The Most Devastating Deaths On The Sopranos

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 abriel was the brother of jackie april who was head of the dimio 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 this was happening so when he reemerged 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 oh come here another complicating factor was that richie started dating his old flame janus soprano tony's older sister the scheming and power hungry janus 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 janus 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 move for you 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 two episode the night in white saturn armor sal big [ __ ] bon pinciero was not only a loyal soldier of tony sopranos 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 april senior given its risk sure enough big [ __ ] 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 and tony's employee learned that big [ __ ] was an informant but tony would not act without total certainty when another member of his organization who bore a resemblance was outed big [ __ ] was seemingly safe for a while but one big [ __ ] 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 after getting him to admit he had flipped is that okay tony did i sit this happened in the season two episode fun house it was a stunning death because he was the biggest protagonist to die on the show up until that point jackie jr 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 april died and richie got out of prison jackie jr started gravitating toward mob life even though he was thick as a brick after richie died jackie jr seemed to turn his life around until his mother rosalie started dating the truly vile ralphs of loreto jackie jr started dealing drugs just as he started dating tony's daughter meadow tony had promised jackie senior that he'd look after his son but jackie jr 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 could hear it in his voice jackie jr 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 car dealer after realizing he'd been identified and went into hiding if you can keep your head while those around you can't then after some deliberation tony had vito spadafor shoot jackie jr 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 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 jenny sacrimoni's weight nearly caused an all-out war he coldly killed his stripper girlfriend tracy he pranked paulie walnuts mother and nearly gave her a heart attack his bad influence helped lead jackie april junior 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 racehorse 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 blandetto 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 gonna 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 to fill leotardo tony b denied taking the job but things escalated as phil avenged that killing and tony be 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 heads cleanly killing tony b so that phil wouldn't torture him before executing him in the season 5 episode all due respect sometimes the illusion of freedom is far worse than being resigned to a lifetime of servitude such was the case for eugene ponticorovo 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 moltesanti with a hit in order to curry tony's favor the answer was still no the verdict delivered second hand through tony's right-hand man silvio that'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 veda spadafor was the quintessential sopranos character deeply flawed morally yet sympathetic in some ways fido was one of tony's top earners a family man and a loyal soldier he carried out the hit on jackie april jr for example vito also had a secret he was a closeted gay man who sought out public hookups 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 bar 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 vita 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 sports writer 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 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 john johnny sack sacrimoni was the head of new york's lupertotsy 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 blandetto killed the brother of phil leotardo one of johnny sack's capos just when that crisis was diffused 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 kosonostra 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 adriano lacerva was the saddest ending for any character on the show the niece of richie and jackie april she was familiar with the temptations and perils of mob life and certainly didn't shy away from it in dating christopher maltsenty 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 cicerone undercover to befriend her and before long adriana was blabbing her whole life 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 come on no no chris chose tony over her or more precisely he chose mob life adriana was killed in the season 5 episode long term parking christopher moltesanti 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 separato's body he called 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 fiance 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 a seatbelt 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 fence 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 six episode kennedy and heidi how are you doing stuff 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 hoping 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 carmelo went on a cabin excursion with bobby and janice bobby got in a fistfight with tony and juan defending his wife's honor tony resented losing and gave bobby his first hit assignment much to bobby chagrin when phil leotardo decided to wipe out tony's mob bobby was one of the targets in the season six 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 libertatsi 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 blandetto and one of tony's soldiers vito spadafor 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 on-screen 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 what made the scene particularly horrifying was that the car lurched forward and crushed leotardo's skull rendering him unrecognizable check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more looper videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music]

Channel: Looper

Views: 2,629,518

Keywords: looper, the sopranos, richie aprile, tracee, ralph cifaretto, johnny sack

Id: isJRRqtyz_U

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022