October 3, 2024 • 46 mins
As the government closes in on Vincent Gigante, his carefully constructed facade of insanity begins to unravel, revealing the full scope of his influence and deception within the Mafia.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a
production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the criminal justice system, landmark trials transcend the courtroom
to reshape the law. The brave many women who investigate
and prosecute these cases are part of a select group
that has defined American history. These are their stories. Wednesday,
August twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six, Federal District Court, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
After six years of protracted legal battles, Vincent the Ciniganti,
the boss of the Genevese crime family, was declared mentally
competent to stand trial. His decades long odd Father act
deemed an elaborate deception.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Vinnie the Cinigante is sane enough to stand trial. That's
what a federal judge decided. The alleged mob boss will
face charge of murder and racketeering.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The judge ruled that Giganty's public display of bizarre behavior
was all part of a campaign of quote persistent malingering,
and that, with the help of relatives, he had feigned
mental illness for over twenty years as a means to
elude prosecution.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
For years, his lawyers have been saying he's insane, that
all he does is walk around outside in a bathrobe.
He must now appear in court next week.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
In the ten years since the Commission trial, Giganty had
been the only New York mob boss to escape imprisonment.
But after this dramatic nineteen ninety six competency hearing, the
tables were starting to turn.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The government's witnesses, cops and agents would document the movements
of a saying, at least according to them, Vincent Giganty.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
You're not with the mob because you want to be.
It's the gangster that decides whether y're his associated with.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
If you like your life, you will vote to acquit.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I'm Aniseega Nicolazzi.
Speaker 7 (02:07):
My father should have been a dead man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts. This is law and
order criminal justice system. In the years following the Commission trial,
Vincent Gigante had reached an almost mythical status among the
Five families. For most Gene's mobsters, it would have been
(02:31):
extremely rare to catch a glimpse of their reclusive boss,
let alone speak with him, unless, that is, you are
responsible for engineering something new, something that would generate millions
of dollars. That kind of juice could earn you a
seat at the table. Taking advantage of a government subsidy program.
A savvy Genovi's associate by the name of Pete Savino,
(02:55):
had developed a scheme involving windows. Savino rig bids for
the installation and replacement of windows throughout the city houses, buildings,
low rises, even skyscrapers. Much like the concrete racket. It
wasn't sexy, but it was extremely profitable and for the
(03:17):
next decade, netted the four participating families hundreds of millions
of dollars.
Speaker 8 (03:23):
The government claims that since nineteen seventy eight, the mob's
control of the bidding, manufacture, and installation of replacement windows
resulted in the mafia getting three fourths of the one
hundred and ninety one million dollar replacement window business in
city housing projects.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Savino had become a money making machine for the Genevies,
and his reward was something rare, indeed, the confidence of
the boss. He was granted the privilege of meeting with
Gigante dozens of times over the years, eating dinner together,
meeting his family, even gaining access to Gigante's exclusive village hangout,
(03:58):
the Triangle Club on Si Sulli Street. A rare feat
from your associate, But as Jim Kostler points out, that
privilege also came with its fair share of risk, and
nothing could be more frightening than answering a late night
summons from the boss.
Speaker 9 (04:16):
He got a phone call in the middle of the night,
two or three in the morning from Gigante's right hand
man telling him come to Sullivan Street right now, get
over here, right now.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So Vino had no choice but to obey. Given Gigante's reputation,
this might be a one way trip.
Speaker 9 (04:35):
Told his wife, I guess I'll never see you again.
This is it. He's called me to come over. I'd
probably be dead by morning. We haf to two. If
you're told, if you join that your life is in
the hands of the mob. But he did what he
was told, and he came over to Sullivan Street and
walked into the club. Gigante was sitting at the table,
(04:56):
and he goes over and Gigante takes out this catalog
and he says, see if you can get me three
pair of these sweatsuits, Oh my gosh. And he says, okay,
how get him? And he left and that's the kuy
The guy. He was scared his own people to death.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The fear he instilled in even his own men, including
favorites like Pete Savino, was critical to his unrivaled control.
Here's his daughter read it.
Speaker 10 (05:25):
Giganty, Vito Genovies and some of the others. They were
ruthless and they would kill someone at the drop of
a hat. My father was not that way, but he
was very strict on There was a servant code and
you had to follow the code, and if he didn't
follow the code, there were consequences, which is why.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
When Paul Castellano was killed in front of Spark Steakhouse
without commission approval, Giganty swore revenge against the men behind it,
namely John Gotti, and while Gotti was able to escape retribution,
his co conspirators were not so lucky. In other words,
Vincent Giganti was not a man you wanted to cross. Ever,
(06:07):
to even think about cooperating with law enforcement meant risking
your life and possibly that of your families. But in
nineteen eighty seven, that is exactly the dilemma Pete Savino
found himself in after the FBI connected him to six
drug related murders. Savino was given a simple ultimatum, agree
to cooperate or you're going to jail. Here's former FBI
(06:31):
agent might camp be Pete.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Savino became a cooperating witness on the Windows case, so
he was making recordings with regard to that whole window
installation generated millions and millions of dollars for all families.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Once the up and coming favorite of the Genevese Boss,
Savino was now his biggest threat and if caught, it
would likely cost him his life, but incredibly, wearing a
wire was a risk he was willing to take, though
there were some within the family who suspected that Savino
had flipped. As Mike can't be discovered in a bugged
(07:09):
conversation with a Genevie soldier.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
He was forewarned that Savino was a rat, and he
was trying to warn others to stay away from him,
but others, because of the money being generated in that industry,
they ignored it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Savino's Windows racket was a winner, and each of the
families had reason to protect it. But the real reason
Savino was still alive was simple. He was Giganti's guide,
and the Boss refused to believe he had been betrayed.
Speaker 10 (07:39):
He trusted a man that he shouldn't have trusted, and
everybody told him, but he didn't listen.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
In May of nineteen ninety, thanks in large part are
recorded conversations collected by Savino, fifteen mafia members from four
families were indicted on a Rico enterprise charge. Giganti was
arrested in his bathroom at his mother's apartment. Facing a trial,
it was time to see if Gigante's elaborate Insanity Act
(08:07):
would allow him to escape punishment for his crimes. Here's
prosecutor Andrew Weisman.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
He had been indicted, but he had been severed from
the case because there was this issue about whether he
was competent to go to trial.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Gigante's lawyers were quick to submit psychiatric evaluations, deeming Giganty
to be mentally unfit to stand trial. While the court
considered it's ruling on his sanity, Giganty was released on bond.
He returned to Greenwich Village and to his bathrobe to
run the wealthiest crime family in America.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
And so this whole case just sort of languished. He
was out on bail, and the case just sat there
with the idea that he was incompetent and couldn't go
to trial.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It was clear that Gigante's long con had worked. He
had designed a sanity stalemate that would last decades. But
other secrets could not be kept as long, and exposing
them would ultimately prove to be his downfall. In the
(09:20):
relentless investigation into Genevi's boss, Vincent Gigante, the FBI left
nostone unturned, but they weren't the only ones uncovering family
secrets about his double life.
Speaker 10 (09:32):
He did have another family, well, he had two other families.
He had the street family, and then he also had
another family that was living uptown.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Rita would learn all about her father's infidelity when she
was a teen. Despite all she knew about her dad,
it was this betrayal that was the most shocking and
most painful.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
The name of the woman is the same name as
my mother, which is unheard of because it's not a
common name, not at all. It's so bizarre.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Vincent Giganty had a wife named Olympia in New Jersey.
He also had a girlfriend who you can't make this up,
was named Olympia.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Coincidence maybe, But when it came to the odd father
people were convinced that the Genevese boss left nothing to chance.
