So was Riggi the basis for Uncle Junior?
I had wondered the same thing Mikey_Sunset but I do not believe so.
On Junior being the basis of Riggi in The Sopranos:
"Old Man DiMeo", is the founder and the longtime boss of the DiMeo crime family. By the events of the series, he is boss in name only, and never demonstrated any influence over the family: he is serving a life sentence in a high security United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. When the death of Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile is reported on television in season one, the newsreporter states that; he was the acting boss for the 74-year-old DiMeo, which then makes him over 80 years old at the end of the series, assuming he is still alive at that point. Being that the show ended in 2007 the timeline is rather accurate for the Riggi character to be already imprisoned as an unseen character. In another episode he is referenced by Junior as having a mentally retarded brother named "eckley" who would be Tony Sopranos uncle that he never knew about.
