Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante , last of Mafia giants , dies
Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante
vincent 'the chin' gigante mafia giant die
<m> Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante </m> , last of Mafia giants , dies
http : / / usatoday30 . usatoday . com / news / nation / 2005 - 12 - 19 - giganteobit _ x . htm
Posted 12 / 19 / 2005 3 : 36 PM
<m> Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante </m> , last of Mafia giants , dies
Mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante , the powerful Mafioso who avoided jail for decades by wandering the streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers , feigning mental illness , died Monday in prison .
He was 77 .
The head of the Genovese crime family , who had suffered from heart disease , died at the federal prison in Springfield , Mo . , said prison spokesman Al Quintero .
It was the same place where rival mob boss John Gotti died of cancer in 2002 at age 61 .
Gigante's death also was confirmed by Christine Monaco , a spokeswoman for the FBI , the organization that worked for years to put him behind bars .
Dubbed the "Oddfather" for his bizarre behavior , Gigante had scored a lengthy string of victories over prosecutors , but it ended with a July 1997 racketeering conviction .
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison .
After a quarter - century of public craziness , he finally admitted his insanity ruse at an April 2003 federal hearing in which he calmly pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice .
That brought him another three - year sentence .
At that hearing , he chatted amiably with his son , shook hands with defense lawyers and said "God bless you" to U . S . District Judge I . Leo Glasser .
For the man described by The New York Times Magazine as "the last great Mafioso of the century , " his admission was the final act in a 50 - year career linking the era of old - time gangsters and the modern - day Mafia of Gotti .
At the height of his power , Gigante's empire stretched from Little Italy to the docks of Miami .
Mob experts called him a traditional boss who settled issues by whatever means - verbal or violent - were required .
Denying he was a gangster , Gigante would wander the streets of the Greenwich Village neighborhood in nightclothes , muttering incoherently .
Relatives , including a brother was who a Roman Catholic priest , insisted Gigante suffered from paranoid schizophrenia , dementia and Alzheimer's disease .
Authorities charged it was a brazen act to avoid the law - although it wasn't until 1997 that a jury agreed .
The trial was a spectacle , with Gigante in a wheelchair , mumbling silently , seemingly oblivious to the proceedings .
His lawyers claimed they could not communicate with him in any "meaningful way . "
None of that swayed jurors , who convicted Gigante of racketeering , extortion and plotting the murder - never carried out - of ex - mob associate Peter Savino .
Born in the Bronx in 1928 , one of five sons of Italian immigrant parents , Gigante became a small - time boxer and drifted into the crime family founded in 1931 by legendary gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano .
In 1957 , Gigante was the hitman in a botched attempt to assassinate then - boss Frank Costello .
After refusing to name his attacker in court , the shaken Costello retired , making Gigante's patron , Vito Genovese , kingpin of the family that still bears his name .
Over time , Gigante , a stocky figure with a pugilist's face and 1940s pompadour , proved better at beating the law than Gotti , the so - called "Teflon Don" who won two acquittals before tapes and turncoats sent him to prison for life .
Before 1997 , Gigante had served only a five - year heroin rap in 1959 .