Here's former prosecutor, Guilt Childers.
Speaker 11 (10:24):
I thought that was the biggest piece of information that
showed he wasn't nuts. He was very smart. He couldn't
get the name wrong no matter which woman he was with.
His mistress was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,
who he would spend more time with than actually his
wife generally.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
According to Rita, Giganti's betrayal took a very heavy toll
on her mom.
Speaker 10 (10:46):
My mom also experienced a lot of depression and anxiety.
They put her on valume at age thirty seven because
of the anxiety attacks that she was having because she
felt ashamed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
In addition to Olympia's five children, the other Olympia, Borgia Gante,
two daughters and a son, Rita's mother had known about
his second family for years, and along with as many
other lies and crimes, she bore the burden of the
secret until one day when she finally couldn't hold it
in any longer and confided in her youngest daughter.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
I was like, no way, I just did not see
my father as this guy.
Speaker 10 (11:24):
I don't know why it runs in that whole gamut
of the world that he ran in, and yet I
did not see him as this man.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
I just looked at her, like, what are we doing here?
Why are you still doing this? Like get out, you know,
like leave.
Speaker 10 (11:40):
And I think the most she lasted was maybe three weeks,
and then she softened and missed him and went back
to it. And I had to come to the realization
that this is who she was. I had to accept that,
and eventually I just stopped trying to help or make
her see things a certain way, because I knew she
was never walking away.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
For years, the FBI's Genov squad had been trying to
keep taps on the Boss, but tailing him was no
easy feat. Every night, his chauffeur engaged in dangerous street
racing tactics, weaving his Cadillac through one way streets the
wrong way, ignoring speed limits, and blowing through red lights.
(12:21):
But he had one routine that was regular as clockwork,
his visits uptown to the other Olympia. Eventually, the squad
managed to follow him to the townhouse, and what they
witnessed would prove to be the first chink in the
Boss's armor.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Jigante was observed walking or being driven to his usual
neighborhood haunts, the Triangle Club on Sullivan Street or the
Upper east Side townhouse of his longtime girlfriend Olympia Esposito.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
The surveillances would have him walking around the streets in
his bathrobe doing all these crazy things, and then around
eleven o'clock or midnight, he'd come out of the residence,
not dressed in a bathrobe, but dressed in clothes, sometimes
stepping out clothes and going up to his mistress and
doing other things, acting like a normal person, I suppose
to his daytime stick.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
When Gigante was uptown, the enigma in a bathrobe would
drop the act and put on a whole new persona.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
The cop testify that Giganti walked on assisted had numerous
conversations contradicting the claim that Giganti is a paranoid schizophrenic
who needs constant attention.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
For the FBI, it was proof that Giganti was not
just a liar or a philanderer, but that he was
more than capable of standing trial and answering to his
many crimes. For his daughter Rita. The revelations about his
secret family proved to be a tipping point in her
own life.
Speaker 10 (13:49):
I started to realize at a certain age that I
didn't believe all the things they were telling me about family,
about the Catholic religion and.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
All of that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
In the midst her family chaos, Rita turned inward and
revealed a secret of her own.
Speaker 10 (14:05):
I knew at a very young age that I was gay,
and I also knew I couldn't speak to anybody about it,
although they all knew, but nobody wanted to talk about it,
and I was too afraid to come and talk about it.
So the more I didn't talk about my own truth,
the more sick I got. It's like, you either sacrifice
yourself for the family and not have a life, or
(14:25):
you make changes and you create a life for yourself.
And physically, my body was always telling me something's got
to change. At nineteen, I'm realizing there's so many secrets.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
That went on in this family. I don't want to
carry any secrets.
Speaker 10 (14:38):
It's not who I am. So I was like, Okay,
I'm going to do it. I'm going to just tell them.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Rito was terrified, but she knew it was time.
Speaker 10 (14:49):
My father was visiting New Jersey at the time, and
I'm a wreck I'm shaking, my hands are sweating, you know,
my whole body's like forget it. But I knocked on
the door and I said, can I come in? I
really want to talk. They sat me down and they said,
what is it.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
You look upset? What's going on?
Speaker 10 (15:04):
Very simply, I said, I like women, I says, I've
always felt this connection. I said, and I really wanted
to just tell you.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
And all of a sudden, I saw their faces.
Speaker 10 (15:15):
Right, it was like disbelief that I was actually saying it.
My mother, especially because I said it in front of
my father. I don't think she ever thought I would
have the bulls to do it. And I was like,
oh shit, oh god, if I could just pull the
good words back of my mouth and not said anything.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
After an excruciating silence, Rita looked to her mother for support,
but none came.
Speaker 10 (15:40):
She just looked at him, and all of a sudden,
this calm came over him. I knew I was finished
after this, and he said to me, you know what,
all kids your age go through this. It's okay, You're
just experimenting. I shut down after that because I knew
he could not accept it. The minute he finished the
(16:02):
first line I just shut down and said, you know what,
You're right, I'm just going through something.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
I said, thank you.
Speaker 10 (16:10):
I got up and I walked out and I just
went into my room assopped because I couldn't follow through.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
In Vincent Gigante's world, there was just no place for
the truth. Survival had meant a lifetime of deception, but
his house of cards was about to come crashing down,
and my Campy was poised to knock the foundation right
out from under him.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
My focus was like, Okay, who's the next power base?
And if chin gets wrapped up in my case because
somebody wants to cooperate, I'll deal with it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Then Campy and his fellow FEDS took aim at some
of Gigante's underlings, a roster of kappos and underbosses.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
My pursuit was the acting administration. Jimmy Ida at that
time was the consigliere, and you had Barney Bolomo as
the acting boss and Mickey Domino is the acting Hunter Boss.
And there was a social club at one Sevenue, one
Mulberry Street controlled by Jimmy Ida at the time. It
took a while for me to have a title three
(17:17):
or bugs installed in that social club, but every day
they're discussing crime.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And if Giganti proved elusive, his brain trust proved to
be anything. But their meetings provided the Feds with investigative gold,
including the moment when one of their own, an associate
named Ralph D. Simone, was singled out for elimination.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
When you're proposed for induction, that would also have to
be coordinated with Chin And when Ralph D. Simone's name
was passed around, the Lukeesi family identified him as being
a rat and Mickey Domino made a gesture with his
hand like a gun, saying we'll handle it. And it
was like a week or so later DeSimone, who was dead.
(18:00):
He was found in the trunk of a car at
in the airport.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was more than enough evidence for prosecutors to work with,
and with their next round of arrests, law enforcement delivered
a massive blow to the Genovese organization.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
In New York, federal agents say for their first time
they cracked the top tier of the reputed Genevieve's crime family.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Among eighteen people.
Speaker 9 (18:23):
Under arrest is Barney Bellomo, the Mom's alleged number two.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
This indictment took down the genevese acting boss under a boss,
and sixteen other members for a slew of rico charges.
Gigante's power base was eroding. His insanity bluff had been called.
The FEDS also had three new defectors with intimate knowledge
of the at father's past, giving the courts an opportunity
(18:48):
to rebuild the Windows case. So the Eastern District appointed
Deputy Chief Andrew Weisman to breathe new life into the
long dormant case.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
The two prosecutors of the case had since left the office,
so it got reassigned to me and my colleague, George
stan Bealitis. He and I had tried a whole slew
of Columbus cases together. Obviously it was flattering to be
given the case in the sense that it's the boss
(19:19):
of incredibly powerful family. But the case had been languishing
and we didn't know anything about its merits. We didn't
know anything about the witnesses.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
You know.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
It was a little bit of a mixed blessing when
we first heard it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Despite the nerves that come with a high profile case,
Andrew and his trial partner George were up for the task.
