and longing and we can't turn away from him, no matter how depraved or unfair he becomes.
As the first of nine final episodes opens, we find that Tony (James Gandolfini) may not be looking back as fondly as we are. Most memories aren't welcome for him. When he and Carmela (Edie Falco) join Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa) and Janice (Aida Turturro) and their daughter Nica at Bobby's lake house to celebrate Tony's 47th birthday, Tony seems relatively calm and happy, but there's a feeling of dread hanging over the man. While the other three adults laugh and bring up old times, Tony glares out onto the lake. He doesn't want to talk about Bobby's father, because it reminds him of his own dad. He doesn't want to talk about the house at the shore that he and Carmela almost bought, because it reminds him that they almost got divorced, or it reminds him of old friends he's dumped into the waves -- the past is so littered with emotional potholes and tragic turns, it's hard to tell which one he's avoiding. He doesn't want Janice to tell crazy anecdotes about his dad "because it makes us look like a fucking dysfunctional family" -- as if anyone is under the illusion that they aren't dysfunctional. And when Janice gives Tony a DVD of home movies of their childhood, he struggles to act grateful, but you can see an uneasy look spread over his face. His childhood is the last thing in the world he wants to think about; it feels dangerous to even consider it, particularly when he's been drinking.
"I'm old, Carm. And my body has suffered a trauma that it will probably never fully recover from," Tony later says to his wife, but it's hard to tell if he's talking about his gunshot wound or the burden of so many gloomy recollections and regrets he carries with him. While it might seem odd that the final episodes would begin with a trip to the lake, for a man who works hard to distract himself from the heaviness of his past and the weight of his mistakes, vacations can be more harrowing than day-to-day life.
Meanwhile, Carmela is up to her usual tricks, battling to keep things on an even keel, busying herself with her real estate work, turning a blind eye to Tony's doubts and dark moods, and putting on a happy face. When Tony indulges in some bad behavior, Carmela is the first to scold him, but she's not about to admit his most troubling flaws to the outside world, least of all to someone as untrustworthy as his sister. "Tony is not a vindictive man," Carmela tells her, willfully ignoring the past 20-odd years with the man. The doubting, wishy-washy Carmela of the first few seasons is gone; buoyed by a streak of warmth and relative peace in her marriage, she's determined to convince herself of her husband's solid character. Even so, we see hints in the second episode that she continues to be plagued by Adriana's death, suggesting that this murder, which Tony and Christopher and the rest of the men have clearly put behind them, could prove devastating to Carmela if she discovers the truth.
For the moment, the family is united in support of their patriarch. Even Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), the only vaguely ethical family member and the one who's always been skeptical of Tony's behavior, has taken her place at her father's side as one of his fiercest defenders. As it was last season, it's unclear where Meadow is headed or what exactly she wants from her life, but we can see that she's closer to the fold than ever, as is A.J. (Robert Iler), who looms around the Soprano residence with his wife and kid, looking like a teenager playing house. In contrast, Christopher (Michael Imperioli), who's always seemed like more of a son to Tony than A.J., is lost in his Hollywood fantasy, putting the final touches on his movie, which looks just awful enough to become a huge hit. In a few artful scenes, we're shown Tony's ambivalence toward Christopher: He's glad to see the kid doing something with himself, safe from drugs, but there's a tinge of jealousy over the attention Christopher's getting, particularly when it looks like he's leaving Tony and the mob behind.
Like Tony, the heads of the New York family are struggling to make peace with aging, death and what they'll leave behind when they're gone. Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) has grown sick in prison and seems to be questioning every decision he ever made. "I got here, I quit smoking after 38 years. Exercised. Ate right. And for what?" he asks, but no one can give him an answer. Later, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) stares at old pictures of relatives on the wall and echoes Johnny Sack's sentiments. "I'd like to do it over, boy, let me tell you. I fucking compromised everything. Twenty years inside, and not a fucking peep. And for what?" The repetition of this question "For what?" is clearly intentional, as it connects these aging mob leaders, wrestling with the meaning of their past decisions. The question also serves as an omen of big changes to come: When the patriarchs of a family start questioning the basic fabric that holds the chaotic mess together -- to stay the course, no matter what, and never, ever rat on your brothers -- it seems clear that a catastrophic shift may be in the works.
The future is so uncertain for the New York crime family that Tony actually wants Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo), a man whose power he's undermined for years, to step up and run things. Little Carmine tells Tony about a dream he had in which his dead father gives him an empty box and says "Fill it." Tony assumes the dream means that Little Carmine should finally take over and become the New York don. But Little Carmine has a different interpretation: "That dream with my father, the empty box? It wasn't about being boss. It was about being happy."
Much as "The Sopranos" explores the absurdities and ugly realities of mob life, the show has focused, above all else, on the struggle for happiness. At the start of this last chapter in the family's history, we can see that, as they age, Tony and his family may seem more at peace than ever, but they also have to work harder than ever to keep a grip on their happiness. And unlike the first half of this final season, in which peripheral stories like Vito's murder distracted from the bigger picture of Tony's ultimate fate, the ominous mood is hard to miss in the show's final run. At every turn, characters refer to the meaning of family and the haunting lure of memories, looking back and laughing at old scars while trying to make fresh wounds disappear overnight. "We're family! Jesus, these things happen!" they tell each other, as if trying to convince themselves. "The whole thing's already forgotten!" But the troubled history of this family seeps into every detail of the landscape, and Tony, for one, can't escape it.
The first two episodes mark a return to "The Sopranos" we fell in love with, every scene rich with humor and sadness, every moment heavy with echoes of the past and omens of things to come. Creator David Chase and the other writers have always done an exceptional job of coloring each scene with the vivid palette of distant memories, and this skill comes into play now more than ever. Even as Tony sits, staring blankly out onto the water at the lake, we hear Nica in the background, singing with her nanny: "Four little ducks went off one day, over the hills and far away..." The doleful memory of those ducks in Tony's pool in the show's first episode sneaks into the edges of our consciousness. We're invested in Tony as a character, for better and for worse.
Viewers have predicted countless twists and tragedies that might await Tony and his clan, and expectations are running impossibly high. Even so, the engrossing details and resonance of these first two of nine final episodes make it clear that, no matter what happens, if the events that unfold have a profound impact on Tony -- and it's hard to see how they won't -- then they'll have a profound impact on us as an audience as well. Like the ducks in his pool, the smallest symbols and relics from Tony's past have the power to move us. His darkest fears and nightmares feel like our own. Recognizing this, Chase signals in these episodes that we'd better hold on tight, because we're in for a breathtaking, bittersweet ride.
Thanks to Heather Havrilesky
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
Friends of ours: Richard Cain
"Richard Cain was possibly the most corrupt police official in the history of Chicago." - Federal Bureau of Investigation
Here is the dramatic story of Detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother. Cain led a double life: one as a well known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mafia crime families.
Michael Cain weaves together years of research, interviews, family anecdotes, and rare documents to create a comprehensive biography of this complex, articulate, and self-contradictory criminal genius. In a story that reads like the plot of Martin Scorsese's The Departed, Cain played both ends against the middle to become a household name in Chicagoland and a notorious figure in both the Mob and the world of Chicago law enforcement. Eventually murdered in a cafe by two masked men wielding shotguns, he lived and died in a world of bloodshed and violence. Cain left behind a story so outlandish that he has even been accused of being involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Filled with fascinating and until-now unknown facts, The Tangled Web tells the full story of this one-man crime wave."
"Richard Cain was possibly the most corrupt police official in the history of Chicago." - Federal Bureau of Investigation
Here is the dramatic story of Detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother. Cain led a double life: one as a well known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mafia crime families.
Michael Cain weaves together years of research, interviews, family anecdotes, and rare documents to create a comprehensive biography of this complex, articulate, and self-contradictory criminal genius. In a story that reads like the plot of Martin Scorsese's The Departed, Cain played both ends against the middle to become a household name in Chicagoland and a notorious figure in both the Mob and the world of Chicago law enforcement. Eventually murdered in a cafe by two masked men wielding shotguns, he lived and died in a world of bloodshed and violence. Cain left behind a story so outlandish that he has even been accused of being involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Filled with fascinating and until-now unknown facts, The Tangled Web tells the full story of this one-man crime wave."
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Death Penalty Sought for Mob Boss
Friends of ours: Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, Bonanno Crime Family
Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a former New York City mob boss accused of ordering a hit on a rival.
The trial of Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano will begin in June.
The one time leader of the Bonanno crime family is accused of ordering the murder of a rival gang member in 2004. He's also accused of trying to kill a federal prosecutor.
Basciano's fate will now rest in the hands of a jury. The 47-year-old was found guilty of racketeering, attempted murder and gambling in a separate case last year.
Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a former New York City mob boss accused of ordering a hit on a rival.The trial of Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano will begin in June.
The one time leader of the Bonanno crime family is accused of ordering the murder of a rival gang member in 2004. He's also accused of trying to kill a federal prosecutor.
Basciano's fate will now rest in the hands of a jury. The 47-year-old was found guilty of racketeering, attempted murder and gambling in a separate case last year.
Genovese Crime Family Members Sentenced to Prison, Supervised Release
Friends of ours: Genovese Crime Family, Mitchell Wiessman, Joseph Dennis Colasacco, Charles Steinberg
A federal judge has sentenced three reputed associates of the Genovese crime family to prison and supervised release, according to court documents.
Mitchell Wiessman, Joseph Dennis Colasacco, and Charles Steinberg were arrested in June 2006 and later pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, a charge designed to cut down on organized crime. Prosecutors said the men were involved in the Genovese family's South Florida operations.
Cases against several other men arrested with the three are still pending.
Wiessman, 54, was sentenced to approximately eight years of prison. Colasacco, 55, received approximately six years of prison and Steinberg, 31, was sentenced to more than three years. All three were also sentenced to two years of supervised release after they leave prison. They were sentenced Friday.
As terms of his supervised release, Colasacco must attend anger management courses. Wiessman has to seek help for substance abuse after his release, and Steinberg must undergo treatment for gambling.
Wiessman's attorney, John Contini, said he and his client were upset with the sentence. Describing his client as a "chubby little Jewish boy driving a used Hyundai,'' Contini said Wiessman's only crime was knowing members of the Genovese family.
A federal judge has sentenced three reputed associates of the Genovese crime family to prison and supervised release, according to court documents.
Mitchell Wiessman, Joseph Dennis Colasacco, and Charles Steinberg were arrested in June 2006 and later pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, a charge designed to cut down on organized crime. Prosecutors said the men were involved in the Genovese family's South Florida operations.
Cases against several other men arrested with the three are still pending.
Wiessman, 54, was sentenced to approximately eight years of prison. Colasacco, 55, received approximately six years of prison and Steinberg, 31, was sentenced to more than three years. All three were also sentenced to two years of supervised release after they leave prison. They were sentenced Friday.
As terms of his supervised release, Colasacco must attend anger management courses. Wiessman has to seek help for substance abuse after his release, and Steinberg must undergo treatment for gambling.
Wiessman's attorney, John Contini, said he and his client were upset with the sentence. Describing his client as a "chubby little Jewish boy driving a used Hyundai,'' Contini said Wiessman's only crime was knowing members of the Genovese family.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Mob All-Star Lineup for Family Secrets Trial
Friends of ours: Frank "The German" Schweihs, Frank Calabrese Sr.. James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Nick Calabrese, Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel, Richard Mara, Daniel Bounds, Alfred Pilotto, Frank Cullotta, Tony Spilotro, James LaValley
Friends of mine: Frank Calabrese Jr., Michael Talarico
One man is a reputed Outfit killer and master thief who stormed jewelry stores with a crew so skilled it's been called "the New York Yankees of robbers." Another served as intermediary between illegal Asian gambling and an alleged Outfit hit man, Frank "The German" Schweihs. Still a third has run a well-known Bridgeport restaurant and was allegedly connected to the crew of brutal loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr. All three are expected to testify in what will be the most important mob trial in Chicago in decades.
Prosecutors have put the mob's top leaders on trial and tied them to 18 unsolved Outfit murders. Facing charges that could put them behind bars for life are reputed Chicago Outfit chief James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and top mobster Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, among others.
The star witnesses at trial will be the brother and son of Frank Calabrese Sr. The brother, Nick Calabrese, has admitted to 16 mob hits, many committed with his brother, he says. Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Calabrese Jr., secretly recorded his father while they were both in prison.
Details of other key witnesses expected at trial are in a federal court filing that is under seal. But the Sun-Times has learned who some of those witnesses will be.
Among the top witnesses will be Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel. Siegel was part of a crew of mobbed-up robbers who hit jewelry stores across the country -- mainly in California and Florida -- taking in millions of dollars in loot over the years.
The robbers wore Halloween masks and body armor, used automatic weapons and performed their robberies with military-like precision, authorities said.
"We prosecuted them to the fullest. But we recognized they were the New York Yankees of robbers," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Edmund Searby, who prosecuted Siegel and his cohorts in 1993 for a series of jewelry store robberies. A heavy prison sentence prompted Siegel to flip and spill all he knew to the feds, including several murders he allegedly committed or knew about, authorities said.
Another witness at the upcoming trial is expected to be Yu Lip Moy, a former head of the National On Leong Trading Association and a former Pittsburgh restaurant owner who was a key witness in the On Leong gambling case in Chicago the early 1990s. Moy has testified he paid off Schweihs as part of an agreement with the Outfit to allow illegal Asian gambling in Chicago to continue.
Another restaurant owner, Michael Talarico, is listed as a potential witness. Talarico has run the well-known Bridgeport restaurant Punchinello's for years and allegedly worked as a bookmaker. The Sun-Times has previously reported he was held in federal jail in Chicago for not testifying before a Family Secrets grand jury, but was later released.
While Talarico is still listed as the license holder for the restaurant, a phone message at the restaurant said it is under new management. Talarico is a part of the influential Roti family by marriage and once was married to Schweihs' daughter.
When asked about Talarico, Joseph Lopez, the attorney for Frank Calabrese Sr., said he expected Talarico's testimony to deal more with Nick Calabrese than Frank Calabrese Sr.
Lopez blasted Nick Calabrese as "a mass murderer."
"Instead of going after off-duty cops for fighting in bars, [Cook County State's Attorney] Dick Devine should be going after a mass murderer who has killed more people than the Brown's Chicken massacre and Richard Speck combined," Lopez said.
Nick Calabrese is cooperating with federal prosecutors but does not have a deal with them yet.
Prosecutors would not discuss witnesses, and defense attorneys declined to discuss the contents of the sealed court filing.
When asked about some of the potential witnesses, Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin said: "It's just round-up-the-usual-snitches, who have been telling the same stories for 20 years."
Other witnesses expected at trial include Outfit burglar Richard Mara; failed Outfit assassin Daniel Bounds, who turned himself into the FBI after botching the hit of south suburban mob boss Alfred Pilotto; Outfit killer and burglar Frank Cullotta, a close associate of Tony Spilotro; mob leg breaker James LaValley, and former adult bookstore owner, William "Red" Wemette, who was shaken down by Outfit thugs.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Friends of mine: Frank Calabrese Jr., Michael Talarico
One man is a reputed Outfit killer and master thief who stormed jewelry stores with a crew so skilled it's been called "the New York Yankees of robbers." Another served as intermediary between illegal Asian gambling and an alleged Outfit hit man, Frank "The German" Schweihs. Still a third has run a well-known Bridgeport restaurant and was allegedly connected to the crew of brutal loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr. All three are expected to testify in what will be the most important mob trial in Chicago in decades.
Prosecutors have put the mob's top leaders on trial and tied them to 18 unsolved Outfit murders. Facing charges that could put them behind bars for life are reputed Chicago Outfit chief James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and top mobster Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, among others.
The star witnesses at trial will be the brother and son of Frank Calabrese Sr. The brother, Nick Calabrese, has admitted to 16 mob hits, many committed with his brother, he says. Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Calabrese Jr., secretly recorded his father while they were both in prison.
Details of other key witnesses expected at trial are in a federal court filing that is under seal. But the Sun-Times has learned who some of those witnesses will be.
Among the top witnesses will be Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel. Siegel was part of a crew of mobbed-up robbers who hit jewelry stores across the country -- mainly in California and Florida -- taking in millions of dollars in loot over the years.The robbers wore Halloween masks and body armor, used automatic weapons and performed their robberies with military-like precision, authorities said.
"We prosecuted them to the fullest. But we recognized they were the New York Yankees of robbers," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Edmund Searby, who prosecuted Siegel and his cohorts in 1993 for a series of jewelry store robberies. A heavy prison sentence prompted Siegel to flip and spill all he knew to the feds, including several murders he allegedly committed or knew about, authorities said.
Another witness at the upcoming trial is expected to be Yu Lip Moy, a former head of the National On Leong Trading Association and a former Pittsburgh restaurant owner who was a key witness in the On Leong gambling case in Chicago the early 1990s. Moy has testified he paid off Schweihs as part of an agreement with the Outfit to allow illegal Asian gambling in Chicago to continue.
Another restaurant owner, Michael Talarico, is listed as a potential witness. Talarico has run the well-known Bridgeport restaurant Punchinello's for years and allegedly worked as a bookmaker. The Sun-Times has previously reported he was held in federal jail in Chicago for not testifying before a Family Secrets grand jury, but was later released.
While Talarico is still listed as the license holder for the restaurant, a phone message at the restaurant said it is under new management. Talarico is a part of the influential Roti family by marriage and once was married to Schweihs' daughter.
When asked about Talarico, Joseph Lopez, the attorney for Frank Calabrese Sr., said he expected Talarico's testimony to deal more with Nick Calabrese than Frank Calabrese Sr.
Lopez blasted Nick Calabrese as "a mass murderer."
"Instead of going after off-duty cops for fighting in bars, [Cook County State's Attorney] Dick Devine should be going after a mass murderer who has killed more people than the Brown's Chicken massacre and Richard Speck combined," Lopez said.
Nick Calabrese is cooperating with federal prosecutors but does not have a deal with them yet.
Prosecutors would not discuss witnesses, and defense attorneys declined to discuss the contents of the sealed court filing.
When asked about some of the potential witnesses, Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin said: "It's just round-up-the-usual-snitches, who have been telling the same stories for 20 years."
Other witnesses expected at trial include Outfit burglar Richard Mara; failed Outfit assassin Daniel Bounds, who turned himself into the FBI after botching the hit of south suburban mob boss Alfred Pilotto; Outfit killer and burglar Frank Cullotta, a close associate of Tony Spilotro; mob leg breaker James LaValley, and former adult bookstore owner, William "Red" Wemette, who was shaken down by Outfit thugs.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Monday, April 02, 2007
Strip Club Used to Train Mobsters
Two of New York's most high profiled mobsters Salvatore Scala and Thomas Sassano are accused of using a strip club to train new recruits into the mafia. According to U.S.Attorney Elie Honig "Scala and Sassano used that club as a junior varsity to groom future mobsters".
Scala and Sassano both face extortion charges in Manhattan federal court. If convicted on all counts, Scala will sit behind bars for 60 years, while Sassano does 40 years.
Frank Marcello who owned the club at one time got in touch with the Gambino's to help him protect himself and his club from other organized crime members. Sums of money in the amounts of thousands of dollars were paid on a bi-weekly basis. The bathroom being the place where business has been conducted. Marcello died of unknown causes in 2002.Defense attorneys for Scala and Sassano are arguing that the clubs financial status had nothing to do with the mafia instead large amounts of gambling debt that had been run up into the thousands.
Scala has been arrested prior to the extortion case, in 1983 he was arrested for heroin trafficking, the same time that Gene Gotti of the Gotti family was sentenced to 50 years in prison. As with most mafia trials, Scala's case was weak and all charges against him were thrown out and dropped.
Thanks to Jeanne-Marie Kerns
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Tony Soprano to be Whacked in Final Season?
IF any television character has a bullet, or meat cleaver, with his name on it, it's Tony Soprano.
As HBO's "The Sopranos" counts down its final nine episodes beginning next Sunday, the existential question hanging over the series is: Should Tony live or die? Given the show's bleak themes, anything less than killing him off could be construed as a miscarriage of justice — and a dramatic sellout.
After six seasons, even Tony doesn't seem to like his chances. In therapy, the married father of two admitted to his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, that there are two outcomes for "guys like me" — prison or death.
The New Jersey don has meted out death to family (cousin Tony Blundetto), friend (Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero), and foe (witness protection turncoat Fred Peters) alike. He has sanctioned many more cold-blooded hits, of course, as on his daughter's boyfriend Jackie Jr. or on his nephew's fiancée, Adriana. He once even tried to snuff out his smothering mother, Livia, with, appropriately enough, a hospital pillow.
The crime boss' intuition is dead-on, argues Al Gini, who contributed an essay for the 2004 book "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am." By summer, says Gini, whose essay was called "Bada-Being and Nothingness: Murderous Melodrama or Morality Play?," Tony will be sleeping with the fishes.
