Sal Bonpensiero

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero

First appearance	The Sopranos (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	Funhouse (episode 2.13)
Statistics
Gender	Male
Age	late 40s
Occupation	former Soldier in the Gualtieri crew in the DiMeo Crime Family/ Former Owner of Bonpensiero body shop
Family	Lino Bonpensiero (father) Edward "Duke" Bonpensiero (brother)
Spouse	Angie Bonpensiero
Children	Kevin Bonpensiero (son) Matt Bonpensiero (son) Terry Bonpensiero (daughter)
Portrayed by	Vincent Pastore
Created by	David Chase

Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero is a fictional mobster played by Vincent Pastore on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos. Usually addressed as Pussy, albeit in an affectionate way (though his wife addressed him as Sal), Big Pussy was one of the men who worked for series lead, mobster Tony Soprano.

1 Biography
2 Trivia
3 References
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] Biography

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The son of Lino Bonpensiero ^[1], 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. He was an associate of "Johnny Boy" Soprano and in the unrest of 1983 stood up for him. Bonpensiero 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 caporegime of the crew following Johnny Boy's death in 1986. Bonpensiero worked alongside other longtime Soprano associates Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri and Silvio Dante throughout his career in the Mafia. Bonpensiero also took on Johnny Boy's tradition of dressing as Santa Claus and giving out presents to local children at Satriale's meat market at Christmas time.

Bonpensiero was a kind-hearted man who doted on his wife Angie and their three sons, and was a long-time friend of Tony's. However, the money he made from the mob was not enough to raise his three children and put them through college and he began trafficking in heroin on the side. Soprano, his capo, and Jackie Aprile Sr., then acting boss of the family, were aware of his sideline and urged him to stop dealing.

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 life in prison. He agreed and was assigned FBI Agent Skip Lipari as a handler - he was revealed as an informant in the episode "Do Not Resuscitate."

In Christmas 1995 Bonpensiero was instrumental in organizing a sit-down between Junior Soprano and Acting Boss Jackie Aprile. He travelled to Boca Raton to persuade Junior to return to New Jersey and settle a trucking dispute he had got into with Aprile. He 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 Walnuts hugged him, quizzed Soprano about business and almost got into a fight with him. Soprano later remembered these events and decided Bonpensiero must have turned informant shortly before this.

In 1999 Bonpensiero 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 Rabkin and Soprano'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 he was assigned to retrieve a car stolen from Tony's son's (A.J. Soprano) teacher - he found the thieves and kidnapped them but the car had already been chopped. He came up with a novel solution - steal a car of the same model and respray it. He was present when Soprano and the other capos discussed their problems with new figurehead acting boss, Junior. When indictments were threatened he fled and burned papers in his back garden - perhaps a sign that he was not co-operating fully.

Later that year he was arrested at a card game run by Soprano family capo, Jimmy Altieri. He 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. Shortly afterward, dirty cop Vin Makazian told Soprano he had a rat in his organization and pointed the finger at Bonpensiero. Soprano assigned Gualtieri to see if he could feel out where Bonpensiero's loyalties lay by checking him for a wire, even authorising him to kill his old friend if he saw one with his own eyes. Soprano was obviously distressed to have to ask Gualtieri to do this to a trusted member of the crew. Gualtieri then surprised Bonpensiero with a trip to a bath house, where he refused to undress and left - blaming high blood pressure. This served to heighten his crew's suspicions. After this unnerving experience, he disappeared. While he was away, Gualtieri took over his collections and the crew killed Altieri (believing him to be an FBI informant), taking some heat off of Bonpensiero.

He resurfaced at Soprano's home in 2000 claiming to have been in Puerto Rico getting treatment for his bad back from an acupuncturist. When reporting to Lipari after the meeting, Bonpensiero lied about Soprano; showing a reluctance to give anything up. He was left out of the crew's trip to Italy to discuss exporting stolen cars with a local mafia family. While meeting Lipari in a distant party goods store, he was spotted by an Elvis impersonator called Jimmy Bones. Lipari reassured him that they had handled it well. However, Bonpensiero later went to Bones' house and killed him for fear of being revealed.

Since his return, he and wife had been having trouble and she discussed leaving him with Carmela Soprano, who dissuaded her because of their Catholicism. Angie settled for sleeping in separate bedrooms.

Upon his return from Italy, Soprano re-organized his crew - Gualtieri would be capo now that he was acting boss, Dante would become Tony's consigliere, and new addition Furio Giunta would be on an equal footing with Bonpensiero despite his years of long service. Bonpensiero was obviously distressed at the new order and openly hostile to Giunta and complained to Lipari that "this thing of ours" turned into "this thing of mine." His reservations about informing on Soprano began to dissipate.

Lipari persuaded Bonpensiero to wear a wire to A.J.'s confirmation, but he spent most of his time upstairs with A.J. 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 Moltisanti' shooting by associates Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, Bonpensiero fell back into his loyal soldier role; he tracked down the escaped Bevilaqua, phoned Soprano, met him at Satriale's to tool up and took him to get the traitor. They drew out the murder, talking to the frightened upstart for a while before unloading their weapons into him. Soprano took Bonpensiero for dinner afterward, and it seemed to be just like old times. When Lipari called Bonpensiero, saying a witness to Bevilaqua's shooting identified Soprano and "a second, husky figure," he flatly denied any involvement. Lipari chose to believe him but pressured him to get a confession from Soprano on tape. The FBI's murder case fell apart when the witness withdrew his statement after realizing who he had identified.

Bonpensiero eventually began to co-operate and gave Lipari information on Soprano's stolen airline ticket scam. Lipari said that Bonpensiero 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. Bonpensiero began recording notes and tailing members of his crew. He ended up in a car accident in an unrequested "stake-out" gone wrong.

Soprano eventually abandoned the blinding affection he held for Bonpensiero and realized his old friend's betrayal after a portentive dream where Bonpensiero appeared as a fish and told him that he had known all along. Soprano decided he had to be sure, so visited Bonpensiero's home to search for evidence while Silvio distracted him. Soprano found what he was looking for and had Bonpensiero meet him on the pretence of checking out a new boat. Soprano, Dante and Gualtieri confronted their former friend once they got out to sea and got him to admit that he had informed on them. Bonpensiero claimed that he had been acting as a double agent as a strategy to feed misinformation to the FBI. Soprano, Gualtieri, and Bonpensiero had some Tequila. Dante came down into the cabin and Bonpensieri realized that he would not make it off the boat alive and requested to not be shot in the face. Paulie Walnuts tells Bonpensiero, "You were like a brother to me" before Soprano opens fire. Paulie and Silvio also shoot at Bonpensiero. They don't hit him above the neck. Paulie takes some jewelry off of Pussy and the three bag him up, weigh him down and throw him overboard. All three have since been haunted by the memory of their old friend's murder.

Bonpensiero was survived by his wife, Angie, and children, Matt, Kevin, and Terry. He is also survived by his illegitimate child, Joey LaRocca. Angie assumed his share of the Body Shop and continued his involvement with the DiMeo Crime Family.

[edit] Trivia

Big Pussy's nickname was derived from his early career as a cat burglar.
He is not to be confused with a fellow New Jersey mobster, "Little Pussy" Malanga, who Uncle Junior had killed sometime since the first episode of the series.
He appears briefly in episode 2 season 3, when Tony Soprano opens a closet at the party after his mother Livia's funeral, in the mirror of the closet door. He has also appeared in various dream sequences.