But before heading into court, the first turtle to jump
was convincing a judge what they already knew that Vincent
Gigante was mentally fit to stand trial.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
No judge had decided that issue. So our biggest issue
when we first got the case was what is the
proof that he's in competent or competent. We had this
competency hearing. It lasted many months, lots of medical testimony.
We had our own medical expert. We also had the
defense's expert.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The competency hearing was a culmination of years of back
and forth legal wrangling stemming from Giganti's first indictment back
in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
So the evidence that was presented by the defense was
that Vincent Giganti it was basically a vegetable. For the
last twenty five years. He couldn't read, he couldn't count,
and his condition had stayed the same. We then presented
our own evidence through cooperating witnesses who said at the
time that you had just heard he was supposed to
(20:44):
be a vegetable. He was having conversations with him. We
had Pizzaviino within the Genevese family, Salvato Garvano from the
Gambino family. He had had interactions personally in commission meetings
with Vincent Scanty, so we had cooperating withnesses who could
talk about the fact that he was not incompetent, but
(21:05):
that would require the judge to believe our cooperating witnesses.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
A common line of defense for Gigante's lawyers was if
throughout these gangsters' lives they would lie, cheat, and steal,
how could you possibly believe them. Now, we had.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
A really fantastic piece of evidence that put this entire
issue to bed. One day, I'm sitting in my office
and I remember an agent in the Columbus squad came
in and said, well, I assume you're going to call
Charlie Bodwin in your competency hearing, and I'm like, what's
a Charlie Bodwin. Charlie Bodwin was an FBI agent with
(21:43):
very good eyesight who was on the Genevies squad and
years earlier, the FBI wanted to go up on a
bug in this townhouse that Vince Scanty lived in from
time to time with his girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
To get a wire tap, approved, agents had to show
probable cause that illegal activity was occurring in the townhouse,
which they did not have so the government went old
school and used street surveillance.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Charlie Bodwin's job for about three months was to at
night go to the townhouses on the back side of
that street and look into the back of the townhouse
with a patent pencil and just record what he was seeing.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And what the surveillance team observed was not the bumbling
odd father of Greenwich Village.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I remember Charlie when he came to my office was saying,
I don't know that this is going to help you.
I didn't see anything criminal, and I said, don't worry
about that. Tell me what kind of things you saw,
and he's like, well, you know, he was talking to people,
he was reading the newspaper, he was counting.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Money, hardly the activities of a man in a vegetative state.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
He was doing things that were completely inconsistent with what
the defense doctor said it and we had already got
the defense doctors to agree that if he could do
those things, they had been fooled. So we put him
on in the competency hearing and it was basically game
over because not only was a very credible witness, but
he had contemporaneous notes.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You had to record all of this in court, Gigante's
defense attorney tried to undermine this surveillance agent's credibility unsuccessfully.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Barry Slotnik, who was representing Vincent Scanty at the time,
went to the back of the courtroom and said, is
this about how far the distance was? And I remember
Charlie going, yeah, it's about right, like thirty yards away.
And I remember Judge Nickerson then putting on the record
exactly how big the courtroom is, and Charlie was only
like a foot off. He kept on digging and making
(23:48):
it worse because Barry then held up a US note
to see whether Charlie could see what it is, and
he holds up this bill. I couldn't see it. Charlie goes, oh, yeah,
that's a twenty dollars bill. Back of the courtroom and
Charlie's on the witness stand and Judge Nickerson goes, mister Slotnick,
come up here. We're going to mark that as an exhibit.
(24:10):
It's very slot that thinks, okay, maybe he just got lucky,
and he tries it again and goes, what's this and
he goes, that's a five dollar bill, And at some
point Judge Nickerson goes mister Slotnick how much money are
you going to lose? It was just devastating. So the
judge ruled that he was competent, so we were off
(24:31):
to the races in terms of then preparing the case
for trial.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
There was just one more hitch. Giganty was scheduled for
heart valve replacement surgery and the trial wouldn't be able
to start for another year, pending his recovery. According to Rita,
this wasn't another charade, and although she wouldn't put it
past him, her father's heart condition was real.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
We saw him before he actually went in for the
heart surgery, we saw him in the hospital when he
was recovering. But then he decided to go stay with
the other family.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Just a few weeks before the trial was finally set
to start, Giganty and his defense team took one last
shot at proving his incompetency, but this time around they
crossed a line.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
A new application comes in saying that their client has
advanced Alzheimer's, to which I still want to Judge Nickerson saying,
and you just noticed you don't just happen to get
advanced Alzheimer's. Judge Nickerson decides that he just could not
deal with hearing evidence about that because his wife at
(25:44):
the time had advanced Alzheimer's.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Which is a brutal disease.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Brutal and brutal. To watch somebody you love going through that,
I think it's a very very hard decision for Judge Nickerson,
and I think he just could not put himself through it.
So the case got reassigned to Judge Weinstein, who the
two of them had known each other for decades. We
(26:09):
go to court the first appearance before Judge Weinstein and
he says, okay, would the defense like to be heard
on the motion with respect to his condition? And they said, Judge,
are we withdraw that?
Speaker 13 (26:23):
What?
Speaker 12 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
I mean it was so despicable. George Weinstein says, okay,
is there anything else from the defense? No, your honor, okay,
the defendant is remanded.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Getting remanded means being imprisoned while waiting for the trial.
The defense may have caused one judge to voluntarily leave
the case, but the rules of law would prevail and
the case moved forward without further delays. The trial e
Vincent Giguanty would finally begin, and the list of charges
against him was formidable Giganty faced charge charges that included
(27:01):
being the boss of the Genevese crime family, the windows
extortion racket, authorizing six murders in Philadelphia, and the attempted
murder of John Gottie for his daughter Rita. Gigante's criminal
resume was staggering.
Speaker 10 (27:17):
They had a list. I remember reading the list and
I remember thinking, holy shit.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
It was just.
Speaker 10 (27:24):
Unbelievable for me to actually say, Wow, he did all
of this, even if he didn't pull a trigger.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
He gave an order to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
On June twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven, seven years after
the original indictment, court came to order in the trial
of Geneve's boss, Vincent Gigante.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
I still remember the first day of the actual criminal
trial of friend of a jury. He showed up and
wheelchair and to Kane and they placed him right in
front of the jury. We started the trial by putting
on all the evidence that he was faking. By day three,
they had him as far away from the jury as possible.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It became apparent that his insanity act was losing steam,
but there was no turning back now. Day in and
day out, Gigante stared blankly into space, mumbling to himself
as the prosecution played tapes of multiple mobsters, including John Gotti,
identifying him as the boss. But the biggest hurdle for
(28:34):
the prosecution remained the fact that Giganty himself was never
caught on a recording. According to co operator Piete Savino,
it was because Gigante was so careful when they needed
to talk business. The Boss would take him into the bathroom,
turn on the water faucet, and whisper into his ear.
