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 lawn with his car, leaving Christopher's wife shaken. Later in the episode, they seem to have made up, and drink together at the Bada Bing. However, Paulie makes off-color remarks about Christopher's daughter, which cause an inebriated Chris to storm out and later kill his AA friend J.T. Dolan. In "Kennedy and Heidi," Paulie is left surprisingly grief-stricken when Chris is killed, reflecting that their argument over money and respect was trivial and that he should have been nicer to him in life. Paulie is later "upstaged" when his aunt/adopted mother Nucci passes away and her wake is under-attended because