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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Whaddya hear? Whaddya say! | „ |
| ~ Paulie's most famous quote. |
Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri is a major character in the HBO Television Series The Sopranos and in its 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
He is a very ruthless yet paranoid capo and later underboss in the DiMeo crime family, who is defined by his religious superstitions, and volatile temper. Being a criminal for most of his life, he is very experienced in the field and is one of Tony Soprano’s best earners.
He was portrayed by the late Tony Sirico.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General/Background[]
- He has the highest personal kill count in the entire show, with a total of 9 with multiple of them just being regular civilians who were not even involved with the mob, making him pass the heinous standards for the show, especially if we consider the fact that Paulie doesn’t have that much power as he never got the position of Don/Boss.
- He has been in the mafia for numerous decades, so all the crimes we saw him commit on screen are not even close to the total amount of crimes he actually committed.
- While he might seem undyingly loyal to the DiMeo family, this loyalty is put in question when he tried to switch his allegiance to New York by providing them with information about Jersey, because he felt jealous over Ralph’s earning ability and because he felt personally disrespected by Tony.
- He regularly crudely mocks and teases his mob friends and associates, with homophobia and body shaming.
- He is so racist that Christopher avoided publicly revealing that he had an African American mistress, in order to prevent Paulie from going on a xenophobic rant.
- His first murder was done on a man named Charles “Sonny” Pagano, when a psychic figures this out, he states that there are “many more” which confirms that there are some murders Paulie commited that we don’t know about.
- Under orders from Johnny Boy, he accompanied Tony Soprano to commit his first hit on bookmaker Willie Overall. Paulie pushed Tony to do this when he started to feel “shaky,” and it’s later revealed that Paulie was one of the people Tony tried to emulate. What makes this all the more tragic is shown in a scene where Tony’s football coach reprimands him for choosing a life with his gangster friends rather than making an honest life for himself in football where he had potential in. All of this makes Paulie atleast partially responsible for how Tony turned out in the end.
The Many Saints of Newark[]
- He volunteers in torturing Harold McBayer’s cousin Cyril with a power tool, mutilating his mouth that got blood stains on his new jacket that he got.
The Sopranos[]
Season 1[]
- Tortures a Jewish hotel owner by repeatedly hitting his head with a bell, and later kidnaps him, in order to force him to give Tony 25% of his hotel’s profits.
- He steals money from a Colombian drug lord named Gallegos alongside Christopher and Silvio, and then executes him.
- Repeatedly tries to figure out if his friend Pussy, is an informant for the FBI, so that he could execute him, he tried to do this by using various methods, most notably trying to make him swim with him, this led to Pussy not going in because “his back was hurting,” which led to Paulie almost fully deciding to murder him, only for Tony to stop him by revealing that Jimmy was actually the rat.
- He murders Mikey Palmice alongside Christopher, for participating in Junior’s forceful takeover of the Dimeo crime family.
Season 2[]
- Becomes captain for the family, helping Tony in selling cars that they stole by traveling to Italy, and being one of the managers of the executive game, which consists of high stakes poker matches.
- When a psychic figures out his first murder, Paulie angrily lashes out at the psychic by grabbing his chest, he then throws a chair at the wall, screaming out “fucking queers!“
- He murders his friend, and brother in arms, Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, alongside Tony and Silvio for being an FBI informant.
Season 3[]
- After Christopher gets made, he becomes a pretty harsh and demanding boss towards him, demeaning him for not giving him the amount of profits that he should be receiving from him, even if Chris had justifiable reasons for not being able to make that kind of money, Chris was also new to the soldier position and it’s responsibilities, so Paulie not cutting him any slack was rather abrasive. At one point he makes Christopher strip naked under the guise of checking if he had a wire on him, and stole some of Adriana’s footwear Chris got for her to make up payments.
