Beginning in the 1960s, Vinnie "The Chin"
Gigante rose quickly through the ranks of the Genovese crime family, finally
being named boss in 1981 (commonly known as the "Oddfather"). Mob
bosses are notorious for evading conviction on the grounds that they're too
scary to testify against, but Gigante decided on a different approach. In 1969,
he began acting strangely -- puttering up and down his street in his robe and
slippers, having heated conversations with no one in particular, and pissing on
himself for good measure.
Granted, convincing people that you're nuts isn't exactly
rocket science. The really unbelievable thing about Gigante is that he played
the part of a total lunatic for over 30 years. Every day, even when he
wasn't under indictment, he'd roam around Greenwich Village, sometimes smoking
discarded cigarettes. Then he'd top his day off with a friendly pinochle game
between mobsters. As if this facade wasn't enough, he also committed himself to
the hospital 22 times between 1969 and 1990. With the help of his mother, who
claimed that his IQ was around 69, Gigante managed to convince the public, as
well as several judges, that he was unfit to stand trial by reason of total
crazypantsiosity.
Gigante's ruse was so convincing that he was declared
crazy by several prominent psychiatrists, including those hired by prosecutors.
At different times, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, dementia and
psychosis. His antics allowed him to delay his trial for racketeering charges
for seven years. When he was finally convicted in 1997, Gigante continued
acting like a nutcase to hide the fact that he was still running the Genovese
crime family from the inside of his prison cell.
Psychiatrist Dr. Eugene D'Adamo, who was Gigante's
"primary treating psychiatrist" saw him from 1973 to 1989 and stated
that, "he has been diagnosed since 1969 as suffering from schizophrenia,
paranoid type with acute exacerbation's which result in hospitalization."
His list of alleged mental illnesses later included Dementia pugilistica and Alzheimer's
Disease. He allegedly had to take daily medications for these illnesses, which
included prescriptions for Valium and Thorazine. Since 1969, D'Adamo reported
that Gigante had been treated on 20 different separate occasions for
psychiatric disorders at St. Vincent's Hospital in Harrison, New York. These
visitations all coincided with news of criminal indictments being handed down
against him. Psychologist and mental health workers said at his trial that from
1969 to 1995 he had been confirmed 28 times in hospitals for treatment of
hallucinations that he suffered from "dementia rooted in organic brain
damage." He had open heart surgery in 1998 and another cardiac operation
in 1996 before his racketeering trial. He allegedly was prescribed to take on a
day-to-day basis, 5 mg of Valium, 100 mg of Thorazine and 30 mg
of Dalmane.
Just to give you some impression of what means running
the mafia clan, according to federal and state investigators, each of the
family's 200 "made" or inducted soldiers and about 1,000 associates -
the name for others who voluntarily cooperate in illegal activities but who are
not sworn members -were obligated to funnel part of their loot to Mr. Gigante,
as much as $100 million a year in the early 1990's.
The family's fortune, the experts said, flowed largely
from a vast network of bookmaking and loansharking rings and from extortions of
construction companies in the New York City area seeking labor peace or
sweetheart contracts from carpenters, teamsters and laborers' unions that were
dominated by Mr. Gigante's lieutenants.
It wasn't until he was 75 that he finally admitted it was
all just a big con, and we presume this played out exactly like the final scene
in The Usual Suspects, as The Chin abandoned his crazy-walk in midstride, lit
up a cigarette and strutted away.
In April 2003, Mr. Gigante appeared before Judge I. Leo
Glasser in Federal District Court in Brooklyn and pleaded guilty to obstruction
of justice. Specifically, he acknowledged running a con on the legal system
that delayed his racketeering trial from 1990 to 1997 while his sanity was
being examined.
As part of the plea, three more years were added to his
prison term, but he avoided a lengthy trial on the other charges, which
amounted to an accusation - long denied or sidestepped by Mr. Gigante - that he
headed the Genovese organized crime family.
His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, offered the explanation
that "I think you get to a point in life - I think everyone does - where
you become too old and too sick and too tired to fight."
Mystery
The mystery remains. How did some of the most respected
minds in forensic psychiatry and neuropsychology -- including a prominent
Harvard psychiatrist, five past presidents of the American Academy of
Psychiatry and Law, and the man who invented the standard test for malingering,
get it wrong? For Mr. Gigante's 1997 trial and sentencing, at least six doctors
declared him mentally incompetent.
All the doctors who examined Mr. Gigante were asked if
there was any chance he was malingering. Most of them said no, noting that in
addition to his behavior, scans of his brain showed abnormalities in blood flow
consistent with vascular dementia.
So, what is it? Professional incompetence? Unlikely!
Money or threats? Maybe! Gigante was an excellent actor? Most likely!
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