The Real Sopranos (C4): SOME of the biggest fans of the award-winning TV series The Sopranos were mobsters themselves, especially those who thought the show was based on them.
The real New Jersey mobsters would take a break from extorting construction sites to watch Tony Soprano and his crew do the same thing on telly.
The creators of the TV hit insisted they hadn't copied the real mob. Indeed Selwyn Raab, a man labelled as "mob historian" (which sounds a dangerous job to me), said the show was "good entertainment, lousy history".
Anyone who lived like the fictional Tony Soprano, he maintained, wouldn't live a day in the real mob world.
I'll take his word for it. Anyone with a job description that includes the word "mob" has my respect. That's one of the key aims of any mob family - to be respected by others.
That was the problem with the DeCavalcante clan who were eventually convicted of murder, racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, bribery and organised crime. Despite this catalogue of work, they weren't respected. They lived not so much on the wrong side of the tracks as the wrong side of the river. They were small town mobsters, looked down on by the New York Mafia who called them "farmers". It took The Sopranos to give the Jersey mob standing in the community.
The Real Sopranos, the final documentary for C4's Mob Week, pointed out the similarities between the DeCavalcantes and the Sopranos, helpfully pointed out by the DeCavalcantes in secret tapes made by the FBI.
The programme was informative about mob hierarchy with a pecking order involving associates, soldiers, capos and the administration in a society that rules through violence, brutality and fear.
There really are people with names like Big Ears Charlie and Vinnie Ocean (so named because he used to be a fisherman). When they went off to "do a little piece of work", it was to kill someone. And being gay was a bigger sin that most. John D'Amato, acting boss of the Jersey mob, was shot for his homosexual activities.
We also heard about the "smut law" which has nothing to do with blue comedians and everything to do with strip clubs. This law was introduced by the Mayor of New York who stated that no strip club could operate within 500ft of schools and churches.
The 60-40 rule got round that. If more than 60 per cent of a business was devoted to strippers, then it couldn't get a licence. Less than 40 per cent meant it wasn't a strip club.
It was all over for the DeCavalcantes when 40 members of the family were arrested in December 1995. Vinnie "flipped" which is mob-speak for agreeing to co-operate. He wasn't the only one to inform. A few old-timers, like Big Ears and his friend Tin Ears, did time but many told tales and entered witness protection.
But there is work available for ex-mobsters. At least one of them got an acting job - on The Sopranos.
Published: 27/04/2006
