Johnny Sacrimoni

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Johnny Sack
First appearance	Pax Soprana (episode 1.06)
Statistics
Aliases	Johnny Sack
Gender	Male
Age	53
Occupation	Construction Company Operator/ Underboss of the Lupertazzi Crime Family (Seasons 1-5); Boss of the Lupertazzi Crime Family (Seasons 5 & 6)
Title	Construction Company Owner
Spouse	Ginny Sacramoni
Children	Allegra Sacramoni (daughter) Catherine Sacramoni (daughter)
Portrayed by	Vince Curatola
Created by	David Chase

John "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni, played by Vince Curatola, is a Captain who has risen to Boss of the New York Lupertazzi Crime Family slowly over time in the fictional HBO TV series, The Sopranos.

Operating out of a his Construction Company or Social Club, Johnny Sack is a major player in the New York crime family formerly led by Carmine Lupertazzi. Johnny was Carmine's underboss for many years, handling political payoffs and bid-rigging for the organization. He ultimately became boss after Carmine's death. Johnny is also a friend and compatriot of New Jersey DiMeo boss Tony Soprano. Although the New York and New Jersey families are technically rivals, relations between the two families have been peaceful for some time. Johnny Sack works to try and maintain the peace with the other families, reasoning that peace between the families means prosperity for all the families. He is not, however, above stirring up trouble in Iago-like fashion, to sow dissent and suspicion among the ranks of the Soprano family. Johnny Sack is a shrewd person and nearly always a pragmatist; he also happens to be a very low-profile mob figure in New York despite his superficial flamboyance. In two recent seasons Sack has showed his brutal side, having beloved family men killed to raise his position in the mob world. These deeds and his egomania make him a classic despot.

But while Johnny Sack usually maintains his cool, he is very sensitive about his wife, Ginny, who has a problem with obesity. Johnny becomes violently angry when any remarks are made about Ginny's weight problem. He once ordered a hit put on Ralph Cifaretto for making one such off-color joke, although he later cooled down and called it off. This saved Ralphie's life, and also, although unknown to Johnny, his own, since Tony had obtained approval from Carmine to hit Johnny in order to protect the highly valuable Esplanade project to which Ralphie's involvement was key.

Johnny cultivated a friendship with Paulie Walnuts, making use of him as a source of information about Soprano family business. The relationship began when Paulie felt sidelined by Tony over the esplanade construction project and proved most fruitful when Paulie was imprisoned in 2002 - a time when he felt particularly neglected by his friends. Johnny lied to Paulie - telling him that Carmine held him in high regard and often asked about him. This encouraged Paulie to place more faith in his friendship with Johnny than in the loyalty of his friends in the Soprano crime family. Through Paulie, Johnny learned about Tony's Frelinghuysen Avenue property windfall and HUD scam - allowing the Lupertazzi crime family to demand a piece of the action because their mutual interests made both projects possible. It was also Paulie who told John about the insult that Ralphie made about his wife. However, after a chance meeting with Carmine, Paulie discovered that Carmine didn't even know who he was. Angered by John's deceit, Paulie became one of Johnny's biggest detractors.

Johnny Sack chafed under Carmine's leadership of the family, particularly over Carmine's apparent plans to name his hedonistic and catachresis-prone son Carmine Jr. as his successor. During the abortive war with the Soprano crew over Tony's Frelinghuysen Avenue operation, he authorized Tony to arrange to have Carmine assassinated. Much to Johnny's chagrin, Tony accepted Carmine's offer of settlement and cancelled the hit.

Following the (natural) death of Carmine in 2004, Johnny's crew engaged in a bitter turf war over the Family Leadership with Carmine's son, Little Carmine. More violence was threatened upon Tony Soprano's New Jersey family following the unauthorised murder of two of Johnny's men by Tony's cousin, Tony Blundetto, on Little Carmine's behalf. After both New York factions suffered heavy casualties, the conflict was brought to an end with Little Carmine surrendering control of the family (presumably in exchange for a percentage of the family's business). This was followed by a tentative reconciliation with Tony, who had personally taken the life of Blundetto to bury the hatchet. However, the moment was cut short when Johnny was promptly arrested by the FBI after one of the family's capos, Jimmy Petrille, turned state's evidence. Even while in jail awaiting trial he remained in control of the Lupertazzi family.