"Tony has got to be killed. It's the only satisfying ending," said Gini, a philosophy professor at Loyola University in Chicago who has incorporated Soprano's leadership traits into a business ethics course. "We're not talking about Robin Hood here, someone that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. We're talking about a hood. If Tony doesn't lose everything, what's the message? The bad guy gets away with it all?"
Gini isn't suggesting a Sgt. Joe Friday "crime doesn't pay" lecture as much as a dramatization of the biblical injunction that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. God's judgment may be evident, but a sudden, violent death for Tony would also have to do with probability. In other words, those who live with mobsters, drug dealers, loan sharks and waste management consultants are probably going to die like them.
But popular L.A. mystery writer Robert Crais still would find such a finale overly simplistic, out of sync with the complexity and sophistication that have been earmarks of the show's storytelling. There are things worse than death, after all. Tony should survive some type of mob conflagration, said the former writer for "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice" and "Cagney & Lacey," but not without dire consequences.
"I don't think the audience would be happy if Tony gets a bullet to the head," said Crais, who wrote the bestselling fictional thriller "The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel." "In the end, he should be promoted, but where the cost far exceeds the triumph."
When it comes to story lines, "The Sopranos" breaks all the rules, but that hasn't stopped oddsmakers from weighing in on how the show will end. The line seems to recommend not betting against the man with a back office at the Bada Bing! At an online gambling site based in Costa Rica called BoDog, the odds are running 1 to 2 against Tony's demise, according to Bodog.com founder Calvin Ayre. However, Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti is a 2-to-1 favorite to be a stiff before the final curtain falls. (Tony's son, A.J., is a 15-to-1 family long shot to die.)
Certainly, there are no shortage of "Sopranos" characters with the opportunity and motive to knock off Tony. Perpetually disgruntled Paulie Walnuts, rival mob boss and recently imprisoned Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, even nephew Christopher all would be credible assailants to perform the foul deed. But perhaps there is someone closer still to Tony who would do him in.
"You see echoes of great Greek tragedy in all this," said Glen O. Gabbard, a psychiatrist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who has written extensively about the show. "I could see Carmela getting so furious that she killed Tony."
Long torn, as she once said, between doing what is right and doing what is easy, Carmela could become the fury behind Tony's death. All the goodwill built between the reunited couple could vanish in a flash if Carmela were to learn the truth behind Adriana's disappearance.
An equally powerful dramatic finish would be if the prone-to-depression mobster took his own life, contends Peter H. Hare, an emeritus philosophy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who also wrote an essay for "The Sopranos and Philosophy."
Tony's suicide should not be a personal moral reaction to his many evil acts but rather stem from a deepening melancholy that overtakes him as he realizes his life is without true meaning or purpose. The suicide can't be the result of a pill popping or a gun to the temple. Instead, in what Hare terms an "ambiguous suicide," Tony could deliberately maneuver himself into a heroic battle ostensibly for his Mafia family but actually meant as a way to kill himself.
"I don't want to imply Tony deserves to die," said Hare, whose essay is titled "What Kind of God Does This …?" "But the whole 'Sopranos' narrative has a great deal more meaning if it ends with his death."
SHOULD Tony die is one question. Will he die is quite another. Wrapping up any beloved and long-running television series is extraordinarily difficult, much less one that has drawn comparisons in breadth and depth to the works of Shakespeare and has so clearly stamped its brooding, darkly humorous soul onto the pop culture canopy.
Not surprisingly, series creator David Chase and his staff are in lockdown mode in their New York studios zealously guarding any hint over Tony's ultimate fate. Though the show's writers are renowned for their ingenuity and unpredictability, storytelling convention can still offer clues to the final days of Tony Soprano.
Endings typically hew closely to the logic established within a show's fictional universe while also resolving outstanding dramatic questions. This basic storytelling rule would, it is hoped, eliminate Tony's possible escape into the federal witness protection program, or worse, a "St. Elsewhere"-like scenario where the whole "Sopranos" pageant had been all in the mind of an autistic child. But memorable endings — Bob Newhart ending up back in bed with Suzanne Pleshette! — usually pack a surprise, and that as much as anything else could spare Tony.
"I watch shows like 'The Sopranos' for the unknown — the twists and turns and for the nice ride," said Saul Friedman, a writer for the website http://www.TVgasm.com. "We've all seen the mafia movies, and we know how they end. I want to see something different here."
It's worth noting the conclusions of "The Godfather" movies, which are frequently alluded to and even quoted outright in "The Sopranos." Mafia head Vito Corleone, after being nearly assassinated, turns over his empire to son Michael. Vito's brush with death seems enough punishment and he dies relatively peacefully in the family garden before his bewildered grandson.
Meanwhile, "The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)" would seem to offer an ending more in keeping with "The Sopranos" overall tone. There, Michael consolidates his rule, but it comes at the price of murdering his older brother and forever alienating his family. The final shot of a soulless Michael staring off at a frozen Lake Tahoe is more chilling than any murder could ever be. (Sorry, "The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition)" doesn't count.)
From a strictly storytelling point of view too, killing off Tony now would seem repetitive and anticlimactic. It was only a handful of episodes ago that Tony escaped death after being shot in the belly by a senile Uncle Junior.
Another problem with killing Tony is how likable he is despite his pathologically long list of misdeeds and murder. We like him, that's why we watch the show, and doing him in may be more than the writers and the audience can bear. Indeed, they want to believe he can change.
"Arthur Miller used to say, 'You don't go to the theater unless you see yourself onstage,' " said Gabbard, who wrote "The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family." "The audience thinks that maybe, just maybe, this bad man can be transformed into a good man. That's what Melfi thinks, that's what the audience thinks."
And yet, something more powerful than the demands of storytelling may dictate Tony's final fate — Hollywood. Although Chase is ending the series because he's mined the show for all he can on television, rumors persist about a possible "Sopranos" feature film. A "Sopranos" movie without Tony? As the Bada Bing! boys might say, not going to happen.
Thanks to Martin Miller
As HBO's "The Sopranos" counts down its final nine episodes beginning next Sunday, the existential question hanging over the series is: Should Tony live or die? Given the show's bleak themes, anything less than killing him off could be construed as a miscarriage of justice — and a dramatic sellout.
After six seasons, even Tony doesn't seem to like his chances. In therapy, the married father of two admitted to his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, that there are two outcomes for "guys like me" — prison or death.
The New Jersey don has meted out death to family (cousin Tony Blundetto), friend (Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero), and foe (witness protection turncoat Fred Peters) alike. He has sanctioned many more cold-blooded hits, of course, as on his daughter's boyfriend Jackie Jr. or on his nephew's fiancée, Adriana. He once even tried to snuff out his smothering mother, Livia, with, appropriately enough, a hospital pillow.
The crime boss' intuition is dead-on, argues Al Gini, who contributed an essay for the 2004 book "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am." By summer, says Gini, whose essay was called "Bada-Being and Nothingness: Murderous Melodrama or Morality Play?," Tony will be sleeping with the fishes.
"Tony has got to be killed. It's the only satisfying ending," said Gini, a philosophy professor at Loyola University in Chicago who has incorporated Soprano's leadership traits into a business ethics course. "We're not talking about Robin Hood here, someone that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. We're talking about a hood. If Tony doesn't lose everything, what's the message? The bad guy gets away with it all?"
Gini isn't suggesting a Sgt. Joe Friday "crime doesn't pay" lecture as much as a dramatization of the biblical injunction that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. God's judgment may be evident, but a sudden, violent death for Tony would also have to do with probability. In other words, those who live with mobsters, drug dealers, loan sharks and waste management consultants are probably going to die like them.
But popular L.A. mystery writer Robert Crais still would find such a finale overly simplistic, out of sync with the complexity and sophistication that have been earmarks of the show's storytelling. There are things worse than death, after all. Tony should survive some type of mob conflagration, said the former writer for "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice" and "Cagney & Lacey," but not without dire consequences.
"I don't think the audience would be happy if Tony gets a bullet to the head," said Crais, who wrote the bestselling fictional thriller "The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel." "In the end, he should be promoted, but where the cost far exceeds the triumph."
When it comes to story lines, "The Sopranos" breaks all the rules, but that hasn't stopped oddsmakers from weighing in on how the show will end. The line seems to recommend not betting against the man with a back office at the Bada Bing! At an online gambling site based in Costa Rica called BoDog, the odds are running 1 to 2 against Tony's demise, according to Bodog.com founder Calvin Ayre. However, Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti is a 2-to-1 favorite to be a stiff before the final curtain falls. (Tony's son, A.J., is a 15-to-1 family long shot to die.)
Certainly, there are no shortage of "Sopranos" characters with the opportunity and motive to knock off Tony. Perpetually disgruntled Paulie Walnuts, rival mob boss and recently imprisoned Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, even nephew Christopher all would be credible assailants to perform the foul deed. But perhaps there is someone closer still to Tony who would do him in.
"You see echoes of great Greek tragedy in all this," said Glen O. Gabbard, a psychiatrist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who has written extensively about the show. "I could see Carmela getting so furious that she killed Tony."
Long torn, as she once said, between doing what is right and doing what is easy, Carmela could become the fury behind Tony's death. All the goodwill built between the reunited couple could vanish in a flash if Carmela were to learn the truth behind Adriana's disappearance.
An equally powerful dramatic finish would be if the prone-to-depression mobster took his own life, contends Peter H. Hare, an emeritus philosophy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who also wrote an essay for "The Sopranos and Philosophy."
Tony's suicide should not be a personal moral reaction to his many evil acts but rather stem from a deepening melancholy that overtakes him as he realizes his life is without true meaning or purpose. The suicide can't be the result of a pill popping or a gun to the temple. Instead, in what Hare terms an "ambiguous suicide," Tony could deliberately maneuver himself into a heroic battle ostensibly for his Mafia family but actually meant as a way to kill himself.
"I don't want to imply Tony deserves to die," said Hare, whose essay is titled "What Kind of God Does This …?" "But the whole 'Sopranos' narrative has a great deal more meaning if it ends with his death."
SHOULD Tony die is one question. Will he die is quite another. Wrapping up any beloved and long-running television series is extraordinarily difficult, much less one that has drawn comparisons in breadth and depth to the works of Shakespeare and has so clearly stamped its brooding, darkly humorous soul onto the pop culture canopy.
Not surprisingly, series creator David Chase and his staff are in lockdown mode in their New York studios zealously guarding any hint over Tony's ultimate fate. Though the show's writers are renowned for their ingenuity and unpredictability, storytelling convention can still offer clues to the final days of Tony Soprano.