Andrew would have to convince the jury of Gigante's guilt
(28:58):
without the proverbial smoking gun.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Miles of audio tapes, some barely audible, that was secretly
recorded by the FBI at mob clubs contain obscure references
to the chin, but so far, not one agent has
admitted hearing Gigante's voice on tape or observing him in
the vicinity of their surveillances.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
One of the strongest pieces of evidence came from a
recording made from Savino's wire when he was meeting with
Gigante's underboss Benny Eggs Mgano. Before that fateful meeting, Savino's
FBI handler asked him to purposely break a Genovie's cardinal rule.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
We had him mention Vincent's name. He did that, and
then what we got on tape was Mengano saying, don't
ever do that. That's a violation. That was really good
evidence that it was sort of useful as establishing his
role and this rule in the organized crime family.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Next came the star witnesses. First up was the former
Lucia underboss Al Diarco.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Al Diarco, he came in because people in his family
thought that he was cooperating when he wasn't, and there
were efforts underway to kill him because of that. He
was like, these people are so despicable. I wasn't a rat,
but now I was being called a rat. Those were
his words, and he's just like, that's it. I'm done.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
On the stand, Diarco's candor about the mafia proved invaluable
to the prosecution's case. Asked what the mob would do
with somebody that was mentally incompetent, Diarco didn't mince words.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
He said, oh, we would have killed them. And we're
like why, and he said, we couldn't take the risk
that they would go to the police or they'd say
something that would implicate people, especially somebody who was a leader,
who would know all of those secrets. And I remember
looking over in one of the jurors was writing that
down and I thought, Okay, that's a good sign.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
To Gante's attorneys attempted to discredit to your go by
highlighting his long list of past crimes.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Altiarca. I think was so hard to cross examine because
he was so open about who he was and what
he regretted in his life. Very very good defense lawyer
Gus Newman kept on going over all of the things
he'd done, and who was like, you murdered this person,
you murdered that person, You did these awful things. So
of course he's admitting everything. And I looked over at
the jury and the jury looked bored as hell. They
(31:26):
were like, we know he was the acting boss of
the Ukasey family. None of this is surprising.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Ever since the commission trial, the mafias sworn oath of silence,
Omerta had been slowly eroding, and as the FBI closed in,
mobsters like Diarco and Savina were opting for self preservation
over loyalty to the family, and there was perhaps no
bigger turncoat than the one about to take the stand.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
My name is Salvatore Gravano. I became a made member
of the Gambino family in nineteen six. At that time,
pol Castellano was the boss of the Gambino family. John
Gotti I, along with some others, murdered Pole Castellano. We
took over the family. I decided to cooperate before we
went to trial.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Sammy the Bull Gravano was a Gambino underboss and a
newly minted media darling due to his testimony in John
Gotti's trial five years before.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Federal prosecutor said they planned to call Sammy the Bull
Gravano to the stand to testify against the Gin. He's
the mob rat whose testimony said John Gotti away for life.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Gravano was scheduled to fly in the night before he testified,
leaving Andrew very little time to prepare his witness.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
There was a huge storm. Sammy was late coming into
the city because of the storm. I ended up with
about one hour to meet with Sammy to go over
what questions they're going to ask him. But once Sammy's
on the stand, he was an extremely effective, good witness.
Say he was completely candidate about organized crime, about the
(33:07):
life he was in, and didn't make excuses for it
at all.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Gravano told a jury that he first met Fitza Gigante
in nineteen seventy six. According to Gravano, although the chin
was unshaven and wore pajamas in a row at this meeting,
he spoke normally.
Speaker 10 (33:22):
Sammy the Bull testified. All these people are testified. They
turned state seven as they rated all of this. These
are people that are walking around that murdered thirty thirty
five people. You know, like, how do I understand? Like
what makes that okay? It still doesn't sit right with me.
They all did what they did. But you're going to
let one go because he gives you this one. That's
just how it went. That's how they did it.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Giganti is charged with six murders and conspiracy to commit
several others. The star witness against him is Sammy the
Bull Gravano, an admitted killer of nineteen people.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
You're a Jura, you're listening to this and say, wait
a minute. Here's a guy who did nineteen homicides and.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
He's accusing this guy won and he's on the streets
and they want to pull him in.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Darco and Gravano were high ranking mobsters, pointing the finger
at Gigante as the boss of bosses, but it was
Pete Savino, the low level Genevie's associate, whose testimony proved
most compelling.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
He was dying. He would really wanted to testify, but
by the time this case went to trial, he was
in a hospital. The doctors would not let him travel.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Savino was bedridden with cancer and could barely speak. So
prosecutors came up with an innovative idea.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
Remember this is nineteen ninety seven. There was no zoom,
that technology didn't exist, and we proposed to the court
that there be a closed circuit television where there would
be a camera on Peter Savino in his hospital. A
defense lawyer and a prosecutor would be there. They would
bring exhibits and things that they wanted to show him
(35:00):
and that would get beamed into the courtroom, and there
were television sets all around the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
In an attempt to avoid sympathy end level the playing
field for the defense, Judge Weinstein gave the prosecution a
strict directive.
Speaker 6 (35:16):
We were not allowed to tell the jury that Peter
Savina was dying. That judge said it would be too prejudicial,
and what he meant by that was it would be
too damning that he was clearly telling the truth, you know,
if he was about to die, Like, why would you
lie about this?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Savino suffered through questioning and did very well, but he
constantly needed breaks. He appeared a shadow of his former self,
but with his image projected throughout the courtroom, he delivered
the final blow against Gigante.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
I remember Peter was wearing a red shirt, and so
all around the room there were these screens with this
bright red shirt. He looked terrible, drunk down his testimony
to be as concise as possible. At every break, I
just remember the judge going, you have to go faster.
At lunchtime, he goes, you need to end your direct
(36:11):
We need to get to cross. This witness cannot go past.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Today Savino became the most convincing witness of the trial.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Peter was so happy that he was able to do
this because he had been living with us for so long.
He wanted to do it before he died, and within
a month after the verdict he was dead.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Andrew made sure the jury understood the full measure of
the reco charge, and.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
I remember making that point insummation and saying, don't let
a boss get off just because he wasn't at the
scene of the crime. That is the advantage of being
the boss.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
But as the defense was quick to point out, how
could the government prosecute Deganty as the boss, insisting that
fat Tony Salerno was the boss. During the commission trial
twelve years before, Andrew decided to address the issue head on.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
And I said, look, at the time that that happened,
Sammy Gravano was not a cooperating witness. Aldi Arco was
not a cooperating witness. Peter Savina was not a cooperating witness.
They didn't have these tape recordings. But that's not really
what's going on. You know what is absolutely true. The
government does make mistakes. No one's going to sit here
and tell you the government doesn't get things wrong. But
(37:31):
you have seen all of the evidence. I just explained
that to the jury. We had such a good jury,
they were so smart, it didn't cause them any concern
at all. And I do think that's a real lesson
of don't hide from issues and just be straight with
the jury and trust their intelligence.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Concluding a month long trial, the anonymous jury filed into
the jury room for deliberations, and after three days they
returned with a verdict.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
When the jury comes out, you can tell there's a
conviction because I have noticed that the jury is more
dressed up on the day of the verdict, which always
to me is a sort of sign of the solemnity,
And they don't look at the defendant as they're walking out,
so you have a very good tell on both fronts.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Giganty rolled his eyes as the fore women announced the verdict.
He was found guilty for his role as boss of
the Genopes family, for the window scheme and conspiring to
murder his rival John Gottie, but he was acquitted for
the six Philadelphia gangland murders, which proved to be little consolation.
After decades of unimpeded criminal Tyranny Vincent the Jin Giganty
(38:46):
was finally brought to bay, and while grateful that justice
was served, many had to tip their hats out of
respect for the odd father, including James Leonard.
Speaker 13 (38:58):
His run was absolutely legendary. The matter in which he
fooled the FBI and the matter in which he evaded
the criminal justice system for decades.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
There's a guy.
Speaker 13 (39:13):
If there is a mount rushmore of gangsters, that should
be the first face etched into it. Vincent the Chin Gigante,
absolutely Hall of Fame gangster.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
After a lifetime of lies, Rita Giganty had vowed to
never go to the uptown home of her father's mistress,
but in the end, she did visit the townhouse once
where she saw her ailing father for the very last time.
