Watch: The DeCavalcante Family: The Real Jersey Mob Behind Tony Soprano

Before there was Tony Soprano, there was the DeCavalcante family, the real North Jersey crime family that put the Garden State on the mob map. Watch the video above for the full story, then read how the real family maps onto the show.

The DeCavalvantes ran North Jersey for decades under longtime boss Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante, whose wiretapped conversations in the 1960s became some of the most famous mob tapes ever released. The parallels to the Sopranos are structural: a New Jersey family living in New York's shadow, dismissed by the Five Families as farmers, exactly the chip on Tony's shoulder across six seasons. The family was devastated by RICO cases in the late 1990s and 2000s, the same years the show premiered, and mob watchers have long noted the timing. David Chase has never confirmed a single model for Tony, but the DeCavalcante story is the closest real-world skeleton: Jersey-based, construction and union money, and forever treated as the junior varsity by New York.

Quick answer: The DeCavalcantes are widely considered the real-life template for the Sopranos' DiMeo family, a real North Jersey crew the Five Families looked down on.

Keep reading: Watch: The Ducks Are Literally the Whole Show, The Sopranos Ducks Explained · Watch: The Sopranos Final Scene, Explained Shot by Shot

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