Endings typically hew closely to the logic established within a show's fictional universe while also resolving outstanding dramatic questions. This basic storytelling rule would, it is hoped, eliminate Tony's possible escape into the federal witness protection program, or worse, a "St. Elsewhere"-like scenario where the whole "Sopranos" pageant had been all in the mind of an autistic child. But memorable endings — Bob Newhart ending up back in bed with Suzanne Pleshette! — usually pack a surprise, and that as much as anything else could spare Tony.
"I watch shows like 'The Sopranos' for the unknown — the twists and turns and for the nice ride," said Saul Friedman, a writer for the website http://www.TVgasm.com. "We've all seen the mafia movies, and we know how they end. I want to see something different here."
It's worth noting the conclusions of "The Godfather" movies, which are frequently alluded to and even quoted outright in "The Sopranos." Mafia head Vito Corleone, after being nearly assassinated, turns over his empire to son Michael. Vito's brush with death seems enough punishment and he dies relatively peacefully in the family garden before his bewildered grandson.
Meanwhile, "The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)" would seem to offer an ending more in keeping with "The Sopranos" overall tone. There, Michael consolidates his rule, but it comes at the price of murdering his older brother and forever alienating his family. The final shot of a soulless Michael staring off at a frozen Lake Tahoe is more chilling than any murder could ever be. (Sorry, "The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition)" doesn't count.)
From a strictly storytelling point of view too, killing off Tony now would seem repetitive and anticlimactic. It was only a handful of episodes ago that Tony escaped death after being shot in the belly by a senile Uncle Junior.
Another problem with killing Tony is how likable he is despite his pathologically long list of misdeeds and murder. We like him, that's why we watch the show, and doing him in may be more than the writers and the audience can bear. Indeed, they want to believe he can change.
"Arthur Miller used to say, 'You don't go to the theater unless you see yourself onstage,' " said Gabbard, who wrote "The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family." "The audience thinks that maybe, just maybe, this bad man can be transformed into a good man. That's what Melfi thinks, that's what the audience thinks."
And yet, something more powerful than the demands of storytelling may dictate Tony's final fate — Hollywood. Although Chase is ending the series because he's mined the show for all he can on television, rumors persist about a possible "Sopranos" feature film. A "Sopranos" movie without Tony? As the Bada Bing! boys might say, not going to happen.
Thanks to Martin Miller
A Tale of Two Mobsters
Two men with connections to Chicago organized crime, both of them believed to be outfit enforcers, one is dead the other is in court. In this Intelligence Report: the tale of two mobsters.
There are really only two ways out of the mob life and one is more permanent than the other. You are either murdered...or put in prison. This is...a tale of two mobsters-enforcers-with deep connections to the Chicago outfit. One was found buried in a suburban construction site. The other was found in court...extending his long criminal record.
We begin with Robert Charles " Bobby" Cruz...who spent 14 years on death row for a contract hit on an Arizona businessman and his mother-in-law, a conviction eventually thrown out. Cruz came to Chicago for the 1997 trial of his hitman-cousin, Harry Aleman. A few days after Aleman was convicted, Cruz vanished. Last week--ten years later -- Cruz' corpse was found by a sewer crew in DuPage County...minus his trigger finger and a few other digits...a subtle message that the assassin would never work again.
As authorities were identifying the remains of one mob enforcer...the i-team found another one walking to court.
This is long-time Chicago outfit enforcer Victor "Popeye" Arrigo, arriving with his daughter for a hearing in Maywood. Arrigo's rap sheet reaches back to 1956 and reads like a crime encyclopedia, but at age 70 he admits to be going soft.
On this day, he stood before criminal court judge William Wise on theft charges--but not the big jewel capers or cartage heists he and the outfit are known for. "They accuse me of taking salami, cheese...stuff like that," said Victor "Popeye" Arrigo.
One of the mob's toughest enforcers, Arrigo was hauled away by west suburban Berkeley police on charges that he stole $40-dollars worth of Italian and Hungarian salami from a grocery store.
Arrigo chalks-up the larceny up to old age. "When you hit 69, 70, you do goofy things...just to see if you can get away with it...i got caught. That's about it," Arrigo said.
Arrigo contends the grocery store plunder was not an outfit job--and authorities believe him.
Like many of the old time wise guys he grew up with, Arrigo's public demeanor could win him citizen of the year. "Nice talkin' to you. Anything else you want to say? Say hello to Chuck for me."
I met the mobster more than ten years ago--during his last run in with the law on gun charges...and at that time, learned the heritage of his mob nickname: "Popeye". It's for the detachable glass eyeball he wears as the result of barroom shootout.
When Arrigo is bellying up to the bar he says he enjoys popping out his eyeball and placing it on top of his beer money...then telling the bartender he is merely keeping an eye on his cash.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
There are really only two ways out of the mob life and one is more permanent than the other. You are either murdered...or put in prison. This is...a tale of two mobsters-enforcers-with deep connections to the Chicago outfit. One was found buried in a suburban construction site. The other was found in court...extending his long criminal record.
We begin with Robert Charles " Bobby" Cruz...who spent 14 years on death row for a contract hit on an Arizona businessman and his mother-in-law, a conviction eventually thrown out. Cruz came to Chicago for the 1997 trial of his hitman-cousin, Harry Aleman. A few days after Aleman was convicted, Cruz vanished. Last week--ten years later -- Cruz' corpse was found by a sewer crew in DuPage County...minus his trigger finger and a few other digits...a subtle message that the assassin would never work again.
As authorities were identifying the remains of one mob enforcer...the i-team found another one walking to court.
This is long-time Chicago outfit enforcer Victor "Popeye" Arrigo, arriving with his daughter for a hearing in Maywood. Arrigo's rap sheet reaches back to 1956 and reads like a crime encyclopedia, but at age 70 he admits to be going soft.
On this day, he stood before criminal court judge William Wise on theft charges--but not the big jewel capers or cartage heists he and the outfit are known for. "They accuse me of taking salami, cheese...stuff like that," said Victor "Popeye" Arrigo.One of the mob's toughest enforcers, Arrigo was hauled away by west suburban Berkeley police on charges that he stole $40-dollars worth of Italian and Hungarian salami from a grocery store.
Arrigo chalks-up the larceny up to old age. "When you hit 69, 70, you do goofy things...just to see if you can get away with it...i got caught. That's about it," Arrigo said.
Arrigo contends the grocery store plunder was not an outfit job--and authorities believe him.
Like many of the old time wise guys he grew up with, Arrigo's public demeanor could win him citizen of the year. "Nice talkin' to you. Anything else you want to say? Say hello to Chuck for me."
I met the mobster more than ten years ago--during his last run in with the law on gun charges...and at that time, learned the heritage of his mob nickname: "Popeye". It's for the detachable glass eyeball he wears as the result of barroom shootout.
When Arrigo is bellying up to the bar he says he enjoys popping out his eyeball and placing it on top of his beer money...then telling the bartender he is merely keeping an eye on his cash.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Friday, March 30, 2007
Mob Bones Belong to Cousin of Hit Man Harry Aleman
Friends of ours: Harry Aleman
Friends of mine: Robert Charles Cruz
Just days after his cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, was sentenced for a murder, Robert Charles Cruz disappeared from his Kildeer home.
For nearly 10 years, authorities suspected Cruz had purposely vanished, but his credit cards and bank accounts never were touched. Last week, construction crews digging new sewers for a townhouse development in unincorporated DuPage County came across the body of a man wrapped in tarpaulin and carpet, buried 8 1/2 feet down. On Wednesday, the DuPage County coroner's office publicly identified that the man as Robert Charles Cruz, 50. He had been reported missing on Dec. 4, 1997.
Cruz's body was found just 50 yards from where two other organized crime-connected bodies were found in 1988. An informant had told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of former mob syndicate member Joseph Jerome Scalise.
At the time, an FBI task force descended on the area near Bluff Road and Illinois Highway 83 for five months and found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge, a minor associate of Gerald Scarpelli, a crime syndicate killer-turned-informant; and Mark Oliver, another minor organized crime figure.
Now, the FBI and DuPage County authorities are investigating Cruz's murder. Law enforcement sources said it appeared Cruz had been shot.
Cruz's body was identified through fingerprints and through tattoos on his arm, said Tom Simon, special agent and spokesman for the FBI. Family members have been notified, he said.
In addition to his familial relationship to Aleman, who remains in prison, Cruz had his own brushes with trouble. He spent 14 years on Death Row in Arizona before his conviction for hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law on New Year's Eve in 1980 was overturned and a new trial ordered. .
Prosecutors at the time said Cruz hired the men, including two from Chicago, to murder Patrick Redmond because the man refused to sell an interest in his Phoenix printing shop to Cruz, who wanted to use it to launder money from Las Vegas connections. Redmond's 70-year-old mother-in-law was visiting and died after her throat was cut.
Cruz was tried four more times. He was acquitted in 1995 after the jury decided the state's primary witness, a participant in the killings, was unreliable.
Cruz later moved to Kildeer and was a fixture at Harry Aleman's 1997 trial for the murder of a Teamsters' union official. Cruz sat every day in the courtroom where the attorney in his Arizona appeal, Kevin McNally, defended Aleman.
Cruz had been instrumental in Aleman's decision to change attorneys and hire McNally just before the trial. Days after Aleman was sentenced to 100 to 300 years in prison, Cruz disappeared. He had last been seen hanging Christmas lights from the gutters of his home.
Thanks to Angela Rozas and Maurice Possley
Friends of mine: Robert Charles Cruz
Just days after his cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, was sentenced for a murder, Robert Charles Cruz disappeared from his Kildeer home.
For nearly 10 years, authorities suspected Cruz had purposely vanished, but his credit cards and bank accounts never were touched. Last week, construction crews digging new sewers for a townhouse development in unincorporated DuPage County came across the body of a man wrapped in tarpaulin and carpet, buried 8 1/2 feet down. On Wednesday, the DuPage County coroner's office publicly identified that the man as Robert Charles Cruz, 50. He had been reported missing on Dec. 4, 1997.
Cruz's body was found just 50 yards from where two other organized crime-connected bodies were found in 1988. An informant had told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of former mob syndicate member Joseph Jerome Scalise.
At the time, an FBI task force descended on the area near Bluff Road and Illinois Highway 83 for five months and found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge, a minor associate of Gerald Scarpelli, a crime syndicate killer-turned-informant; and Mark Oliver, another minor organized crime figure.
Now, the FBI and DuPage County authorities are investigating Cruz's murder. Law enforcement sources said it appeared Cruz had been shot.