Speaker 10 (39:45):
One time, my mother begged me to go and see
him before they put him away. So I went once
to their townhouse. I would not go unless I knew
nobody was home, especially the other woman, because I would
never disrespect my mother.
Speaker 7 (39:59):
But I went to visit him there After that.
Speaker 10 (40:01):
It was letters that went back and forth, or sometimes
he would call on the phone and it would be
like when I was a kid, how do you feel?
Speaker 7 (40:09):
How's your mother to carry your mother? That would be it.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
With all the bizarre happenings brought by the Gigante saga,
it wouldn't be complete without one more surprise, which came
at his sentencing.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Jech Weinstein at sentencing did something a little odd. Vincent
Giganti was relatively old at the time, but not ancient
did judge sort of looked at the actuarial tables and
based his sentence off of that and gave him.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Twelve years, Calling Giganty an inveterate gangster who committed his
life to crime and not getting caught dodging legal bullets
left and right. The sixty nine year old head of
the Genovies crime family, the most powerful mobster in the nation,
was sentenced to twelve years in jail and a one
and a quarter million dollar fine.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
But the sense that was called for was life, So
I disagreed with him on the sentence in the Eastern
District of New York, though out of respect for the
role of the court and sentencing, we were trained that
that is a court function. Our job was to present
the evidence, but we did not take a position on
(41:20):
what sentence should be given by the court.
Speaker 10 (41:24):
The surprise was twelve years. We thought definitely he was
going in for life. Everybody was like, oh my god,
he could still get out. You know, we never thought
we would getting a gift like that.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Despite the short sentence, Andrew was proud of what they'd
achieved and grateful he'd been chosen for the task.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
I don't know that there's anybody who's been an assistant
the United States Attorney who doesn't say the same thing
about the first time you stand up in front of
a jury and you say, my name is Andrew Weisman,
I represent the United States, that you don't feel to
your core the enormous privilege and responsibility that comes with
(42:04):
that statement.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
As the years continued to pass, Rita slowly became ready
to live life on her own terms.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
Not until I was twenty four did I actually fully
come into my own where that was concerned.
Speaker 7 (42:21):
I had to make the choice.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
If I could have stayed in that victim energy and
said this is what they did to me, this is
why I am who I am today and hold on
to that, or I could have chosen to move forward,
and that's what I did. I went to my mother
and I said, you could tell him. They don't have
to tell him. I says, I don't want to speak
to him about it. I said, but this is my
life and I'm living it. She hugged me and she
(42:44):
said she understood, although she prayed every day that I
would change my ways because she.
Speaker 7 (42:49):
Was so afraid of my soul. That's what it was.
Speaker 10 (42:51):
She was so embedded in the Catholic religion and all
of that that she was more afraid of my soul
than she was anything. And she loved everyone that came
into me life. All the women that came into my
life she loved, and my wife being the last that
she know, just adored her.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Reflecting on her father's half century climb from the streets
little Italy to the top seat on the Mafia Commission,
Rita couldn't help but wonder what it was all for.
Speaker 10 (43:19):
You know, he was always looking over his shoulder. I mean,
the man went on vacation once in his life, on
his honeymoon, three weeks and that was the end of it.
Speaker 7 (43:26):
They went to Florida, came home.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
He never left, which is interesting because he had so
much money.
Speaker 10 (43:31):
Well, the money never matted as much as the power.
Money was his way of keeping people close and being
able to manipulate them. But to have that kind of
power that he wielded, the ego just immediately took over.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
It was an ego that earned him millions of dollars,
respect from the criminal underworld and a prison sentence that
would keep him locked away for the rest of his life.
But there was still some fight left the seventy year
old mobster, and rumor had it that Giganti was determined
to run the Genovese family from behind bars, with his
own son serving as his intermediary. But there was someone
(44:12):
else poised to take Giganti's crown, a man who had
been steadily amassing power for over a decade, the very
man who helped orchestrate the nineteen seventy nine slang of
Carmine Galante. His name was Joe Messino, and in time
he would be known as the last down.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Next time on Law and Order Criminal Justice System.
Speaker 7 (44:43):
They needed something to keep him there, otherwise he was
getting out.
Speaker 6 (44:46):
We ended up bringing a second charge against Gigante for
lying repeatedly about his mental condition. The bananas were an
absolute mess. To put it buoyantly, they had had problems
going back to the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
The gun was so close to Durso's head, at the
speed of the bullet, as soon as it hit the
scullt came down his.
Speaker 6 (45:07):
Neck, everybody knew there was a lot more to it
than just some guy got shot in the social club.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Law and Order Criminal Justice System is a production of
Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts Our host is Anna Sega Nicolazi.
This episode was written by Chandler Mays and Anna Sega Nicolazi.
Executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliott Wolf, and Stephen Michael
at Wolf Entertainment on behalf of iHeartRadio. Executive produced by
(45:41):
Alex Williams and Matt Frederick, with supervising producers Trevor Young
and Chandler Mays and producers Jesse Funk, Noms Griffin, and
Rima Alkali. This season is executive produced by Anna Sega Nicolazi,
story producer Walker Lamond. Our researchers are Caroline Talmadge and
(46:03):
Luke's Dents. Editing and sound designed by Jesse Funk. Original
music by John O'Hara, original theme by Mike Post, additional
music by Steve Moore, and additional voice over by me
Steve Zernkelton. Special thanks to Fox five in New York,
(46:23):
A b C and CBS for providing archival material for
the show. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Wolf Entertainment,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a
production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the criminal justice system, landmark trials transcend the courtroom
to reshape the law. The brave many women who investigate
and prosecute these cases are part of a select group
that has defined American history. These are their stories. Wednesday,
August twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six, Federal District Court, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
After six years of protracted legal battles, Vincent the Ciniganti,
the boss of the Genevese crime family, was declared mentally
competent to stand trial. His decades long odd Father act
deemed an elaborate deception.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Vinnie the Cinigante is sane enough to stand trial. That's
what a federal judge decided. The alleged mob boss will
face charge of murder and racketeering.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The judge ruled that Giganty's public display of bizarre behavior
was all part of a campaign of quote persistent malingering,
and that, with the help of relatives, he had feigned
mental illness for over twenty years as a means to
elude prosecution.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
For years, his lawyers have been saying he's insane, that
all he does is walk around outside in a bathrobe.
He must now appear in court next week.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
In the ten years since the Commission trial, Giganty had
been the only New York mob boss to escape imprisonment.
But after this dramatic nineteen ninety six competency hearing, the
tables were starting to turn.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The government's witnesses, cops and agents would document the movements
of a saying, at least according to them, Vincent Giganty.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
You're not with the mob because you want to be.
It's the gangster that decides whether y're his associated with.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
If you like your life, you will vote to acquit.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I'm Aniseega Nicolazzi.
Speaker 7 (02:07):
My father should have been a dead man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts. This is law and
order criminal justice system. In the years following the Commission trial,
Vincent Gigante had reached an almost mythical status among the
Five families. For most Gene's mobsters, it would have been
(02:31):
extremely rare to catch a glimpse of their reclusive boss,
let alone speak with him, unless, that is, you are
responsible for engineering something new, something that would generate millions
of dollars. That kind of juice could earn you a
seat at the table. Taking advantage of a government subsidy program.
A savvy Genovi's associate by the name of Pete Savino,
(02:55):
had developed a scheme involving windows. Savino rig bids for
the installation and replacement of windows throughout the city houses, buildings,
low rises, even skyscrapers. Much like the concrete racket. It
wasn't sexy, but it was extremely profitable and for the
(03:17):
next decade, netted the four participating families hundreds of millions
of dollars.
