TV's Real Mafia Princess?

Bravo Real Housewives of New Jersey breakout star Caroline Manzo tells The Daily Beast her family had no Mob connections. Local law enforcement begs to differ.

In the world of reality television, Caroline Manzo is a made woman. The tough redhead is queen bee of the sisters, sister-in-law, and frenemies who make up The Real Housewives of New Jersey, a certified hit for Bravo whose premiere this month drew 1.72 million viewers, double the number that tuned in for the first episode of the much-buzzed-about season of Real Housewives of New York.

Much of the curiosity centers on the Manzo clan, wealthy Italian-Americans in the catering-hall business whose similarity (assumed or impugned) to a certain fictional crime family has some people calling the show “The Mezzo-Sopranos.” But don’t tell Caroline that.

“The one similarity that I feel we have to The Sopranos is family.”

“The Manzo/Soprano thing is nonsense,” she tells The Daily Beast via email. “The one similarity that I feel we have to The Sopranos is family. As an American of Italian descent, our traditions are very strong regarding love of family, hard work, and loyalty. The buck stops there.”

Of course, not every family has a 350-pound skeleton in its closet. Albert “Tiny” Manzo, the hulking father-in-law to two of the Housewives, ended his life naked, bound in plastic, and stuffed in the trunk of a Lincoln Continental with four slugs in his chest. It has been reported that Tiny was whacked after he was caught skimming the take from an illegal casino owned by the Gambino crime family in Staten Island.

Such talk rankles Caroline, whose first episode quote, “Let me tell you something about my family: We're as thick as thieves, and we protect each other to the end," has become her catchphrase.

She tells The Beast: “In August of 1984 my husband and his family were victims of a horrific crime [Tiny’s murder]. To this day, 26 years later, the family does not know the whys or the hows of that event…the real crime here is the assumptions that are made against this family.”

Asked specifically whether she believes Tiny was caught up with the Mafia, Manzo responds: “As far as my father-in-law goes, in his lifetime there was never so much as an accusation of him being involved in organized crime.”