Cruz's body was identified through fingerprints and through tattoos on his arm, said Tom Simon, special agent and spokesman for the FBI. Family members have been notified, he said.
In addition to his familial relationship to Aleman, who remains in prison, Cruz had his own brushes with trouble. He spent 14 years on Death Row in Arizona before his conviction for hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law on New Year's Eve in 1980 was overturned and a new trial ordered. .
Prosecutors at the time said Cruz hired the men, including two from Chicago, to murder Patrick Redmond because the man refused to sell an interest in his Phoenix printing shop to Cruz, who wanted to use it to launder money from Las Vegas connections. Redmond's 70-year-old mother-in-law was visiting and died after her throat was cut.
Cruz was tried four more times. He was acquitted in 1995 after the jury decided the state's primary witness, a participant in the killings, was unreliable.
Cruz later moved to Kildeer and was a fixture at Harry Aleman's 1997 trial for the murder of a Teamsters' union official. Cruz sat every day in the courtroom where the attorney in his Arizona appeal, Kevin McNally, defended Aleman.
Cruz had been instrumental in Aleman's decision to change attorneys and hire McNally just before the trial. Days after Aleman was sentenced to 100 to 300 years in prison, Cruz disappeared. He had last been seen hanging Christmas lights from the gutters of his home.
Thanks to Angela Rozas and Maurice Possley
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Mob Hit Man Harry Aleman's Cousin Found in Mafia Graveyard
Construction workers laying sewer pipe found the skeletal remains of a former death row inmate with mob ties at a suburban Chicago site about 50 yards from where the bodies of two other men connected to organized crime were found in 1988.
The DuPage County coroner's office identified the latest body
, found wrapped in a blue tarp, as Robert Charles Cruz. FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the body was identified through fingerprints and tattoos.
Cruz was 50 when he disappeared from his Kildeer home on Dec. 4, 1997. His cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, had just been sentence to 100 to 300 years in prison for the 1972 murder of a Teamsters official. Cruz had been in the courtroom each day of Aleman's 1997 trial.
Cruz had also spent 14 years on death row in Arizona for allegedly hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law. That conviction was overturned in 1980 and a new trial was ordered. Cruz was tried four more times and acquitted in 1995.
The construction workers found Cruz's remains more than eight feet underground while laying sewer pipes for a new townhouse development.
Federal and county authorities are investigating Cruz's death as a homicide.
The other two bodies found in the area were located after an informant told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of a former mob syndicate member. FBI agents found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge and Mark Oliver, both described as associates of organized crime figures.
The DuPage County coroner's office identified the latest body
, found wrapped in a blue tarp, as Robert Charles Cruz. FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the body was identified through fingerprints and tattoos.Cruz was 50 when he disappeared from his Kildeer home on Dec. 4, 1997. His cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, had just been sentence to 100 to 300 years in prison for the 1972 murder of a Teamsters official. Cruz had been in the courtroom each day of Aleman's 1997 trial.
Cruz had also spent 14 years on death row in Arizona for allegedly hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law. That conviction was overturned in 1980 and a new trial was ordered. Cruz was tried four more times and acquitted in 1995.
The construction workers found Cruz's remains more than eight feet underground while laying sewer pipes for a new townhouse development.
Federal and county authorities are investigating Cruz's death as a homicide.
The other two bodies found in the area were located after an informant told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of a former mob syndicate member. FBI agents found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge and Mark Oliver, both described as associates of organized crime figures.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sopranos Looking to do a Job
Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family
The cast of "The Sopranos" is less worried about getting whacked than getting new jobs once the series is over in June.
At last night's humungous premiere at Radio City Music Hall, followed by a party that swamped Rockefeller Center, that seemed to be the uppermost thought in the minds of everyone from actors to crew.
Nevertheless, James Gandolfini, whose work has been so stellar as Tony Soprano, told me he's taking a year off after the show wraps. The final episode is still being worked on. "At least a year," he joked with me.
Gandolfini's running joke is that while he has been on the show, every movie he made has been so bad that it has wrecked the career of the star he "supported" in each film — think Ben Affleck.
In the next couple of weeks, he opens with John Travolta in a film that's being dumped, essentially. It's called "Lonely Hearts" and, well, fugeddaboutit. "That's right," Gandolfini laughed when we recalled the old joke. But it's also possible that he was so successful with the TV series, he may have to wait for success in films, I offered. "I hope you're right," he said. "But I'm still taking the time off."
Lorraine Bracco laughed heartily about the future. "They love you when you're on top. But wait 'til you're on the bottom," she cried.
Bracco's had a long enough career to know this isn't the end, but it may take a while to get over "The Sopranos." Most of her family, except her ailing mom, came to the premiere: her dad, two daughters, sister and brother-in-law, actor Aidan Quinn.
There were plenty of other Sopranos, dead and alive, all at Rockefeller Center, including Edie Falco, who left the party early to make a morning shoot for the show; Vince Curatola, who does such a magnificent job as Johnny Sack, head of the New York mob; Michael Imperioli, who plays Christopher; Drea de Matteo, whose Adrianna is still being discussed; Jamie-Lynn Sigler; Robert Iler; Dominic Chianese; Steve Schirippa; Aida Turturro; Steve Buscemi; and "Little" Steven Van Zandt, aka Silvio.
Curatola, by the way, doesn't have to worry about future work. He's just made an independent movie called "Frame of Mind" with "Law & Order" star Chris Noth. And he still sings occasionally with the rock group Chicago.
Buscemi, of course, is always busy. And Van Zandt is putting together a TV pilot for his "Underground Garage" station that he does on Sirius Satellite Radio — that is, when he's not playing in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Imperioli told me he's making movies in Portugal and Iceland.
Thanks to Roger Friedman
The cast of "The Sopranos" is less worried about getting whacked than getting new jobs once the series is over in June.
At last night's humungous premiere at Radio City Music Hall, followed by a party that swamped Rockefeller Center, that seemed to be the uppermost thought in the minds of everyone from actors to crew.Nevertheless, James Gandolfini, whose work has been so stellar as Tony Soprano, told me he's taking a year off after the show wraps. The final episode is still being worked on. "At least a year," he joked with me.
Gandolfini's running joke is that while he has been on the show, every movie he made has been so bad that it has wrecked the career of the star he "supported" in each film — think Ben Affleck.
In the next couple of weeks, he opens with John Travolta in a film that's being dumped, essentially. It's called "Lonely Hearts" and, well, fugeddaboutit. "That's right," Gandolfini laughed when we recalled the old joke. But it's also possible that he was so successful with the TV series, he may have to wait for success in films, I offered. "I hope you're right," he said. "But I'm still taking the time off."
Lorraine Bracco laughed heartily about the future. "They love you when you're on top. But wait 'til you're on the bottom," she cried.
Bracco's had a long enough career to know this isn't the end, but it may take a while to get over "The Sopranos." Most of her family, except her ailing mom, came to the premiere: her dad, two daughters, sister and brother-in-law, actor Aidan Quinn.
There were plenty of other Sopranos, dead and alive, all at Rockefeller Center, including Edie Falco, who left the party early to make a morning shoot for the show; Vince Curatola, who does such a magnificent job as Johnny Sack, head of the New York mob; Michael Imperioli, who plays Christopher; Drea de Matteo, whose Adrianna is still being discussed; Jamie-Lynn Sigler; Robert Iler; Dominic Chianese; Steve Schirippa; Aida Turturro; Steve Buscemi; and "Little" Steven Van Zandt, aka Silvio.
Curatola, by the way, doesn't have to worry about future work. He's just made an independent movie called "Frame of Mind" with "Law & Order" star Chris Noth. And he still sings occasionally with the rock group Chicago.
Buscemi, of course, is always busy. And Van Zandt is putting together a TV pilot for his "Underground Garage" station that he does on Sirius Satellite Radio — that is, when he's not playing in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Imperioli told me he's making movies in Portugal and Iceland.
Thanks to Roger Friedman
Sopranos Comes to an End
“You don’t listen to the president? We’re gonna mop the floor with the whole f***in’ world. The whole world’s gonna be under our control. So what are you worked up about?” —Christopher Moltisanti of “The Sopranos”
Everything comes to an end.”
These words, delivered by an irate Edie Falco, are used in the promo death knell for one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved television series of all time, HBO’s “The Sopranos.” The fictional story of a likeable, northern New Jersey crime family ends this spring with the final nine episodes of season six beginning April 8.
What will happen to mob boss Tony Soprano and his family? How about his colorful henchmen, despicable for their brutal violence and racism one moment, and lovable for their humor, resourcefulness and camaraderie the next? Surely, bets are already being placed on who will end up in prison and who will have to go (in the Mafia sense). One thing is almost certain: More than a few HBO subscribers will be going. The program has been a major draw since it first aired in 1999. How do you top one of the greatest pop-culture success stories of the last 25 years?
Show creator David Chase (born David DeCesare) is no stranger to thought-provoking, classic television, having produced episodes for “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure.” But as ruthless and violent as it has been, “The Sopranos” is his masterpiece. People may argue over the best of the six seasons, but the fact remains that this hard-hitting show has always been better written, better acted and better conceived than anything else on television. There is simply nothing like it.
What began as a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into our long-running fascination with Italian-American Mafia culture — from Coppola’s “Godfather” series through Scorsese’s real best picture winner, “Good Fellas” — has continued to evolve by delving deeper into the psychological lives of its characters, usually by way of Freudian themes, Byzantine political plots and philosophical nuggets from the Far East. It’s a postmodern soap opera, colored by Italian-American cultural traditions and populated with anti-heroes, intelligent professionals and plenty of existential despair. As an organized crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer once wrote, “If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be writing for ‘The Sopranos’”
Sometimes, though, I still wonder why I love Mafia tales. These characters are serial murderers for the most part, scary people most of us wouldn’t want to meet in daylight, much less a darkened strip club. Normally I’m not a huge fan of television either, especially the stuff with commercials (which HBO programs thankfully do not have).
I was about to write my fascination off to morbid curiosity, or the Wild West appeal of modern-day lawless cowboys, when I ran across a recent interview with activist/intellectual Noam Chomsky that made me wonder again why so many of us accept mobsters as sympathetic characters.
As Chomsky points out, the U.S. government operates exactly like the mob in its international relations and has for a long time — though with far more money made, and far more lives lost. Specifically, he was discussing our foreign policy strategies concerning Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran (which could be in store for some Gulf of Tonkin incident any day now). Speaking of Cuba, Chomsky notes:
“A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time, with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won’t allow it. It’s attributed to the Florida vote but I don’t think that’s much of an explanation. I
think it has to do with a feature of world affairs that is insufficiently appreciated. International affairs is very much run like the Mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience, otherwise the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.”
