A brutal retaliation for turning FBI informant,
a public hit in the middle of a hobby shop, and a gas station assassination in front of
kids. Strap in. You’re about to see the most devastating deaths on "The Sopranos".
Richie Aprile was the brother of Jackie Aprile, who was head of the DiMeo crime family when the
series started. Tony eventually became the de facto boss when Jackie died, although he
positioned his uncle Junior as the nominal head. Richie was in prison for 10 years when all of this
was happening, so when he re-emerged, things were much different than he remembered. He resented
Tony as the boss, seeing him as the young guy who had to buy him dinner and take orders from him.
Moreover, Richie made the other mobsters look like cultured, calm
gentlemen. Violence was his only solution to virtually everything.
"Come here! Come here!"
"No!" "Come here! Come here!"
Another complicating factor was that Richie started dating his old flame Janice Soprano,
Tony's older sister. The scheming and power-hungry Janice would needle Richie about Tony,
urging him to make a move to take over the family. But what looked like it would
become a deadly power struggle between Richie and Tony had a shocking ending.
After Richie and Janice got engaged,
they got in an argument as Janice defended Richie's gay son Little Ricky. Richie
nonchalantly punched her in the face and then started eating dinner. Janice responded as such:
"I'm in no mood for your—"
[gunshot]
Tony cleaned up after her and put her on a bus out of town, as two of his biggest headaches canceled
each other out. Richie died in the season 2 episode "The Knight In White Satin Armor."
Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero was not only a loyal soldier of Tony Soprano's,
he was also a loyal soldier to Tony's father Johnny Boy. He was a beloved,
jovial figure in the crew and a family man with an even temper. Indeed, he loved his wife and
kids so much that he started to live outside his means and launched a sideline of selling heroin.
He did this against the advice of Jackie Aprile, Sr., given its risk. Sure enough,
Big Pussy was caught and arrested. Facing 30 years in prison, he became an informant for the FBI.
For a long time, he felt conflicted about informing, feeding the FBI as little as
possible. A crooked cop in Tony's employ learned that Big Pussy was an informant,
but Tony would not act without total certainty. When another member of his organization who bore
a resemblance was outed, Big Pussy was seemingly safe for a while.
But when Big Pussy was demoted by Tony, he was suddenly more amenable to informing on him.
Guided by a dream, Tony found a pretext to search Big Pussy's bedroom and found
a wire. He then lured his former best friend onto a boat at sea, where Tony,
Paulie and Silvio Dante shot him after getting him to admit he had flipped.
"Is that okay, Tony? That I sit?"
[gunshots]
This happened in the season 2 episode "Funhouse." It was a stunning death
because he was the biggest protagonist to die on the show up until that point.
"Jackie Junior" was living proof that brains and cunning did not necessarily run in the family.
His dad was a beloved and respected crime boss who was smart enough to
know that his son wasn't cut out for the family "business" and encouraged him to go to college.
"Hey! College boy. How's school?"
"Good. You know, back in the books. Almost Dean's List."
When Jackie Aprile died and Richie got out of prison,
Jackie Junior started gravitating toward mob life, even though he was thick as a brick.
After Richie died, Jackie Junior seemed to turn his life around, until
his mother Rosalie started dating the truly vile Ralph Cifaretto. Jackie Junior started
dealing drugs just as he started dating Tony's daughter Meadow. Tony had promised
Jackie Sr. that he'd look after his son, but Jackie Junior was selling and using drugs,
and Meadow dumped him when she found out he had slept with a sex worker.
"I know he's cheating on me. I can hear it in his voice."
Jackie Junior assembled his own young crew even dumber than he was and tried to rob a card game
run by one of Tony's men. He did it partly because his dad and Tony had done something similar when
they were kids — this had helped them make a name for themselves back in the day. Of course,
it didn't work out quite as well for Jackie and his crew — Jackie foolishly
shoots the card dealer after realizing he'd been identified and went into hiding.
