The Other Families of The Sopranos

A little while back, I released a video discussing if the Sopranos were a true mob family, or just a glorified crew. I’ll link it in the description if you haven’t seen it.

However while I was making that video, a question came up for me about the Lupertazzi family. I thought about exploring the idea in that video, but ultimately I had to cut due to it not really fitting in with the main topic. So instead I decided to just split it off here into its own video. So consider this a bit of an addendum, not exactly a full video, but something I’ve been interested in exploring.

My question is, if the Lupertazzis are one of the Five Families of New York, which family are they supposed to be?

Now you might think that’s a dumb question. They are their own family, and in this universe one of the Five Families is called the Lupertazzi family. But as I’ll explain, that doesn’t exactly work.

In the last video, I explained briefly about how the modern American mafia was established primarily by Charles Luciano. In Season 1, Meadow actually states this history as well:

“Wasn’t it Salvatore Lucania, otherwise known as Charlie Lucky Luciano who organized the Five Families? Lucchese, Gambino, Bonanno, Profaci.”

- Meadow

These would become the modern Five Families we have today. And all of the five families are further referenced during the show.

In the episode “46 Long” we see an interview with Vincent Rizzo, a former Geneovese soldier.

Also the Many Saints of Newark mentions that Dickie’s dad knew Vito Genovese.

“I don’t get it, when I was a kid you and Vito Genovese always praised Mussolini.”

- Dickie Moltisanti

In the pilot episode, Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family, as well as the movie Goodfellas is mentioned.

“What are you going to do go Henry Hill on me now? You know how many mobsters are selling screenplays and fucking everything up?

- Tony

John Gotti, Sammy the Bull, Albert Anastasia, and Paul Castellano, all Gambino figures, are mentioned on the show as well.

In Season 6, Paulie says he barely survived the Columbo Wars.

“I lived through the 70’s by the skin of my nuts when the Columbos were going at it.”

- Paulie

Also Junior references Old Man Profaci, the original boss of the Columbo family.

“Old Man Profaci knew how to split his enemies.”

- Junior

In Season 6, Eugene cites Joe Bananno’s retirement as precedent for his own.

“Well I thought about that. And there was Joe Bananas.”

- Eugene

Also Joe Massino, a Bonanno boss who turned informant, is referenced by the FBI.

“This recent case against Joe Massino in New York, it was seven years before indictments were handed out.”

- Agent Sanseverino

So we see that all of the Five Families have been mentioned, establishing they exist in the canon of the show. But this creates a problem. If all Five Families exist, which family are the Lupertazzis supposed to be?

Well maybe one of the Five Families was renamed after Carmine Senior took over. After all, most of the real families were originally named something else to begin with anyway.

There’s only one problem with that idea. Carmine is said to be one of the oldest reigning bosses in the mafia.

“In New York the only old style boss still in place is Carmine Lupertazzi.”

- News Reporter

This is corroborated by the character of Angelo Garepe. Angelo is stated to have been Carmine’s consigliere for 30 years.

“You were Carmine’s consigliere for over 30 years, if it wasn’t for that little construction been down in Yonkers it’d be you running that family today.”

- Tony

However he was also in prison since the 80’s, as he was released as part of the same wave as Phil Leotardo and Tony Blundetto. Now I’m not an expert on real life mobster history, like so many of my commenters claim to be, but it seems unlikely that Angelo could continue to be consigliere while he’s in prison. So that would mean Carmine was the boss of the family since at least the 50’s for this timeline to work.

This is further reinforced by the fact that Carmine was stated to have invented point shaving, and was involved in the real life 1951 CCNY cheating scandal.

“My cousin told me it was Carmine that invented point shaving.”

“CCNY vs Kentucky 1951. Nobody beat the spread.”

- Bobby & Junior

His position as boss all this time eliminates most of the families, since most of the references occur after Carmine would have already been boss. If I had to pick, I would say the Lucheses are the best option, as they only really have the Henry Hill reference, and maybe that can be explained as happening under Carmine.

The real explanation of course is that the writers wanted to have an original family that the New Jersey crew could interact with, and didn’t think too much about the established history. After all, the Lupertazzi themselves weren’t even mentioned at all until Season 3, meaning they likely weren’t thought of in the early seasons when these references were made.

However, what about the other families? Do we ever meet any members of the other four families?

Well in Season One, Johnny Sac was originally said to be an emissary of two other families.

“…with the backing of two of the New York families communicating though their emissary John Sacrimoni.”

- FBI Agent

This was before the Lupertazzi’s were invented, so it is possible that this was retconned. The FBI specifically mentions 2 mob figures they are interested in: Mangano & Teresi.

“We want Johnny Sack. But more than him we want Mangano and Teresi.”

“I want to fuck Angie Dickinson. Let’s see who gets lucky first.”

- FBI Agent & Junior

These are presumably the bosses of the two families he is said to represent. Also later Johnny Sac mentions that his brother in law is one of the bosses of the other families.

“Yes you still got the four other families that could raise a stink. But Andy’s my brother in law. I have their ear.”

- Johnny Sack

Note that this Andy he references is not Ginny’s brother who we see in Season 6. This is presumably either the aforementioned Mangano or Teresi, who don’t appear physically on the show.

Now Mangano & Teresi might actually be bosses of the same family. Tony mentions that three other families have multiple bosses.

“Hey this way you’re not such a big target for the feds. Three of the other families have this kind of arrangement.”

- Tony

This would also fit Johnny's description of representing 2 families. He would represent the Lupertazzi’s as the underboss, and this other family due to his connections.

Now there is a third family we see on the show. In the series finale “Made in America”, Tony reaches out to George Pagliere to set up a meeting with Butchie. George is a neutral party since he isn’t a member of the Lupertazzi’s.

“You’re not part of that family. You’re basically retired, everyone trusts you.”

- Tony to George

Now it says on the Sopranos wiki that George is the boss or former boss of his own family. However, while Tony says he isn’t a part of the Lupertazzi’s, I see no direct mention of him being the boss of a family. The only evidence for this I can think of is the fact that since Tony approached him to set up the meeting, he must be a respected figure.

“George was good enough to broker this meeting for us.”

- Tony

So we’ll go ahead and assume for now that this is another family. That brings us up to 3, we have the Lupertazzis, the Mangano/Teresi Family, and the Paglierie family. These are the only Five Families Families we see on the show. However there is a spattering of smaller families and crews we see.

There is the Naples based Vittorio family Tony visits in Season 2. There are the Atwell Avenue Boys in Rhode Island that Tony almost hires to kill Johnny Sac. There is the unnamed New England crew which Dickie supposedly fought. And depending on who you ask, the DiMeos themselves may or may not be a family.

“Five fucking families, and we got this other pygmy thing over in Jersey.”

- Phil Leotardo

Anyway, that is the video. Again no real purpose or conclusion, I just found it interesting to explore the canon of the show. But I need something memorable to end the video with. Hmm… Oh I got it. I’ll use a classic Sopranos quote. Those always go over great. But what to choose? Hmm..

“Veal parmesan sandwich. Fuck you."

- Richie

Ah, perfect.