VINCENT`The Chin`GIGANTE

Vincent Gigante was the most allusive of mob bosses. The FBI tried many times to convict Gigante but were all in vain as for many years he had feigned insanity in order to ward off the attentions of law enforcement. Vincent Gigante was born in New York on March 29th 1928. He started out as a boxer. Boxing in the mid-light heavyweight division. In his career he totalled 24 fights winning 23 albeit just 1 by knockout. By the mid 1940's Gigante claimed that the doctor had advised him to retire, due to the amount of broken noses that he had received and decided to take up a life of crime. In the early 1950's Gigante was married and had 5 children with his wife, but Gigante also had 3 children to a mistress.Vincent Gigante first came to the public eye when he was the man who attempted to murder the family boss Frank Costello in 1957, under orders from the power hungry Vito Genovese. Fortunately for Gigante, Costello refused to press charges against Gigante, and the police didn't have enough evidence to prosecute him either. However the attempt on Costello's life prompted him to hand the reigns over to Genovese anyhow.

During this time Gigante served as a soldier for a highly regarded capo in the Genovese organization, Tommy Eboli. Things soon got even better for Gigante when Vito Genovese was sent away in April 1959, for narcotics violations. Due to this Tommy Eboli rose as the family's de-facto boss, and Gigante also got promoted to Capo, running Eboli's crew. During the 1960's and 70's Gigante began to get noticed as a top Mafiosi within the Genovese family, and was touted by many as the future boss of the family. Gigante was a very canny mobster he brains and balls, the right combination for fledging Mafiosi just being bled into the Mafia. By the late 1970's the Genovese family was at the top of its game. Police suspected that the Genovese crime family had around 700 made guys, more then any other family at any one time in the history of the 5 families in New York. By this time the authorities were unsure about who was actually the boss of the Genovese family. Many thought it was Tony Salerno, but in 1981 Salerno had a stroke and gave up the leadership until his health resumed. However it wasn't long until Salerno returned, but was given a free hand to run the family, with direction coming from elsewhere.

It was when Salerno fell ill that Gigante got his big break. Unsure about the return of Tony Salerno, the members of the Genovese family voted in Gigante. He was pretty much voted in unanimously and it wasn't until 1988 when Salerno was convicted in the "Teamster Union Trial" that the FBI found out who was running the family. It was in fact Gigante, and it had been for the last 7 years or so. Gigante was a very shrewd boss, he was very wary of FBI surveillance. He let trusted aides do his bidding, keeping himself out of the limelight unlike John Gotti, who was up front about who he was. Gigante also travelled around very late at night and he would not be seen in fancy restaurants either. When the FBI did catch Gigante on film, he would be roaming around in his pyjamas, giving the impression he was a nut job.

On May 30th 1990, the FBI entered Gigantes mothers house in order to serve him with an indictment for a total of 41 charges of the RICO statutes. On entering his mother’s house they found the wily old Mafia don in the shower with an umbrella above his head. The very next day he booked himself into a mental hospital, where he was spared from the RICO charges for the time being. It wasn't the first time that Gigante had pulled this stunt to avoid prosecution. He did exactly the same thing in 1970, again to avoid prosecution, again with great success. However between 1990 and 1997, Gigante was in and out of court, and in and out of hospital managing to delay judgement time and time again. But in 1997 his time finally came when he was sentenced to 10 years and fined $1.25 million.

Gigante was 69 when he was sent away a week before Christmas 1997. Much of the evidence came from Mafia supergrass Sammy Gravano. The man who nailed the John Gotti coffin shut and disrupted the hierarchy of the Gambino family had struck again, as part of his agreement when he was debriefed in 1990. Gigante's place at the top of the Genovese family was taken by Dominick Cirillo, known as Quiet Dom, but while Cirillo has control of the family it is still Gigante who calls the shots from his prison cell.

Gigante was a very shrewd boss, he was very wary of FBI surveillance. He let trusted aides do his bidding, keeping himself out of the limelight unlike John Gotti, who was up front about who he was. Gigante also travelled around very late at night and he would not be seen in fancy restaurants either. When the FBI did catch Gigante on film, he would be roaming around in his pyjamas, giving the impression he was a nut job. On May 30th 1990, the FBI entered Gigantes mothers house in order to serve him with an indictment for a total of 41 charges of the RICO statutes. On entering his mother’s house they found the wily old Mafia don in the shower with an umbrella above his head. The very next day he booked himself into a mental hospital, where he was spared from the RICO charges for the time being.

It wasn't the first time that Gigante had pulled this stunt to avoid prosecution. He did exactly the same thing in 1970, again to avoid prosecution, again with great success. However between 1990 and 1997, Gigante was in and out of court, and in and out of hospital managing to delay judgement time and time again. But in 1997 his time finally came when he was sentenced to 10 years and fined $1.25 million. Gigante was 69 when he was sent away a week before Christmas 1997. Much of the evidence came from Mafia supergrass Sammy Gravano. The man who nailed the John Gotti coffin shut and disrupted the hierarchy of the Gambino family had struck again, as part of his agreement when he was debriefed in 1990. Dominick Cirillo, known as Quiet Dom, took Gigante’s place at the top of the Genovese family but while Cirillo has control of the family it is still Gigante who calls the shots from his prison cell.

"Vincent Gigante has been an inveterate gangster who has committed his life to crime and committed his life to not being caught."
Andrew Weismann. Assistant District Attorney

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