The Last Don: Vincent "The Chin" Gigante

 Who was the "Chin" Gigante                                    

Vincent "Chin" "Gigs" Gigante was the boss of the powerful Genovese crime family for years. Sometimes referred to as "The Oddfather," since the mid-1960s, Gigante had been regularly seen wandering the streets of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself. In 2003, as part of a plea bargain, he admitted in court that his insanity had been a long act staged to avoid conviction under an insanity defense. He was due to be released from prison in 2010 before his controversial death in 2005.

Early on in "Chin" Gigante's Life

He was one of five sons of Salvatore Esposito Vulgo Gigante, a watchmaker, and Yolanda Scotta, a seamstress, both of whom had immigrated from Naples. His mother usually addressed him as "Cincenzo," a diminutive of Vincenzo, the Italian version of Vincent, and his boyhood friends shortened that into his lifelong nickname, "Chin". Gigante dropped out of Textile High School in Manhattan in the ninth grade and became a protégé of Vito Genovese. Between age 17 and 25, Gigante was arrested seven times, but he was fined only once and jailed for a one-time 60 day sentence for a gambling conviction. He claimed to be a tailor but was better known as a boxer, he won 21 of 25 light-heavyweight bouts between age 16 and 19, according to Nat Fleischer's Ring Record Book. Club boxers in those days fought four and six-round contests in neighborhood arenas, usually getting a percentage of the tickets they themselves sold. One of Gigante's managers was a Greenwich Village neighbor, Thomas (Nicholas Pasciuto) Eboli, who later became the boss of the Genovese crime family.

Gigante retired from boxing around 1946 and became involved in organized crime, specifically the Genovese Cosa Nostra family. It is alleged that he was the triggerman in the 1957 botched assassination of Frank Costello, then boss of the Genovese family, in the vestibule of Costello's apartment building. Rumor was that Costello knew "Chin" was the triggerman, but would not identify him publicly - even though Costello's doorman identified Gigante as such - he was acquitted of attempted murder charges in 1958. In 1959 Gigante was imprisoned for dealing in heroin and paroled five years later.

"I Can't Be a Boss, I'm Legally Insane"                    

In 1969 Gigante escaped conviction on bribery charges by producing a number of prominent psychiatrists who testified that Gigante was legally insane, suffering from schizophrenia, dementia, psychosis, and various other mental disorders. With this success he decided to use this as a strategy with which to thwart law enforcement and he allegedly enlisted his mother and wife in this endeavor. In 1986, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno was considered to be the boss of the Genovese family when he was convicted on charges of murder and racketeering and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Vincent "Fish" Cafaro, a ranking member of the Genovese family, became a cooperating witness and revealed that Gigante had been the boss since 1981 and that Salerno had been acting as a front man. However, charging and convicting somebody who, like Gigante, exhibited all the hallmarks of mental illness was going to be very difficult.

Gigante brought his sons, Vincent Esposito and Andrew Gigante into the family using Vincent as his messenger to the rest of the family and using Andrew to control the waterfront operations. Gigante was arrested and charged in 1990 on charges of racketeering and murder, but it was another 7 years before he was brought to trial. Throughout those 7 years, Gigante's lawyers produced witness after witness who testified that Gigante was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial. However, all this changed when a number of prominent Mafia members from various families began to cooperate with the government in the early 1990s.

Foremost among the cooperating witnesses was Salvatore Gravano, aka "Sammy the Bull," former underboss of the Gambino crime family, who became a cooperating witness in 1991 and testified that on two occasions when they met, Gigante was perfectly lucid and clear in his thinking. Other "turncoat" witnesses such as Phil Leonetti of the Scarfo (Bruno) crime family of Philadelphia implicated Gigante in ordering a series of murders in the early 1980s of members of the Bruno family. Additionally, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, former underboss of the Lucchese crime family, implicated Gigante in enlisting Casso and other members of the Lucchese family to kill John Gotti, Frank DeCicco and Gene Gotti, all members of the Gambino family, soon after John Gotti became boss of the Gambino family in early 1986. Gigante used a new structure to control the Genovese family. The structure was set up with an Official Boss who would pass orders through a Messenger to the Street Boss and the Street Boss would then give orders to the Underboss of the family and the Capo's would either answer to any one of the 3 positions and never Gigante directly. This was Gigante's way of keeping a low profile and making sure no one knew who he was.

"Chin" Gigante Finally Gets Sent to Prison

Gigante was finally convicted on several racketeering, conspiracy, and related charges in the summer of 1997 and sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison. Despite his lawyers' and psychiatrists' claims that he has been legally insane for more than 30 years, and thus incapable of running a large and sophisticated organized crime operation, the jury convicted him on all but the most serious charges of murder which would have mandated a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Gigante continued to run the crime family from his cell, the administration was organized with a Ruling Committee who answered to the Street Boss and the Street Boss would get orders from Gigante from the person who was the family Messagario(messenger), which was his son Vincent Esposito.

As part of a plea bargain in an obstruction of justice trial stemming from his efforts to delay his racketeering trial, on April 7, 2003, Gigante admitted in court that his insanity was an act. He received a sentence of three years to be served after his current sentence was completed. He was due for release in 2010.

The Death of the "Chin" Gigante

Gigante died on December 19, 2005 from complications of heart disease at the same federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, where John Gotti died three years earlier. On Friday, December 23, 2005, after a service at Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Greenwich Village, his body was cremated at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. He is survived by eight children (5 from his wife and 3 from his mistress) and his prominent cousins from Boston. (The cousins spell their name both Gigante and Giganti.) Gigante's lawyer, Flora Edwards, has said that the family intends to sue the federal government over Gigante's health care treatment while in prison. In November 2005, Edwards filed a lawsuit in federal court to compel officials at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri to transfer Gigante to an acute care hospital. The federal government responded to that in sealed court papers. Gigante rallied physically--from labored breathing, oxygen deprivation, swelling in the lower body and bouts of unconsciouness when he was transferred and placed under private care. After leaving the private health care facility, he returned to the Federal Prisoner's Medical Center in Springfield, MO, where he died 10 days later on December 19, 2005.