Vincent Gigante , who died yesterday in federal prison at 77 , was the Genovese crime family boss who for three decades feigned lunacy to evade prosecution for crimes ranging from loan sharking to murder to bribing the entire police force of Old Tappan , N . J .
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vincent gigante die yesterday federal prison 77 genovese crime family boss decade feign lunacy evade prosecution crime range loan sharking murder bribe entire police force old tappan n j
Vincent Gigante , who died yesterday in federal prison at 77 , was the Genovese crime family boss who for three decades feigned lunacy to evade <m> prosecution </m> for crimes ranging from loan sharking to murder to bribing the entire police force of Old Tappan , N . J .
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Vincent 'Chin' Gigante , 77 , Crime Boss
December 20 , 2005
Vincent Gigante , who died yesterday in federal prison at 77 , was the Genovese crime family boss who for three decades feigned lunacy to evade <m> prosecution </m> for crimes ranging from loan sharking to murder to bribing the entire police force of Old Tappan , N . J .
He was known as "Chin , " and his moniker was often invoked by denizens of the Mafia underworld with a hand - to - chin gesture rather than a word , the better to foil police bugs .
To the writers of headlines he was sometimes "Daffy Don" or "the Oddfather" for his habit of walking the streets of the West Village clad in a bathrobe , striped pyjamas , and slippers , while muttering incoherently .
Federal prosecutors claimed it was an act , but it was not until 2003 , after more than three decades of faking mental illness , that Gigante admitted in court that he did it to avoid prosecution .
His admission came as part of a plea deal on behalf of his son , Andrew , also convicted of mob - related activities .
For two decades , Gigante was head of the Genovese crime family , which emerged as the largest of the five New York Mafia clans after decades of concerted federal prosecutions decimated its rivals .
It was estimated that there were some 300 members of the family under his control .
The Genovese rackets included guaranteeing labor peace to firms in construction , garbage removal , and trucking ; extorting payoffs from companies doing business at the Ports of Newark and Elizabeth ; various rackets at the Fulton Fish Market and the Jacob K . Javits Convention Center ; contracts for window - installation in city housing , and the old standbys of bookmaking , loan - sharking , and narcotics .
It was narcotics that first sent Gigante to prison , in 1959 , when he received a five - year sentence after being caught conspiring to smuggle heroin from abroad .
Also sentenced in the case was the man who gave his name to the crime family , Vito Genovese .
Genovese ran his organization from behind bars while serving a 15 - year sentence .
It was a similar ruse - maintaining control of the family while incarcerated by transmitting orders through his son , Andrew - that was Gigante's downfall .
Gigante was born in the Bronx to parents who were immigrants from Naples , Italy .
His father was a jewelry engraver , and his mother was a seamstress .
Born Vincenzo , he was called "Chin" for short , and his prominent chin probably helped the name stick .
He put it to good use as a teenage boxer , winning 21 of 25 club fights .
Gigante was arrested several times from when he was 17 to 25 , for possession of an unlicensed handgun , gambling , bookmaking , grand larceny , and arson .
Two of his brothers , Mario and Ralph , were also identified as Mafia soldiers , while another , Louis , was a prominent Catholic priest as well as a Democratic politician in the Bronx .
In 1957 Gigante was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Frank Costello , then the head of what would be called the Genovese family .
He was acquitted despite the testimony of a doorman who claimed to have witnessed the crime ; Costello himself claimed not to have seen his assailant , despite being shot at close range from the front .
The shot had only "creased his head , " according to reports at the time .
The prosecutor in the Costello case claimed that Gigante was "a young punk on the way up in the underworld who was chosen to kill Costello to win his spurs . "
If so , it seemed to have worked , despite his having missed .
Costello retired soon after , and Genovese assumed control of the family , which had a history going back to Lucky Luciano .
After serving five years on the 1959 heroin conviction , Gigante resumed his life of crime .
He first sought psychiatric help in 1966 , while under investigation for bribing New York City police .
In 1970 , he was indicted for bribing the entire five - man police force of Old Tappan , N . J . , a small town in Bergen County where he had moved .
After he produced evidence that he was under psychiatric care at St . Vincent's hospital in Westchester , the court ruled that he was mentally incompetent to testify in the case .
It was a pattern Gigante would repeat in the coming decades , including committing himself several times when prosecutions threatened .
Gigante's immediate family supported him , especially Louis , the glad - handing , cigar - smoking priest and builder of low - income housing , who told reporters his brother had paranoid schizophrenia , dementia , and Alzheimer's disease .
Federal marshals serving him with a subpoena at his mother's Sullivan Street apartment house once found him standing under the shower , fully clothed , holding an umbrella .
"Vincenzo ?
He is the boss of the toilet ! "
his mother told New York Post columnist Cindy Adams .
Gigante , meantime , was consolidating his power within the Genovese family .
In the late 1970s , he ran a crew in Lower Manhattan , operating waterfront rackets , as well as loan - sharking and gambling in New Jersey .
He emerged as head of the Genovese family by the early 1980s .
Federal prosecutors kept him under observation for decades , and Gigante kept up the crazy act with amazing consistency .
He spent much of each day walking around the Village in his bed clothes and playing cards at his Triangle Civic Improvement Association on Mulberry Street .
A sign hung on the wall warning business associates against loose talk : "This place is bugged . "
By the late 1980s , he rarely went to Old Tappan , preferring to spend his nights on the Upper East Side with his mistress , with whom he had three children .
Oddly , both his wife and his mistress were named Olympia .
Gigante's mental illness act allowed him to escape trial despite being indicted numerous times on charges ranging from bid rigging and extortion to conspiracy to commit eight murders .
His luck held until 1997 , when a New York jury found him guilty of a range of charges and sentenced him to 12 years in the federal penitentiary .
It may have been a bad omen that the judge in the case , Jack B . Weinstein , insisted that Gigante wear a suit rather than a bathrobe to his trial .
At the Palma Boys Social Club in East Harlem in 1985 , the FBI taped the following exchange between two Genovese family members , Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and Giuseppe Sabato :
Salerno : He's got to worry if he gets pinched , all them years he spent in that [ expletive deleted ] asylum .
Sabato : That's what I'm saying .
Salerno : For nothing .
Vincent L . Gigante
Born March 29 , 1928 , in the Bronx ; died December 19 at the U . S . Medical Center for federal prisoners in Springfield , Mo . ; the cause of death was not announced , but he had recently suffered heart problems .