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Junior Soprano's Crew is one of the crews within the DiMeo crime family. Founded by Corrado "Junior" Soprano sometime in the mid to late 1970s

Corrado Soprano's Reign[]

After his promotion to caporegime, Junior Soprano formed the crew somewhere in the 1970s, and grew it to a sizable amount of members by the late 1990s. The crew was known to be involved in automobile theft, construction, drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, loan sharking and union control.

In 1995, Junior was involved in a serious dispute with recently promoted boss Jackie Aprile Sr. Junior’s men had hijacked one of Jackie’s trucks. Soprano Crew soldier Salvatore Bonpensiero met with Junior in Florida and arranged for a sit down between the two parties, peacefully resolving the situation.

In 1998, acting boss Jackie Aprile died of stomach cancer without having named a successor, leaving two primary contenders for the position of boss, Junior Soprano and his nephew Tony Soprano. Tensions had arisen between the two Sopranos prior to Jackie's death, primarily Junior's attempts to have his rival "Little Pussy" Malanga murdered at a restaurant owned by Arthur Bucco, a close childhood friend of Tony Soprano. Knowing the hit would ruin Bucco's livelihood, Tony foiled Junior's plans by having the restaurant burnt down in order for Bucco to unwittingly claim the fire insurance money and rebuild. Furthermore, Soprano Crew associates Christopher Moltisanti and Brendan Filone began hijacking trucks owned by Comley Trucking, a company which paid protection money to Junior's Crew. Despite restitution being met after the first incident, Brendan Filone continued robbing the company, angering Junior enough that he ordered the murder of Filone, who was killed in his home by soldier Mikey Palmice, and the mock execution of Moltisanti, which was performed by Russian thugs contracted by his crew. This action was deemed too extreme by Tony, nearly prompting bloodshed between the two crews. However, this was averted when Tony allowed Junior to become the new boss. Despite backing from all of the family's captains, Tony turned down the role of boss, allowing Junior to take the job, a role Junior had eagerly wanted for many years. This however was a strategic move by Tony to have the FBI focus their efforts on Junior, whilst he secretly ran the family behind his back. In return for allowing Junior to become boss, Tony Soprano absorbed Junior's Bloomfield territory, which included the casino, and control over the paving union.

After Junior Soprano's accession to boss, soldier Phillip "Philly Spoons" Parisi was elevated to captain of his crew while Beppy Sasso became his underboss and Mikey Palmice was elevated to the position of consigliere.

Phillip Parisi's Reign[]

Tensions between Junior Soprano and Tony Soprano began to grow worse. Junior’s sister-in-law, Livia Soprano, Tony's mother, informed Junior that Tony had been seeing a psychiatrist and that the family captains had been secretly meeting at her retirement home, Green Grove, to discuss business behind Junior's back. Infuriated, Junior began to plot the murder of his nephew entrusting his consigliere Mikey Palmice and soldier Chucky Signore to organize the assassination. Through Donnie Paduana, an associate of Mikey, hitmen William "John" Clayborn and Rasheen Ray, with whom Paduana had served time with in prison, were contracted to carry out the murder. The first attempt failed after the assassins were blocked in by Christopher Moltisanti's vehicle who had followed Tony to the location of the hit. Demanding an explanation on the first failure, Mikey and Chucky met with Donnie Paduana who during the conversation jokingly brought up Tony Soprano's mother wanting him murdered as well. Junior, fearful of the truth of Tony's mother's involvement getting out, ordered Mikey Palmice to murder Paduana, whom promptly shot and killed Paduana. The next day, a second attempt was underwent with William Clayborn ambushing Tony Soprano from behind as he got into his car, however, missing all of his shots, and soon engaging in a hands on battle with Soprano, who managed to fight off Clayborn and the aiding Ray resulting in Clayborn being accidentally shot in the head by his accomplice and Tony Soprano escaping alive. After his release from hospital, Tony Soprano was contacted by FBI agents who played him wiretaps from Green Grove of Junior and his mother conspiring to kill him, confirming his suspicions about his attackers. Knowing more attempts would soon follow, this time with Chucky Signore performing the hit, Tony Soprano would strike back first. Chucky was ambushed on his boat by Tony, and shot to death, Soprano and Soprano Crew soldier Silvio Dante then disposed of Chucky's body somewhere in the ocean. While on a morning run, Mikey Palmice was tailed by Soprano Crew soldier Peter Gualitieri and Christopher Moltisanti, soon resulting in a chase through the woods. After losing his footing and falling over, Mikey was shot to death by Gualtieri and Moltisanti.

