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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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1-24-02 'Chin' A Tough 'Nut' to Crack.
By KATI CORNELL SMITH and MURRAY WEISS, New York Post
January 24, 2002 -- The feds yesterday slapped Vincent "The Chin" Gigante with criminal charges for his notorious crazy act - claiming he's been secretly running the "most powerful mob family" in the city from behind bars. Dubbed "The Oddfather" for antics like wandering around Greenwich Village mumbling and dressed in a
But once in prison, he "gave up the crazy act," U.S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad said. Videotapes made inside the prison and audio wiretaps of his phone calls "paint a very clear portrait of Vincent Gigante as an active, articulate and, in some ways, animated boss of the Genovese crime family," Vinegrad said. Video shot at a Fort Worth, Texas, prison captured Gigante walking around the yard, reading and talking to other people - behavior inconsistent with his reputation as a lunatic mob boss who can't think straight, a source told The Post. Also, high-ranking Genovese wiseguys were caught on tape referring to Gigante as the boss. Prosecutors lobbed the new allegations against The Chin in a sweeping racketeering indictment, unsealed yesterday, that also names his son Andrew Gigante, 45, and six other reputed mobsters. The top counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. The eight were charged with infiltrating the International Longshoreman's Association and using extortion to keep a "stranglehold" on companies operating at New York, New Jersey and Miami piers. The Chin was also charged with obstruction of justice - for trying to lead authorities to believe he was crazy. Andrew Gigante has no prior record and is not a made member of the Genovese family, according to prosecutors. He is charged with being his father's "conduit" to what Vinegrad called "the most powerful mob family in town." "I hope this is not an unfortunate situation of somebody's kid being punished for the sins of his father," defense lawyer Peter Driscoll said yesterday after an arraignment at Brooklyn federal court. Magistrate Steven Gold ordered Andrew into federal custody pending a bail hearing tomorrow. Prosecutors have long claimed Vincent Gigante was faking his mental illness, and said as much in an April 2001 indictment of 33 Genovese family members. But they did not charge The Chin at that time. At a hearing last year, prosecutors described an October 2000 dinner conversation about the family's leadership. It took place between a reputed Genovese soldier and a wired turncoat at an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. The alleged wiseguy, Paul "Slick" Geraci, told the rat that a mobster who was believed to have stepped into the acting-boss role in Gigante's absence "ain't the guy. He never was the guy." Geraci then allegedly touched his chin and said, "This is the guy." Yesterday, Vinegrad said Gigante's "crazy act" was a "complete sham." The Chin's lawyer, Michael Marinaccio, said he is "surprised" by that allegation. "I don't know what observations they've based that claim on. They've always claimed that he's feigned mental illness," Marinaccio said, declining to further comment. The Chin was convicted of conspiring to murder John Gotti and another mobster in 1997, as well as extortion and racketeering.
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