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 Where To Eternity" Paulie mentions to his parish priest after visiting a psychic that he had been donating to the parish for 23 years, meaning he had started attending in 1977. He helped pay for refurbishing his church's organ and paid for the new altar boy robes. He tells the priest he will stop contributing financially to the church following his incident with the psychic saying that he should have been protected. Paulie is one of the show's most colorful characters, often cracking jokes or spouting bizarre sentiments. He is self-centered, opinionated, does not show much empathy, and can be