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The Aprile Crew is a crew within the DiMeo/Soprano Crime Family, and the overall secondary antagonistic faction of the series.

Giacomo Aprile's Reign[]

It is unknown when the Aprile Crew was formed. The crew were known to be involved in construction, drug trafficking, gambling, sports betting, loansharking, and waste management.

In August 1989, Richie Aprile was arrested and sent to prison for 10 years. After his brother's imprisonment, Jackie Aprile, Richie's younger brother, presumably assumed control of the Aprile Crew in 1989. In 1995, the family's boss Ercole DiMeo was sentenced to life imprisonment and Jackie was elected to take over the family as his acting-boss, it is unknown whether Jackie worked simultaneously as boss and the crew's overseer, or promoted someone else to run it's operations, while his brother was in jail. A few years later, Jackie was diagnosed with stomach cancer and eventually died in 1998. It is unknown who took over for the remainder of Richie's absence.

Richard Aprile's Reign[]

Upon his release from prison in August 1999, Richie assumed control of the Aprile Crew. Quickly, Richie began butting heads with underboss Tony Soprano over Richie crippling his former associate Peter "Beansie" Gaeta, who had refused to give Richie a part in his pizza business, as well as Richie's trafficking of cocaine on DiMeo controlled garbage routes. Tensions soon reached a boiling point and Richie decided to rebel against Tony Soprano and have him killed. Richie approached then boss Junior Soprano with his plan in hopes of gaining him as an ally as Junior had also heavily relied on the money generated from the cocaine trafficking. However, Junior soon fell out of favor with Richie's plan when Rich was unable to enlist the Barese Crew to join the move against Tony because Richie wasn't respected enough. Junior informed Tony of Richie's plans to kill him, who in turn organized Richie's assassination. However, before either two could act, during a domestic dispute, Richie was shot dead by his fiancée, Janice Soprano. Tony, along with Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta, covered it up, and told everyone in the family that Richie joined the witness protection program.

Gigi Cestone's Reign[]

With Richie dead, Tony installed Soprano Crew soldier Gigi Cestone as captain in 2000, in order to keep an eye on the Aprile Crew. Though viewed as a strong, well respected good earner, Gigi was not competent as caporegime and was not trusted among the Aprile Crew, and was considered an outsider, especially by soldier Ralph Cifaretto, who felt he had been unjustly passed over by Tony for the position of captain. Though Gigi was the crew's official captain, Ralph seemed to have more influence over the crew, with Junior stating that he "whipped Richie's crew into shape" and that Ralph had been a top earner since Richie's death. That same year, the Aprile Crew engaged in a brief war with the Barese Crew over the Raritan Township hauling contract, the battle was fought mainly through retaliatory attacks torching ones and other's sanitation trucks and dumpsters. The conflict gained public attention and was picked up by newspaper outlets, eventually leading to a meeting between Tony, Albert Barese, Ralph and Gigi where the dispute was solved. Likely sponsored by and under Gigi's reign, Eugene Pontecorvo, a longtime associate and member of the Aprile Crew, was inducted into the family alongside Christopher Moltisanti. Bryan Spatafore, the brother of Aprile Crew soldier, and Richie’s nephew, Vito Spatafore was beaten unconscious with a golf club and hospitalized by small time thug "Mustang Sally" Intile. Seeking revenge, Gigi was given the contract to kill Intile, and sought Robert Baccalieri, Sr, a retired elderly soldier in Junior's Crew to perform the hit as Mustang Sally was his godson, creating a guise to perform the murder. Despite protest from Robert Sr's son, Bobby Bacala, and the disapproval of Ralph and Junior, the hit was underwent and Intile was shot to death in his friend's house, however, Baccalieri had a struggle with Intile and his friend before he could kill them, which left their blood on him, and when leaving the crime scene, he died in a car accident after passing out behind the wheel due to health complications. The police took in his body, and would most likely find Intile’s blood on him, thus fingering him for the murder, and piecing together that the Soprano family ordered the hit, due to his history with them. Ralph, having picked up a cocaine habit in Miami, showed signs of increasingly deranged behavior, eventually culminating when he beat his pregnant girlfriend Tracee to death outside of the Bada Bing. An infuriated Tony, in violation of mafia rules, struck Ralph, a made man, several times dividing parts of the family over the incident. The two would later run into each other at the Bloomfield Avenue Casino, upon reluctantly greeting each other, Ralph was offered a drink by Tony, though he shockingly refused, further angering and disrespecting Tony. Ralph went to his friend, Lupertazzi family underboss Johnny Sack, and asked him to talk with Tony. Johnny tried convincing Tony to give him the position of capo, but Tony refused. Gigi's role as captain began to take a serious toll on his health, as he dealt with the stress of Ralph's continued undermining, and soon after Thanksgiving, Gigi died of a heart attack in the bathroom of the Aprile Social Club

