Vincent Gigante

About

Vincent Louis Gigante ( jig-AN-tee, Italian: [dʒiˈɡante]; March 29, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as “Chin”, was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family of New York City between 1981 and 2005.
Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fought in twenty-five matches between 1944 and 1947. He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for what was known at that time as the Luciano crime family, forerunner of the Genovese family. Three of Gigante’s four brothers – Mario, Pasquale and Ralph – followed him into the Mafia. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of organized crime, instead becoming a Catholic priest. In 1957, Gigante was the gunman in the failed assassination of longtime Luciano boss Frank Costello. Two years later he was sentenced to seven years in prison for drug trafficking, and after sharing a prison cell with Costello’s rival, Vito Genovese, Gigante became a caporegime (captain) overseeing his own crew of Genovese soldiers and associates based in Greenwich Village.
Gigante quickly rose to power during the 1960s and 1970s, becoming the family’s de facto boss while Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno served as front boss during the first half of the…