"If you can keep your head while those around you can't, then…"
[gunshots]
After some deliberation, Tony had Vito Spatafore shoot Jackie Junior
in the back of the head in the season 3 episode "Army Of One."
Naturally, Tony blamed the killing on Black drug dealers — but Meadow knew better.
Don't worry though — Ralph's luck didn't last forever; there was no way the single most grating
character on the show was going to get away with all of his smart remarks and excessive violence.
"Come on!" [indistinguishable screaming]
“Oh, sh–. You hit my f—ing eye”
He was the ultimate example of how a mob leader like Tony had to weigh business utility against
personal interactions, because Ralph was easily his top earner — but no one
could stand him. Ralph's mouth and temper frequently created problems.
His tasteless joke about Ginny Sacrimoni's weight nearly caused an all-out war. He
coldly killed his stripper girlfriend Tracee. He pranked Paulie Walnuts' mother and nearly gave
her a heart attack. His bad influence helped lead Jackie Aprile Jr. to his death. In short,
Ralph was just the worst and was killed in the season 4 episode "Whoever Did This."
When one of Ralph's sons nearly killed the other accidentally with an errant and unsupervised
arrow, Ralph suddenly needed a lot more money for hospital bills. While he felt horrible about his
son, that didn't stop him from burning down the stable that contained a race horse co-owned by
Tony and him. When Tony talked to him about it and Ralph more or less confessed to it,
Tony went into a rage. What followed was the essence of "The Sopranos" in
many ways: an awkward, ugly, visceral fight that was uncomfortable to watch.
Tony eventually strangled Ralph and slammed his head into the floor to kill him.
He and Christopher then spent a long time chopping him up and disposing of the body.
The death of Tony Blundetto was one of the more painful and significant
in the history of "The Sopranos." Known as "Little Tony," he and Tony
Soprano were cousins and grew up together. Tony B. went to prison,
but emerged a changed man — he intended to go straight and take up a surprising trade:
"I'm going to be a licensed massage therapist."
For a while, he did just that, even turning down a job with his cousin Tony in the organization.
When working with an outsider started to go sour, Tony B. went back to crime. The
problem was that even though he was dealt back in, he didn't advance as quickly as he
wanted. He took a contract killing job from associates of "Little" Carmine, shooting an
associate of Phil Leotardo. Tony B. denied taking the job but things escalated, as Phil
avenged that killing, and Tony B. retaliated by killing Phil's brother Billy and wounding Phil.
Phil was out for blood, but Tony Soprano was reluctant to give Tony B. up. That was
partly out of love, but mostly out of guilt, as he had lied about what happened the night
Tony B. was arrested, saying he was jumped. Ironically, Tony realized this in a therapy
session and later confessed it to Tony B. After dealing with a near-revolt from his own men,
Tony took matters into his own hands, cleanly killing Tony B. so that Phil
wouldn't torture him before executing him in the season 5 episode "All Due Respect."
[floor creaking]
[gunshot]
Sometimes, the illusion of freedom is far worse than being resigned to a lifetime of servitude.
Such was the case for Eugene Pontecorvo, a loyal soldier of Tony Soprano who was
given a life-changing amount of money by a dead aunt. It was so much money
that he hoped to move to Florida with his wife and kids and retire from mob life.
He gave Tony a taste of the cash and a variety of gifts, in an attempt to buy himself out of
servitude. At the same time, it was revealed that he was also an informant for the FBI.
They wanted him to stay, especially since another of their informants had just died.
The problem was that Eugene had counted his chickens before they
hatched and assured his wife that Tony would say yes. Even after he
was forced to help Christopher Moltisanti with a hit in order to curry Tony's favor,
the answer was still no — the verdict delivered secondhand through Tony's right-hand man Silvio.
"It's a no-go."
"What?"
"Can't be accommodated. You're part of the team."
"But I just did that thing."
