Cosa Nostra News

John (Cha Cha) Ciarcia, who played a brief but pivotal role on The Sopranos as the consiglieri of the New York-based Lupertazzi crime family, was a Genovese crime family associate in real life. He allegedly "was involved in everything" regarding the San Gennaro feast, a Genovese capo reputedly told an undercover FBI agent. Whether he was a former or active associate is open to interpretation, but it's suggested that he was active up until his death at age 75 of natural causes. James Gandolfini, RIP...... This story, simple as it is, is unbelievable -- and maybe a decade or two ago, it would have been inconceivable, incomprehensible -- but it's true... That makes two, so far. Tony Sirico, who played Peter Paul (Paulie Walnuts) Gualtieri, was once a Colombo crime family associate . Some mention Tony Darrow. The one and only... He was allegedly a Gambino associate, but he apparently got hooked up with a mob family after his Sopranos stint (or during) as ...

Tony Sirico, who played Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri on HBO's The Sopranos , was dragged into the media spotlight, his mob past highlighted thanks to a crime docudrama that pops up every few months. His inclusion in the show centers on his involvement as a “witness” in the murder of a 1970s B-movie actress. (Not suspect . See the difference?) Who doesn't know about Sirico's mob-related past by now? Tony Sirico -- aka Paulie Walnuts.... Sirico was born Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. He has played gangsters in numerous films, some poorly made, some pretty decent, including Fingers (probably his earliest mob film worth watching), Goodfellas , Innocent Blood , Bullets Over Broadway , Mighty Aphrodite, Gotti , Cop Land, and Mickey Blue Eyes . Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly an associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico -- and was arrested an amazing 28 times, according...

Genaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico Jr. (born July 29, 1942) played Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri, my favorite member of "The Sopranos" fictional New Jersey mob family. In the above YouTube bit, you can see a compilation of some of Paulie's funniest highlights from the series. Sirico aced his role in the Sopranos because he had some real-life experience to inspire his performance. In other words, "Paulie Walnuts" was played by an alleged real-life former gangster. Before turning to acting, Sirico was a fast-rising mob associate of the Colombo crime family under Carmine Persico; he'd had been arrested 28 times." A Sopranos reference seems to give nod to this fact: the episode near the end of the last season in which Paulie Walnuts says, "I lived through the seventies by the skin of my nuts when the Colombos were goin' at it." What is factual is that in 1967, Sirico was sent to prison for about a year for robb...