Mob Experts on The Sopranos, Week 5

Jerry Capeci is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia and Jerry Capeci's Gang Land: Fifteen Years of Covering the Mafia. His weekly column about organized crime, "Gang Land," appears in the New York Sun and at www.ganglandnews.com. Jeffrey Goldberg is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He covered organized crime for New York magazine and the New York Times Magazine. He is at work on a book about the Middle East. Gerald Shargel has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti. He is a practitioner in residence at Brooklyn Law School, where he also teaches. Dana Stevens, aka Liz Penn, is a Slate TV critic. She lives in New York and also writes on film and culture for the High Sign.

Who are these people?

Last year, each new episode of The Sopranos was analyzed by a group of shrinks; this year, each week two mob experts will discuss the lives and squabbles of America's favorite gangsters. Today our experts are joined by Gerald Shargel, an attorney who has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti.

Dear guys,

Why is this Sopranos dialogue different from all other Sopranos dialogues? If you don't know the answer, you won't understand why I've got to run. Jerry S. knows. And I'm sure Mr. Capeci, who has written about such figures as Stevie "The Jew" Kaplan (see: Gambino family), as well as many other M.O.T.'s in O.C., knows as well. Well, Shargel ducked and ran, huh? Pacino? I figured Shargel could at least name someone he hasn't represented, if there is indeed someone out there he hasn't represented. Some Tong leader, maybe. Or a Bronx Albanian.

Michael Corleone was a great mob boss, sure, but he left his family miserable. No more miserable than Tony's, I suppose. One thing we didn't really talk about: Christopher's near-death experience. It's a testament to the filmmaking abilities of the Sopranos team that they had me believing for half-a-second that so central a character was about to expire. Of course, as Jerry S. notes, in actual mob life there's no way Christopher lives. Paulie Walnuts, who advocated for Christopher's murder, was the voice of the actual mob in this one.

Which brings up an obvious question for Jerry, and for Jerry S. and for anyone else, really: Who gets whacked next? I want to hear idle speculation, but with odds, next week. That's when I'll give you my own hunches.

Later,
Jeff

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