In the sixth season, Johnny has entrusted Phil Leotardo with the role of acting boss while he is in jail. Johnny's brother-in-law Anthony Infante acts as a back channel for communications to reach him while he is imprisoned. His wife remained supportive, often visiting him in prison. Johnny is portrayed as becoming more selfish while imprisoned - he commonly disregards the problems of others stating that his "situation" should take precedence. He orders Phil to maintain a good relationship with Tony and avoid starting a war over any business disputes, particularly the new office park construction project - another shared venture like the esplanade project.

After the death of Dick Barone, while Tony was recovering from a gutshot, Lupertazzi front organisation Cinelli Sanitation tried to buy Barone Sanitation, a Soprano front, from its naive new owner Jason Barone. John mediated negotiations about Tony's compensation for this from prison, through Phil. Phil told Tony that Johnny was in a panic state over his finances while in prison. Phil agreed a solution with Tony, perhaps better than he had been expecting because of Tony's new outlook. Johnny later asked Phil to reach out to Tony to organise a hit on Rusty Millio, but Tony refused, saying he needed to set some boundaries.

Johnny was granted a release from prison to attend his daughter Allegra's wedding. However, John would have to cover the cost of US Marshals and metal detectors for the wedding and would have 6 hours maximum. Johnny seemed to enjoy the wedding despite covering its huge cost personally. When the time came for Johnny to leave the wedding he was reluctant to go -- he wanted to wait until his daughter and her new groom left. However, the marshals blocked her limousine and dragged Johnny away in handcuffs, causing him to break down in tears. Later, his crew discussed this show as a display of weakness. Tony is the only one to stand up for Johnny, saying that when it comes to daughters, "all bets are off."

While at the wedding John took the chance to talk business, personally asking Tony to perform the hit on Rusty Millio because he was worried Rusty would again act as a king maker, and try to replace him while he was away. John hinted that he was worried that Phil might be the one nominated by Rusty. Tony agreed to take on the job and he contracted it out to a two-man crew flown in from Naples, who executed Millio and quickly returned to Italy.

Johnny again reached out to Tony for help, this time with his financial situation. Johnny elected to use his brother-in-law Anthony instead of Phil. Johnny knew he faced asset seizures and wanted to secure some capital for his family -- he planned to sell his share as an unofficial partner in a heavy equipment lending firm in New Orleans. Johnny had received the share when one of the owners, Paul Calviac, got into thousands of dollars of gambling debts with him. The deal was not without difficulties. Calviac was embittered and unwilling to sell any of the company facing huge profits following Hurricane Katrina, Anthony had trouble communicating in code with Johnny and Tony wanted more than the 7% of the sale that Johnny had suggested. Johnny eventually let Tony's brother-in-law, Bobby Bacala, buy his home at half price in order to ensure that Tony would enforce the sale.

Johnny's efforts to maintain control of his family ultimately proved futile. His lawyer, Ron Perse, floated the possibility of cooperating with the FBI, but John was quick to dismiss this. However, as the trial neared, Ron arranged a deal with the government on Johnny's behalf. Facing a massive asset seizure (that would have left both him and beloved wife destitute) and a case he could not possibly beat, Johnny pled guilty to 47 RICO predicates for a reduced sentence of 15 years and a fine of 4.2 million dollars -- effectively ending his position as boss (but still leaving Ginny enough money to live comfortably). As part of the deal, he was also required to give an allocution admitting his involvement in organized crime (although he did not reveal the names of any associates). Members of both the DiMeo and Lupertazzi families were angered by his allocution, believing that John should have stood trial before admitting anything regarding La Cosa Nostra. Johnny is now serving 15 years in federal prison, and is considered persona non grata among his former associates.

[edit] External link

• HBO Profile: Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni