Lupertazzi Crime Family

The Lupertazzi family is a fictional American organized crime family in the HBO series ''The Sopranos''. The family is based in New York City. The family consists of an administration and eight crews. The family is an ally of the Soprano family in New Jersey, but also it serves at times as its rival. The family is loosely based on the Gambino crime family, a real New York City Mafia family.

History

The Lupertazzi crime family is a major partner of the DiMeo crime family and one of the Five Families. They are larger and more powerful than the DiMeo family. It is assumed that the other crime families in New York are fictional. However, there have been references to real-life mob figures Albert Anastasia, Paul Castellano, Joe Gallo, John Gotti, Sammy Gravano, Joe Massino, and Joe Profaci, as well as to the Colombo crime family in general.

Four other families are known: the Teresi family, the Mangano family (which historically was headed by Vincent Mangano, a forerunner of the Gambino crime family), the Massino/Bonanno family (Joseph Massino, real-life boss of the Bonanno family, is referenced in 2004), and the Paglieri family. One was run by George Paglieri until his retirement, and another is controlled by John Sacrimoni's brother-in-law, Andy, whose last name and family are not known. He may be the brother of Ginny Sacrimoni and Anthony Infante, or the husband of an unnamed sister of John's.

Due to its large size, and the fact that real-life bosses of the Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, and Bonanno families are referenced, the Lupertazzi crime family likely represents the Lucchese crime family. The Lupertazzi family consists of around 200 soldiers.

The Lupertazzi family is based in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, as well as having at least one crew operating out of Delray, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and South Miami, Florida. The family was headed by Carmine Lupertazzi, Sr. until his death in 2004. The Lupertazzi family whose heritage is from Taormina is known for their close dealings with the DiMeo crime family, particularly on the Newark, New Jersey esplanade gentrification construction site with their connections in the United Association, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association, Laborers' International Union of North America, the United Steelworkers, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and HUD projects in Newark, New Jersey.

The Lupertazzi family has gone through some internal friction over the years, with Boss Carmine Lupertazzi and his underboss, John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni, each reaching out to North Jersey Boss Tony Soprano to perform a hit on the other. Neither hit ended up being carried out. The family fell into disarray after Carmine Sr.'s death when his son, "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi, came up from Florida to try and take control from Johnny Sack, who had been eyeing the top position for years.

Key crews in the family split loyalties: capos Phil Leotardo and Jimmy Petrille sided with Johnny Sack in the conflict, while capos Rusty Millio, Jerry Basile, and consigliere Angelo Garepe sided with Little Carmine. Tony Soprano came to Johnny Sack with a compromise: there would be a power-sharing situation with Little Carmine, Johnny, and Angelo holding the title as boss and decisions being made with the consent of at least two bosses. Johnny Sack refused, insulted by the proposition.

Associates loyal to Little Carmine, loan shark Lorraine Calluzzo and her enforcer Jason Evanina, were killed on the orders of Johnny Sack as punishment for kicking part of their earnings up to Little Carmine. As payback, Rusty and Angelo reached out to Tony Blundetto, an associate in the DiMeo crime family and cousin to Tony Soprano, to kill "Joey Peeps" Peparelli, an associate close to Johnny Sack. Phil and his brother, Billy Leotardo, retaliated by stuffing Angelo inside a car and shooting him in the head. Tony Blundetto, a close friend of Angelo from their time in prison, then went after Phil, wounding him and killing Billy.

After the attacks on Angelo and the Leotardo brothers, Little Carmine retreated back to Florida. Johnny Sack was installed as the official boss of the Lupertazzi family. His first order of business was to demand that Tony Soprano deliver Tony Blundetto to his doorstep, making it clear that he would then be tortured and killed by Phil. Tony Soprano, unwilling to allow Phil to do that to his cousin, refused to give up Blundetto, who had gone into hiding. Leotardo responded by attacking Soprano associate Benny Fazio, sending him to the hospital with a skull fracture.

