The Sopranos: Jackie' Aprile Sr - The Forgotten Boss

We all know Tony Soprano as the iconic boss of the North Jersey mafia. The show is about his rise and fall over the course of the show's six seasons. However fans will remember that he didn’t start out as the boss. In the beginning of the first season, that role was filled by Jackie Aprile.

Jackie Aprile Senior was the acting boss at the start of the show, while the family’s actual boss, Ercole DiMeo, was serving what is presumably a life sentence in Springfield. However Jackie isn’t around long, as he is only introduced in the second episode of the show and dies in the fourth from stomach cancer. Jackie’s death then sets off a conflict between Tony and his Uncle over who will take over the position.

Though Jackie is a relatively minor character in terms of his appearance on the show, he’s also one of the most intriguing. He’s portrayed as a highly competent mobster with deep relations with the other major characters, but his short screen time has left many fans wondering what to make of him. So in this video, let’s examine everything we know about the man.

Giacomo Michael Aprile, known as Jackie for short, was a childhood friend of Tony’s. He and Tony got into trouble together growing up, and it’s implied that Jackie was more of a leader in these situations. Tony seemed to really respect and idolize Jackie, and Jackie actually was the one who had the idea for them to rob Feech La Manna’s card game.

When the boys reached their early 20’s, they formed their own crew along with Ralph Cifaretto and Silvio Dante. They did little scams like we see other younger guys do on the show. However, not satisfied with this, Jackie suggested that they rob Feech’s card game in an attempt to win respect. After taking it down, a sit down was held and some of the money was returned. However thanks to Tony’s father and Jackie’s older brother Richie being made guys, they faced no serious punishment and actually became respected as serious players. Jackie and Tony were then on the fast track to getting made.

We know that Jackie did a few stints in prison during this time. Fabian Petrulio, the informant that Tony sees in the episode “College”, did time with Jackie in Lewisburg. However it doesn’t seem like any of these counts were long, and Jackie was able to maintain his position within the mob.

Eventually Jackie and Tony both became captains in the family. Tony took over his father’s crew after he died, and we can assume that Jackie took over his brother Richie’s after he went away to prison. We don’t know much about Jackie’s early days in the mafia, but it is stated that both he and Richie moved Heroin to make money.

When the boss of the family, Ercole DiMeo was sent to prison, there was a conflict over who would take over for him. We don’t know how Jackie was chosen specifically, but we do know that there was some fighting between him and Junior, who believed he should have the title due to his seniority.

After a short conflict, they were able to negotiate a peace and Jackie became acting boss. It’s interesting that Tony supported Jackie against his own Uncle. This is probably due to him and Tony being friends since childhood, so he probably knew he would rise fast with Jackie as boss. However it is still strange that Tony sided against his own family, and the seeds that this sowed would eventually lead to the fighting between the two that we see in the first season.

As boss, Jackie was well respected by everyone in the family. He was considered a fair leader, and he was never greedy with his captains.

Unfortunately Jackie did not get to be boss for long. After a few years, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and despite treatment he eventually passes away. His death is devastating for Tony, who has to watch one of his oldest friends fade away.

Overall, Jackie is a very intriguing character. His rise to power is unusual for someone his age, and it just makes me wish we knew more about him. What was it about him that made him so successful? Why did Tony, a man known for his pride and contempt for authority, follow Jackie so devotedly? And it doesn’t just seem to be him. Of the few times he’s mentioned, he’s practically worshiped.

However as successful as Jackie was as a mobster, his biggest failing was as a father. Jackie had two children, his daughter Kelly Aprile, and his son Jackie Junior. Not wanting his son to follow him into the mob, he encouraged him to go to medical school and become a doctor.

However despite pushing his son toward academics, he didn’t seem to realize how difficult it was for him. Jackie Junior struggled with school and maintaining his grade, something his father wrote off instead of addressing.

This putting off of problems instead of addressing them seems to have been a trend when it came to his son. Meadow says that Jackie Junior’s father never paid attention to his actions or punishing him at all for his mistakes.

This resulted in Jackie Junior being extremely spoiled and lazy. Though he went to college to make his old man happy, what he really wanted to do was become a gangster like him. Tony tried to keep Jackie Junior out of the life like his father wanted, but he continued to push his luck with his petty capers. This culminated with him attempting to emulate his father and rob a card game like he did. Unlike his father though, Jackie Junior and his friends end up shooting up the place due to being high on drugs.

Though he escapes, his life is basically over because he wounded a made guy. Though Tony and Ralphie, who is dating Jackie’s mother Rosalie, both claim to want to spare him due to his father, in reality both are just trying to push the responsibility onto the other. In the end, Ralph has Jackie Junior killed, and it’s actually Jackie’s cousin Vito that ends up pulling the trigger.

The whole Jackie Junior affair demonstrates how little these guys care about each other, even when they are supposedly best friends. Despite promising to look out for his family, Tony is eager to have Jackie Junior killed when he becomes a nuisance for him. Even Uncle Jun talks about how few people show up to Jackie Junior’s funeral, an insult to the family that had once ruled North Jersey.

We should also talk about his relationship with his wife Rosalie. We don’t know much about their marriage overall. We only have one scene with them together before he dies, though it does seem like she is supportive of him while he is getting his treatment.

However their marriage seems to have problems as well. Rosalie mentions to Carmela that she was having an affair with a guy from her gym named Steve. She broke it off after Jackie got sick, but we can see there were problems between the two. From what we saw with the nurse, it’s likely that Jackie had goomahs as well.

Rosalie also says that after Jack died and she found out how much money was left for her, there wasn’t as much as she was expecting. This is something that Carmela fears as well, that there isn’t going to be enough for her to live off of if Tony dies or is arrested.

Now Rosalie does not seem to be living the high life after Jackie dies, but she was able to stay in her house and doesn’t seem to have worked an actual job. Now some of that might have been from Ralph, who dated her shortly after Jackie died. But that also brings up another interesting point.

It seems a little weird that Ralph, someone who was apparently close to Jackie growing up, would date his widow. I mean could you imagine someone like Silvio dating Carmela if Tony died? It just seems a little disrespectful to the memory of a man that everyone loved and respected so much.

But again, I think it’s a statement about how much these guys actually care about each other. No matter what they say on the surface, underneath they are just doing whatever is best for themselves. Despite the supposed friendship between the Sopranos and the Apriles, Tony actually oversees the almost complete destruction of the family. But that’s a topic for next time.

For now I’ll leave it at this, if the show has one big missed opportunity, it’s Jackie Aprile Senior. His backstory is fascinating, and the relationship he supposedly had with many of the major characters of the show is something that should have been explored more.