James Gandolfini became a quiet backer of Marty Tankleff who was wrongly convicted of killing his parents
James Gandolfini became a quiet backer of Martin ‘Marty’ Tankleff, a Long Island man who had been convicted as a teenager for killing his parents. With the aid of the actor, Tankleff was able to successfully get his life sentence overturned. ‘He got involved with my situation where others were reluctant,’ Tankleff said.
Martin 'Marty' Tankleff (left) with James Gandolfini (center) and unidentified friend. Gandolfini helped free Tankleff from prison.
Late, great actor James Gandolfini gave wrongly convicted Marty Tankleff two things: his unbending support and a gorgeous, custom-made Italian suit.
“Every time I wear the suit he bought me, I take pride in it,” Tankleff said Thursday, recalling his unlikely friendship with the star of “The Sopranos.”
“And I look good in it.”
Gandolfini quietly became a backer of Tankleff as the Long Islander waged a two-decade battle to beat a double-murder conviction in the 1988 slayings of his parents.
“Jim was loyal — it wasn’t like he did it for the publicity,” the now 41-year-old Tankleff told the Daily News.
The two first met on Tankleff’s 36th birthday, when Gandolfini made the eight-hour round-trip drive to upstate’s Great Meadow Correctional Facility.
Gandolfini learned about the case through Jay Salpeter, a former NYPD detective who’s now a private investigator.
The actor met the ex-cop while researching a role for the 2006
true-crime movie “Lonely Hearts,” starring John Travolta and Salma
Hayek.
Martin Tankleff in Riverhead Criminal Court after he was arrested for the murder of his mother and father.
The pair became fast friends, with Salpeter sharing his efforts to free Tankleff with his celeb pal.
“I asked him to visit Marty for his birthday,” Salpeter recalled. “I offered to drive him up, and he said, ‘No, I have a driver.’ ”
Salpeter recalled Gandolfini arriving at the prison parking lot in a Mercedes-Benz in August 2007 — and the burly Jersey guy was behind the wheel.
“The chauffeur was sleeping in the front seat, and he’s driving,” Salpeter recounted. “It’s like a scene out of a movie. He gets out of the car, and he’s walking like Tony Soprano.”
The June 29, 1990 story in the New York Daily News of Martin Tankleff, who was convicted of killing his mother and father.
But it was a real person who spent two hours chatting with Tankleff.“There was an interesting response in the institution: Marty had Tony Soprano come see him,” Tankleff said. “No. Jim Gandolfini came to see me. He was just genuine.”
The movie star told the inmate to take advantage of his help quickly, since “The Sopranos” completed its HBO run two months before their first get-together.
“He told Marty, ‘Ask now, because next year I’ll be an old, fat actor out of work,’” recalled Salpeter. “My feeling was we were going to have a friend for the life of Marty’s case.”
Salpeter had a short answer about what drew the TV gangster to the case: “The injustice.”
Gandolfini appeared in a Brooklyn courtroom two months later for a Tankleff appeals hearing, taking a front-row seat — and declining to do interviews with the media.
But Lonnie Soury — the public relations executive who led the campaign to free Tankleff — said his powerful presence delivered an unspoken message.
“What I said to him was, ‘Jim, if there’s one judge in appellate court who spends five extra minutes reading the briefs because of you, it’s worthwhile,’” Soury recalled.
Tankleff’s conviction, with its life sentence, was overturned by an appeals court in December 2007. No one else was ever arrested in the case. Tankleff is a paralegal now working toward a law degree.
Gandolfini attended the post-release “Marty Gras” — a welcome-home celebration for family and friends.
Tankleff was a guest at Gandolfini’s wedding the next year, and the two had dinner at Elaine’s. There were Broadway tickets when Gandolfini appeared in the Broadway show “God of Carnage.”
“He was a genuine nice person you could sit down and eat dinner with,” said Tankleff. “He got involved with my situation where others were reluctant.”
And there was the trip they made to Take Six, a First Ave. clothing boutique.
“I got a two-piece, custom-made Italian suit,” said Tankleff, who spent the prior 17 years in prison clothes. “There were shoes, and a shirt and a tie. He wanted to make sure that I felt good.”
Tankleff also remembers Gandolfini’s one bit of advice after his release from prison: “Marty, in life, don’t f--- up.’ ”