Warming Up for The Sopranos' Swan Song

With the end coming for Tony Soprano, wanna bet on his last words? I figure one word will do:

Mama.

If he says "Mama," the Oedipal gangster is ending where he began, though I'm not wagering money. Placing bets about the end of "The Sopranos" with offshore Internet gaming companies would be too ironic, even for me.

Or, Tony might offer up a pathetic "I'm sorry," after he's been betrayed by a friend, the universe contracting in that last moment of excruciating clarity, when there's so much to say but no time left to say it. But the only one he could tell is Paulie Walnuts, so why bother?

Then again, Tony might live. And his last words could be, "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," as he sits in the witness stand, ballooning out of his suit, staring glumly at old colleagues at the defense table.

He'd have something in common with real-life Chicago mobster Nick Calabrese and his old pals, who will show up soon in the federal building in Chicago for the upcoming and historic Outfit trial, to the dismay of those who simpered that the Outfit was dead and that Chinatown tough guys are the stuff of fiction.

Either way, it's been a fine ride, and I've loved it and laughed along with it, and tonight it's over, with "The Sopranos" final episode on HBO after an eight-year run.

I'm old enough to have witnessed other pop-culture spasms of ritual mourning for television shows, and loathed them all, cringing at words like "iconic" and "touchstone" being applied to what escapes the idiot box. I've been nauseated by eulogies of comedy/dramas about sex-crazed Army doctors in Korea or sex-crazed alcoholics in Boston sports bars where everybody knows your name, even the drunken mailman. But here I am, in ritual, reeking of incense, and I can't help it, because "The Sopranos" was great drama and great TV.

What a premise: the dysfunctional suburban gangster family and the boss undergoing therapy, appraising the legs of his psychiatrist week after week, and the whiny children and the wife who made her bargain with blood money and decided to keep it. And the guys, Paulie and Big Pussy and Bacala, and Christopher seduced by Hollywood like others before him, and Silvio, who ran the strip club, yet was appalled that his teen-age daughter could be seen as a sexual object by a soccer coach.

The hook was a natural, and for years we sat safely in our living rooms, enjoying characters offered up as the last unrepentant white males, saying what they wanted, grabbing what they wanted, smoking, drinking. And we remain locked on the other side of the screen, in an increasingly bureaucratic, timid and politically correct modern American landscape.

No wonder Tony Soprano's crew stood out like broken thumbs on the hands of a mannequin in a window.

Corruption was the constant theme, not only the pimping and the muscle stuff and the gambling, but corruption with the stain of legitimate business upon it. It was realistic, too, in its analysis of politics. Organized crime can't survive without the support of politicians and judges and police officials, in those towns where billions of dollars in public works and development deals are skimmed. We viewers understood all this, if not in our bones, then somewhere in the inarticulate ligaments of our wrists, as we signed our names on tax forms. But millions were also turned off by the show when one of the gangsters had his questionable sexuality challenged by a dimwitted stripper, and he beat her to death in the parking lot of the Bada Bing. A woman at work was visibly shaken by the scene of the stripper's murder and could not believe they could be so cruel. But that's what they are, I told her. That's who they are. They're criminals.

They run suburban abortion clinics and rely on our respect for privacy to shield them. They're shot down in the vestibules of fried chicken restaurants at morning meetings, pawing the glass doors as they fall. And if they're lucky enough to die shriveled with age, as did the ruthless Chicago Outfit hit man Marshall Caifano, then their children fill their coffins with crucifixes asking Jesus to save them.

"The Sopranos" creator David Chase told the truth and created characters that are aped by the wise guys, and the guys who ape wise guys on Rush Street, much as their grandfathers aped the fictional persona of Edward G. Robinson's "Little Caesar," a case of life imitating art.

It was art, as Chase allowed his characters to reveal themselves. "The Godfather" films glamorized the wise guys, and though many Italians know the lines from those films, many -- including my wife who is now hooked on the show -- felt insulted by Tony Soprano, and argued that he glorified crime. But in the end, is Tony glorious? In the episode preceding the finale, he was hiding out in a dump, on a bed without sheets, in his clothes, staring at the ceiling in the dark, cradling a gun, waiting to be betrayed.

I expect he calls on his mother when, and if, he goes. But don't bet on it. Gambling's illegal -- unless it's government-approved.

Thanks to John Kass

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Sopranos Fall Short of Organized Crime's Impact on Cyber Crime

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

The world of Tony Soprano ended Sunday night with the final episode of "The Sopranos." Over seven years, the award-winning HBO TV series offered insight into the business of the modern Mafia, albeit based on a fictional crime family in New Jersey.

We got glimpses of garbage contracts, construction scams, protection rackets, illegal gambling, truck hijacking and credit card fraud. But missing from the list of criminal enterprises was cybercrime. Tony Soprano was a face-to-face communicator, someone who is wary of wiretapping and other forms of electronic surveillance. He wasn't a laptop user, and he didn't appear to cash in on the myriad ways to get rich from Internet-related scams.

Richard Stiennon, chief marketing officer at security firm Fortinet Inc., says this is where "The Sopranos" fell short in its depiction of modern organized crime.

"Here they are beating people up with baseball bats, and a lot of the criminals have moved online," Stiennon said. "The opportunity has been growing with the growth of the Internet. Cybercriminals are looking to expand. They need an organization to exploit those opportunities. It's like organized crime 2.0."

Stiennon has been an expert on security for a while. For work, at PricewaterhouseCoopers, he was a "white hat" hacker. He would break into corporate networks to tell companies where their vulnerabilities were. He succeeded every time, he said.

Now at Fortinet, which supplies security appliances that protect networks, Stiennon has been going around giving talks on how we have to worry about how much money is flowing through the illegal crime networks online.

Of course, a lot of security tech vendors want us to be scared. They'll make more money if we buy enough armor to protect ourselves. "Some like to take the attitude that this is all vendor hype," Stiennon said. "The problem is, there is so little revelation of actual attacks. Companies like to stay out of the news, even when they're attacked."

But others are raising the same alarms about organized crime. Like the Mafia depicted on the show, the nature of cybercrime has evolved over the past seven years from "script kiddies," or young kids who used automated programs to create "cybergraffiti," to organized efforts aimed at stealing a lot of money.

Michelle Dennedy, chief privacy officer at Sun Microsystems Inc., said that in the past couple of years, the FBI and Secret Service have been warning that they're encountering much more organized crime activity in cyberspace. "Stealing identities is the new bank job," Dennedy said. "They go to chat rooms where they trade credit cards, using code words. I don't know if you need to have mob bosses behind it. But it is organized crime."

Christian Desilets, research attorney for the National White Collar Crime Center, said the "Tony Soprano types" may indeed be missing out on electronic crime. But Desilets added, "We do see them in offshore betting, but not as much in electronic crimes. But the electronic criminals are organized. There are very sophisticated operations linked to the Russian Mafia."

In its annual report on organized crime and the Internet last week, McAfee Inc. said that new criminal organizations are emerging to prey on Internet users and that they're becoming more sophisticated and scoring bigger paydays.

One study that McAfee cited said banks lost $2 billion through illegal access to online bank accounts last year. In 2005, the FBI estimated computer crimes cost U.S. corporations $67 billion.

With such stakes, you can bet most organized criminals are involved. The FBI notes that a number of crime syndicates are based in Russia but that many cross borders.

Stiennon contends that organized criminals online now are split up, like vendors in a flea market. Some sell hacking tools for spying on people or stealing identities. Others use those tools to steal credit cards and data, including programs that harvest identities from unsuspecting Internet users.

The FBI periodically shuts down these sites. The criminals put credit cards up for sale. Still others will buy the cards and use them to buy merchandise in electronics stores.

Since organized criminals have traditionally been linked to credit card fraud, expanding into online credit card theft is an easy expansion. Here and there, evidence of organized criminals using technology is emerging.

In 2005, thieves stole $423 million from the London branch of the Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. They did so by posing as janitors, putting "keystroke loggers" that captured keystrokes on computers, thereby stealing passwords from clerks who handled wire transfers.

Authorities traced the crime to a gang in Israel, and Stiennon noted that one person held for the crime was later killed.

In a series of incidents ranging from mid-2005 through January 2007, more than 45 million credit card numbers were stolen from TJX Cos., the owner of the TJ Maxx, Marshalls and other retail chains. Stiennon said many of those card numbers have been used around the world in various kinds of fraud. One ring of criminals used the card numbers to buy more than $8 million in merchandise in Florida.

Other big cases have involved the purchase and sale of controlled drugs via Internet pharmacies or credit card theft.

Extortion, one of the oldest traditional mafia tactics, has moved online as hackers threaten to shut down Web sites unless they're paid off.

Meanwhile, the federal budget aimed at stopping cybercrime doesn't add up to much, Stiennon said. "The sequel to the Sopranos will be cybercrime, with a lot of young kids using computers," Stiennon said. "Tony, assuming he's still alive, will be typing LOL (laugh out loud)."