Facing increased pressure from his own family, Tony shot and killed Tony Blundetto himself with a shotgun blast to the head. Phil was outraged that he had been cheated of the chance to avenge Billy's death himself, but Johnny Sack, more practical than Phil, met with Tony and agreed to re-establish business dealings with the North Jersey Boss. At that meeting, the FBI raided Johnny Sack's home and arrested him. It was later revealed that Jimmy Petrille, prospective consigliere to Johnny Sack and a friend of Johnny's father, had given information about the last 18 years of Johnny Sack's criminal activities to the federal government.

With Johnny Sack in jail and awaiting trial, Phil Leotardo was named Acting Boss of the Lupertazzi family. Despite holding a grudge after the death of his brother Billy and a minor incident involving Acting Capo Gerry Torciano and Hesh Rabkin, Phil maintained a working relationship with the Soprano family.

Johnny Sack, fearing another uprising from Rusty Millio, reached out to Tony Soprano through Phil to kill the rebellious capo. Tony refused Phil's request but later agreed to put out the hit when Johnny talked to him at his daughter Allegra's wedding, which Johnny was allowed to attend for six hours provided he paid for security costs and consumed no alcoholic beverages. When the feds interrupted the departure of Allegra's wedding limo to take Johnny back to prison, John burst into tears. Phil made it a point after the wedding to speak out about his diminished regard for his boss.

Tony Soprano made good on his promise to Johnny, and sent two men from Naples to whack Rusty Millio and soldier Eddie Pietro outside of his home. However, more tension arose between the two families when Phil's cousin-in-law, Vito Spatafore, the captain of Tony's top-earning crew, was outed as gay.

In the winter of 2006, Johnny Sack pleaded guilty to 47 RICO predicates, receiving a 15-year sentence. As part of the plea, he admitted that he was a member of ''La Cosa Nostra''. When hearing this, Lupertazzi family members denounced their boss, saying that he broke the vow of silence.

Becoming virtually the Boss of the Lupertazzi family, Phil immediately started flexing his power, renegotiating no-show jobs shared with the Soprano family and torturing and killing Aprile crew captain Vito Spatafore before Tony could get the chance to settle things within his own family. In retaliation, Tony planned on hurting Phil financially, but his plans were complicated when Carlo Gervasi and Silvio Dante killed Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello, a soldier in the Lupertazzi family.

Tony officially responded to Vito's death by blowing up a Sheepshead Bay wire room operated by Phil. Phil and his ''comare'' (mistress/lover) were approaching the business as it exploded but were unharmed.

Subsequently, a sit-down was arranged by Little Carmine Lupertazzi between Phil and Tony. A truce was almost agreed upon until Little Carmine brought up the death of Phil's brother Billy, causing Phil to become enraged and leave the sit-down after insulting both Tony and Little Carmine.

Later, Phil convened a war council with consigliere Albie Cianflone, and captains Butch DeConcini and Gerry Torciano. DeConcini pushed hard for Tony, or someone high up in the Soprano family, to be killed while Phil blanched at the thought of killing a boss. However, Phil was hospitalized afterwards when he suffered a massive heart attack. When Tony visited Phil in the hospital to make peace, Phil seemed receptive, but DeConcini was openly confrontational.

In late 2007, Phil returned to Brooklyn after undergoing heart surgery and several months of physical therapy. He found the family in disarray under the highly controversial leadership of Faustino "Doc" Santoro. While there was some expectation that Phil would return to his position of boss, the stress of his heart attack had caused him to lose all interest in the job. Phil prepared to support his protégé Gerry Torciano in his bid for boss, and was emphatic in stressing that being a boss, 'health-wise, is a young man's game.'

Phil's and Torciano's plans were ended when Santoro had Torciano murdered at a dinner with Soprano Family consigliere Silvio Dante. The fact that Silvio's life was imperiled prompted Tony to appeal to Little Carmine to take the reins as boss of the Lupertazzis. However, Little Carmine explained to Tony that during his war with Johnny, his wife had appealed to him to quit so that she would not lose him.

Although he had been boss only in name, the death of Johnny Sack from cancer further destabilized the Lupertazzi family as he left behind no clear successor. With his protégé and successor dead and Little Carmine unwilling to take over, Phil re-examined his motives and prepared to go to war with Santoro. After deciding to get back in the game, Phil bided his time, working under Santoro until the old man's arrogance got to be too much to handle. Having had enough, Phil ordered his soldiers once and for all to kill Santoro. Driven by Butch DeConcini, the hitmen murdered Santoro and an associate outside of a massage parlor, leaving them dead on the sidewalk.