After much deliberation, Tony promoted Ralph to captain of the Aprile Crew, viewing him as the most qualified for the job, despite the bad blood between them.

Ralph Cifaretto's Reign[]

Ralph was far more respected by his crew as a captain than Gigi. When Jackie Aprile’s son Jackie Jr robbed a card game managed by Eugene, killed the dealer, and shot Furio, Tony gave the job of handling it to Ralph, partly due to him being a stepfather figure to Jackie, as he was dating his mother. Ralph wanted to give Jackie a pass, but ultimately he had Jackie killed by Vito. Ralph became a solid earner not just for Tony, but also for the Lupertazzi family, due to his successful construction rackets. After Ralph made an inappropriate joke about Johnny Sack’s wife Ginny, Carmine Lupertazzi refused Johnny’s demands to whack Ralph due to how much money he makes for them. Johnny sanctioned a hit on Ralph behind Carmine and Tony’s back, but called it off at the last minute. Tony and Ralph did a horse betting operation using a horse he owned named Pie-O-My. Despite that Ralph owned her, Tony made more money from Ralph, which further strained their relationship.

Ralph’s son was later put in the hospital from a bow and arrow accident. Despite this, he still remained a capable earner, making collections for Tony. One day, Pie-O-My’s stables were burned, and they had to euthanize her due to the pain she endured. It’s unknown if Ralph really did do it or not, but regardless, Tony was angered, and went to Ralph’s house, where he killed him, and disposed of his body with the help of Christopher.

Tony spread the belief that Ralph was killed by Johnny Sack, but others like Albert Barese pieced together that he probably killed him over the horse. With Ralph dead, Vito was promoted to capo, due to being Ralph’s right hand man during his reign.

Vito Spatafore's Reign[]

Vito became The top earner of the Soprano family, Making Tony and The Lupertazzi’s millions of dollars a year with his construction businesses, such as the NJ Esplanade Project. In 2006, Vito was outed for being gay, after being found at a gay bar. Tony wanted to give him a pass, but others like Paulie and Carlo Gervasi were outraged by this. Phil Leotardo was especially angry, due to Vito being married to his cousin, and considered this an insult to his family. After Vito fled, his crew was merged with the Gervasi Crew, thus giving them all their interests in construction.

Future[]

In 2007, after Carlo flipped to the FBI, Tony gave control of the crew to Paulie, though did comment that it’s a “Chinese dumpster fire”, meaning it’s in disarray now with Carlo gone.

Curse[]

The Aprile crew was seen as somewhat cursed with all the capos dying. Many not long after they took the position.

  • Jackie Aprile would rise to acting boss of the DiMeo family but would die of stomach cancer in 1998.
  • Richie Aprile would return from prison in 1999 and take over the crew. But he would be murdered by Janice Soprano the same year.
  • Gigi Cestone would be made the capo of the crew in 2000 but would die of a heart attack the same year.
  • Ralph Cifaretto would take Cestone's place until 2003 when he was murdered by Tony Soprano over a horse.
  • Vito Spatafore would take over after Ralph's death, but would be murdered by Phil Leotardo for being a homosexual in 2006.

After the death of Vito, Tony Soprano would merge the former Altieri crew with the Aprile Crew under the leadership of capo Carlo Gervasi. But Carlo would soon flip to the FBI leaving the new crew in complete disarray. Tony Soprano would then give control of the crew to Paulie Gualtieri who combined it with his own crew.

While some members such as Vito and Jackie Sr. were level-headed and reasonable, the rest of the Aprile crew were known for being chaotic, stupid, violent or out of control. These include Richie Aprile, Ralph Cifaretto, and Jackie Jr.

Known Members (38)[]

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