Before an attempt on his life could take place, Junior Soprano was arrested by the FBI on racketeering charges in a massive mob sweep, saving his life in the process. Mikey Palmice was also named in the indictment, with the government having suspected he fled the area on prior knowledge. Aside from underboss Joseph Sasso, and captain Lorenzo Barese's arrest, 13 others were indicted. It can be assumed that many of the arrested were part of or associated with Junior's Crew.

After the murders, Phillip Parisi continued running the crew until his murder in 2000 by Gigi Cestone, who had previously been in Junior's Crew, but jumped ships to the Soprano Crew that year. Parisi was murdered after he began spreading falsehoods that Tony Soprano had attempted to suffocate his mother, Livia Soprano when confronted her at the hospital over her involvement in his attempted murder. In order to quell any retaliation for the hit, Parisi's twin brother Patsy Parisi was transferred the Soprano Crew. Presumably because of the civil war, Tony Soprano seized control of Junior's stolen car ring, an operation which shipped stolen luxury cars to Naples, where they were sold to a local Camorra clan. Also seized was Junior's "Executive Game" a high-level poker game, which netted the Soprano Crew 80 thousand dollars that year. Tony still allowed junior to maintain control over the Joint-fitting Union, as well as his loan shark business, which was ran by Bobby Baccalieri Jr..

Murf Lupo's Reign[]

In October of 2000, Robert Baccalieri, Sr., a hitman in Junior's Crew was brought out of retirement in order for him to murder his godson "Mustang Sally" Intile, who had hospitalized Bryan Spatafore, the brother of Aprile Crew soldier Vito Spatafore after beating him with unconscious with a golf club. Despite protests from Baccalieri's son Bobby Jr., another soldier in Junior's Crew over his father's age and health problems, most notably lung cancer, the hit was carried out. Though successful, resulting in the death of Intile, Baccalieri, Sr., died in a car crash after leaving the scene. In mid 2002, Murf began to develop health problems of his own effecting his ability to run the crew, and was eventually retired by Junior Soprano.

After Lupo's retirement, Bobby Baccalieri was promoted to captain.

Robert Baccalieri's Reign[]

After Murf's demotion and retirement, Junior Soprano promoted Bobby Baccalieri to captain of his crew. Bobby was happy with this promotion, feeling that it should have happened sooner. That same year, Bobby's wife Karen Baccalieri died in a car crash taking a severe toll on Bobby's mental health. Junior grew unhappy with Bobby who began failing tasks Junior asked him to fulfill, however, the two reconciled and Bobby recovered from his depression and continued carrying out his responsibilities as captain. A few years later, after marrying Tony Soprano's sister Janice, Bobby began growing closer to Tony, soon joining his inner-circle. In the spring of 2006, after the death of Aprile Crew soldier Eugene Pontecorvo, Bobby and then-captain Vito Spatafore engaged in a brief conflict over the Roseville sports book operation which had been run by Eugene until his suicide. Vito claimed ownership of the operation, on the basis that Eugene had operated it for 3 years and that Eugene worked for him, while Bobby insisted that it should have been his as Roseville was historically territory of Junior's Crew. Silvio Dante, then acting-boss, ruled that Bobby receive the sports book, but kick up 20% of it's earnings to Vito. Bobby, however, grew unhappy with the arrangement, though before a solution could be met, Silvio suffered from an asthma attack caused by the stress of his position. Bobby became the official underboss of the Soprano family in 2007, and was given more money making businesses, such as window replacing contracts in the projects, purchasing and distributing medication pills from their French-Canadian contacts in Maine, and an asbestos dumping operation in a hospital under renovation. In 2007, after war had erupted between the Lupertazzi and Soprano families, Bobby, because of his position and association to Tony, was chosen to be among those murdered. While shopping in a model train store, Bobby was ambushed and gunned down by Lupertazzi hitmen.

Future[]

It can be assumed that after Bobby's murder, Anthony Maffei took over the position of captain.

Known Members and Associates (31)[]

Known Businesses[]

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