Vincent 'Chin' Gigante was one of the weirdest and oddest gangsters out there, famous for wandering trough the streets in his bathrobe, mumbling and talking to himself for over 30 years. People said the ex boxer just took one punch to the head too many and was clearly losing his sanity. But like all acts this one too lost it's audience. Gigante would eventually die behind bars.

Vincent Gigante was born in New York on March 29, 1928, and lived most of his life in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. Gigante started out fine in life, he completed 9th grade, then attended a vocational textile high school, but quit to work in a variety of odd jobs. He began boxing in 1946. His fight career saw 24 fights and 23 wins however, only one by a knockout, after some bad fights Gigante called it quits and took to a life of crime.

He was classified 4F for military service “because of anti-social behaviour.” In 1950, he married Olympia Grippa and they had 5 children. He also managed to find a mistress with the same first name, Olympia Esposito, and had 3 children by her. She lived in an apartment on East 77th Street, between Park and Madison. Gigante's rise to stardom came when he was chosen by his Capo Tommy Eboli to go out and whack then Genovese Family boss Frank Costello. Gigante wasn't the most intelligent and capable mobsters out there and spent hours every day target shooting in a secure Greenwich Village basement. When the hit went down you'd expect Gigante to do fine but he botched it. Gigante went up to Costello in a hotel lobby with a shotgun and shot him in the head, but the shot only grazed the head so Costello survived, Gigante thought he had done his job well and left Costello in a pool of blood. The hit took place because Vito Genovese wanted sole power over the Family and wanted Costello out, eventhough Costello wasn't killed in the hit he still got the message and stepped down. After such a missed hit you'd think Gigante's time was up or that at least he'd never get any higher then soldier. You'd think that....

Gigante started out as a soldier for Eboli and by the 1970s became a capo himself. In The early 1980s Gigante had moved up to consigliere status, he was the consigliere of Tony Salerno. In 1981 then Genovese Family boss Tony Salerno had a stroke and was hospitalized, he then retired to his farm for a 6 month recuperation, on his return however it is suspected that the Family appointed Gigante as boss. Salerno would serve as a front, until he was put away in the commission case, he eventuelly died of a stroke in July 1992.

With the arrest and conviction of Anthony Salerno, Vincent Gigante had to come out in the open. With no one to hide behind Gigante continued a routine he had picked up early on in his criminal career, he acted as if he was crazy. In 1970, he first began to feign mental illness to beat a conspiracy rap. That year he was accused of bribing the police force of Old Tappan, New Jersey. Psychiatrists told the court Gigante was a “paranoid schizophrenic, suffering from hallucinations.” The bribery charges were eventually dropped. The success of this crazy act encouraged Gigante to use his mental frailty as a device to confuse, obfuscate and allude the law. He booked himself into St. Vincent’s Psychiatric Hospital in Harrison, Westchester County, 22 times between 1969 and 1990. As he grew older, he became a familiar sight, wandering around the streets of Greenwich Village, a shabby, demented old man. Dressed in striped pyjamas, slippers and a royal blue robe, grinning and talking to himself and looking like an injured old bird. “God is my lawyer,” he told a psychiatrist. “He will defend me.”

His brother, the Reverend Louis Gigante, told reporters on one occasion, “Vincent is a paranoid schizophrenic. He hallucinates. He’s been that way since 1968 or 1969. Look at the medication he takes each day.” The Rev then showed a list that he said was his brother’s daily intake: five milligrams of Valium; 100 milligrams of Thorazine and 30 milligrams of Dalmare. When told that her son was being indicted for being the boss of the biggest, most powerful Cosa Nostra family in America, his then-88 year-old mother shouted, “Vincenzo? He is the boss of the toilet!” However Tony Salerno said it best one time when he was caught on an F.B.I. tape as saying: "If ‘Chin' gets pinched, all those years in that fuckin’ asylum would be for nothing."

At first his acting seemed to pay of, the F.B.I. couldn't convict him, when they arrested him in 1990 he was charged with 41 different racketeering and conspiracy charges, and taken way, however he would not be convicted until 1997 when he was 69 years old. As he was being closely monitored by the F.B.I. and guards he sometimes stopped acting, he apparently looked after himself, made his own bed, shadow boxed in his cell, and despite his advancing years commanded respect from the other inmates. During one conversation with a prison guard, he was asked if other inmates were harassing him. “Gigante looked at me,” the guard said, “and replied, ‘Nobody fucks with me.’” Not a smart thing to do, especially not when your crazy act is working like it is. However it wasn't Gigante's shadowboxing or normal behaviour that did him in. Several turncoat mobsters, under which Salavatore Gravano, came to the courtroom to testify that Gigante wasn't crazy and that he in fact was boss of the Genovese Crime Family. After that Gigante was found guilty and convicted, he's due out in 2007 when he will be 79.

On January 23 2002, Gigante's son Andrew and 6 others were indicted. It became known that Gigante's son was his messenger and main guy inside eventhough he wasn't a made guy. Gigante has, since his conviction, dropped the crazy man act and used his son and others to carry out his directives. In April of 2003 Gigante pleaded guilty to faking mental incapacity to obstruct justice. 3 years were added to his 12 year sentence. He's due out June 28, 2010.

UPDATE: On December 19, 2005 Vincent Gigante died in the U.S. Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. He was 77. According to Gigante’s son Vincent Esposito his condition was worsening. But this was ignored by Missouri prison officials, Gigante’s family members charge. Vincent Esposito visited Gigante on Oct. 16 and 17, and found him asleep or unconscious most of the time. "When he was awake, he remained slumped in his wheelchair and appeared disoriented and confused as to his surroundings. In addition, his breathing was labored and he was drooling," Esposito said. "His lower body appeared to be grossly swollen, and he had involuntary tremors of his lips and hands," the affidavit said. In 2003 Gigante admitted in court that his crazy behaviour was all an act. Perhaps prison authorities thought Gigante was putting up an act again. Either way the time mobsters had it relatively good in prison is over. We can see that when we hear the stories of how John Gotti and more recently Dominick Cirillo were treated in prison by the officials.