I realize “The Sopranos” has poked fun at this analogy between organized crime in high and low places. And the show’s political awareness, like much of the country, has mushroomed since 9/11. Those following this final season are likely expecting some explosive plot thread involving the suspiciously quiet Middle Easterners who’ve been hanging at the Bada Bing and buying up guns. Yet the similarities between La Cosa Nostra and our foreign policy dons are uncanny indeed.
For instance: Back in the ’70s, the United States overthrew the parliamentary government of Iran, installed a brutal dictator (the shah) and proceeded to help him develop the same nuclear energy we now worry about. When the shah was overthrown, we punished Iran for its disobedience by supporting Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran. More recently, we had to punish Saddam because he wasn’t following orders (yes, the strategic control of oil is the chief reason for our current predicament, for those of you still deluded enough to think it was for the Iraqi people’s sake or keeping terrorists out of America’s shopping malls or whatever excuse Bush is peddling this week).
But what’s really scary to ponder is how the U.S. role as world mob boss will play out with China — or the Johnny “Sack” New York mob boss character, if you’re a “Sopranos” fan. More from Chomsky:
“You can imagine a kind of a loose Shi’ite alliance in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, controlling most of the world’s oil and independent of the United States. And much worse, although Europe can be intimidated by the United States, China can’t. It’s one of the main reasons why China is considered a threat. We’re back to the Mafia principle. … If the Middle East oil resources around the Gulf, which are the main ones in the world, if they link up to the Asian grid, the United States is really a second-rate power.”
Ever in denial, Tony Soprano admits that everything he does — all of his horrible crimes — he does to provide for his family. Likewise, it is an operating assumption too seldom challenged in the U.S. media that our leaders act only from noble reasons. “Ugatz!” as Paulie “Walnuts” might say.
I’ve greatly enjoyed watching “The Sopranos” these last eight years. What I probably won’t enjoy is the world stage drama from our bought-and-paid-for Mafia captains in the White House over the next 20 years.
Like Carmela tells Tony: “Everything comes to an end.”
Thanks to Brent Baldwin
Everything comes to an end.”
These words, delivered by an irate Edie Falco, are used in the promo death knell for one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved television series of all time, HBO’s “The Sopranos.” The fictional story of a likeable, northern New Jersey crime family ends this spring with the final nine episodes of season six beginning April 8.
What will happen to mob boss Tony Soprano and his family? How about his colorful henchmen, despicable for their brutal violence and racism one moment, and lovable for their humor, resourcefulness and camaraderie the next? Surely, bets are already being placed on who will end up in prison and who will have to go (in the Mafia sense). One thing is almost certain: More than a few HBO subscribers will be going. The program has been a major draw since it first aired in 1999. How do you top one of the greatest pop-culture success stories of the last 25 years?
Show creator David Chase (born David DeCesare) is no stranger to thought-provoking, classic television, having produced episodes for “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure.” But as ruthless and violent as it has been, “The Sopranos” is his masterpiece. People may argue over the best of the six seasons, but the fact remains that this hard-hitting show has always been better written, better acted and better conceived than anything else on television. There is simply nothing like it.
What began as a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into our long-running fascination with Italian-American Mafia culture — from Coppola’s “Godfather” series through Scorsese’s real best picture winner, “Good Fellas” — has continued to evolve by delving deeper into the psychological lives of its characters, usually by way of Freudian themes, Byzantine political plots and philosophical nuggets from the Far East. It’s a postmodern soap opera, colored by Italian-American cultural traditions and populated with anti-heroes, intelligent professionals and plenty of existential despair. As an organized crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer once wrote, “If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be writing for ‘The Sopranos’”
Sometimes, though, I still wonder why I love Mafia tales. These characters are serial murderers for the most part, scary people most of us wouldn’t want to meet in daylight, much less a darkened strip club. Normally I’m not a huge fan of television either, especially the stuff with commercials (which HBO programs thankfully do not have).
I was about to write my fascination off to morbid curiosity, or the Wild West appeal of modern-day lawless cowboys, when I ran across a recent interview with activist/intellectual Noam Chomsky that made me wonder again why so many of us accept mobsters as sympathetic characters.
As Chomsky points out, the U.S. government operates exactly like the mob in its international relations and has for a long time — though with far more money made, and far more lives lost. Specifically, he was discussing our foreign policy strategies concerning Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran (which could be in store for some Gulf of Tonkin incident any day now). Speaking of Cuba, Chomsky notes:
“A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time, with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won’t allow it. It’s attributed to the Florida vote but I don’t think that’s much of an explanation. I
think it has to do with a feature of world affairs that is insufficiently appreciated. International affairs is very much run like the Mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience, otherwise the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.”
I realize “The Sopranos” has poked fun at this analogy between organized crime in high and low places. And the show’s political awareness, like much of the country, has mushroomed since 9/11. Those following this final season are likely expecting some explosive plot thread involving the suspiciously quiet Middle Easterners who’ve been hanging at the Bada Bing and buying up guns. Yet the similarities between La Cosa Nostra and our foreign policy dons are uncanny indeed.
For instance: Back in the ’70s, the United States overthrew the parliamentary government of Iran, installed a brutal dictator (the shah) and proceeded to help him develop the same nuclear energy we now worry about. When the shah was overthrown, we punished Iran for its disobedience by supporting Saddam Hussein in his war on Iran. More recently, we had to punish Saddam because he wasn’t following orders (yes, the strategic control of oil is the chief reason for our current predicament, for those of you still deluded enough to think it was for the Iraqi people’s sake or keeping terrorists out of America’s shopping malls or whatever excuse Bush is peddling this week).
But what’s really scary to ponder is how the U.S. role as world mob boss will play out with China — or the Johnny “Sack” New York mob boss character, if you’re a “Sopranos” fan. More from Chomsky:
“You can imagine a kind of a loose Shi’ite alliance in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, controlling most of the world’s oil and independent of the United States. And much worse, although Europe can be intimidated by the United States, China can’t. It’s one of the main reasons why China is considered a threat. We’re back to the Mafia principle. … If the Middle East oil resources around the Gulf, which are the main ones in the world, if they link up to the Asian grid, the United States is really a second-rate power.”
Ever in denial, Tony Soprano admits that everything he does — all of his horrible crimes — he does to provide for his family. Likewise, it is an operating assumption too seldom challenged in the U.S. media that our leaders act only from noble reasons. “Ugatz!” as Paulie “Walnuts” might say.
I’ve greatly enjoyed watching “The Sopranos” these last eight years. What I probably won’t enjoy is the world stage drama from our bought-and-paid-for Mafia captains in the White House over the next 20 years.
Like Carmela tells Tony: “Everything comes to an end.”
Thanks to Brent Baldwin
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
New Jersey Landscape Altered by The Sopranos
Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family
The guy who runs the real-life Bada Bing is going to miss "The Sopranos," even if he thinks the show may have lowered his club's image a naughty notch or two.
The North Caldwell woman who cooked meals for the cast and crew while her home was used for "Sopranos" location shots is going to miss making baked ziti and chicken soup for her favorite performers.
Meanwhile, one of the mob show's most vocal critics is happy "The Sopranos," which filmed its last episode this week, will soon be history. "Am I glad they're gone? Yes," said Manny Alfano, director of the Italian-American One Voice Coalition. But, Alfano is resigned to the show's A&E re-runs -- and more TV shows and movies that he says unfairly portray Italian-Americans. "There will always be something to take its place."
"The Sopranos" may die off in several months, as may some of its main characters, but whether there will ever be another phenomenon to take its place is debatable.
"I don't know if we'll ever see something like this again," said David W. Schoner Jr., production coordinator for the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.
New Jersey, the nation's most mocked, maligned and misunderstood state, received an image boost from "The Sopranos," said Schoner, even if the show did center around a Jersey mob family who often did business with brute force. "The great thing about the show was that it was New Jersey," Schoner added. "There was this unabashed shouting from the mountain: 'This is New Jersey!'"
The other great thing about the show is the $60 million-plus it pumped into the state's economy for things like filming fees, meals, food, lumber and local hiring, according to Schoner. "'The Sopranos' increased the film industry's awareness of the state," Schoner said. "We have been considered for and have gotten projects because of 'The Sopranos.' They've raised our profile as a location for filming."
Those whose have lent their businesses and homes for location filming are sorry to see "The Sopranos" wrap up.
Satin Dolls in Lodi, the stand-in for the Bada Bing strip club, became "the most popular club in the country" due to the HBO series, according to general manager Nick D'Urso. "It certainly made us a lot more popular," D'Urso said. "It really gave us an image. We were a high-line club. Now we were the Bada Bing."
Hanging out at the "Bing" was not always a wise career move on "The Sopranos." One dancer in the show, Tracee, was killed outside the club and various "beatin's" were administered inside. The real-life Satin Dolls is a much serene, says D'Urso, who noted that the Bada Bing will continue to be in the spotlight during the final season. "They filmed more in the club this season than any other," he said.
One business that may continue to profit, even after "The Sopranos" is gone, is On Location Tours, which has conducted tours of "Soprano" locations sites since 2001.
"When 'Sex and the City' ended, the numbers for our 'Sex and the City' tours tripled," said Cathy Wilke, director of marketing for On Location Tours. "People go into withdrawal when a show ends. (With) 'The Sopranos'... on A&E, we'll get a whole new audience." (Reruns of the series, with the language and other content toned down, started airing on the basic cable channel in January.)
More than 15,000 people from 40 countries have taken the bus tours, described as a "four-hour tour through Sopranoland."
Towns across New Jersey have reaped the benefits of "Sopranos" location filming. Scenes have been shot in 40-plus communities, "from Ramsey to Asbury Park," according to Regina Heyman, the show's location manager.
Add Atlantic City to the list; the Borgata will appear in an episode this season.
Filming fees can add up. Kearny has been a popular "Sopranos" backdrop. Scenes have been shot inside and outside the Irish-American Association, which takes down its Irish flag and puts up an Italian flag during filming. The association is next door to the building standing in for the fictional Satriale's Pork Store, a hangout for Tony and his crew.
The association has earned $20,000 in rental fees over the years, according to past vice president Richard Dunleavy. The town itself has collected permit fees of $76,650.
Businesses have been paid for shutting down to accommodate a "Sopranos" shoot. Clear Eyes RX in Wayne, for example, was compensated $6,000 for filming. And then there are those who have invited the show into their homes.