- All of this partially leads to Jackie Jr being more involved in the mob in spite of Tony trying to keep him out of the life, since Christopher used him in a robbery in a desperate attempt to make up Paulie’s payment expectations. He only mellows out in his treatment of Christopher when Tony forces him to apologize, after Chris catches Paulie sniffing his fiancé’s Adriana’s panties.
- He callously disregards Tracee’s brutal death entirely, caring more about Ralph’s disrespect rather than an innocent corpse standing in front of him, it is only when Tony states that Tracee was just 20 years old, is where Paulie simply states “that too.”
- When collecting one of Silvio’s debts from a man named Valery, in spite of Valery being completely respectful and cordial with him, even offering him drinks, Paulie decided to be an absolute jerk to him for no real reason other than annoyance for doing Silvio’s job. He breaks one of his items and insults Valery, when Valery claps back at Paulie with an insult, he breaks a glass object into Valery’s face, and then knocks him out with a large lamp. Believing that he killed him, Paulie goes with Christopher to Pine Barrens, in order to bury the body, but Valery suddenly wakes up, so Paulie sadistically makes him dig his own grave, only for Valery to escape by using the shovel, when he runs for his life, Paulie shoots him in the back of the head, but is still somehow able to run and escape, Paulie and Christopher than go looking for Valery in the freezing cold to finish him off. After not being able to find him, Paulie tried to blame all of this on Christopher in a call with Tony to protect himself from his wrath.
- Helped Ralph Cifaretto in a robbery where 100 thousand dollars were stolen, by providing Ralph with the security codes to commit the heist. He then greedily tried to strong arm Ralph into giving him 50% of the take.
Season 4[]
- Enraged over Tony praising and giving Ralph more recognition than him, he spitefully reveals the horrible joke Ralph made over Ginny Sack’s weight to her husband and mob boss Johnny Sack, which is the start of the tensions between the New York and Jersey families. Johnny brutally beat and urinated on a man who he thought was friends with Ralph, and even tried to arrange Ralph’s murder in retaliation.
- Attempts to get a position in the Lupertazzi crime family by providing Johnny Sack with intel on the DiMeo family.
- When Ralph made a hurtful prank call on his mother (actually his aunt), Nucci, which put her in the hospital for 1 hour and 30 minutes straight, Paulie tried to murder Ralph because of this, in spite of him being in a state of grief over his son’s nearly fatal injury, only not going through with it when Tony reprimands him for having this goal in mind.
- He is rather rude and hurtful towards Chris in his intervention, calling him weak and an embarrassment towards everyone around him. When Christopher insults his mother by calling her a whore, Paulie and Silvio beat him up to a pulp, though to be fair Christopher was also being a jerk to everyone around him, including his loved ones.
- He murders an innocent old lady named Minn, whom he knew for most of his life, when he tried to steal her life savings, she attempted to call the police, and in order to not incriminate himself, he mercilessly suffocated her to death with a pillow. He then casually gives the money he stole from her to Tony.
Season 5[]
- Taking full advantage of the higher position he has over Christopher, he makes him pay the full amount of money everytime the family go out to restaurants, and in one occasion Christopher had to pay 1200 dollars needlessly, thanks to Paulie asking for expensive meals just to inflate the bill to flaunt his authority.
- When Christopher angrily confronts him about this, it almost leads to a violent encounter, only for a waiter named Raoul to politely confront the both of them for their poor 16 dollar tip, Christopher doesn’t give him any sympathy and tells him to screw off, this leads to the waiter insulting them by calling them assholes, Chris throws a brick at the back of his head in retaliation causing the waiter to have a seizure, instead of providing aid or calling for help, Paulie decides to fatally shoot the waiter and rob the money they gave him. Paulie and Christopher then remorselessly talk about this over the phone and decide to split the money to keep a peaceful environment between eachother.