"That's not my department."
His wife was furious and wouldn't accept any kind of compromise.
With seemingly no way out, Eugene shockingly went into his basement and hanged himself.
This took place in the season 6 episode "Members Only." The scene as shot was long and lingering,
as a way of reminding the viewer just how desperate things had become for Eugene.
Vito Spatafore was the quintessential "Sopranos" character: deeply flawed morally, yet sympathetic
in some ways. Vito was one of Tony's top earners, a family man, and a loyal soldier. He carried out
the hit on Jackie Aprile Jr., for example. Vito also had a secret: he was a closeted gay man who
sought out public hook-ups and frequented gay bars. For the mob, being gay was almost
worse than being an FBI informant — in this particular time period, at least.
Vito was spotted in a gay bay in full leather regalia by an associate of Tony's.
No one quite wanted to believe it and Tony revealed he honestly didn't
care what people did behind closed doors. However, Phil Leotardo was out for blood,
as Vito was married to his cousin, and Phil was a rampaging homophobe. When Tony sent
two of his men to bring Vito in for a little chat, Vito fled to New Hampshire.
In a small tourist town, Vito found refuge. Pretending to be a sportswriter,
he struck up a romance with a cook.
"Here's your johnny cakes. I gotta warn you, they're addictive."
Though he relished the freedom to be himself,
he missed his family and the excitement of the mob lifestyle.
Plus he hated actually having to work for a living as a handyman, so he went back to New Jersey.
Phil ambushed Vito and had his men brutally beat him to death in the
season 6 episode "Cold Stones." Phil's sheer exuberance in watching Vito die
made this one of the show's most disturbing death scenes.
[muffled screaming]
[thudding]
John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni was the head of New York's Lupertazzi crime family and
usually a close ally of Tony Soprano. They weren't exactly friends,
but both were usually the cooler heads that prevailed for the sake of peace and
expanding "business." At one point, he nearly started a war out of sheer outrage when a member
of Tony's crime family insulted his beloved but overweight wife Ginny with a tasteless fat joke.
That conflict was averted, but another one started when Tony's cousin Tony Blundetto
killed the brother of Phil Leotardo, one of Johnny Sack's capos. Just when that crisis was defused,
Johnny was arrested by the FBI, who had reams of evidence on him thanks to an informant.
Johnny didn't flip and become a rat himself, but he did plead guilty and perform an allocution,
which included admitting that the Mafia existed — a huge breach of Cosa Nostra protocol.
He did this in part to get a reduced sentence so he could get out and still be young enough
to enjoy his life and his grandchildren, but fate had a way of playing a cruel trick on
him. Years of smoking led to advanced lung cancer, and he died in a prison hospital.
The mundane nature of his death made it all the more relatable, as it reaffirmed that
mob figures weren't invincible. He died in the season 6 episode "Stage 5."
"John. Look at me, baby."
The tragic tale of Adriana La Cerva was the saddest ending for any character on the show.
The niece of Richie and Jackie Aprile, she was familiar with the temptations and perils of mob
life and certainly didn't shy away from it. In dating Christopher Moltisanti and
eventually becoming engaged to him, she clearly saw herself eventually living a life of luxury.
Indeed, when Chris gave her a nightclub to manage, it was all that Adriana had wanted.
Adriana had the misfortune of being targeted by the FBI as a potential way of getting
incriminating information on Tony Soprano. They sent agent Deborah Ciccerone undercover
to befriend her, and before long Adriana was blabbing her whole life's story to her.
When Christopher hit on Deborah and Adriana blamed her, they brought Adriana in and told her that
either she was going to jail or she was going to become an informant. Adriana reluctantly flipped
but said as little as possible until a murder happened in her club that she tried to cover up.
The FBI wanted her to wear a wire and said she and Christopher could go into witness protection. When
she told Christopher, he in turn told Tony, who then made up a story about Chris being
in an accident and had Silvio pick Adriana up. Silvio took her to the woods and executed her.
