Vincent Gigante Criminal
Vincent Louis Gigante (/dʒɨˈɡæntiː/; March 29, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "Chin", was a New York Italian-American mobster in the American Mafia who was boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fought 25 bouts between 1944 and 1947. He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for what was then the Luciano crime family. Gigante was one of five brothers: himself, Mario, Pasquale and Ralph, all became mobsters in the Genovese family. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of the crime family, instead becoming a priest. Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of Frank Costello in 1957. After sharing a prison cell with Boss Vito Genovese following his conviction for heroin trafficking, Gigante became a caporegime, overseeing his own crew of Genovese soldiers and associates that operated out of Greenwich Village.Gigante quickly rose to power during the 1960s and 1970s. By 1981 he became the family's boss, while Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno served as front boss during the first half of the 1980s. He also ordered the failed murder attempt of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti in 1986. With the arrest and conviction of Gotti and various Gambino family members in 1992, Gigante was officially recognized as the most powerful crime boss in the United States. For the better part of 30 years, Gigante feigned insanity in an effort to throw law enforcement off his trail. Dubbed "The Oddfather" and "The Enigma in the Bathrobe" by the press, Gigante often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself, in what Gigante later admitted was an elaborate act to avoid prosecution. He was finally indicted on federal racketeering charges in 1990, but was determined to be mentally unfit to stand trial. However, by 1997 he was tried and convicted of racketeering and was given a 12 year sentence. Facing new charges in 2003, he pleaded guilty and admitted that his supposed insanity was an elaborate effort to avoid prosecution. He died while in prison custody in 2005 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners.
