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Mob boss who faked insanity dies in prison

NEW YORK - Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, the powerful mob boss who avoided jail for decades by wandering the streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers, feigning mental illness, died Monday (Dec. 19, 2005). He was 77.

The head of the Genovese crime family died at the federal prison in Springfield, Mo., said prison spokesman Al Quintero. It was the same place where rival mob boss John Gotti died of cancer in 2002 at age 61. Mr. Gigante had suffered from heart disease.

Dubbed the "Oddfather" for his bizarre behavior, Mr. Gigante had scored a lengthy string of victories over prosecutors, but it ended with a July 1997 racketeering conviction. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

After a quarter-century of public craziness, he finally admitted his insanity ruse at an April 2003 federal hearing in which he calmly pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. That brought him another three-year sentence.

For the man described by the New York Times Magazine as "the last great Mafioso of the century," his admission was the final act in a 50-year career linking the era of old-time gangsters and the modern-day Mafia of Gotti.

At the height of his power, Mr. Gigante's empire stretched from Little Italy to the docks of Miami. Mob experts called him a traditional boss who settled issues by whatever means - verbal or violent - were required.

Denying he was a gangster, Mr. Gigante would wander the streets of the Greenwich Village neighborhood in nightclothes, muttering incoherently. Relatives, including a brother was who a Roman Catholic priest, insisted Mr. Gigante suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Authorities charged it was a brazen act to avoid the law - although it wasn't until 1997 that a jury agreed. It convicted Mr. Gigante of racketeering, extortion and plotting the murder - never carried out - of an ex-mob associate.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:51:07]