The Sopranos: The Characters With The Highest Kill Count, Ranked
There's no doubt that The Sopranos included plenty of killers in its cast of characters, but which ones had the highest kill counts of them all?
Any movie or TV show about mobsters is guaranteed to have plenty of deaths. In the world of organized crime, no mistake goes unpunished and no feud gets settled by a simply hug and apology. Things were no different in the award-winning HBO series The Sopranos.
There were 62 on-screen deaths in total, with Season 6 having the most deaths (28) and Season 4 having the fewest (10). At least two major characters also met their demise in each season. No one was safe but strangely enough, Tony Soprano made it to the end. And his kill stats were pretty impressive too. Here are the characters with the highest kill counts.
Vito Spatafore (2)
Vito is mostly remembered as the mobster who did his best to keep his sexual orientation a secret. The DiMeo Crime Family member chose to get married to a woman and have kids despise being gay. And he had a good reason for that because in the world of organized crime, being a member of the LGBTQ community was frowned upon.
Vito mostly shot his victims in the back of the head. In the Season 3 finale, he shot Jackie because of the robbery he conducted with Carlo and Dino. And in the Season 6 episode titled “Moe n’ Joe,” he shot a car accident victim who was insisting on talking to the police. Vito would be killed in the next episode after Phil Leotardo learned he was gay.
Benny Fazio (2)
Benny first appeared in Season 3 after he was released from jail. He went on to be a reliable lieutenant for Christopher Moltisanti. His two kills came in the finale of Season 4.
First he shot drug dealer Credenzo Curtis several times in the chest. He also killed Stanley Johnson the same way. The purpose of both murders was to make sure the two wouldn’t talk about the canceled hit on Lupertazzi family boss Carmine Lupertazzi. He was also involved in the murder of Phil Leotardo, though only as a getaway driver.
Big Pussy Bonpensiero (2)
Big Pussy is mostly remembered as the stitch who eventually got a stitch. By Season 2, the mobster was already cooperating with the authorities. And after an Elvis impersonator named Jimmy Bones saw him talking to the FBI, Big Pussy killed hum by hitting him with a hammer.
This was the first on-screen murder that Big Pussy committed. Together with Tonny, he also killed family associate Matthew Bevilaqua. The two killed Matt after he attempted to kill Chris. Matt had tried to kill Chris in order to prove himself to the non-nonsense capo Richie Aprille.
Mikey Palmice (3)
Uncle Junior’s subordinate Mikey Palmice got violent quite early. And he had a penchant for wacking his fellow mob soldiers. In the third episode of Season 1, he shot a colleague in the eye for hijacking trucks without approval from the boss.
In the seventh episode, he threw another colleague over the Paterson Falls for giving drugs to a boy. The drugs had influenced the boy to commit suicide. Then in the eleventh episode, he killed yet another colleague for a bad joke. Mikey was eventually killed too for planning Tonny’s murder with Uncle Junior.
Tony Blundetto (3)
Steve Buscemi has been lucky enough to play two mobsters in two critically acclaimed HBO shows. He was the lead in Boardwalk Empire and in The Sopranos, he showed up in Season 5 as Tonny’s cousin who had just been released from prison.
Tony’s murders were mostly revenge killings. He shot Joey as payback for the death of Lorraine Calluzzo. He also shot Billy as payback for the death of Angelo Garepe. He killed a woman named Heather too for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was with Joey when he showed up to wack him.
Silvio Dante (5)
Silvio started out as a street soldier before becoming the Consigliere in the DiMeo Crime Family. He mostly killed fellow mob members who had turned into rats or were considering switching to other families.
He killed Jimmy, Pussy and Adriana for being FBI informants. Together with Carlo Gervasi, he also killed Fat Dom for making bad jokes about other family members. Lastly, he killed Burt Gervasi, who was planning to jump to the Lupertazzi crime family. Silvio would later be a victim of an assassination attempt too, though he survived. He was last seen in a hospital bed.
Christopher Moltisanti (8)
Michael Imperioli might have played an unfortunate boy in Goodfellas but in The Sopranos, he was a total baddass. Michael played DiMeo crime family soldier Christopher Moltisanti. It is worth noting that Chris was the first character to have a major kill on the show.
In the pilot episode, Chris killed a man as a way to settle a dispute. He also had a self-defense killing when he took out one of two men that were trying to assassinate him. Chris also avenged his father by killing a retired police lieutenant who was responsible. And like most mobsters, he killed someone for insulting him too.
Tony Soprano (8)
As expected, the main antihero of the show has one of the highest kill counts. Tony’s first kill came in the iconic Season 1 episode titled “College.” While looking for potential schools with his daughter. he spotted a man who had once ratted out one of his associates. Not wasting any time, he strangled him.
His other major kill happened when he beat Ralph to death for being indirectly responsible for the death of the adorable horse named Pie-O-My. He also killed his cousin Tony in order to avoid any heat from the New York family. As an icon of ‘good behavior,’ he suffocated Christopher Moltisanti too for being a drug addict and irresponsible human in general.
Paulie Walnuts (9)
DiMeo crime family captain Paulie Walnuts was as ruthless as mobsters can be. And despite frequently killing by the sword, he never did die the sword. Paulie was one of the characters who ended up alive after the series finale.
In the ninth episode of Season 2 titled “From Where to Eternity,” it was revealed that Paulie carried out his first hit in the ’60s. This means that he possibly killed way more people than the nine that were registered on the show.