- After learning that Feech assaulted longtime gardener Sal Vitro for refusing to give up his neighborhood route, in order to help Sal regain his territory, Paulie asks for a cut of his earnings in exchange for protection. When Feech angrily rebuffs his interference, Paulie retaliates by tracking down Feech’s nephew Gary and his brother, by viciously beating them, hitting the brother with a shovel, which then led to Gary falling off a tree, he then robbed them, afterwards he forced Gary to pay for Sal’s medical bills and give him 10% of their profits.
- Even after Tony mediates the dispute and divides the territory evenly, Paulie makes Sal provide free landscaping services in parts of his garden for mob bosses like Johnny Sack.
Season 6[]
- Commits armed robbery of Colombian drug money alongside Cary, where they indirectly caused the death of one member by forcefully making him open the door where he was then shot immediately afterwards, Paulie then shoots and kills one of the members, and Cary then shot another almost fatally, Paulie then finished him off by stabbing him in the chest. They were able to steal 1 million dollars from this, Paulie greedily wanted to keep most of the profit, lying to Vito about the total amount to pay him less, and showed slight reluctance in paying part of the money to Carmela, since he thought Tony wouldn’t make it from his coma.
- After he found out that the person who raised him wasn’t actually his mother, but was in actuality his aunt, he starts becoming moody and inattentive to his profession. Feeling betrayed he says Nucci and his mother should go to hell. Paulie then sees the mother of the son of the owner of Barone station worrying for his safety and genuinely asking Tony to not harm him, which Tony promises not to do. However, out of petty spite over him having a loving birth mother, he brutally beats him with a metal pole and forces him to pay him 4000 dollars every month, and if he tells Tony that he did this, Paulie threatened to murder him.
- He joins Phil Leotardo in his mockery of Johnny Sack for crying at his daughter’s wedding.
- He was one of the men advocating for Vito to get killed, simply because he was gay, this is what led to Tony fully deciding to murder Vito, because his men wouldn’t be pleased with him or his leadership if he spared him, the only reason Tony didn’t end up killing him, was because Phil was able to get to him first.
- Greedily refuses to fix the rides at the Feast of Elzéar of Sabran, which leads to one child breaking several teeth and one woman breaking her wrist.
- Continuously teases and mocks Christopher’s sobriety, by refusing to do a toast with him because his drink was a club soda, he also called him a drip and not normal over this.
- He assists Christopher in stealing power tools from his father in law’s store, but he then cuts Christopher out of the profits and started stealing these items without him alongside Little Paulie, this leads to Chris pushing Little Paulie out of a window, breaking 6 of his vertebrae. In a fit of rage, Paulie ran through and destroyed Christopher’s garden in retaliation.
- Before things could get worse, Tony made both of them make up to keep the peace, and they seemingly do, although Chris gave in to the pressure Paulie gave him beforehand and relapses on alcohol, getting him drunk. When Christopher starts expressing how much he loves his daughter, the only thing Paulie does is mock him by firstly saying “How the fuck do I give myself up for adoption” and then when Christopher talked about how only in a couple decades she would be able to finish college, Paulie makes a horrendously hurtful comment, by stating that she would be working at the bing as a prostitute by that time.
- This leads to Christopher’s emotional spiral and the murder of J.T. Dolan, since his need to vent to him about what the mafia has done to him was what made him murder J.T. Paulie’s terrible treatment of Christopher this episode might have also led to him getting back on drugs, since in the episode where he gets in a car crash alongside Tony, he is visibly high and told Tony that he wouldn’t pass a drug test, so part of the blame of Tony murdering Christopher could be placed on Paulie.
- He was made in charge of killing Phil Leotardo, due to him attempting to destroy the Jersey family by killing Tony, Silvio and Bobby. But the hit he put out on him went wrong, as one of Paulie’s men confused Phil with someone else, so they ended up killing Phil’s goomah, and her father who looked similar to him.
- Due to his paranoid superstitions, he almost murders a cat with a broom who was creeping him out because it was staring at a picture of the now deceased Christopher for long periods.