The cost of cybercrime

2 million: Number of Americans whose online bank accounts were robbed
$2 billion: Total losses for the banking industry from such thefts
$30 million: Credit card company fraud losses from online crime, 30 percent of total fraud losses
15 million: Number of Americans who reported being victims of identity theft in the 12 months ending mid-2006, up 50 percent from 2003
$3,257: Average loss from identity theft in 2006, up 131 percent from 2005

Source: McAfee North American Criminology Report: Organized Crime and the Internet, 2007

Thanks to Dean Takahashi

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Fans Bid Farewell to The Sopranos

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

MILLIONS of fans of the mafia series The Sopranos anxiously awaited the hit drama's final episode on Sunday amid a flurry of speculation over the fate of its top mobster, Tony Soprano.

Viewers were left last week with a final scene of Tony climbing into bed at a hiding house, clinging to a massive assault weapon after his New York rivals gunned down his top captain and sent his consiglieri into a bullet-ridden coma.

With the last of 86 episodes of the award-winning series set to air at 9pm (local time), the media was abuzz with predictions about how the psychotherapy-seeking New Jersey mob boss and his dysfunctional family's saga would end.

"I think he lives," former FBI special agent Joe Pistone, whose life as an undercover infiltrator of the mob was chronicled in the hit movie Donny Brasco, told Fox News television.

Another mob expert, Bill Bonanno, son of the notorious real-life New York mafia kingpin Joseph Bonanno, concurred. "I think he lives because (show creator) David Chase would like to bring him back some time," he said.

Chase reportedly filmed three different endings in order to keep secret the finale of the series which began in 1999 and has aired on the cable channel Home Box Office, or HBO.

Chase said he knew "about three years ago" how the story would end, and that "from the beginning, my goal was always to do a little movie every week," according to the Washington Post. "It has all been planned out, we always knew exactly where it was going, but within that framework, we left a lot of room for each episode to have its own character and to invent stories that would fit in with the continuing story," he said.

However, Chase has ruthlessly upset expectations throughout the long-running mafia yarn, killing off popular characters like mob girlfriend Adriana LaCerva (Drea de Matteo) and letting a Russian foe escape a gunbattle in the snowy woods, never to resurface.

Over the last eight years, mob watchers have come to adore quirky characters like Tony's right-hand man Silvio Dante, played by Steven Van Zandt who in real life strummed guitar alongside rock legend Bruce Springsteen.

Tony's therapist Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco who starred as mobster-turned-rat Henry Hill's wife Karen in the movie Goodfellas, and Tony's blond money-grubbing wife Carmela, portrayed by Edie Falco, are also fan favorites.

Tony is played by James Gandolfini, who has admitted that he is ready to let the character go after years of whacking enemies and friends, having sex with mistresses, lounging in his Bada Bing strip club and trudging down his driveway to fetch his newspaper in his open bathrobe. But however bloody, cruel or treacherous Tony has been over the years, his character is cherished by fans and the twists and turns of his storyline have largely won over the American public.

"I think America has witnessed an erosion in kinship with each other and an erosion of honor," said Bonanno. Regardless of what happens with the characters, "people still see a sense of morality there."

The New York Times described the series, which has won 18 Emmy awards, as "widely proclaimed as the greatest drama ever created for television."

For Pistone, the public just adores the mafia lifestyle, and its sheen will never wear off. "I think people really go for the mob and the movies and the Sopranos show, because the average guy is a working stiff. He comes home he has the same hours every day. He sees the Sopranos, he sees guys that don't go to a 9-5 job."

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The Ruthless Rise of Mobster Joey "The Clown" Lombardo

To neighbors, Joseph Lombardo was a beloved family man and respected boys baseball coach in his West Side neighborhood -- "more liked than the priest" in the community, according to one friend.

To the feds, Lombardo is the man who had a factory owner slain in front of the man's wife and 4-year-old son.

To investigators, he's the man who knows no loyalty, signing off on the murders of three close friends.

When he appears in federal court these days, for updates on the trial starting June 19 that could put him in prison until his dying days, he's the wisecracking senior citizen. At 78, he's the oldest of a mostly geriatric bunch of mobsters in what likely will be the last great Outfit trial in Chicago history -- the Family Secrets case.

He's "the Clown," known for his quick wit. When the cops stopped him once in the 1980s, after he fled a gambling raid, he had $12,000 in cash on him and a book filled with jokes. But the wisecracks, investigators say, only mask the brutality of one of the last of the old-time Chicago mobsters.

Interviews with people who have known and investigated Lombardo, as well as a review of thousands of pages of court records and law enforcement documents, reveal the story of the ruthless rise of Lombardo in the Chicago Outfit.

"He was vicious and a killer," said retired FBI Agent Jack O'Rourke. "He was their prime enforcer."

Lombardo has denied hurting anyone. Now behind bars at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, he declined an interview request.

In court in 1983, Lombardo said: "I never ordered a killing, I never OKd a killing, and I never killed a man in my life."

His attorney, Rick Halprin, says his client has never been a mob leader. But investigators say Lombardo was a top mobster for years, thanks to his criminal versatility.

He allegedly went from busting heads and two-bit burglaries to orchestrating a bribe attempt of U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon. He was convicted in that case in the 1980s, as well as another one for skimming millions from Las Vegas casinos for the mob. He allegedly controlled millions of dollars in Teamster pension funds through his friend, insurance magnate Allen Dorfman, and was responsible for getting the skim from Las Vegas casinos to Chicago mob bosses.

As a child, Lombardo never knew such wealth, growing up poor in Depression-era Chicago, one of 11 children, the son of a printer. A graduate of Wells High School, he worked as a paperboy, plucked chickens, shined shoes, loaded boxcars at Union Station for 69 cents an hour and handled room service at the Blackstone Hotel.

He was also quite the athlete, playing on wrestling, basketball, fencing and swimming teams and even taking square-dancing lessons. He found a passion for golf and caddied for top Chicago gangster Jackie Cerone. He was also quite the gin rummy cardshark. But he didn't have to rely on cards for cash. His criminal work was apparently quite profitable, authorities said. In recent years, while Lombardo pleads poverty, his family trust benefitting his ex-wife, son and daughter has sold real estate for millions. Authorities believe the trust was set up to keep the feds from seizing assets.

Lombardo's success was punctuated by violence. He has been a suspect in numerous murders but never convicted. What's more, authorities say, he had control over the most allegedly vicious hit man around, Frank "The German" Schweihs. Schweihs is charged in the Family Secrets case with Lombardo. Schweihs would talk about doing an Outfit killing like he was taking out the garbage, court records show.

Even before Lombardo was a somebody in the Chicago Outfit, he was "the Clown."

It was 1964, and Lombardo was on trial in Chicago with other alleged loan sharks for beating a man who owed the mob money. The case was making headlines, and so was Lombardo. When police took his mug shot, he opened his mouth into a cavernous yawn to stop the cops from getting a good photo of him.

Even then, Lombardo -- then going by a variation of his birth name, Joseph Lombardi -- was referred to in the press as the Clown.

The other notable twist: Lombardo was innocent of the charge. But he was part of a clever plot to scotch the case, authorities said. When police rounded up the loan sharks, they arrested the wrong Joseph Lombardi. At the time, two Chicago gangsters had that name and looked similar. Defense attorneys for the men realized the error but kept silent to spring a trap on prosecutors, authorities said. It worked. When the victim took the stand, he could identify all the defendants as his attackers, all except the Clown.

"Talk about having your jaw drop and your case collapse," said attorney Louis B. Garippo, who prosecuted the case. Lombardo walked out a free man. His fellow mobsters walked too, after a jury acquitted them.

Lombardo's antics would be only his first of many public displays.

After he was arrested in 1980 for leading police on a chase, he left the courthouse one day, past the press corps, hidden behind a newspaper with a peephole cut out for his eyes. He was tripped up, though, as he went through the revolving door.

When Lombardo got out of prison in 1992, the FBI in Chicago began getting strange phone calls from a man identifying himself as Long John Silver. The caller would let agents know when he was going to call through newspaper ads.

The caller provided good info about the Outfit's hierarchy but was anxious to steer agents away from one person -- Lombardo's son, Joseph Jr., whom agents were investigating but never charged. Agents traced the calls as coming from pay phones near Lombardo's home, sources said.

The phone calls never amounted to much, and the agents never proved they were coming from Lombardo. But there was a tantalizing clue. Flip the initials for Long John: you get J and L. Short for Joseph Lombardo? Lombardo could pull that stunt, agents figured.

To get into the Chicago Outfit as a made member -- to have the full rights of membership -- a candidate must murder for the mob. Lombardo's qualifying kill was allegedly the 1965 hit of mob associate and hotel owner Manny Skar, according to court records. Lombardo allegedly shadowed Skar for two days before Skar was killed as he exited his car to enter his apartment on Lake Shore Drive.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Lombardo was on the move, wearing multiple hats for the Outfit and allegedly signing off on the murders of three close friends.

