What happened to Gennaro Malanga (Little Pussy)?

In Season One Gennaro Malanga was to be clipped/whacked/killed by Junior Soprano.

It obviously is a point of a power struggle between Tony and Junior, as Tony specifically tells Junior that Artie Bucco's restaurant "Vesuvio" is off limits to kill Little Pussy. However, Junior is determined to have it happen there, and as we all know, the restaurant is fire-bombed.

I know in Season six Junior thinks Tony is Little Pussy and that is probably the reason that Junior shoots Tony, but...

Whatever happened to Gennaro Malanga (Little Pussy)?

We don't ever get told a viable answer, but some background on what happened to him to our best knowledge would be appreciated.

character the-sopranos

Best Answer

S1E1 minute 0:47 showed a brief clip of Little Pussy just returning from Florida and was apparently detained by authorities with no explanation as to why. No one knows how he died, we just know that during season 6 Tony told Junior that he died "6 years ago". Junior's original plan was to wack Little Pussy in Artie Bucco's restaurant, "Vesluvio", but Tony foiled that plot by burning down the restaurant and letting Artie collect the insurance money to build another one. Whether Little Pussy was ever whacked no one really knows for sure, but my guess is that he was whacked shortly after arriving back in NJ/NY simply based on the fact that Junior already put the hit out.