Is Tulsa King Based On A True Mobster Story?

Tulsa King tells the story of Dwight Manfredi (Stallone) who has recently been released from prison after serving a 25-year stint. Manfredi keeps his code of silence and accepts his time in jail yet is not rewarded appropriately upon his release. Instead, the mobster is ordered to relocate to Oklahoma, where the events of Tulsa King begin to transpire.

The bloody, ruthless new drama from Sheridan has got audiences buzzing about the real Dwight "The General" Manfredi. However, as it turns out, the banished New York mobster in Tulsa King is not actually based on any real individual. Rather, it appears, Sheridan draws inspiration from actual events that occurred in the 1980s.

The mob was still extremely influential in places like New York and Sicily during this era. The Gambinos were running New York while other crime families fought for control back home. Palermo, Italy, was one of those places.

Salvatore Riina, an especially notorious gangster whom authorities deemed was responsible for thousands of murders in Italy, sought control of the city. "The Boss of Bosses" embarked on a bloody conflict with the Inzerillo family, which eventually forced the intervention of mafia families (like the Gambinos) from the United States.

The resolution was that Riina would end his vengeance on the Inzerillos so long as they promised to leave and never return to Sicily again. As a result, the banished Inzerillos spent the rest of their lives in exile under the protection of the New York mob until the Gambino crime family fell in the mid-80s.

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In Tulsa King, the events are flipped yet nearly mirror what happened to the Inzerillo family in the 80s. Manfredi ends up in Oklahoma, instead of New York, as a fish-out-of-water in exile. During the first season, we've yet to discover exactly why Manfredi was displaced yet it appears permanent. Furthermore, it's implied that Manfredi is not allowed to return to NYC despite doing his time honorably.

Therefore, while Tulsa King is not based on a real mobster, the story does borrow from actual events. For starters, it was common for mobsters to get banished or exiled from a family as punishment, or worse, killed. Additionally, the depiction of authorities continuing to monitor and harass Manfredi after his release is realistic compared to how actual gangsters were treated upon leaving prison.

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Consequently, Tulsa King is similar to other mob movies (Goodfellas, The Godfather) that are based on real people and events even if not actual, real stories. Tulsa King borrows from the real world, but is a fictional story at the end of the day.