- Unlike other characters, he ends the series completely unscathed, peacefully sunbathing alone, making him a Karma Houdini. However he is now completely alone so his ending is still tragic.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is tragic, as he was an impoverished street kid without a father figure and strained relationships with his siblings, and was in and out of prison as a child, he then spent some years in the army, and would later became a member of the mafia as a teenager due to being groomed by Johnny Boy Soprano, all of this shows why Paulie has a such a low disregard for human life and why his maturity levels are so low. Later on in the show, it is revealed that he never personally knew his mother was actually his aunt until his 60s, which was portrayed sympathetically since he becomes saddened and confused, and is later seen breaking down crying.
- He cares for multiple people:
- He deeply cares for his mother (in reality his aunt), Nucci, making her go to the highly respected Green Grove nursing home and happily paying for her stay there. Paulie was so angry after Ralph made a prank call on her which sent her into a hospital that he expressed the desire to murder him. He was then able to forgive her for lying to him for his entire life about her not being his real mother by silently watching a show with her. He was grief stricken when she passed away and was angered that nobody visited her funeral barring Tony and Carmela.
- He cares for his cousin, Little Paulie, getting incredibly enraged and vindictive when Chris broke 6 of his vertebrae, he completely destroyed his garden with his car in retaliation, and even when Paulie decided to make peace with Christopher, it could be inferred that he never really forgave him for this, since instead of genuinely reconciling all Paulie does is make hurtful and disrespectful remarks towards Chris.
- He has a genuine friendship with Beansie, he was appalled when Richie crippled him by running him over with a car, angrily telling him to build him a ramp to make up for the pain he suffered. And later on in Season 6, we see that he has still remained friends with him, being amiable and happily talking about old times with him. Paulie’s friendship with Beansie was what led to him telling Tony that Paulie is a trustworthy guy after Tony started to see him as a liability.
- Like everyone else in the Dimeo Family, he respected Jackie Aprile and became teary-eyed after learning of his death.
- He cares or at least respects his former boss Johnny Boy, fondly reminiscing about the moments he shared with him, when Tony started to doubt if Johnny loved him, Paulie confidently states that he did, and that the only moment he ever saw him cry was when Tony was born.
- He has few “Pet the Dog” moments:
- After he wakes up from a nightmare, which scares and wakes up the children of his mistress, Paulie comforts them and then carries them back to sleep.
- When Finn reveals that Vito is indeed gay, Paulie assures Finn that he will protect him just in case Vito tries to harm him as retribution for telling the mob his secret.
- He has some standards and has a semblance of honor, as mentioned with his pet the dog moments he does have a soft spot for children, and disliked it when Furio smacked a teenager around for playing with firecrackers around a boss, with Paulie himself stating that he was just playing. He would also not tolerate disrespect towards a mother of any kind, as shown when he beat Christopher up to a pulp for calling his mom a whore. And, when his friend Pussy gave a final request to not be shot in the face, Paulie, Tony, and Silvio honor this, and end him by exclusively shooting him in the chest.
- He feels remorse for a few things, feeling a sense of guilt for killing Salvatore as shown when Tony takes him out on a boat trip, Paulie somberly remembers how they disposed of him, and how the same thing could happen to him. Later on in a dream, he sees him in a kitchen, asking him in a saddening tone that when his time to die comes, “would he stand up?” He then wakes up breathing heavily. He also feels remorse for how he treated Christopher, partly blaming himself for his death, stating that while they both had their differences, he could have treated him better and didn’t do right by him.
- He is one of the show’s most comedic characters, with a lot of his worst crimes, like his absurd killing of innocents, being played for black comedy best shown with the murder of the waiter and his crusade against Valery, and him making fun of various characters also played for comedy.
Trivia[]
- He alongside Tony Soprano and Christopher Moltisanti are the only three Sopranos villains to be Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- Paulie Gualtieri on the Villains Wiki
- Paulie Gualtieri on the The Sopranos Wiki
