Who Killed Dickie Moltisanti? The Many Saints Twist
Mobsters DailyThe Many Saints of Newark reveals that Junior Soprano ordered the murder of Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father, and that the hitman was never named on screen. The twist rewrites everything The Sopranos told us about Dickie's death, and it explains why Tony spent twenty years lying to Christopher about it.
Watch instead: Christopher Moltisanti: Tony's Heir and Biggest Failure — our video watch guide walks through the key scenes and what they mean.
What the Show Told Us
In The Sopranos, Christopher Moltisanti grew up believing his father Dickie was a legend, a stand-up guy killed before his time. The story the family told was that Dickie was murdered by a detective, a corrupt cop who had it in for him. Tony never corrected the story. He let Christopher carry a hero's version of his father, and he let Christopher carry a revenge fantasy against a dead cop.
The truth, as the show hinted and the prequel confirms, is that Dickie was killed by his own people. He was shot in the back of the head outside his home in 1972, and the order came from inside the family.
What The Many Saints Reveals
The prequel follows Dickie, played by Alessandro Nivola, through the late 1960s and early 1970s: a soldier in the DiMeo family, a mentor to young Tony, and a man falling apart. He murders his own father, Hollywood Dick Moltisanti, and his father's mistress. He tries to be a better man and fails at it, over and over.
Then Junior Soprano, nursing a grudge after Dickie laughed at him when he fell down the steps at a funeral, makes a phone call. The film never shows the shooter. It shows Junior making the decision, and it shows Dickie dying for it. David Chase has since admitted the film's handling of the Dickie story was one of its most argued-over choices, as our piece on the Many Saints Dickie mistake explains.
Why Junior Ordered It
Junior's motive is petty and perfect for the character: humiliation. Dickie laughed at him, and in Junior's world, a laugh is a wound that never heals. But there is a second motive underneath it. Dickie was close to Johnny Soprano, Tony's father, and Junior always believed the family respected Dickie more than it respected him. Killing Dickie was Junior's way of settling a score nobody else even knew existed.
It is the same small-man cruelty that defines Junior across the whole series: the boss who was never really the boss, taking revenge on the man who made him feel small.
What It Means for Christopher and Tony
The revelation reframes Christopher's entire story. He worshipped a father who was a murderer, who killed his own father and died because he laughed at the wrong man. And Tony knew. Tony knew Dickie was killed on Junior's order, and he let Christopher believe the detective story anyway, because the truth would have meant admitting the family killed its own.
It also reframes Tony's guilt. Tony killed Christopher himself in the show's final season, smothering him after a car crash, in the darkest scene of the series. Our explainer on why Tony killed Christopher covers that choice, and the lie about Dickie is the first link in the chain: a son raised on a false story about his father, killed by a man who helped keep the story false.
From the shop: Tony Eating Gabagool shirt — Tony, mid-bite, on a tee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who killed Dickie Moltisanti? The Many Saints of Newark reveals Junior Soprano ordered the hit. The shooter is never shown or named in the film.
Why did Junior kill Dickie? Junior held a grudge after Dickie laughed at him when he fell down the steps at a funeral, and he resented how much respect Dickie had in the family. The film frames it as petty humiliation, not business.
What did Tony tell Christopher about Dickie's death? Tony let Christopher believe Dickie was killed by a corrupt detective. The show never has Tony correct the story, even though Tony knew the family ordered the hit.
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