The first was in 1974 -- the slaying of businessman Daniel Seifert. Seifert ran a fiberglass business in the suburbs and was an unwitting front for Lombardo. Lombardo and Seifert were so close that Lombardo baby-sat Seifert's kids. But when the feds came calling and Seifert decided to cooperate, Lombardo decided his friend had to go, authorities charge. On Sept. 27, 1974, Seifert was gunned down outside his Bensenville factory as his wife and 4-year-old son watched. With Seifert dead, the charges against Lombardo evaporated. Lombardo is charged in connection with Seifert's murder in the Family Secrets case along with racketeering.

The next to go was insurance magnate Allen Dorfman, who went on Hawaii golf vacations with Lombardo. Lombardo was close to Dorfman, a clout-heavy insurance broker. Lombardo and Dorfman allegedly schemed to control the Teamsters' pension funds, which loaned millions to build Vegas casinos. Lombardo would allegedly muscle people for Dorfman.

In one conversation, secretly tape-recorded by the feds, Lombardo spoke to mob lawyer and casino investor Morris Schenker, who wasn't coming up with the money Dorfman believed Schenker owed the Outfit.

"Now, it's getting to the point now where you either s - - - or get off the pot," Lombardo said to Schenker, who was 72 at the time of the 1979 conversation. "If they come back and tell me to give you a message and if you want to defy it, I assure you that you will never reach 73," Lombardo said.

Schenker died of natural causes. Dorfman did not, getting gunned down in 1983 in Lincolnwood after Outfit leaders worried he'd turn stool pigeon.

Three years later, another Lombardo friend, mob killer Anthony Spilotro, was beaten to death along with his brother, Michael Spilotro. Lombardo allegedly oversaw Spilotro, who was the Outfit's man in Las Vegas. The Spilotros and Lombardo were close. Their families came over on the same boat from Italy.

In the end, though, Anthony Spilotro had to die, Outfit leaders decided. He was causing too much heat in Vegas, including taking out a contract on an FBI agent.

The Spilotro brothers were lured to a Bensenville area home on the ruse they were getting promotions. Instead, when they went down to the basement, several mobsters surrounded them and beat them to death. They were buried in an Indiana cornfield.

In recent years, Lombardo has kept a low profile. He has been seen hanging out more at the Italian restaurant La Scarola than with other mobsters.

His defense -- unique but possibly workable -- is that he has moved away from the mob life.

In short, he's retired.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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Tony Soprano: Leadership Consultant

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

If you're in the waste management/strip joint/butcher racket, look to Anthony John Soprano as your guiding cannoli ... er ... light.

His story--a blueprint for how to run a crime family like a well-oiled business machine--has been airing Sundays on HBO for the past seven years and has now come down to this weekend's series finale. Fans are heading into the closer blind, with previews revealing no more than a few quick cuts of the main characters set to a resonating drum beat.

Whether Tony lives or dies, he'll be missed like no other capo.

Since The Sopranos, which Vanity Fair called ''the greatest show in television history,'' debuted in 1999, Tony Soprano--reputed mob boss of northern New Jersey, loving father, modern-day American icon and born leader--has proved that ruling with an iron fist can be quite efficient.

Nancy Davis, associate professor at the Chicago School of Business Psychology (and a Sopranos fan), says Tony's approach, while effective, leads to a power struggle within the core group and spurs an utter state of panic, or "learned helplessness," among followers.

As a result, "they can't function without the support of the boss," Davis says. ''They need to be led. They need to be puppeteered." But the minute a gunshot wound to Tony's gut forced him into a coma in Part 1 of Season 6, his underlings were more concerned with who would be a fitting successor rather than with their boss's health; hence the power struggle. Silvio--Tony's loyal but limited henchman--ultimately takes the reins as acting boss. Davis predicts Tony will fall.

Jennifer Thompson, an assistant professor and Davis' colleague at the Chicago School of Business Psychology, says Tony's method of leadership has much to do with class distinction. Thompson says the closest comparison to this type of leadership is in a blue-collar work environment where brute force can win the boss's respect.

"It's not appropriate, but it's understandable [in Tony's case] and effective," Thompson says.

She cites an episode in Part 1 of Season 6, when Tony, post-coma, bludgeoned his massive bodyguard though he was unprovoked, emphasizing he was still the alpha in the room and proving he was still capable of dominance, despite recent proof that he is, in fact, fallible.

Wharton School professor Michael Useem says Tony's authoritative style works because lives are at stake. He made the comparison to a Marine commander, who gets his soldiers to comply by the judicious use of force because any procedural snafu could prove more costly than cash-filled envelopes.

"Tony Soprano has it half-right in business," Useem says. "When you get away from those circumstances, then autocratic control tends to be a non-starter. As a decision-maker, you do want people working for you who don't see it your way because they may see an opportunity you're not looking at."

It's hardly in Tony's nature to be that democratic, but everything is behind him now as his men stand firm in his corner at the crucial 11th hour.

How many CEOs wish they could say the same?

Thanks to Matthew Kirdahy

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The Sopranos Transformed the Gangster Movie Genre

And so it ends.

No more weekly ride with Tony Soprano from the Lincoln Tunnel past smoke-belching factories to his McMansion in suburban New Jersey.

No more Bada Bing Club. No more sit-downs. No more visits from the feds. No more revelations in Dr. Melfi’s office. No more fights with Carmela or worries about AJ and Meadow.

No more heartache, no more guilt.

No more beatings. No more shootings. No more dismemberments.

No more struggle for Tony, a crime boss trapped in an old-school gang, to find a place in the 21st century.

The HBO broadcast of the final episode of “The Sopranos” will mark the end of an era. The weekly Mafia soap opera with R-rated sex, grotesque violence and an indie-film sensibility became a true showbiz phenomenon after its premiere in 1999.

The reason seems clear enough now: Nobody had ever seen gangsters depicted this way — as complicated people with quirky (if monstrous) personalities who found modern life as baffling as the rest of us.

“The Sopranos” occupies a unique place in gangster cinema. Just as specific eras were dominated by individual stars and directors, the gold standard today is James Gandolfini, his co-stars and writer-director-creator David Chase. Gandolfini’s complex performance as a mobster who sees a shrink has defined the Italian-American mobster in popular imagination for the foreseeable future. But the history of gangster movies shows us another reason for the popularity of “The Sopranos”: an unabated public fascination with the underworld.

Specific films in the 1930s stunned audiences with their cruelty and characters who were as charismatic as they were horrifying — James Cagney in “The Public Enemy,” Edward G. Robinson in “Little Caesa,” Paul Muni in “Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics).”

Those films set the tone for more than three decades. As late as the mid-’60s the majority of gangster movies were shot in black-and-white.

Robinson would age well, demonstrating a skill for playing sociopaths well into middle age. So would his contemporary Humphrey Bogart. These films, shot at traditional studios, placed the audience at a comfortable distance from the blood-curdling events on screen with their carefully crafted artificiality.

City streets clearly were on back lots or soundstages. Gangsters talked tough but kept it clean for the censors. There was plenty of shooting but hardly a trace of blood.

These same values fueled “The Untouchables,” a 1959-63 TV series set in Chicago in the ’20s. The success of “The Untouchables,” in turn, inspired Roger Corman’s “The St. Valentine's Day Massacre,” a floodlit, back-lot feature memorable for its good cast, lurid violence and color photography.

Corman didn’t know it, but his film, released in the summer of 1967, would be the last of its kind.

Barely six weeks later a very different kind of crime movie, “Bonnie and Clyde,” hit American screens.

“Bonnie and Clyde” set a new standard for realism. Director Arthur Penn shot on Texas locations. Only a handful of shots used soundstages. The dialogue had an improvised feel. He used non-actors in small roles.

He shot through filters that gave the movie a vivid, dust-blown quality, as if we were peering through a window into the past. And the sickening violence culminated with the famous slow-motion ballet of death as Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by a posse on a dusty back road.

There was no going back.

Five years later came the “Gone With the Wind” of gangster films — “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece that attracted a mass audience like no gangster movie ever had.

Committing to the new realism, Coppola employed an almost sociological approach to Italian-American rituals. The festivals, weddings, family dinners and crowded streets had a lived-in feel. The violence seemed spontaneous and un-choreographed.

He got a defining performance from Marlon Brando, who was willing to transform himself utterly to play Don Corleone. Brando became the gangster of the ’70s.

More than that, “The Godfather” gave us an epic, multigenerational view of the Mafia. It was a grand family saga that allowed us to sympathize with people willing to use violence to accrue power. Michael Corleone’s dilemma, one we see echoed in “The Sopranos,” was whether to resist joining the “family business” and become a respectable member of the upper middle class or to surrender to family ties too strong to break.

“The Sopranos” shows the influence of Martin Scorsese’s gangster films — “Mean Streets,” “GoodFellas,” “Casino” — but we can trace its lineage directly to “The Godfather.” Just as the first and second “Godfather” films created a collective tragedy — Michael Corleone, the initially reluctant don, becomes so dehumanized that he ultimately orders the murder of his own brother — Tony Soprano is a man who cannot afford to acknowledge his sins.

Indeed, much of the show’s tension and humor stem from its depiction of mobsters trying to emulate middle-class normalcy. They shop at Home Depot. They see therapists. They cruise eBay. They watch cable television. They have traditional Sunday family dinners and try to get their kids into good schools. But no matter how hard they try, they can’t make the clothes fit.

In one episode this season, Tony tells Dr. Melfi that he sees himself as a “good guy,” but by any objective standard he’s really a thug who can knock your teeth out on impulse.

And we should recognize the show’s dramatic roots. It juxtaposes comedy and horror. It gives us a central character struggling with his conscience and haunted by unsettling dreams. It shows us people unable to escape their fate. And it specializes in irony-drenched plotting. All of that adds up to one word: Shakespearean.

But ultimately, what sustains our eagerness for “The Sopranos” is Tony. It’s his unique combination of neuroses, denial and capacity for violence that keeps us glued. James Gandolfini has given us a performance for the ages.

And in Tony we find a cautionary tale. A compartmentalized life can take you only so far. Create a web of secrets so intricate that nobody — your wife, your kids, your friends, your shrink — knows who you really are, and you’re unlikely to meet a tidy end.

Thanks to Robert Trussell

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When it Comes to the Chicago Mob: Who's the Boss?

Friends of ours: Al "Pizza Man" Tornabene, John "No Nose" DiFronzo, James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Michael Marcello, Anthony "Little Tony" Zizzo, Frank Calabrese Sr., Nick Calabrese

Who will be the new Tony Soprano of the Chicago mob?

With so many mob leaders on trial or dead, the Chicago Outfit is in disarray, law enforcement sources say.

It could be the "Pizza Man" acting as caretaker.

Or "No Nose" could still be pulling the strings, some Outfit watchers believe.

The "Pizza Man" is Al Tornabene, the 84-year-old former owner of a suburban pizza parlor. He has kept an extremely low profile for a reputed mob leader and has never been arrested by the FBI. Recently, his name has come up in conversations the FBI secretly recorded in prison between reputed top Chicago mob boss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and his younger brother, Michael Marcello.

Tornabene has been seen eating in Rush Street restaurants with another top reputed mobster, Anthony "Little Tony" Zizzo, who was last seen leaving his Westmont home in August last year and hasn't been heard from since. Zizzo was responsible for overseeing one of the Outfit's most lucrative enterprises, the illegal video poker machines in bars throughout Chicago.

Tornabene has long been a mob leader, authorities say. In 1983, for instance, he presided over a ceremony at which several mobsters were inducted into full membership rights of the Outfit, court records show. Among the men who were made were Zizzo, reputed mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. and his brother, Nick Calabrese, who has admitted in a plea agreement with the feds that he killed at least 14 people for the Chicago Outfit. He is cooperating with the FBI.

"No Nose" is the much better known John DiFronzo, who is in his late 70s and has long been reputed to be a respected elder of the Chicago Outfit. DiFronzo is known for his business acumen and wide range of investments, including car dealerships. Some mob watchers think DiFronzo has long been rivals with James Marcello and is not overly upset over his arrest.

Tornabene hung up during a phone call Friday when asked if he was running the Outfit.

DiFronzo could not be reached for comment.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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The Final Sopranos Episode Ever

This week, Dr. Melfi has cut her ties, Silvio's in a coma, and Bobby has been derailed - now, there is no more hiding. Don't miss The Final Episode of the groundbreaking series The Sopranos, Sunday at 8pm, Central Time.

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Mob War Breaking Out in New York?

Friends of ours: Colombo Crime Family, Gambino Crime Family, Genovese Crime Family, Paul Castellano, John Gotti, Rudolph "Cueball" Izzi, Robert DeCicco, Frank DeCicco, George DeCicco
Friends of mine: Sopranos Crime Family

A pair of mob shootings in three days, one of them reminiscent of a hit on last week's episode of "The Sopranos," prompted speculation of a nascent Mafia war in New York City.

Not likely, according to mob experts who say "The Life" - as mobsters refer to their criminal pursuits - rarely imitates art these days. In an era of dwindling Mafia initiates and multiplying federal informants, gangsters are more dangerous to each other by sitting on the witness stand than by "going to the mattresses" as in "The Godfather."

"Years ago, there were things worth killing for," said Howard Abadinsky, a St. John's University professor and author of several books on organized crime. "It wasn't like today. It sounds funny, but murder is a serious thing to get involved in these days from a wiseguy's point of view."

Recent history bears him out. The last real New York mob war, involving the Colombos, began in 1991 and claimed 13 victims, including a teen bagel shop worker killed in a case of mistaken identity.

The last hit on a mob boss occurred six years earlier, when "Big Paul" Castellano was murdered by John Gotti and a cadre of Gambino family underlings.

The Mafia's ruling Commission has been widely reported as having imposed a moratorium on murder within the ranks, with the heads of New York's five families acknowledging that internecine killings are bad for business.

"Murders were ruled off limits in the '90s, after the Colombo war," said veteran mob chronicler Jerry Capeci, author of "The Complete Idiots' Guide to the Mafia." "Murders were out to keep the heat off."

That wasn't enough to save Rudolph "Cueball" Izzi, a 74-year-old reputed Genovese family bookmaker and loan shark. Izzi was found dead Thursday on a bed in his Brooklyn apartment, a single gunshot wound in his head.

Two days earlier, a Gambino family associate with a lengthy mob lineage was wounded in a drive-by shooting just 1 1/2 miles from Izzi's home. Robert DeCicco, 56, was winged while sitting in his car outside a Brooklyn pharmacy in a neighborhood that serves as the mob's heartland.

That shooting echoed the penultimate episode of "The Sopranos," where killers blasted at consigliere Silvio Dante in a car outside the New Jersey strip club that fictional Tony Soprano's gang uses as a headquarters.

There was one major difference: the television shooters were more accurate. Silvio ended up in a coma; DeCicco walked out of a police station hours after the attempt on his life. "I'm all right," he said while walking down the precinct steps. "I feel very good."

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin acknowledged the twin shootings raised the question of whether a mob war was possible. "I'm not aware that it's one we've answered," he said.

Several theories were broached: Gambling debts were involved. Revenge was a motive. The killings were linked. Or perhaps someone with a grudge against Izzi used the DeCicco shooting as a smoke screen to take him out.

No arrests were made in either case.

The murder try on Robert DeCicco was familiar, if unfortunate, terrain for his family. His uncle, Frank DeCicco, had lured Castellano to his death outside Sparks Steak House in December 1985. Frank, who became the Gambino family underboss, was killed four months later by a retaliatory car bomb.

Robert's father, George, continued in the family business after Frank's death, becoming a constant presence on the Mafia scene.

Hours after his son was shot, George DeCicco told reporters outside his home that an explanation was beyond him.

"You got all these crazy people, these terrorists doing crazy things," he said. "I'm shocked just like anybody else."

Thanks to Larry McShane

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The Sopranos vs. The Chicago Outfit

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., Nick Calabrese, James Marcello
Friends of mine: Soprano Crime Family, Frank Calabrese Jr.

As the "Sopranos" ends its lengthy run tonight on HBO, has the popular show gotten mob life right?

Here's a look at how the series has been right on the money, and when it hasn't, compared to the Chicago Mob:

On the money

1. Mob families are screwed up.

Look no further than Chicago's own Calabrese family. At the upcoming federal Family Secrets trial, the brother of reputed mob hitman Frank Calabrese Sr. will testify against him. So will Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Jr., who secretly recorded his father while they were in prison. Calabrese Sr. allegedly confessed to mob killings. To say there's bad blood in this family is an understatement.

2. The rules are the rules, until they aren't.

Tony Soprano is well known for enforcing strict discipline among his crew until his rules inconvenience him. The same attitude is true of many a Chicago Mob leader, observers say. The bosses make the rules -- and break the rules when it suits them.

3. I love you, and now I'm going to kill you.

This season, viewers were shocked when Tony Soprano suffocated his nephew, Christopher Moltisanti. But mob observers say such ruthless behavior is not unusual in the Mafia. When Frank Calabrese Sr. learned that his brother, Nick, might be cooperating with the feds, Calabrese Sr. allegedly gave his blessing if Nick got whacked, according to secret tape recordings.

Outta whack

1. The mob takes care of its own.

In the "Sopranos," mobsters always take care of families of crew members who die or go to prison. Not always so in Chicago. Promises are made but not always kept. Frank Calabrese Sr., for instance, allegedly did not take care of the family of his brother, Nick, while both were in prison, despite assurances he would do so. Calabrese Sr. let other family members down, too. Taking up the slack, reputed Chicago mob boss James Marcello allegedly made monthly payments of $4,000 to Nick Calabrese's wife. A lot of good it did him -- Nick Calabrese will be a key witness against Marcello in the upcoming trial.

2. Fashion sense

No offense to Chicago mobsters, but the wise guys in the "Sopranos" generally dress much nattier than typical gangsters here, observers say.

3. Mobster therapy?

It's always seemed a stretch to some mob experts that a mob leader would ever see a shrink. The secret prison recordings of Frank Calabrese Sr. are not filled with him wondering how he could have been a better father or discussing his panic attacks. At one point, he allegedly talks about spreading lime on a dead guy.

