Paulie Gualtieri Signal Corps, where he was eventually drummed out through Section 8 (discharged because of psychiatric reasons). Afterwards, he spent more time in and out of prison on various criminal charges. He eventually was inducted into the DiMeo crime family, becoming a close associate of Johnny Soprano and helping to mentor his son Tony. Paulie got his nickname "Paulie Walnuts" after hijacking a truck in the early 1990s which he believed was filled with television-sets, but only contained walnuts. His surname is taken from real life DeCavalcante crime family mobster Frank Gualtieri, who served under Vincent Palermo. In the episode "From
Paulie Gualtieri his friends are at Christopher's wake instead. In the final episode "Made in America," Tony asks Paulie to take over the old Aprile crew. At first, Paulie is hesitant because all the bad luck that had befallen that crew's previous capos, but changes his mind after clever persuasion from Tony. With an ongoing war between the New Jersey and New York crime families, Tony and Paulie attend a sitdown with the New York crew, who agree to a truce to end their war. When given control of the Soprano crew, Paulie oversees all of Tony's old business dealings, including the