Deborah Del Vecchio, for one, is going to miss cooking for everyone's favorite Jersey mob family. Over the years, her three-level North Caldwell home has served as the "home" of several "Sopranos" characters -- Janice Soprano, Johnny Sack, Silvio Dante and Patsy Parisi. "I always cook for the cast and crew," Del Vecchio said. "Antipasto, baked ziti -- they all love my homemade chicken soup," especially Aida Turturro, who plays Janice.
Filming was last done in her home a week ago, and Del Vecchio reported no gunshots were fired.
Initially, her home was in the running to be Tony Soprano's house, but the ducks ruined it -- or the lack of ducks. Tony liked the ducks in his swimming pool, and though there were ducks in the Del Vecchios' pool, construction on the house next door drove them away. So another house was chosen for the mob don's dwelling.
Del Vecchio's husband, Richard, has his own fond memories of "The Sopranos." He appeared in one episode as a Bada Bing patron. "All I know is that he was smiling for three days," Del Vecchio said, laughing."
Thanks to Peter Genovese
The guy who runs the real-life Bada Bing is going to miss "The Sopranos," even if he thinks the show may have lowered his club's image a naughty notch or two.
The North Caldwell woman who cooked meals for the cast and crew while her home was used for "Sopranos" location shots is going to miss making baked ziti and chicken soup for her favorite performers.
Meanwhile, one of the mob show's most vocal critics is happy "The Sopranos," which filmed its last episode this week, will soon be history. "Am I glad they're gone? Yes," said Manny Alfano, director of the Italian-American One Voice Coalition. But, Alfano is resigned to the show's A&E re-runs -- and more TV shows and movies that he says unfairly portray Italian-Americans. "There will always be something to take its place."
"The Sopranos" may die off in several months, as may some of its main characters, but whether there will ever be another phenomenon to take its place is debatable.
"I don't know if we'll ever see something like this again," said David W. Schoner Jr., production coordinator for the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.
New Jersey, the nation's most mocked, maligned and misunderstood state, received an image boost from "The Sopranos," said Schoner, even if the show did center around a Jersey mob family who often did business with brute force. "The great thing about the show was that it was New Jersey," Schoner added. "There was this unabashed shouting from the mountain: 'This is New Jersey!'"
The other great thing about the show is the $60 million-plus it pumped into the state's economy for things like filming fees, meals, food, lumber and local hiring, according to Schoner. "'The Sopranos' increased the film industry's awareness of the state," Schoner said. "We have been considered for and have gotten projects because of 'The Sopranos.' They've raised our profile as a location for filming."
Those whose have lent their businesses and homes for location filming are sorry to see "The Sopranos" wrap up.
Satin Dolls in Lodi, the stand-in for the Bada Bing strip club, became "the most popular club in the country" due to the HBO series, according to general manager Nick D'Urso. "It certainly made us a lot more popular," D'Urso said. "It really gave us an image. We were a high-line club. Now we were the Bada Bing."
Hanging out at the "Bing" was not always a wise career move on "The Sopranos." One dancer in the show, Tracee, was killed outside the club and various "beatin's" were administered inside. The real-life Satin Dolls is a much serene, says D'Urso, who noted that the Bada Bing will continue to be in the spotlight during the final season. "They filmed more in the club this season than any other," he said.
One business that may continue to profit, even after "The Sopranos" is gone, is On Location Tours, which has conducted tours of "Soprano" locations sites since 2001.
"When 'Sex and the City' ended, the numbers for our 'Sex and the City' tours tripled," said Cathy Wilke, director of marketing for On Location Tours. "People go into withdrawal when a show ends. (With) 'The Sopranos'... on A&E, we'll get a whole new audience." (Reruns of the series, with the language and other content toned down, started airing on the basic cable channel in January.)
More than 15,000 people from 40 countries have taken the bus tours, described as a "four-hour tour through Sopranoland."
Towns across New Jersey have reaped the benefits of "Sopranos" location filming. Scenes have been shot in 40-plus communities, "from Ramsey to Asbury Park," according to Regina Heyman, the show's location manager.
Add Atlantic City to the list; the Borgata will appear in an episode this season.
Filming fees can add up. Kearny has been a popular "Sopranos" backdrop. Scenes have been shot inside and outside the Irish-American Association, which takes down its Irish flag and puts up an Italian flag during filming. The association is next door to the building standing in for the fictional Satriale's Pork Store, a hangout for Tony and his crew.
The association has earned $20,000 in rental fees over the years, according to past vice president Richard Dunleavy. The town itself has collected permit fees of $76,650.
Businesses have been paid for shutting down to accommodate a "Sopranos" shoot. Clear Eyes RX in Wayne, for example, was compensated $6,000 for filming. And then there are those who have invited the show into their homes.
Deborah Del Vecchio, for one, is going to miss cooking for everyone's favorite Jersey mob family. Over the years, her three-level North Caldwell home has served as the "home" of several "Sopranos" characters -- Janice Soprano, Johnny Sack, Silvio Dante and Patsy Parisi. "I always cook for the cast and crew," Del Vecchio said. "Antipasto, baked ziti -- they all love my homemade chicken soup," especially Aida Turturro, who plays Janice.
Filming was last done in her home a week ago, and Del Vecchio reported no gunshots were fired.
Initially, her home was in the running to be Tony Soprano's house, but the ducks ruined it -- or the lack of ducks. Tony liked the ducks in his swimming pool, and though there were ducks in the Del Vecchios' pool, construction on the house next door drove them away. So another house was chosen for the mob don's dwelling.
Del Vecchio's husband, Richard, has his own fond memories of "The Sopranos." He appeared in one episode as a Bada Bing patron. "All I know is that he was smiling for three days," Del Vecchio said, laughing."
Thanks to Peter Genovese
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Powerful Mafia Boss Seeking Plea Deal?
Friends of ours: Vito Rizzuto, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, Salvatore "Good- Looking Sal" Vitale, Gerlando "George From Canada" Sciascia, Patrick "Patty From the Bronx" De Filippo
Vito Rizzuto, named as Canada's most powerful Mafia boss, has asked a New York City judge to delay his trial for three gangland slayings, fueling speculation he is negotiating a plea deal.
David Schoen, defending Mr. Rizzuto against racketeering charges in the United States, declined to discuss any plea negotiations but said one thing is clear: Mr. Rizzuto is not considering co-operating with the authorities, as many of his American co-accused have done. "The answer is absolutely unequivocally 'no,' " he told the National Post.
An earlier document from prosecutors said Mr. Rizzuto, 61, of Montreal, was negotiating a settlement as far back as October, 2006. "If there were plea negotiations going on in any case, notwithstanding what may be a different practice for some other lawyers, I could never conceive of discussing them publicly," Mr. Schoen said. When pressed, he added: "Any speculation about a plea deal, at this point, is misguided."
He and his co-counsel are planning a vigorous defence that is well funded and well planned, he said. "Mr. Rizzuto is very strong and holding up well under these conditions - although I must say he misses Canada and his family very much," Mr. Schoen said. "In my view, there is no need or valid reason whatsoever for Mr. Rizzuto to be incarcerated in a jail in Brooklyn, or anywhere. He is no risk of flight whatsoever and certainly no danger to anyone in any community."
Mr. Rizzuto was arrested in January, 2004, inside his Montreal mansion at the request of the U.S. government. He is accused of being a shooter in an ambush of three rival mobsters in Brooklyn in 1981 as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. He has been imprisoned since. The charge carries a maximum penalty of a 20 years.
Mr. Rizzuto's desire to return to Canada could factor into any deal; he would likely ask to serve his sentence in Canada. If that were agreed to, it would see him released far sooner than if he served his prison term in America. Under international agreements on the transfer of prisoners, once back in Canada, inmates benefit from our more lenient release rules, including release after serving just two thirds of a sentence.
Mr. Rizzuto was the only Canadian among dozens of men ensnared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its assault on the Bonanno Mafia organization, one of the notorious and influential Five Families of New York.
Those indicted alongside him have not fared well. Almost all have pleaded guilty, been found guilty at trial or become government informants.
A cavalcade of Mafia turncoats are pointing fingers at former colleagues. The so-called "rats" include the former Bonanno Family boss, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, and underboss, Salvatore "Good- Looking Sal" Vitale. Both are expected to be star witnesses against Mr. Rizzuto, should his case go to trial.
Vitale has already testified in other prosecutions, twice telling juries about Mr. Rizzuto's alleged crimes, but Massino has not yet been called to the stand. "I am not in the speculation business and I will leave such decisions to the government," Mr. Schoen said of whether he expects to see Massino testify against his client. "I certainly should hope we will be well prepared to deal with any witness."
Massino has been telling his secrets to the FBI for a year. Although the high-security debriefings are held in utmost secrecy, some of the information he provided was recently summarized in a note from prosecutors to a judge in another case. Some of it involves his contact with Canadian mob figures.
Massino said he ordered the murder of Gerlando "George From Canada" Sciascia, who was the Montreal Mafia's representative in New York and a close friend of Mr. Rizzuto's. He assigned the job to Patrick "Patty From the Bronx" De Filippo at Danny's Chinese Restaurant.
After the murder, Vitale, contacted Massino and spoke a prearranged code to signal the job was done: "I picked up the dolls for the babies."
Mr. Rizzuto continues to be a presence - through his name and photograph - in New York mob cases.
At the trial of De Filippo, which ended this month, the jury heard Vitale claim that Mr. Rizzuto started the shooting that killed the three mobsters.
"What was your role in that murder?" Vitale was asked by Greg Andres, the prosecutor. "Shooter," he answered.
"Were there other people assigned as shooters?" Mr. Andres asked.
"Vito Rizzuto; an old-timer from Canada, I never got his name; another individual from Canada named Emmanuel."
Vitale was shown a photograph and asked to identify it.
"That's Vito Rizzuto from Canada," he answered.
"Do you know where Vito lives?" Mr. Andres asked. "Montreal, Canada."
Later, Vitale again brought Mr. Rizzuto up.
"At the time of your arrest, was there a particular person who you considered the most powerful person in Canada, the person who you would deal with in Canada?" Vitale was asked.
"Vito Rizzuto," came the answer.
Pretrial motions in the case are expected to be ruled on in June.
Mr. Schoen estimates a trial would last nine weeks.
Thanks to Adrian Humphreys
Vito Rizzuto, named as Canada's most powerful Mafia boss, has asked a New York City judge to delay his trial for three gangland slayings, fueling speculation he is negotiating a plea deal.
