Michele "Feech" La Manna (born 1930) is an Italian-American mobster and a former capo in the DiMeo crime family. He was imprisoned in 2004 after being deceived by DiMeo family boss Tony Soprano into keeping stolen Plasma TVs inside his property.
Biography[]
Mafia career[]
Born in Palermo, Sicily in 1930, La Manna became a mobster at an early age and was inducted into a crime family in the 1950s, after which he immigrated to the United States and settled in Hamilton Park, Jersey City, where he got acquainted with the DiMeo crime family and its founder and boss at the time, Ercoli "Eckley" DiMeo. He ran loansharking and bookmaking rackets for the family and rose up in status until he became a capo, in charge of his own crew. Over the years, he became a very respected member of the organization, and was seen as a "legend" by many mobsters. He operated his businesses through the legal front La Manna Bakery.
La Manna's mugshot.
In the early 1980s, Tony Soprano and a group of other young criminals, including Jackie Aprile, were looking to become fully-fledged members of La Cosa Nostra, and sought a way to gain respect among the ranks as a way to gain that honor. Aprile devised a plan where they would rob one of La Manna's card games, so the daring exploit would gain them notoriety in the family. He and Soprano went along with it, and in total stole about $20,000. Though La Manna was furious about the robbery, Soprano and Aprile managed to get away with it after negotiating a deal, due in part thanks to the connections they had, with both Soprano's father and uncle, as well as Aprile's brother, being high ranking capos in the family.
La Manna in the 1980s.
1980s[]
In the 1980s, the United States government began an investigation to cripple organized crime, and La Manna was one of many mobsters arrested in 1984. Charged with a number of criminal offenses, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but since La Manna was a loyal mafioso, he never cooperated with the authorities and refused to become an informant.
Return in 2004[]
La Manna in 2004.
After serving his 20-year-long sentence, La Manna was released in March 2004, whereupon he immediately sought to return to his criminal ways, after asking for permission from now street boss Tony Soprano. He reestablished his bakery and got acquainted with the younger mobsters that were born after his time, for whom he would recount his old stories. He quickly got into a conflict with capo Paulie Gualtieri, however, when he assaulted Gualtieri's aunt's gardener Sal Vitro after Vitro scoffed at him when La Manna claimed the neighborhood was his nephew's to lawn. Vitro's arm was broken, and La Manna put his nephew in charge of the neighborhood. When Gualtieri confronted him about this, they had a heated argument, after which Gualtieri, in turn, beat La Manna's nephews working in the street. La Manna and Gualtieri had a sitdown with Soprano about it, and the issue was settled with Vitro being given back half of his neighborhood and leaving the other half to La Manna's nephew but having to mow Soprano's and Johnny Sacrimoni's gardens.
Later that year, La Manna requested Soprano hand him back his old card game, which had been taken by Soprano's uncle, who was now under house arrest. Soprano agreed, but rapidly found himself at odds with La Manna, who he considered antiquated and unwilling to change with the times. During one card game, one of La Manna's players was Dr. Ira Fried, a close friend of Soprano's who talked about his daughter's wedding. La Manna saw an opportunity, and the day of the wedding, and under John Sacrimoni's suggestion, sent some of his men to steal high-luxury cars belonging to the attendees. Soprano scolded him for bothering his friend, but La Manna responded defensively and angrily gave Soprano his cut of the money made from the theft. After Soprano lectured him, La Manna seemed to calm down and assured him he would "learn". However, Soprano was unconvinced, and acting on La Manna's prior transgressions, as well as a time when he told a joke and La Manna refused to laugh, which he saw as a symbol of disloyalty, decided to take him out for good. He knew La Manna was popular among the ranks, so murdering him wasn't an option. Instead, he had his soldiers Christopher Moltisanti and Benny Fazio trick him into keeping a car containing stolen Phillips Plasma TVs inside his garage. The parole board was tipped off about the televisions; later that day, a parole board agent came to scope his house. After finding the stolen goods, La Manna was arrested and sent back to a federal penitentiary for the rest of his days.