Carmine Lupertazzi

Biography

Carmine Lupertazzi was an old-school mafioso of Corrado "Junior" Soprano's generation. He kept a low-profile for most of his criminal career while operating out of his social clubs and restaurants. Carmine was arrested and acquitted of labor racketeering charges in the 1980s. It was around this time that Carmine's longtime consigliere, Angelo "Angie" Garepe and longtime Lupertazzi family captain Philip "Phil" Leotardo were convicted of various racketeering charges and sent to prison for 20 years each. During Carmine's tenure his family was the largest and wealthiest of the Five Families in New York City. They maintained close ties to New Jersey's DiMeo/Soprano crime family.

Carmine was calm and ruthless, a true opportunist and still sharp even in his old age. Despite being a loving father and grandfather, grooming his own son, namesake "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi, by making him a capo in the crime family that bears his name and allowing him to run the family's business in Florida, he remained foremost a violent mobster, making threats and ordering various murders. He had a sometimes contentious relationship with his underboss John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni: during different episodes in the fourth season Johnny and Carmine each authorized Tony Soprano to put a "hit" on the other, although in neither case was the killing actually carried out, due to Tony not wanting to get involved in another family's business.

In 2004 Carmine's health began to fail and he suffered a massive stroke while having lunch with Tony, Johnny and Angelo Garepe at a country club. After lingering for a week or so in the hospital Carmine died peacefully of natural causes. This left a large power vacuum in the Lupertazzi crime family. The "heir apparent" for his position was his son Little Carmine, a fact that became a point of consternation for Johnny Sack, who did not think much of Little Carmine and also sought the position Carmine Sr. left behind.

Carmine once told Tony Soprano that "a Don doesn't wear shorts" after his underboss, Johnny Sack, saw Tony wearing them at a backyard cook-out. Tony never again wore them while Carmine was alive but did wear them again after Carmine died. Though he regarded Tony and the entire New Jersey crime family as nothing more than a "glorified crew" in private, Lupertazzi did show great respect for Tony as a man, at one time saying he would be proud to call Tony his own son (right in front of his actual son, Little Carmine). This was most evident when he showed genuine concern for Tony's health after hearing rumors that he was seeing a psychiatrist and suffering panic attacks, he asked Tony to do him a favor and look into his attacks, for his own good, which Tony said he would do.

In the episode "Rat Pack", Tony sits with Junior and makes conversations with both Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri and Michele "Feech" La Manna, when they suddenly are called up with the information that Carmine has passed during the night. Bobby sees Carmine as a great man, and shares that he heard Carmine was the one who invented "point shaving", a way to limit the points in basketball games, by players purposely missing shots, betting against the team, and making a huge profit off it. This is also confirmed by Junior, who replies that back in 1951, the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal Carmine orchestrated, resulted in him buying a black Cadillac Fleetwood from the small fortune he won betting on the game.