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Mafia Allies: The True Story of America's Secret Alliance with the Mob in World War II

The Mafia is one of the most feared and powerful criminal organizations the world has ever known. It was also, briefly during World War II, Americas ally--a fact that had a profound effect on the fortunes of the Fascists, and on those of the Mafia, whom Mussolini had effectively crushed.

This book brings to light a little-known chapter in the history of World War II, and of organized crime. It tells how Cesare Mori, deputized by Mussolini to "cauterize the sore of crime in Italy," waged all-out war on the Mafia in the name of fascism; and how the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (Operation Husky) gave the Mafia an opening to regain its strength--and its hold on political power--in the vacuum created by the Fascists defeat.

A provocative account of how the rise and ultimate defeat of fascism in Italy affected the worlds largest and most notorious criminal organization, Mafia Allies also illuminates a dark truth about the unexpected long-term consequences of wartime alliances of convenience.

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James Bond Girl Target of Mafia Kidnapping Plot

Friends of ours: Giuseppe Maniaci, Salvatore Micali

A plan by Mafia mobsters planned to kidnap a stunning Bond girl to make a "sack of money" has been foiled.

The gang had planned to seize actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, 37, star of The World Is Not Enough and Il Postino, and hold her to ransom. But their daring plan was foiled by Italian police.

Details of the kidnap plot emerged in a court case involving mobsters Giuseppe Maniaci, 50, and Salvatore Micali, 38, from the Mafia's stronghold of Messina on the Italian island of Sicily. The pair, who were charged with extortion, hatched the plot in 1997.

Police intercepted telephone conversations of the pair hatching the plan. They are heard saying they could make "a sack of money" by kidnapping the actress.

Ms Cucinotta agent was reported to have said the actress had been unaware of the plot.

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Supected Mobster Shot to Death

Friends of ours: Rudolph Izzi, Robert DeCicco, Genovese Crime Family, Gambino Crime Family

A man suspected of being connected to the Mafia was found shot to death in an apartment where someone had kicked in the door, police said.

Officers discovered the body of Rudolph Izzi, 74, at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday on a bed inside his Brooklyn apartment. He had been shot in the head.

Izzi was the victim of a pistol-whipping by an unidentified man in his home in 2001, when news reports identified him as a reputed soldier in the Genovese organized crime family.

Police said there was no immediate evidence that the slaying was connected to the shooting on Tuesday of another reputed mobster outside a social club run by his father in the same Brooklyn neighborhood. In that case, Robert DeCicco, son of a notorious captain in the Gambino crime family, was shot four times as he sat in his car near the club, officials said. There were no arrests.

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Music on The Sopranos - When the Music's Over

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

At one point early on in Sunday night's The Sopranos ("The Blue Comet,") special agent Harris says to Tony about the weather, "End of times, huh? Ready for the Rapture?" After what soon followed in this penultimate episode, that comment feels almost not apocalyptic enough to encompass all the carnage that ensued. It was an explosive and powerful episode that sets up a series finale that's sure to be talked about for ages (and consider that your spoiler.)

It's something else, though, that Agent Harris confides to Tony that kick starts the episode: Phil has set in motion plans to take out Tony and a few of his friends. Tony quickly ditches the gabagool sandwich in his hand (remember that meat was a catalyst of his first panic attack,) and gets 'management' together. At a meeting, they decide to hit Phil first, and then Tony and Sil crack up Bobby with some slow-mo boxing moves. The whole scene is backed by Pietro Mascagni's "Intermezzo" from Cavalleria Rusticana, which was used as the title theme to Scorsese's Raging Bull, making for a goose-bump-inducing moment. The piece was also used in Godfather III, in the scene where Michael Corleone's daughter dies, a dangerous reference if intended. Writer Terry Winter cleared that up yesterday at Slate:

...the use of Cavalleria Rusticana is Raging Bull and Raging Bull only. Godfather III does not exist for me. It ceased to exist at 3:30 pm on Christmas Day, 1990, when I walked out of the first ever showing at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center Multiplex in Brooklyn, utterly heartbroken at what I had just witnessed.

When Bobby delegates the hit on Phil to Paulie into the back room of The Bing, The Door's "When the Music's Over" is playing, which is both odd and appropriate. Odd to think that anyone would choose to strip/dance to the 10-minute long experimental jam, and appropriate in the sentiment that it is almost over for the series. When Paulie then delegates the job to Patsy, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "American X" is playing, featuring the lines you?ve sold your soul but it?s only a fake / you?d kill yourself for a piece of the take, making me think, again, that Paulie could be playing both sides here.

Later, when Sil and Paulie figure out that the hit was screwed up, the Madder Rose song "You Remember" plays, and a couple lines from the song are highlighted: No one knows how to turn this thing around / it's moving faster now, be quiet and I'll tell you about the sound. There's obviously no 'turning back' now, but Tony's crew finds ways to 'turn their back' on the danger. First Bobby gets taken out in spectacular fashion (while purchasing a Blue Comet train replica train set,) and we're reminded that while he's come a long way from being Junior's driver, he's still a naive little kid at heart.

Then, even as Sil and Patsy are in the process of 'going to ground,' they're still caught unawares outside The Bing (while listening to Nat King Cole's "Ramblin' Rose.") Why wouldn't Sil have a gun on him? Does he think that Phil's goons will respect The Bing? As the carnage is going on, Chase makes sure to have patrons and strippers (still naked) from The Bing outside gawking at the scene. It serves as a nice "F-You!" to the Soprano lookie-loos who only watch for the violence and the occasional nudity - Chase has never shied from publicly loathing their patronage.

While Phil is an arrogant prick, the bumbling by Tony's crew validates much of Phil's complaints about the New Jersey family and their way of doing business. Meanwhile, Elliott (Peter Bogdanovich) is also an arrogant prick who's problems with Tony are validated. Elliott is not only similar to Phil in that regard, but also in his success at eliminating Tony's support, as he helps push Melfi into giving up on Tony. Her abandonment of him in his time of need was a long time coming, given the history of their relationship, but the timing couldn't have been worse as a realistic resolution. It's hard to believe that Yochelson & Samenow's "The Criminal Personality" can close the book on that part of the series so quickly.

So it's just Tony and Paulie left, holed up in some nondescript safehouse. And as Tony tries to sleep clutching the semi-automatic rifle that dearly departed Bobby got him for his birthday, we hear the Tindersticks song "Running Wild" through the credits. It's the perfect moody, foreboding piece of work to end the episode, and while Chase uses the instrumental version, the lyrics to the song are relevant:

Running wild through my mind that I can't sleep tonight Like a child, like a child I have no place to hide Running wild, is there no ending for the...

Playlist: The Sopranos - Episode 620
1. "We Belong Together" - Robert & Johnny - Phil Leotardo sets plans in motion at his social club
2. "Intermezzo Stafonico (from 'Cavalleria Rusticana')" - Pietro Mascagni - Tony, Bobby, and Silvio talk and horse around at Vesuvio's
3. "Sympathy" - Keith Jarrett - Dr. Melfi and friends discuss her patient at a dinner party
4. "When The Music's Over" - The Doors - Bobby summons Paulie to the backroom of The Bing
5. "American X" - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Paulie and Patsy talk at The Bing
6. "Nuages" - Django Reinhardt - The Sopranos catch up with Artie and Charmaine at Vesuvio's
7. "You Remember" - Madder Rose - Silvio and Paulie read the news at The Bing
8. "Ramblin' Rose" - Nat King Cole - Shootout in parking lot of The Bing
9. "Running Wild" - Tindersticks - Tony goes to sleep

Thanks to Drake LeLane

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Three Alternate Endings to The Sopranos Shot

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

The HBO series on Sunday night concludes its eight years of mob maneuvering, metaphor-laden dream sequences and mad exclamations of "Marone!"

Questions abound as the series finale nears. (Stop reading here if you're living on DVR or DVD time.) The gathering storm finally touched down in the penultimate episode that aired Sunday, where Phil Leotardo's New York family killed Bobby Bacala (in an instantly classic death scene) and left Silvio Dante clinging to life in the hospital.

Our last image was of Tony Soprano locked away in a barren, upstairs bedroom, drifting off to sleep with an automatic weapon draped across his chest. Everyone -- and it really does feel like everyone -- is wondering what fate lies in store for Tony.

Critics are weighing in, polls have been cast: Will Tony live or die? Other theories revolve around the Feds: Will he turn rat to save himself, or could Tony still be arrested? And what role will his son, A.J. play in the conclusion?

"Sopranos" creator David Chase reportedly filmed three different endings to the finale to help keep the conclusion secret. Chase has always reveled in denying audience expectations (most memorably by never returning to the escaped Russian), and likely delights in foolhardy pundit prognostications. But it's fun to try anyway.

Back in 2001, Chase was illuminating about his approach to the ending while speaking to Rolling Stone magazine: "The paradigm of the traditional gangster film is the rise and fall. You have to ask yourself: Do I want to bother with that paradigm?"

The bloodletting of the second-to-last episode has some -- including unlikely "Sopranos" blogger Brian Williams (whose day job is anchoring NBC's nightly news) -- predicting a finale low on action. "We need to be as prepared for ambiguity as we are prepared for certainty," says Williams, a New Jersey native who has blogged about "The Sopranos" on Slate.com. In his posting Tuesday, he called these days leading up to Sunday's show "the longest week of our lives."

"I have learned in searing fashion never to try to predict what goes on in David Chase's mind," adds Williams.

Nevertheless, the enormous build up (just about everything has gone badly for Tony lately) and the great secrecy of the ending suggest that Chase still views the finale as -- to put it simply -- a big deal.

Most dramas and sitcoms that bid adieu with a much anticipated finale do so without the weight of passing a final judgment on its main character. In this way, the ending of "The Sopranos" might have more in common with the conclusion of "Sex and the City" than it would appear.

In that show, whether Carrie Bradshaw would remain single or get hitched was always the question. Likewise, whether Tony is -- as he claims in therapy -- "basically a good guy," is the perpetual conflict of "The Sopranos."

The way things have gone this final season, it appears Chase has decided Tony is beyond redemption. Tony has essentially given up on his "mama's boy" son and killed Christopher Moltisanti, his virtual son and heir apparent. Just before that harrowing suffocation, Tony and Christopher drove while a version of "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd played: "The child is grown/ The dream is gone."

Dr. Melfi, too, has given up on Tony. She abruptly terminated their therapy sessions after being persuaded by recent psychiatric studies that talk therapy doesn't rehabilitate but emboldens sociopaths. That she could wonder whether it all was worth it might reflect Chase's own doubts in so long humanizing such a violent, corrupt figure.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, James Gandolfini acknowledged that he also has lost faith in his character. Asked whether he likes Tony, Gandolfini said, "I used to. But it's difficult toward the end. I think the thing with Christopher might have turned the corner."

"It's kind of one thing after another," he added. "Let's just say, it was a lot easier to like him before, than in the last few years."

Killing Tony would perhaps restore morality to the series. Can someone who so regularly breaks the law and murders even his closest friends be allowed to walk? Or will a more deeply cynical view pervade, where Tony's crimes are tolerated, or at least unpunished.

Sydney Pollack, the revered filmmaker ("Tootsie," "Out of Africa") who played a one-episode part on "The Sopranos" earlier this season as a disgraced doctor turned hospital orderly, believes the series will end in tragedy.

"Something bad is going to happen," says Pollack, who expects to see Tony die. "I don't know, but I know that David Chase can be counted on to surprise us -- or not -- but at least to do something that's bold and not safe."

A.J. has become a critical character in this, the second leg of the sixth season, which has so largely revolved around themes of legacy and parenthood. He is essentially the wild card in the combustible mix of characters heading into the finale. Will A.J.'s newfound conscience lead him to turn his father into the cops? Will Tony have to make a decision between saving his son or saving himself?

Tony's sporadic interactions with the FBI agent have led to conjecture that Tony might flee to the police. His conversations with the agent have been limited, though, and it seems possible they constitute nothing more than a red herring.

The different possible conclusions for "The Sopranos" could forever color fans' memories of the show. For a series that has always preferred a realistic messiness to tidy plot resolutions, grand fireworks would be against Chase's nature.

"There'll be people who will like the finale and people who won't like it," Chase recently told Entertainment Weekly. "But I think that if people look at what the show was, or could even watch the whole story again, they'll understand what the ending is."

Whatever the outcome, the one thing that is clear, is that "The Sopranos" -- often hailed as the greatest show in the history of television -- will conclude Sunday. As Tony is fond of saying, "End of story."

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While Most Like Tony, New Jerseyans Like 'The Sopranos' Most

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

Although both New Jerseyans and the rest of the nation like Tony Soprano, New Jerseyans watch the show set in their back yard more often and are more tolerant of its sharper edges, according to a new poll released today.

The poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind comes with HBO set to air the final episode of "The Sopranos" on Sunday. The survey compared New Jerseyans' views of "The Sopranos" to the nation's views and found everyone - by a 2-1 margin - wants to see Tony Soprano survive the end of the series.

Those who have watched many episodes are twice as likely as casual viewers to prefer that he live, although views are split among his continuing as a mobster, going to jail, turning honest and other ideas.

"Perhaps they see a glimmer of goodness in him," said Gary Radford, a communications professor at Fairleigh Dickinson. "Perhaps they identify with his constant struggle to keep his family and his business together in the jungle that is mob life."

New Jerseyans seem to really like the series set in their world. Three of five New Jersey voters have watched the show, compared to two of five nationally, with New Jerseyans more likely by a 54 percent to 30 percent margin to have watched "many episodes."

The poll found 90 percent of New Jerseyans know the show is set in their state, compared to 56 percent nationwide. And New Jerseyans are less likely to agree with charges the show is too sexually explicit, has excessive violence, glorifies organized crime and portrays Italian-Americans in a negative way.

For instance, 42 percent of New Jerseyans agree the show has vulgar and offensive language, compared to 47 percent nationwide. Also, 24 percent of New Jerseyans agree the show cast Italian-Americans in a negative light, compared to 27 percent nationwide.

William Roberts, chair of Fairleigh Dickinson's Public Administration Institute and author of several books on modern Italian history, is among those agreeing with that sentiment. "'The Sopranos' certainly showcased some of the best talent in the profession," he said. "However, the show helped to perpetuate one of the more problematic and stereotypical images of Italian-Americans."

The poll of 776 randomly selected voters nationwide and 602 New Jersey voters was conducted from May 29 through June 3 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Six Pack of Mob Hits on The Sopranos

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

The characters who inhabit the modern mob world of The Sopranos endure a precarious existence. Death lurks around every corner - taunting even the most firmly established players. And when these sad saps eventually meet their makers, we find it incredibly hard to turn away. So in honor of the HBO show's finale (9 p.m. Sunday), we're paying tribute to the whackings that kept us buzzing around the water cooler. Here's a chronological list of the hits that were especially hard to forget.

1. Richie Aprile (Season 2): Janice Soprano may have fallen prey to some bad men in her life, but she's nobody's punching bag. So when former fiance Aprile administered a few blows before dinner one night, Janice retaliated by calmly firing two shots into his chest. Little brother Tony helped clean up the mess, sending Aprile to the chopping block at Satriale's and loose cannon Janice back to Seattle.

2. Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (Season 2): Talk about a fateful trip. When Tony learned that his most beloved crew member had turned FBI informant, he invited him on a boat ride into the abyss. But hand it to Pussy for facing death like a man. After failing to talk his way out of the situation, he asked his executioners for one saving grace: to avoid shooting him in the face. Tony and his captains riddled his body with bullets instead and cast him overboard, dooming him to spend eternity swimming with the fishes.

3. Ralph Cifaretto (Season 4): A victim of one of the longest, most gruesome, most deserved beatings of the series, a drawn-out, drag-out brawl that ended with Cifaretto's head being stuffed into a bowling bag. And the worst part? The secretly bald (and apparently vain) Cifaretto (who drew Tony's wrath for allegedly killing the racehorse Pie-O-My) was buried without his wig.

4. Adriana La Cerva (Season 5): Poor, naive Ade. Believing love could conquer all, the show's hottest Mafia girlfriend turned mole confessed to her beloved Christufuh, hoping the made man would agree to life in the witness protection program. Instead, he ratted her out to his one true love. The last we saw of her, Adriana was crying and crawling away from a gun-wielding Silvio Dante in the middle of the woods, shots filling the air as her desperate face faded from the screen.

5. Tony Blundetto (Season 5): Call it a mercy killing. Blundetto was doomed the minute he rubbed out Phil Leotardo's brother, Billy. Though he initially rebuked Phil's call for retribution, Tony eventually did the deed himself, saving his cousin from a far more brutal death. Blundetto's demise came quickly, after Tony surprised him at a farmhouse hideout with a shot in the face.

6. Christopher Moltisanti (Season 6): In the end, Tony turned on his most loyal soldier, sure that his nephew had become his biggest liability. When Christopher, high on heroin, crashed his car on a deserted road, Tony decided to solve his problem, suffocating the severely injured Moltisanti and never shedding a tear.

Thanks to Erika Gonzalez

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Soprano Fans Mob Filming Locations

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

Every Saturday afternoon, the staff at the Satin Dolls go-go lounge clears the bar of matchbooks, coasters, napkins and anything else not nailed down because a sold-out tour bus is on the way from New York. But the luxury coach heading for the nondescript, windowless building on a busy stretch of New Jersey highway isn't carrying rowdy bachelors with Bacchanalia in mind.

Soon, about four dozens fans of the hit television series "The Sopranos" file into the club, which since 1999 has doubled as the show's notorious, mob-run strip joint, the Bada Bing.

"Everything gets stolen off the bar, even if it doesn't say 'Satin Dolls' or 'Bada Bing' on it," said club manager Rouz, who, like the scantily-clad young women working the brass poles behind the bar, prefers to be known by just his first name.

HBO broadcasts the series finale of "The Sopranos" on June 10, and locations made famous by the saga of a northern New Jersey mob boss struggling to keep both his "families" in line attract flocks of fans.