David Schoen, defending Mr. Rizzuto against racketeering charges in the United States, declined to discuss any plea negotiations but said one thing is clear: Mr. Rizzuto is not considering co-operating with the authorities, as many of his American co-accused have done. "The answer is absolutely unequivocally 'no,' " he told the National Post.
An earlier document from prosecutors said Mr. Rizzuto, 61, of Montreal, was negotiating a settlement as far back as October, 2006. "If there were plea negotiations going on in any case, notwithstanding what may be a different practice for some other lawyers, I could never conceive of discussing them publicly," Mr. Schoen said. When pressed, he added: "Any speculation about a plea deal, at this point, is misguided."
He and his co-counsel are planning a vigorous defence that is well funded and well planned, he said. "Mr. Rizzuto is very strong and holding up well under these conditions - although I must say he misses Canada and his family very much," Mr. Schoen said. "In my view, there is no need or valid reason whatsoever for Mr. Rizzuto to be incarcerated in a jail in Brooklyn, or anywhere. He is no risk of flight whatsoever and certainly no danger to anyone in any community."
Mr. Rizzuto was arrested in January, 2004, inside his Montreal mansion at the request of the U.S. government. He is accused of being a shooter in an ambush of three rival mobsters in Brooklyn in 1981 as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. He has been imprisoned since. The charge carries a maximum penalty of a 20 years.
Mr. Rizzuto's desire to return to Canada could factor into any deal; he would likely ask to serve his sentence in Canada. If that were agreed to, it would see him released far sooner than if he served his prison term in America. Under international agreements on the transfer of prisoners, once back in Canada, inmates benefit from our more lenient release rules, including release after serving just two thirds of a sentence.
Mr. Rizzuto was the only Canadian among dozens of men ensnared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its assault on the Bonanno Mafia organization, one of the notorious and influential Five Families of New York.
Those indicted alongside him have not fared well. Almost all have pleaded guilty, been found guilty at trial or become government informants.
A cavalcade of Mafia turncoats are pointing fingers at former colleagues. The so-called "rats" include the former Bonanno Family boss, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, and underboss, Salvatore "Good- Looking Sal" Vitale. Both are expected to be star witnesses against Mr. Rizzuto, should his case go to trial.
Vitale has already testified in other prosecutions, twice telling juries about Mr. Rizzuto's alleged crimes, but Massino has not yet been called to the stand. "I am not in the speculation business and I will leave such decisions to the government," Mr. Schoen said of whether he expects to see Massino testify against his client. "I certainly should hope we will be well prepared to deal with any witness."
Massino has been telling his secrets to the FBI for a year. Although the high-security debriefings are held in utmost secrecy, some of the information he provided was recently summarized in a note from prosecutors to a judge in another case. Some of it involves his contact with Canadian mob figures.
Massino said he ordered the murder of Gerlando "George From Canada" Sciascia, who was the Montreal Mafia's representative in New York and a close friend of Mr. Rizzuto's. He assigned the job to Patrick "Patty From the Bronx" De Filippo at Danny's Chinese Restaurant.
After the murder, Vitale, contacted Massino and spoke a prearranged code to signal the job was done: "I picked up the dolls for the babies."
Mr. Rizzuto continues to be a presence - through his name and photograph - in New York mob cases.
At the trial of De Filippo, which ended this month, the jury heard Vitale claim that Mr. Rizzuto started the shooting that killed the three mobsters.
"What was your role in that murder?" Vitale was asked by Greg Andres, the prosecutor. "Shooter," he answered.
"Were there other people assigned as shooters?" Mr. Andres asked.
"Vito Rizzuto; an old-timer from Canada, I never got his name; another individual from Canada named Emmanuel."
Vitale was shown a photograph and asked to identify it.
"That's Vito Rizzuto from Canada," he answered.
"Do you know where Vito lives?" Mr. Andres asked. "Montreal, Canada."
Later, Vitale again brought Mr. Rizzuto up.
"At the time of your arrest, was there a particular person who you considered the most powerful person in Canada, the person who you would deal with in Canada?" Vitale was asked.
"Vito Rizzuto," came the answer.
Pretrial motions in the case are expected to be ruled on in June.
Mr. Schoen estimates a trial would last nine weeks.
Thanks to Adrian Humphreys
Hoboken Genovese Gang Not Seen Much Any More
Friends of ours: Genovese Crime Family, Michael Coppola, Michael "Tona" Borelli, Peter Grecco, Peter Caporino, Tino R. Fiumara, Lawrence A. Ricci
The old gang isn't seen much around Hoboken any more, thanks to the recent efforts of the FBI to nab the city's most notorious mobsters.
The latest arrest: Michael Coppola, 60, a reputed captain in the Genovese crime family, who was arrested Friday in New York City and charged in the 1977 killing of a mobster in Bridgewater .
Coppola was one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, and he'd been featured on " America 's Most Wanted" several times. Investigators had searched for him in Nevada , Pennsylvania , Florida , Canada , Italy and Costa Rica .
In the 1970s and 1980s, Coppola could be seen in Hoboken social clubs meeting with the likes of Michael "Tona" Borelli, 69, of Fort Lee, a reputed made member of the Genovese crime family, Peter Grecco, 70, of Woodcliff Lake , and infamous mob rat Peter Caporino, 69, of Hasbrouck Heights , Hoboken police sources said yesterday.
Borelli and Grecco are facing prison time after a federal probe into gambling and other rackets in Hoboken and Jersey City . Caporino, who cooperated with the feds in that case to avoid jail time on a gambling charge in Hudson County , faces jail time himself, as authorities said he continued his criminal activities even after the feds told him to stop.
Caporino wore a wire for the FBI for years and made one recording of Borelli in the "Company K" social club on Jefferson Street , where Coppola used to hold court. When Genovese boss Tino R. Fiumara was in prison and Coppola was on the run, Borelli and Lawrence A. Ricci ran the Coppola/Fiumara crew, says a report 2004 by the New Jersey Investigation Commission. Ricci was found dead in a car trunk behind a Union County diner in December 2005.
With the help of Caporino, Borelli and Grecco pleaded guilty in April 2006 to operating an illegal gambling business. "The Fiumara/Coppola crew is one of the largest and most resourceful Genovese crews operating in New Jersey ," the state report says.
Coppola is accused of gunning down Johnny "Coca Cola" Lardiere outside the Red Bull Inn on Route 22 in Bridgewater in 1977.
Investigators believe Coppola drew a silenced .22-caliber pistol and pointed it at Lardiere - but the gun jammed. Lardiere then sneered at the hitman, "What're you gonna do now, tough guy?" Coppola then drew a second gun from an ankle holster and shot Lardiere five times, authorities said.
Nine years later, DNA evidence and an informant led the FBI to Coppola, but he disappeared.
Coppola has been listed at or near the top of the state Division of Criminal Justice's 13 most wanted fugitives since the list was drawn up five years ago.
Newhouse News Service contributed to this report.
Thanks to Michaelangelo Conte
The old gang isn't seen much around Hoboken any more, thanks to the recent efforts of the FBI to nab the city's most notorious mobsters.
The latest arrest: Michael Coppola, 60, a reputed captain in the Genovese crime family, who was arrested Friday in New York City and charged in the 1977 killing of a mobster in Bridgewater .
Coppola was one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, and he'd been featured on " America 's Most Wanted" several times. Investigators had searched for him in Nevada , Pennsylvania , Florida , Canada , Italy and Costa Rica .
In the 1970s and 1980s, Coppola could be seen in Hoboken social clubs meeting with the likes of Michael "Tona" Borelli, 69, of Fort Lee, a reputed made member of the Genovese crime family, Peter Grecco, 70, of Woodcliff Lake , and infamous mob rat Peter Caporino, 69, of Hasbrouck Heights , Hoboken police sources said yesterday.
Borelli and Grecco are facing prison time after a federal probe into gambling and other rackets in Hoboken and Jersey City . Caporino, who cooperated with the feds in that case to avoid jail time on a gambling charge in Hudson County , faces jail time himself, as authorities said he continued his criminal activities even after the feds told him to stop.
Caporino wore a wire for the FBI for years and made one recording of Borelli in the "Company K" social club on Jefferson Street , where Coppola used to hold court. When Genovese boss Tino R. Fiumara was in prison and Coppola was on the run, Borelli and Lawrence A. Ricci ran the Coppola/Fiumara crew, says a report 2004 by the New Jersey Investigation Commission. Ricci was found dead in a car trunk behind a Union County diner in December 2005.
With the help of Caporino, Borelli and Grecco pleaded guilty in April 2006 to operating an illegal gambling business. "The Fiumara/Coppola crew is one of the largest and most resourceful Genovese crews operating in New Jersey ," the state report says.
Coppola is accused of gunning down Johnny "Coca Cola" Lardiere outside the Red Bull Inn on Route 22 in Bridgewater in 1977.
Investigators believe Coppola drew a silenced .22-caliber pistol and pointed it at Lardiere - but the gun jammed. Lardiere then sneered at the hitman, "What're you gonna do now, tough guy?" Coppola then drew a second gun from an ankle holster and shot Lardiere five times, authorities said.
Nine years later, DNA evidence and an informant led the FBI to Coppola, but he disappeared.
Coppola has been listed at or near the top of the state Division of Criminal Justice's 13 most wanted fugitives since the list was drawn up five years ago.
Newhouse News Service contributed to this report.
Thanks to Michaelangelo Conte
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Anne Hathaway Connected to the Mob?
Anne Hathaway, star of "The Devil Wears Prada
" and more recently "Becoming Jane", is facing an extradition hearing due to her being accused of running her husband's criminal empire after he was jailed for murder.The 44-year was said to be "bewildered" by the allegations, which carry a maximum sentence of 24 years.
Friends of the beleaguered film starlet and part time mafia don are equally bewildered as they say they had never realised that she was that old or an Italian underworld Kingpin.
Such is the magic of celluloid it would appear, in "The Devil Wears Prada (Widescreen Edition)
" she looks all of 20 something, a good twenty years younger than the police information reports.Italian investigators believe she passed on instructions from her jailed husband, Cosa Nostra boss Antonio Rinzivillo, to criminal associates, collected earnings, laundered money and sold kittens to Robert Mugabe for his personal consumption.
Rinzivillo was jailed for 30 years after being convicted of drug trafficking and the murder of a Milan lawyer Antonio Mirabelle after he had discovered the baby cat laundering racket and many other shady dealings, so many in fact that Ann Hathaway has had her fingers in so many pies it is difficult to know where to start looking.
Fingers in pies being just one of the more disturbing issues uncovered.
Thanks to The Spoof
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