| Sal Bonpensiero |
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The son of Lino Bonpensiero Rucker, Allen & David Chase. ''The Sopranos, A Family History.'' New York, American Library, 2003, Salvatore Bonpensiero started out as a cat burglar and also ran an auto body shop with his brother Edward "Duke" Bonpensiero. Sal was affectionately known as "Big Pussy" because of his early career. He married his wife, Angie in 1976. Sal was an associate of Johnny Boy Soprano and in the unrest of '83 stood up for him. Sal was made some time after this and acted as a soldier in the Soprano crew from then onwards. He remained loyal to the Soprano family and backed Johnny Boy's wishes to have his son Tony Soprano become capo of the crew following Johnny Boy's death in 1986. Sal worked alongside other longtime Soprano associates Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante throughout his career in the mafia. Sal also took on Johnny's tradition of dressing as Santa Claus and giving out presents to local children at Satriale's meat market at Christmas time. Pussy was a kind-hearted man who doted on his wife Angie and their 3 sons, and was a long-time friend of Tony Soprano, assisting him in a number of areas. However, the money he made was not enough to raise his three children and put them through college and Sal began trafficking in Heroin on the side. Tony, his capo, and Jackie Aprile Sr. , then acting boss of the family, were aware of his sideline and urged him to stop dealing as it was a risky business. It was around this time that he was caught by the FBI and given the choice of either working for them as an informant against Tony Soprano and his mob family or facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. Sal agreed and was assigned FBI Agent Skip Lipari as a handler - he was revealed as a rat in the episode "Do Not Resuscitate." At christmas in 1995 Pussy was instrumental in organising a sit-down between Junior Soprano and Jackie. He travelled to Boca to persuade Junior to return to Jersey and settle a trucking dispute he had got into with Jackie. Pussy was suspiciously late for the actual sitdown and blamed health problems with his Goomar's mother. He arrived to the Christmas celebrations that year already in his santa suit and appearing drunk. He became angry when Paulie hugged him, quizzed Tony about business and almost got into a fight with T. Tony later remembered these events and decided Pussy must have been flipped shortly before this. Skip stated that Sal had been working for the FBI since 1998 so Tony may have been mistaken about this. In 1999 Pussy was an essential part of the Soprano crew's operation and was exposed to a number of things he could have reported. He intimidated a debtor into starting up Hesh and Tony's HMO insurance scam. He also helped associate Christopher Moltisanti dispose of the body of Emil Kolar - killed in a dispute over the crew's Tri Borough Towers garbage routes. As the crew's car expert Pussy was assigned to retrieve a car stolen from Tony's son's teacher - he found the thieves and kidnapped them but the car had already been chopped. Pussy came up with a novel solution - steal a car of the same model and respray it. Sal was present when the Tony and the other capos discussed their problems with new figurehead acting boss Junior. When indictments were threatened Pussy fled and burned papers in his back garden - perhaps a sign that he was not co-operating fully. Later that year Pussy was arrested at a card game run by Soprano family capo Jimmy Altieri. Sal tried to escape but threw his back out and was caught on the corner of the block. He was quickly bailed out by Angie but was confined to his house popping pain killers blaming his back. Shortly after this Vin Makazian told Tony he had a rat in his organisation and pointed the finger at Pussy. Tony assigned Paulie to see if he could feel out where Pussy's loyalties lay by checking him for a wire even authorising him to clip Sal if he saw a wire with his own eyes. T was obviously distressed to have to ask Paulie to do this to a trusted member of the crew. Paulie surprised Pussy with a trip to a bath house where Pussy refused to undress and left - blaming a bad back. This served to heighten his crew's suspicions. After this unnerving experience Pussy disappeared. While he was away, Paulie took over his collections and the crew killed Jimmy Altieri as a rat taking some heat off of Sal. Sal resurfaced at Tony's home in 2000 claiming to have been in Puerto Rico getting treatment for his bad back from a 26-year-old acupuncturist. When reporting to Skip after the meeting Pussy lied about having seen Tony showing a reluctance to give anything up. Pussy was left out of the crews trip to Italy to discuss exporting stolen cars, while meeting Skip in a distant party goods store he was spotted by an Elvis Impersonator called Jimmy Bones, Skip reassured Pussy that they had handled it OK. Sal later went to Jimmy's house and killed him for fear of being revealed. Since his return Angie and Pussy had been having trouble and she discussed leaving him with Carmella Soprano who dissuaded her because of their Catholicism - Angie settled for sleeping in seperate bedrooms. Upon his return from Italy Tony re-organised his crew - Paulie would be capo now that T was acting boss, Silvio would move up to administration acting as T's consigliere. New addition Furio Giunta would be on an equal footing with Sal despite his years of long service. Tony's reasons for passing over Sal were not discussed but his suspicions can be presumed to have played a role. Sal was obviously distressed at the new order and openly hostile to Furio and complained to Skip that "this thing of ours" turned into "this thing of Tony's." Pussy's reservations about ratting on Tony began to dissipate. Skip persuaded Sal to wear a wire to AJ's confirmation but Sal spent most of his time upstairs with AJ telling him that his father would do anything for him instead of talking business. He ends the evening sobbing in the bathroom still trapped in an impossible situation. Following Chris' shooting by associates Matthew Bevilacqua and Sean Gismonte Pussy fell back into his loyal soldier role - he tracked down the escaped Bevilacqua, phoned Tony, met him at Satriale's to tool up and took him to get the kid. They drew out the killing talking to the frightened upstart for a while before unloading there weapons into him. Tony took Sal for dinner afterward and Pussy seemed content that it was just like old times. When Skip called Pussy on the hit saying a witness identified T and a second husky figure he flatly denied any involvement. Skip chose to believe him but pressured him to get a confession from Tony on tape. Sal began to co-operate and gave Skip information on Tony's stolen airline ticket scam. Skip said that Sal had a case of Stockholm Syndrome when he suggested that he could work in law enforcement once he finished helping the FBI build their case. Pussy began recording notes and tailing members of his crew. He ended up in a car accident in an unrequested "stake-out" gone wrong. Tony eventually overcame the blinding affection he held and realized Pussy's betrayal after a portentive dream where Pussy appeared as a fish and told him that he had known all along. Tony decided he had to be sure so visited Pussy's home to search for evidence while Paulie and Silvio distracted him. Tony found what he was looking for and had Tony meet him on the pretence of checking out a new boat. Soprano, Silvio Dante and Paulie confronted their former friend once they got out to sea and he admitted his informant status. The three men shot and killed him, wrapped his body in chains, and dumped it overboard. All three have since been haunted by the memory of Pussy's murder. TRIVIA
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