After Phil rejected Tony's offer of compromise on an asbestos-removal project, he then refused to meet with Tony after Tony brutally beat one of Phil's men, Salvatore "Coco" Cogliano, for insulting and threatening Tony's daughter, Meadow. Phil responded by ordering a hit on Tony and two of his top associates, Bobby Baccalieri and Silvio. He thought that with the Soprano Family leaders gone, their remaining members would fall under the control of the Lupertazzi family.

The hits on Bobby and Silvio went nearly as planned with Bobby killed and Silvio incapacitated. Tony and Paulie Gualtieri had a sit-down with Butch, Albie, and Little Carmine, brokered by New York Boss George Paglieri, to negotiate peace. Unhappy with Phil's leadership, they gave permission for Tony to have Phil killed, though Butch refused to tell Tony where to find Phil.

FBI Agent Harris, in return for information Tony gave him about potential terrorists, told Tony that Phil had been making phone calls from a particular pay phone in Oyster Bay. Tony sent two men to stake out the phone booth. Phil was shot in the head by DiMeo soldier Walden Belfiore while he was exiting his family SUV at the gas station where the phone booth was.

Historical Membership

Boss (official and acting)

* 1920s-1970 - Unknown
* c. 1970–2004 – Carmine Lupertazzi – died of stroke summer 2004.
* c. summer-late fall 2004 – Vacant – disputed leadership during the family war between John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni and "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi Jr.
* 2004–2007 – John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni – imprisoned in 2004, died of lung cancer in 2007.
**''Acting'' 2004–2006 – Philip "Phil" Leotardo – stepped down after suffering a heart attack Christmas 2006.
**''Acting'' 2006–2007 – Faustino "Doc" Santoro – attempted to assume full control in Phil's absence and murdered rising mob star Gerry Torciano, Phil's protege and potential successor. Murdered after Johnny Sack's passing under orders from a recovered Phil Leotardo.
* 2007 – Philip "Phil" Leotardo – murdered in the war between the Soprano and Lupertazzi families.
* 2007-present - Unknown, Likely underboss Butch DeConcini as he gave his blessing to have Phil murdered.

Underboss (official and acting)

* 1920s–1980s – Unknown
* 1980s–2004 – John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni (became boss)
* 2004–2007 – Philip "Phil" Leotardo (became boss)
* 2007 – Butch DeConcini
* ?

Consigliere (official and acting)

* 1920s-c. 1970s – Unknown
* c. 1970s–1986 – Angelo Garepe – Imprisoned 1986, released in 2004. Murdered several months later.
* 2004 – James Petrille (FBI turncoat)
* 2004–present – Albert "Albie" Cianflone

Capos

DeConcini Crew (Flatbush, Brooklyn)
* 1980s–2007 – Butch DeConcini
* ?

Santoro Crew (Chinatown, Manhattan)
* 1970s–2007 – Faustino "Doc" Santoro
* ?

Leotardo Crew ( Mill Basin, Brooklyn)
* 1980s – 2004 – Philip "Phil" Leotardo
** ''Acting'' 1984 – 2004 – Unknown
* 2006 – 2007 – Gerardo "Gerry The Hairdo" Torciano

Petrille Crew (Little Italy, Manhattan)
* 1970s - 2004 – James Petrille (FBI informant)

Dominic Crew
* 1990s - present – Dominic

Basile Crew ( Freeport, Long Island)
* 1980s - present – Jerry Basile

Millio Crew (Ozone Park, Queens)
* 1970s - 2006 - Rusty Millio

Miami Crew (South Beach, Miami)
* 1990s - present – Carmine "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi Jr.

See also

* List of ''The Sopranos'' characters
* Soprano family

References

External links

''The Sopranos'' cast and crew

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lupertazzi family
Lists of The Sopranos characters
Lists of fictional characters by organization
Fictional Mafia crime families
Fictional families