About Me
Vincent "Chin" "Gigs" Gigante (March 29, 1928 – December 19, 2005) was an American Mafioso who headed the Genovese crime family for years, at times while in prison. 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.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. GiganteForemost 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 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 wa