Speaker 8 (03:23):
The government claims that since nineteen seventy eight, the mob's
control of the bidding, manufacture, and installation of replacement windows
resulted in the mafia getting three fourths of the one
hundred and ninety one million dollar replacement window business in
city housing projects.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Savino had become a money making machine for the Genevies,
and his reward was something rare, indeed, the confidence of
the boss. He was granted the privilege of meeting with
Gigante dozens of times over the years, eating dinner together,
meeting his family, even gaining access to Gigante's exclusive village hangout,
(03:58):
the Triangle Club on Si Sulli Street. A rare feat
from your associate, But as Jim Kostler points out, that
privilege also came with its fair share of risk, and
nothing could be more frightening than answering a late night
summons from the boss.
Speaker 9 (04:16):
He got a phone call in the middle of the night,
two or three in the morning from Gigante's right hand
man telling him come to Sullivan Street right now, get
over here, right now.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So Vino had no choice but to obey. Given Gigante's reputation,
this might be a one way trip.
Speaker 9 (04:35):
Told his wife, I guess I'll never see you again.
This is it. He's called me to come over. I'd
probably be dead by morning. We haf to two. If
you're told, if you join that your life is in
the hands of the mob. But he did what he
was told, and he came over to Sullivan Street and
walked into the club. Gigante was sitting at the table,
(04:56):
and he goes over and Gigante takes out this catalog
and he says, see if you can get me three
pair of these sweatsuits, Oh my gosh. And he says, okay,
how get him? And he left and that's the kuy
The guy. He was scared his own people to death.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The fear he instilled in even his own men, including
favorites like Pete Savino, was critical to his unrivaled control.
Here's his daughter read it.
Speaker 10 (05:25):
Giganty, Vito Genovies and some of the others. They were
ruthless and they would kill someone at the drop of
a hat. My father was not that way, but he
was very strict on There was a servant code and
you had to follow the code, and if he didn't
follow the code, there were consequences, which is why.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
When Paul Castellano was killed in front of Spark Steakhouse
without commission approval, Giganty swore revenge against the men behind it,
namely John Gotti, and while Gotti was able to escape retribution,
his co conspirators were not so lucky. In other words,
Vincent Giganti was not a man you wanted to cross. Ever,
(06:07):
to even think about cooperating with law enforcement meant risking
your life and possibly that of your families. But in
nineteen eighty seven, that is exactly the dilemma Pete Savino
found himself in after the FBI connected him to six
drug related murders. Savino was given a simple ultimatum, agree
to cooperate or you're going to jail. Here's former FBI
(06:31):
agent might camp be Pete.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Savino became a cooperating witness on the Windows case, so
he was making recordings with regard to that whole window
installation generated millions and millions of dollars for all families.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Once the up and coming favorite of the Genevese Boss,
Savino was now his biggest threat and if caught, it
would likely cost him his life, but incredibly, wearing a
wire was a risk he was willing to take, though
there were some within the family who suspected that Savino
had flipped. As Mike can't be discovered in a bugged
(07:09):
conversation with a Genevie soldier.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
He was forewarned that Savino was a rat, and he
was trying to warn others to stay away from him,
but others, because of the money being generated in that industry,
they ignored it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Savino's Windows racket was a winner, and each of the
families had reason to protect it. But the real reason
Savino was still alive was simple. He was Giganti's guide,
and the Boss refused to believe he had been betrayed.
Speaker 10 (07:39):
He trusted a man that he shouldn't have trusted, and
everybody told him, but he didn't listen.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
In May of nineteen ninety, thanks in large part are
recorded conversations collected by Savino, fifteen mafia members from four
families were indicted on a Rico enterprise charge. Giganti was
arrested in his bathroom at his mother's apartment. Facing a trial,
it was time to see if Gigante's elaborate Insanity Act
(08:07):
would allow him to escape punishment for his crimes. Here's
prosecutor Andrew Weisman.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
He had been indicted, but he had been severed from
the case because there was this issue about whether he
was competent to go to trial.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Gigante's lawyers were quick to submit psychiatric evaluations, deeming Giganty
to be mentally unfit to stand trial. While the court
considered it's ruling on his sanity, Giganty was released on bond.
He returned to Greenwich Village and to his bathrobe to
run the wealthiest crime family in America.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
And so this whole case just sort of languished. He
was out on bail, and the case just sat there
with the idea that he was incompetent and couldn't go
to trial.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It was clear that Gigante's long con had worked. He
had designed a sanity stalemate that would last decades. But
other secrets could not be kept as long, and exposing
them would ultimately prove to be his downfall. In the
(09:20):
relentless investigation into Genevi's boss, Vincent Gigante, the FBI left
nostone unturned, but they weren't the only ones uncovering family
secrets about his double life.
Speaker 10 (09:32):
He did have another family, well, he had two other families.
He had the street family, and then he also had
another family that was living uptown.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Rita would learn all about her father's infidelity when she
was a teen. Despite all she knew about her dad,
it was this betrayal that was the most shocking and
most painful.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
The name of the woman is the same name as
my mother, which is unheard of because it's not a
common name, not at all. It's so bizarre.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Vincent Giganty had a wife named Olympia in New Jersey.
He also had a girlfriend who you can't make this up,
was named Olympia.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Coincidence maybe, But when it came to the odd father
people were convinced that the Genevese boss left nothing to chance.
Here's former prosecutor, Guilt Childers.
Speaker 11 (10:24):
I thought that was the biggest piece of information that
showed he wasn't nuts. He was very smart. He couldn't
get the name wrong no matter which woman he was with.
His mistress was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,
who he would spend more time with than actually his
wife generally.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
According to Rita, Giganti's betrayal took a very heavy toll
on her mom.
Speaker 10 (10:46):
My mom also experienced a lot of depression and anxiety.
They put her on valume at age thirty seven because
of the anxiety attacks that she was having because she
felt ashamed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
In addition to Olympia's five children, the other Olympia, Borgia Gante,
two daughters and a son, Rita's mother had known about
his second family for years, and along with as many
other lies and crimes, she bore the burden of the
secret until one day when she finally couldn't hold it
in any longer and confided in her youngest daughter.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
I was like, no way, I just did not see
my father as this guy.
Speaker 10 (11:24):
I don't know why it runs in that whole gamut
of the world that he ran in, and yet I
did not see him as this man.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
I just looked at her, like, what are we doing here?
Why are you still doing this? Like get out, you know,
like leave.
Speaker 10 (11:40):
And I think the most she lasted was maybe three weeks,
and then she softened and missed him and went back
to it. And I had to come to the realization
that this is who she was. I had to accept that,
and eventually I just stopped trying to help or make
her see things a certain way, because I knew she
was never walking away.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
For years, the FBI's Genov squad had been trying to
keep taps on the Boss, but tailing him was no
easy feat. Every night, his chauffeur engaged in dangerous street
racing tactics, weaving his Cadillac through one way streets the
wrong way, ignoring speed limits, and blowing through red lights.
(12:21):
But he had one routine that was regular as clockwork,
his visits uptown to the other Olympia. Eventually, the squad
managed to follow him to the townhouse, and what they
witnessed would prove to be the first chink in the
Boss's armor.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Jigante was observed walking or being driven to his usual
neighborhood haunts, the Triangle Club on Sullivan Street or the
Upper east Side townhouse of his longtime girlfriend Olympia Esposito.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
The surveillances would have him walking around the streets in
his bathrobe doing all these crazy things, and then around
eleven o'clock or midnight, he'd come out of the residence,
not dressed in a bathrobe, but dressed in clothes, sometimes
stepping out clothes and going up to his mistress and
doing other things, acting like a normal person, I suppose
to his daytime stick.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
When Gigante was uptown, the enigma in a bathrobe would
drop the act and put on a whole new persona.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
The cop testify that Giganti walked on assisted had numerous
conversations contradicting the claim that Giganti is a paranoid schizophrenic
who needs constant attention.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
For the FBI, it was proof that Giganti was not
just a liar or a philanderer, but that he was
more than capable of standing trial and answering to his
many crimes. For his daughter Rita. The revelations about his
secret family proved to be a tipping point in her
own life.