"The 'Bada Bing' brings extra attention from people who wouldn't normally go to a go-go bar," Rouz said. "Most of them come in and have a look, then buy some merchandise and leave. And they don't know about the state laws."

Rouz was referring to the poetic license taken by the show's producers regarding New Jersey's policy on topless dancing and establishments that serve alcohol: you can have one or the other, but not both.

So while Tony Soprano and his crew sit in "the Bing" and plot their latest crimes amid a gaggle of topless dancers, Satin Dolls patrons are entertained by girls wearing bikinis and lingerie, albeit of the skimpiest variety.

One of the tour bus visitors is Paul Rickard of Inverness, Scotland, who says his rabid devotion to the show has little to do with the mob-related plot lines. "It's about family, food and togetherness," he said between sips from a beer. "The mob is just a job, a distraction. Despite scenes of extreme violence, the show is about love."

Swiss tourist Antony Simone, sitting just down the bar from Rickard, says he's dreading a world in which he won't have fresh episodes to look forward to. "I would like no end, because the Mafia has no end," he says.

While "the Bing" has played a central role throughout the show's run and understandably attracts a fan following, any association with "The Sopranos" can prove a boon for business.

Pizzaland, a few miles south of Satin Dolls in North Arlington, appears for about one second during the show's opening credits. Despite never actually being in an episode, the already-thriving neighborhood favorite saw pizza sales spike once the show gained popularity.

The surprise to owner Paul Pawlowicz was how big a slice of his revenues now comes from shipping pizzas nationwide. "They get shrink-wrapped, put on dry ice, and shipped overnight," Pawlowicz said as he pulled a steaming pie from the oven. "This week alone I've shipped pizzas to Texas, Louisiana and California, and I've sent 58 pies to a guy in Safety Harbor (Florida) this season alone."

"Hey, it's good pizza," he says, then adds a line that would be right at home in an episode of the show: "Once I get a customer, I got 'em for good."

Interior scenes of the Soprano family home are actually shot on a soundstage in the New York City borough of Queens. But exterior shots, often showing Tony in an open bathrobe shuffling down his steep driveway to pick up the newspaper, are set at a "real home" in the affluent town of North Caldwell.

No federal agents taking pictures or waiting to have a "talk" with Tony were seen parked in front of the house on a recent drive-by. But the code of omerta was in effect for two carloads of fans circling the cul-de-sac to have a look at the house: both sped off quickly when approached for a comment.

While most of the well-known locations on the show are actual commercial establishments, Satriale's pork store in Kearny has never existed. Signage and the large pig that sits atop the brick-faced building were put up only for filming, and the site that saw its share of sit-downs and dismemberments will soon be whacked itself: Kearny officials say the town's planning board has approved an application from the owner to turn the property into condominiums.

Whether sight-seeing fans will continue to seek out "Sopranos" locations after the show's finale remains to be seen. But tour bus guide Marc Baron of On Location Tours (http://www.screentours.com), who has been an extra in several episodes, is optimistic. "There is such an interest from overseas fans and the popularity of the show has only grown since it began showing on A&E," Baron said, noting the cleaned-up reruns now showing on another cable station. "I think we've got a good five years left."

Thanks to Christian Wiessner

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Mobster Frank Cullotta Gives Another "Exclusive" Interview

Friends of ours: Frank Cullotta, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro
Friends of mine: William "Slick" Hanner

Investigative reporter Chuck Goudie traveled to Las Vegas for an "exclusive" interview with the former mob hitman, Frank Cullotta, who will be a key witness in Chicago's upcoming mob murder trial. Recently, Frank Cullotta gave another "exclusive" interview to George Knapp. Chuck needs to head back to Las Vegas and interview Slick Hanner as well, which is what George did. Plus, who can pass up a business trip to Vegas?

There was a time about 25 years ago when the Las Vegas Strip was dominated by the Chicago outfit. History will be revisited during this summer's upcoming Operations Family Secrets trial in federal court in Chicago, largely through the testimony of a hoodlum named Frank Cullotta.

"I only had a few legitimate friends. They were like my best friends. But everybody I hung with I stole with; robbed with; killed with," said Frank Cullotta, mob informant.

For decades in Chicago and Las Vegas he was a robber by trade and a killer by necessity. But, since Frank Cullotta turned on the outfit 25 years ago, he has been a professional government witness. When Cullotta makes his next court appearance this summer in the case against 14 accused Chicago mobsters, prosecutors are expected to have him explain the outfit's historical hierarchy and testify how lead defendant Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo has been Chicago's top hoodlum.

"He knew everything that was going on, it had to go through him. This is what I would believe, he's the boss," said Cullotta.

Cullotta, an ex-con, is about to release a mob book, co-written with a crime author and a former FBI agent, timing that Lombardo's lawyer says is no coincidence. "There is no question that this was all orchestrated for the benefit of this horribly written book in terms of the writing style. Somebody said it was a third grade level. I think that is two grades above the level at which it's written," said Rick Halprin, Lombardo lawyer.

Much of the book and Cullotta's testimony will focus on Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro, the outfit's emissary in Las Vegas until the early 1980s. "To me, he was a friend...I grew up with this guy. I knew he was ruthless, he was mean, he was tough. He could kill easily," said Cullotta.

Cullotta ran Spilotro's burglary crew in Vegas, known as the "hole in the wall gang," and he helped collect on mob juice loans from broken down gamblers.

"Ya tell 'em, you know, 'We need the money. We're not gonna keep on waiting.' And after about the third time, if they didn't listen ,you just give 'em a beating," said Cullotta. "Or we'll make their wife a widow."

I-Team: "How many people did you take out?"

Cullotta: "Two direct, two indirect."

I-Team: "Who were the two direct?"

Cullotta: "Some guy, he was a union guy for the barbers union (in Chicago)."

Cullotta himself re-enacted the 1979 murder of Jerry Lisner (a small time drug dealer and hustler) in the movie Casino, shooting Lisner twice in the head, chasing him through his home and in real life strangling him with an electrical cord before dumping the body in a swimming pool.

"You become the judge, jury and executioner, so you justify that in your own mind so it makes it a little easier on you. Most of the guys who got whacked or got killed, I'd say the majority of them probably deserved it."

Cullotta has received immunity from prosecution for the murders and crimes he committed. The former FBI supervisor on Cullotta's case is now Cullotta's book partner. "In law enforcement you use the tools that are available. Sometimes you have to use tools like that. In fact, you want to use tools like that because I am not going get the information from you or anyone else. It has to be someone inside," said Dennis Arnoldy, former FBI agent and supervisor on Cullotta's case.

A few years after Cullotta turned on the mob, his former boss Tony Spilotro and Spilotro's brother were savagely beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield. They are among the 18 murders that are central to this summer's Chicago trial. "If I had to, and I was ordered to kill him and his brother, I'd have just shot 'em...unless they told me to do opposite, then I'd find somebody else to do it," Cullotta said.

Tony Spilotro's widow calls Cullotta a liar and told the I-Team she would like to have a hand in administering justice for his killers.

"If I could do it myself I would," said Nancy Spilotro.

Cullotta still travels with a bodyguard, although he admits it is mainly for show. "I am sure somebody would like to whack me if they had the opportunity to try to make some points. I don't know if they were making any points. They would probably get whacked after they whacked me," Cullotta said.

There is not much whacking going on those days in the city of Las Vegas and hasn't been for the last 20 years or so. There are a lot of construction cranes and new buildings going up, including hotels and casinos.

For the record, defense lawyers in the Chicago case note that Cullotta's testimony has not always resulted in convictions, something they hope will be the case during this summer's trial.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

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America's Most Wanted on The Chicago Syndicate for 6-9-07

America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate have partnered to highlight AMW's upcoming Episodes on Fox.

Jason Howard: Jewel and Mildred Cleveland had not been heard from for over a month. Then, 2004, police found their bodies buried in their own barn. Their mentally ill son Jason Howard has been missing since, and police believe he may be responsible for their deaths.

The Mad Hatter: The Mad Hatter got his nickname by wearing a different style cap for all 17 of his New Jersey bank robberies. Now, he has a new look—a red face. No, it’s not because he’s embarrassed. It’s because during his latest bank robbery, the dye pack exploded all over him as he fled the scene. Now police say they’re hot on his trail.

Unknown Usha Taneja Killer: Usha Taneja’s son was about to get married—she had been waiting for this day for years. But the night before the wedding, Usha disappeared. She was found dead on the sidewalk just blocks from her home, and now police are looking for her killer.

Derrick Lloyd: On New Year’s Day in 1991, cops say a man told Derrick Lloyd to watch the tone of his voice. Lloyd didn’t take kindly to this, and allegedly shot the man in the face. Since then, he’s been on the run. Police think he’s probably hiding out in Jamaica or Boston , Mass.

Joseph Jermaine Woodbury Jr.: In 2005, Ricky Lamar Cooke was found shot to death on a rural road in South Carolina . And now, cops are looking for a man who they say may know something about what happened—his name is Joseph Woodbury.