"Oh no. No, no, no, no."
"Come on Come on. Where you f—ing going"
“No, no! Please! Please!”
Chris chose Tony over her, or more precisely, he chose mob life.
Adriana was killed in the season 5 episode "Long Term Parking."
Christopher Moltisanti was technically Tony Soprano's cousin, but due to their age difference,
he referred to him as his nephew. He was one of the people closest to Tony and a loyal soldier.
Unfortunately for everyone, Christopher was also an addict who drifted in and out of heroin
and alcohol dependency. When Tony needed someone to do dirty work like disposing of
Ralph Cifaretto's body, he'd call Christopher. He literally knew where all the bodies were buried.
Conversely, Tony was there for Christopher as well. He urged him to get clean in an
intervention and later had Christopher's fiancée Adriana killed when that had to be done.
What led to his death? An impaired Christopher was driving Tony on a highway and drifted into
the wrong lane. He swerved and they flipped multiple times into a ditch.
Christopher wasn't wearing his seat belt and was coughing up blood but still alive. However,
he begged Tony for help, telling him he'd never pass a drug test. When Tony saw the baby seat
for Christopher's infant daughter pierced by a huge branch, he realized that Christopher was
way too much of a loose cannon. As an addict, he was also vulnerable to being flipped by the feds.
Instead of helping Christopher, Tony pinched his nephew's nose and suffocated him.
As with many of the show's characters, it was a pathetic ending for a cruel, sad life; even
the show's major characters weren't immune. He died in the season 6 episode "Kennedy and Heidi".
"How are you doing?"
"It's tough."
"Yeah."
Bobby Baccalieri was the closest thing to a decent human being on "The Sopranos."
"You're not going to jump me?"
"What?"
"I'm open here, I'll have to king you."
Ridiculed for his weight and gentle manner, he nonetheless was highly loyal to Junior Soprano
and then Tony when he became part of his crew. Bobby was born into this life thanks to his dad,
who was a ruthless hitman. Bobby managed to avoid killing for most of his career,
making money as a loan shark. He didn't live the kind of fast-paced
lifestyle of the rest of the crew and didn't even keep a mistress.
That changed after he married Tony's sister Janice. Bobby's longtime wife Karen died in
a car accident and Janice insinuated her way into his life and that of his kids.
When Tony and his wife Carmela went on a cabin excursion with Bobby and Janice,
Bobby got in a fistfight with Tony and won, defending his wife's honor. Tony
resented losing and gave Bobby his first hit assignment, much to Bobby's chagrin.
When Phil Leotardo decided to wipe out Tony's mob,
Bobby was one of the targets. In the season 6 episode "The Blue Comet,"
poor Bobby was shot down in a public hit in a model railroad store. It was a sad end for
a man who probably would have had a different career if he hadn't been born into this one.
Phil Leotardo was another mobster who was released from prison during the course of
the show. He served a 20-year sentence and went back to work for the Lupertazzi family
and Johnny Sack. Leotardo had a veneer of respectability, but he was a brutal killer and
sickening homophobe. He nearly started wars with Tony Soprano several times over various
offenses related to business and his men getting killed or beaten. That included him
wanting to kill Tony's cousin Tony Blundetto and one of Tony's soldiers, Vito Spatafore.
After yet another conflict, Leotardo got the go-ahead to kill Tony and his top
men. After Tony evaded him, he negotiated with Leotardo's disgruntled captains and
got their permission to kill him. Leotardo was the last onscreen death of the entire series,
occurring during the series finale "Made In America." Tony's men spotted him at a gas
station and shot him, with the car running and his grandkids sitting in the back seat.
[gunshot]
[music]
"Phil! Phil! Oh, my god"
[gunshot]
What made the scene particularly horrifying was that the car
lurched forward and crushed Leotardo's skull, rendering him unrecognizable.
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