Speaker 10 (13:49):
I started to realize at a certain age that I
didn't believe all the things they were telling me about family,
about the Catholic religion and.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
All of that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
In the midst her family chaos, Rita turned inward and
revealed a secret of her own.
Speaker 10 (14:05):
I knew at a very young age that I was gay,
and I also knew I couldn't speak to anybody about it,
although they all knew, but nobody wanted to talk about it,
and I was too afraid to come and talk about it.
So the more I didn't talk about my own truth,
the more sick I got. It's like, you either sacrifice
yourself for the family and not have a life, or
(14:25):
you make changes and you create a life for yourself.
And physically, my body was always telling me something's got
to change. At nineteen, I'm realizing there's so many secrets.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
That went on in this family. I don't want to
carry any secrets.
Speaker 10 (14:38):
It's not who I am. So I was like, Okay,
I'm going to do it. I'm going to just tell them.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Rito was terrified, but she knew it was time.
Speaker 10 (14:49):
My father was visiting New Jersey at the time, and
I'm a wreck I'm shaking, my hands are sweating, you know,
my whole body's like forget it. But I knocked on
the door and I said, can I come in? I
really want to talk. They sat me down and they said,
what is it.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
You look upset? What's going on?
Speaker 10 (15:04):
Very simply, I said, I like women, I says, I've
always felt this connection. I said, and I really wanted
to just tell you.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
And all of a sudden, I saw their faces.
Speaker 10 (15:15):
Right, it was like disbelief that I was actually saying it.
My mother, especially because I said it in front of
my father. I don't think she ever thought I would
have the bulls to do it. And I was like,
oh shit, oh god, if I could just pull the
good words back of my mouth and not said anything.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
After an excruciating silence, Rita looked to her mother for support,
but none came.
Speaker 10 (15:40):
She just looked at him, and all of a sudden,
this calm came over him. I knew I was finished
after this, and he said to me, you know what,
all kids your age go through this. It's okay, You're
just experimenting. I shut down after that because I knew
he could not accept it. The minute he finished the
(16:02):
first line I just shut down and said, you know what,
You're right, I'm just going through something.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
I said, thank you.
Speaker 10 (16:10):
I got up and I walked out and I just
went into my room assopped because I couldn't follow through.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
In Vincent Gigante's world, there was just no place for
the truth. Survival had meant a lifetime of deception, but
his house of cards was about to come crashing down,
and my Campy was poised to knock the foundation right
out from under him.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
My focus was like, Okay, who's the next power base?
And if chin gets wrapped up in my case because
somebody wants to cooperate, I'll deal with it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Then Campy and his fellow FEDS took aim at some
of Gigante's underlings, a roster of kappos and underbosses.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
My pursuit was the acting administration. Jimmy Ida at that
time was the consigliere, and you had Barney Bolomo as
the acting boss and Mickey Domino is the acting Hunter Boss.
And there was a social club at one Sevenue, one
Mulberry Street controlled by Jimmy Ida at the time. It
took a while for me to have a title three
(17:17):
or bugs installed in that social club, but every day
they're discussing crime.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And if Giganti proved elusive, his brain trust proved to
be anything. But their meetings provided the Feds with investigative gold,
including the moment when one of their own, an associate
named Ralph D. Simone, was singled out for elimination.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
When you're proposed for induction, that would also have to
be coordinated with Chin And when Ralph D. Simone's name
was passed around, the Lukeesi family identified him as being
a rat and Mickey Domino made a gesture with his
hand like a gun, saying we'll handle it. And it
was like a week or so later DeSimone, who was dead.
(18:00):
He was found in the trunk of a car at
in the airport.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was more than enough evidence for prosecutors to work with,
and with their next round of arrests, law enforcement delivered
a massive blow to the Genovese organization.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
In New York, federal agents say for their first time
they cracked the top tier of the reputed Genevieve's crime family.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Among eighteen people.
Speaker 9 (18:23):
Under arrest is Barney Bellomo, the Mom's alleged number two.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
This indictment took down the genevese acting boss under a boss,
and sixteen other members for a slew of rico charges.
Gigante's power base was eroding. His insanity bluff had been called.
The FEDS also had three new defectors with intimate knowledge
of the at father's past, giving the courts an opportunity
(18:48):
to rebuild the Windows case. So the Eastern District appointed
Deputy Chief Andrew Weisman to breathe new life into the
long dormant case.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
The two prosecutors of the case had since left the office,
so it got reassigned to me and my colleague, George
stan Bealitis. He and I had tried a whole slew
of Columbus cases together. Obviously it was flattering to be
given the case in the sense that it's the boss
(19:19):
of incredibly powerful family. But the case had been languishing
and we didn't know anything about its merits. We didn't
know anything about the witnesses.
Speaker 12 (19:29):
You know.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
It was a little bit of a mixed blessing when
we first heard it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Despite the nerves that come with a high profile case,
Andrew and his trial partner George were up for the task.
But before heading into court, the first turtle to jump
was convincing a judge what they already knew that Vincent
Gigante was mentally fit to stand trial.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
No judge had decided that issue. So our biggest issue
when we first got the case was what is the
proof that he's in competent or competent. We had this
competency hearing. It lasted many months, lots of medical testimony.
We had our own medical expert. We also had the
defense's expert.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The competency hearing was a culmination of years of back
and forth legal wrangling stemming from Giganti's first indictment back
in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
So the evidence that was presented by the defense was
that Vincent Giganti it was basically a vegetable. For the
last twenty five years. He couldn't read, he couldn't count,
and his condition had stayed the same. We then presented
our own evidence through cooperating witnesses who said at the
time that you had just heard he was supposed to
(20:44):
be a vegetable. He was having conversations with him. We
had Pizzaviino within the Genevese family, Salvato Garvano from the
Gambino family. He had had interactions personally in commission meetings
with Vincent Scanty, so we had cooperating withnesses who could
talk about the fact that he was not incompetent, but
(21:05):
that would require the judge to believe our cooperating witnesses.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
A common line of defense for Gigante's lawyers was if
throughout these gangsters' lives they would lie, cheat, and steal,
how could you possibly believe them. Now, we had.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
A really fantastic piece of evidence that put this entire
issue to bed. One day, I'm sitting in my office
and I remember an agent in the Columbus squad came
in and said, well, I assume you're going to call
Charlie Bodwin in your competency hearing, and I'm like, what's
a Charlie Bodwin. Charlie Bodwin was an FBI agent with
(21:43):
very good eyesight who was on the Genevies squad and
years earlier, the FBI wanted to go up on a
bug in this townhouse that Vince Scanty lived in from
time to time with his girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
To get a wire tap, approved, agents had to show
probable cause that illegal activity was occurring in the townhouse,
which they did not have so the government went old
school and used street surveillance.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Charlie Bodwin's job for about three months was to at
night go to the townhouses on the back side of
that street and look into the back of the townhouse
with a patent pencil and just record what he was seeing.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And what the surveillance team observed was not the bumbling
odd father of Greenwich Village.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I remember Charlie when he came to my office was saying,
I don't know that this is going to help you.