Jerry Otis Robinson: Jerry Robinson had what seemed like an average relationship with his girlfriend Stacie. But in 1999, what started as a normal dinner date turned into a nightmare for Stacie. Cops say Robinson was going through some hard times, and after the couple split up, he out his frustration by shooting his girlfriend several times. Luckily, Stacie survived, but police say Robinson is on the run and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Bablu Hassan: Cops say when 5-year-old Chastity Adams woke up when she heard Bablu Hassan arguing with her mother. When Chastity realized that things were about to turn violent, she got in the way. Police say Chastity was slashed across the stomach before Hassan killed her mother. Now, Bablu is in big trouble and on the run. Some reports have him all the way in Bangladesh.

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Will Final Sopranos Whack HBO's Identity Too?

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

It's difficult to remember now, but way back in the mid 1990s during a crazy little century called the 20th, HBO was a network far more renowned for its longform production and documentaries than its series. Sure, it had "The Larry Sanders Show," possibly the most magnificent character comedy in recorded history, but "Larry" drew abysmal ratings in appealing to something of an elitist taste.

The three shows that would come to define the quality-rich HBO brand -- "Sex and the City," "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" -- didn't arrive on the scene until 1998, 1999 and 2001, respectively. Nothing that came before ever brought the mighty Time Warner premium cabler anything close to the consistent acclaim and cachet supplied by this threesome.

Movies, minis and docus are great for collecting Emmys, but once they've run, they've run. Series are the gift that keeps on giving. Yet it hasn't escaped notice that aside from "Entourage," HBO is pretty much fresh out of even semi-buzzworthy series product of late.

And so we find that Sunday's much-hyped "Sopranos" series capper represents far more than simply the hour that will determine Tony Soprano's ultimate fate. It's the true end of an era for the network that birthed he and his goombas. Even before HBO programming guru Chris Albrecht's troubles that led to his ouster, the network has been unable to restock its ranks with new stars. The golden touch has turned closer to silver.

This is not a new observation, of course. And particularly this week in coinciding with the "Sopranos'" permanent fish-sleeping expedition, the eulogies mourning HBO's untimely demise are sure to come in waves. It really isn't as bad as all of that, however. For one, the original series cupboard isn't barren, what with "Entourage," the polygamy primer "Big Love" returning next Monday and another season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" rolling out later in the year. As well, critics continue to sing the praises of "The Wire," though they seem to be the only ones watching it.

There's also the new stuff: the David Milch paranormal surfer fantasy "John From Cincinnati" (premiering Sunday), the comedy "Flight of the Conchords" (arriving June 17) and the psych-themed half-hour drama "In Therapy" (coming this fall) that appears to recall the brilliant but shamefully short-lived 1991 six-parter "Sessions" that Billy Crystal wrote and produced for HBO.

It all sounds just swell, though there is now the distinct sense from HBO not of a front-runner's cool confidence but a boxer who has lost the sting in his jab and is unleashing a less-effective barrage in the hope something connects. Such is the towering height of the bar this network has set.

Yes, a retooling was inevitable. They can't all be winners, and "Carnivale" and "Lucky Louie" weren't. Yet more than that, aside from "The Sopranos" and the recently departed "Deadwood," even the schedule-stickers just aren't generating the kind of hyper-awareness that befits HBO's sterling reputation. As a result, FX ("Rescue Me," "The Shield," "The Riches," "Nip/Tuck") and Showtime ("Dexter," "Weeds," "The Tudors," "Brotherhood") have been able to swoop in and virtually eliminate any perceived qualitative gap while carving out their own unique niches.

Does any of this really matter to HBO? Financially, it's probably negligible. But in terms of perception and esteem -- both essential elements in keeping subscriber churn to a minimum while maximizing water-cooler chatter -- it's huge.

Unfortunately, coolness isn't a commodity that can be purchased outright or Bill Gates would be the hippest man on Earth. HBO hasn't lost its identity, merely its groove. It's simply going to take it a while to get it back.

Thanks to Ray Richmond

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Tony Soprano: Hero and Villain

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

Director David Cronenberg once told me that back in the eighties, when he was trying to make his version of "The Fly" — the one where Jeff Goldblum turns into a gooey monster — a studio head said it wouldn't work; he said he didn't think audiences could deal with a hero who is also the villain.

Scary, huh? There goes "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." There go the most fascinating characters in literature.

Television, where fathers were supposed to know best, was even less friendly to moral ambiguity — which is why "The Sopranos" was a landmark.

When we first met James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano in 1999, he seemed to be evolving. He was seeing a psychiatrist; he was coming to terms with his life. He was a gang boss, sure, but he had a crazy narcissistic mom, he cared about his kids, he wasn't a sociopath, like his nephew Christopher. And then came the episode where he took his daughter Meadow to Maine to see a college and spied a rat, an ex-gangster relocated by the witness protection program. Tony saw the man had a wife and kids and hesitated — and we knew he wouldn't kill him.

Only he did.

No matter how much we empathized with and lived vicariously through these characters, creator David Chase made sure to slap us awake — to remind us they were terrible people. Tony ordered the murder of the one entirely sympathetic character, Drea di Matteo's Adriana.

Last season, Joseph Gannascoli's Vito was discovered to be gay, taboo in Mafia culture, and he fled to New Hampshire — how could we not be touched by the sad sack's plight? Only then, he shot a man whose car he hit while driving drunk.

Even Edie Falco's Carmela is tainted. Earlier this season, the budding realtor worried a rainstorm would ruin the sale of a house she'd had built. That shoddy edifice could stand for the Sopranos' way of life: rotted by self-interest, its collapse inevitable.

It makes you think of the ways most of us compromise, in big and little ways, for the sake of self-interest — and how our own lives, as Americans, are unsustainable.

No one knows if in the last episode Tony Soprano will die. Who could write his epitaph? Not Chase — he needed more than 80 hours to take the measure of the man. But I know this: Our perceptions, our lives, our culture is enriched by a hero who is finally a villain.

Thanks to David Edelstein

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Gambino Mobster Survives Hit Attempt

The son of one of "Dapper Don" John Gotti's trusted capos narrowly escaped an old-fashioned mob hit when a bullet grazed his head in a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn's Mafia heartland, cops said.

Robert DeCicco, whom feds identified as a 56-year-old mob associate, also was shot three times in the arm during the botched rubout in his car at Bath and 17th avenues in Bath Beach at about 10:15 a.m., cops and witnesses said.

"They didn't do it right," said a local in the neighborhood, which has been run by the DeCiccos for generations, according to law-enforcement sources. "Whoever did this, they're in a lot of trouble now."

DeCicco - who was indicted in January along with his father, George "Big Georgie" DeCicco, 78, in the last major takedown of alleged Gambino mobsters - had just gotten into his 1998 gray Cadillac Seville after shopping.

The bungled assassination came just a day after another Gambino mobster busted with DeCicco and his dad in January was moved into protective custody because of threats against his life, The Post has learned.

Joseph Orlando, who brought down the DeCicco crew down when he tried to bribe an official, was moved into solitary confinement at the Manhattan Detention Center Monday, sources said. Details of the threat were unavailable. Orlando's attorney declined to comment, as did an FBI spokesman.

Witnesses said a man wearing a ski mask pulled up in a black Lincoln next to DeCicco and shot at him four times, shattering both the front passenger and driver's windows.

DeCicco managed to drag himself out of the car and stagger into a pharmacy to call for help, witnesses said.

At Lutheran Hospital, DeCicco kept mum about the identities of his would-be killers. "I don't want to talk to anyone," he reportedly told cops from his hospital bed.

Later, as he left the 62nd Precinct, he said, "I'm all right, I feel very good."

DeCicco, who had a bandaged arm and a scratch across his face, jumped into a black Lexus. The car was registered to Mark Fappiano, who is related to Frank Fappiano, the Mafia turncoat who testified in John "Junior" Gotti's recent federal trials.

The shooting occurred just blocks from Tomasso's Restaurant, where DeCicco's cousin Frank DeCicco was blown up by a car bomb meant for the elder John Gotti in 1986. A year earlier, Frank DeCicco had lured Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano to Sparks Steakhouse on the East Side in one of the city's most famous Mafia hits. Castellano's rubout paved the way for Gotti to take the No. 1 spot in the Gambino family.

Robert DeCicco's father, George, also rose up the ranks. Until January, he was known as the last-remaining Gotti capo not behind bars or dead.

George DeCicco was finally busted on a slew of extortion, racketeering, loan-sharking and money-laundering raps after a two-year probe in which a member of his crew taped hundreds of hours of recordings.

The younger DeCicco also was charged with loan-sharking.

"Big Georgie" DeCicco, who because of heart problems is under house arrest on Staten Island, gave a thumbs-up sign to reporters after learning his son had survived. "He's all right!" he said. "I was on oxygen last night," he told The Post. "The last thing I need to do is hear [he was shot]."

Investigators theorized the attempted hit could be personal. "If it was, whoever did this is going to be in trouble because he's a captain's son," a source said.

"If it's a mob-sanctioned hit, whoever did this is in trouble because he botched it."

Thanks to Murray Weiss, Partick Gallahue and Leela de Kretser

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