Fascinating. Thank you for this. However, I think the Corleone house looked more like the Castellano house. I knew Gotti lived in a modest house, but no idea it was that modest.
My understanding is that Hesh still wouldn’t have gotten whacked, at least in the real world Mafia as avoiding debts can harm a mobster’s credibility, i.e. if they don’t pay then others might assume that they they are not producing enough revenue to be able to do so. John Gotti had a reputation as a rabid gambler who always paid, but obviously not out of fear or any sense of moral duty, rather his reputation required it. Also, IIRC they tension between Tony and Hesh was because Tony was paying the interest or “vig” he was expected to be paying whereas Hesh felt that Tony should have just paid off the balance as soon as he could due to their relationship.
Michael Franzese was a captain in the Colombo crime family, but he ran a scam that involved scamming the government out of fuel taxes in gas stations. He said he was making close to $8 million a week at the height of this scam.
So maybe Soprano is just a high earner. He kicks money up the supply chain, but he keeps a lot of what he earns too.
Tony is the boss of a family, he doesn’t kick up to anyone.
Tony is a family man. A lot of the other characters, really most of the other guys: Junior, Paulie, Christopher for most of the show etc. don’t have kids or large families. No real need for all that largesse and ostentatious display for a lot of the guys.
In the first season, when he already had the house, Tony was just a capo. Jackie Aprile Sr. was acting boss (while Eckley DiMeo was in prison for life). After Jackie died, Uncle Junior became the official boss, although Tony was the de facto boss. Tony wasn’t the actual boss until Junior died.
Since you want to be overly technical about it for some reason, you forgot that in the pilot Tony is indeed boss.
Either way, he isn’t kicking up to anyone after season 1 because everyone knows who’s the boss (and sorry, Abed, it isn’t Angela.)
too late to edit
I’m not calling you Abed, I’m just making a crossover joke about shows about bosses.
Regarding the supposed “code”. If you still think such a code exists, read a book on Sammy “The Bull” Graviano. His whole rise was predicated on not following the code.
I might have missed it being mentioned in this thread, but one common trait of the old-school Mafiosos is to not display your wealth. You live modestly, etc. So no big mansions. You keep it low key. This reduces the attention from law and tax authorities.
John Gotti went against this and it seemed to work. He became known as the Teflon Don. But it only worked for a while. He spent the last decade of his life in prison, dying at only 61.
The apparent living standards of Tony vs. Junior may just reflect a generational difference in this regard.
Nitpick: Junior is still alive in the final episode. Gagootz, but alive.