I didn't see anything criminal, and I said, don't worry
about that. Tell me what kind of things you saw,
and he's like, well, you know, he was talking to people,
he was reading the newspaper, he was counting.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Money, hardly the activities of a man in a vegetative state.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
He was doing things that were completely inconsistent with what
the defense doctor said it and we had already got
the defense doctors to agree that if he could do
those things, they had been fooled. So we put him
on in the competency hearing and it was basically game
over because not only was a very credible witness, but
he had contemporaneous notes.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You had to record all of this in court, Gigante's
defense attorney tried to undermine this surveillance agent's credibility unsuccessfully.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Barry Slotnik, who was representing Vincent Scanty at the time,
went to the back of the courtroom and said, is
this about how far the distance was? And I remember
Charlie going, yeah, it's about right, like thirty yards away.
And I remember Judge Nickerson then putting on the record
exactly how big the courtroom is, and Charlie was only
like a foot off. He kept on digging and making
(23:48):
it worse because Barry then held up a US note
to see whether Charlie could see what it is, and
he holds up this bill. I couldn't see it. Charlie goes, oh, yeah,
that's a twenty dollars bill. Back of the courtroom and
Charlie's on the witness stand and Judge Nickerson goes, mister Slotnick,
come up here. We're going to mark that as an exhibit.
(24:10):
It's very slot that thinks, okay, maybe he just got lucky,
and he tries it again and goes, what's this and
he goes, that's a five dollar bill, And at some
point Judge Nickerson goes mister Slotnick how much money are
you going to lose? It was just devastating. So the
judge ruled that he was competent, so we were off
(24:31):
to the races in terms of then preparing the case
for trial.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
There was just one more hitch. Giganty was scheduled for
heart valve replacement surgery and the trial wouldn't be able
to start for another year, pending his recovery. According to Rita,
this wasn't another charade, and although she wouldn't put it
past him, her father's heart condition was real.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
We saw him before he actually went in for the
heart surgery, we saw him in the hospital when he
was recovering. But then he decided to go stay with
the other family.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Just a few weeks before the trial was finally set
to start, Giganty and his defense team took one last
shot at proving his incompetency, but this time around they
crossed a line.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
A new application comes in saying that their client has
advanced Alzheimer's, to which I still want to Judge Nickerson saying,
and you just noticed you don't just happen to get
advanced Alzheimer's. Judge Nickerson decides that he just could not
deal with hearing evidence about that because his wife at
(25:44):
the time had advanced Alzheimer's.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Which is a brutal disease.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Brutal and brutal. To watch somebody you love going through that,
I think it's a very very hard decision for Judge Nickerson,
and I think he just could not put himself through it.
So the case got reassigned to Judge Weinstein, who the
two of them had known each other for decades. We
(26:09):
go to court the first appearance before Judge Weinstein and
he says, okay, would the defense like to be heard
on the motion with respect to his condition? And they said, Judge,
are we withdraw that?
Speaker 13 (26:23):
What?
Speaker 12 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
I mean it was so despicable. George Weinstein says, okay,
is there anything else from the defense? No, your honor, okay,
the defendant is remanded.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Getting remanded means being imprisoned while waiting for the trial.
The defense may have caused one judge to voluntarily leave
the case, but the rules of law would prevail and
the case moved forward without further delays. The trial e
Vincent Giguanty would finally begin, and the list of charges
against him was formidable Giganty faced charge charges that included
(27:01):
being the boss of the Genevese crime family, the windows
extortion racket, authorizing six murders in Philadelphia, and the attempted
murder of John Gottie for his daughter Rita. Gigante's criminal
resume was staggering.
Speaker 10 (27:17):
They had a list. I remember reading the list and
I remember thinking, holy shit.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
It was just.
Speaker 10 (27:24):
Unbelievable for me to actually say, Wow, he did all
of this, even if he didn't pull a trigger.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
He gave an order to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
On June twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven, seven years after
the original indictment, court came to order in the trial
of Geneve's boss, Vincent Gigante.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
I still remember the first day of the actual criminal
trial of friend of a jury. He showed up and
wheelchair and to Kane and they placed him right in
front of the jury. We started the trial by putting
on all the evidence that he was faking. By day three,
they had him as far away from the jury as possible.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It became apparent that his insanity act was losing steam,
but there was no turning back now. Day in and
day out, Gigante stared blankly into space, mumbling to himself
as the prosecution played tapes of multiple mobsters, including John Gotti,
identifying him as the boss. But the biggest hurdle for
(28:34):
the prosecution remained the fact that Giganty himself was never
caught on a recording. According to co operator Piete Savino,
it was because Gigante was so careful when they needed
to talk business. The Boss would take him into the bathroom,
turn on the water faucet, and whisper into his ear.
Andrew would have to convince the jury of Gigante's guilt
(28:58):
without the proverbial smoking gun.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Miles of audio tapes, some barely audible, that was secretly
recorded by the FBI at mob clubs contain obscure references
to the chin, but so far, not one agent has
admitted hearing Gigante's voice on tape or observing him in
the vicinity of their surveillances.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
One of the strongest pieces of evidence came from a
recording made from Savino's wire when he was meeting with
Gigante's underboss Benny Eggs Mgano. Before that fateful meeting, Savino's
FBI handler asked him to purposely break a Genovie's cardinal rule.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
We had him mention Vincent's name. He did that, and
then what we got on tape was Mengano saying, don't
ever do that. That's a violation. That was really good
evidence that it was sort of useful as establishing his
role and this rule in the organized crime family.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Next came the star witnesses. First up was the former
Lucia underboss Al Diarco.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Al Diarco, he came in because people in his family
thought that he was cooperating when he wasn't, and there
were efforts underway to kill him because of that. He
was like, these people are so despicable. I wasn't a rat,
but now I was being called a rat. Those were
his words, and he's just like, that's it. I'm done.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
On the stand, Diarco's candor about the mafia proved invaluable
to the prosecution's case. Asked what the mob would do
with somebody that was mentally incompetent, Diarco didn't mince words.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
He said, oh, we would have killed them. And we're
like why, and he said, we couldn't take the risk
that they would go to the police or they'd say
something that would implicate people, especially somebody who was a leader,
who would know all of those secrets. And I remember
looking over in one of the jurors was writing that
down and I thought, Okay, that's a good sign.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
To Gante's attorneys attempted to discredit to your go by
highlighting his long list of past crimes.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Altiarca. I think was so hard to cross examine because
he was so open about who he was and what
he regretted in his life. Very very good defense lawyer
Gus Newman kept on going over all of the things
he'd done, and who was like, you murdered this person,
you murdered that person, You did these awful things. So
of course he's admitting everything. And I looked over at
the jury and the jury looked bored as hell. They
(31:26):
were like, we know he was the acting boss of
the Ukasey family. None of this is surprising.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Ever since the commission trial, the mafias sworn oath of silence,
Omerta had been slowly eroding, and as the FBI closed in,
mobsters like Diarco and Savina were opting for self preservation
over loyalty to the family, and there was perhaps no
bigger turncoat than the one about to take the stand.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
My name is Salvatore Gravano. I became a made member
of the Gambino family in nineteen six. At that time,
pol Castellano was the boss of the Gambino family. John
Gotti I, along with some others, murdered Pole Castellano. We
took over the family. I decided to cooperate before we
went to trial.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Sammy the Bull Gravano was a Gambino underboss and a
newly minted media darling due to his testimony in John
Gotti's trial five years before.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Federal prosecutor said they planned to call Sammy the Bull
Gravano to the stand to testify against the Gin. He's
the mob rat whose testimony said John Gotti away for life.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Gravano was scheduled to fly in the night before he testified,
leaving Andrew very little time to prepare his witness.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
There was a huge storm. Sammy was late coming into
the city because of the storm. I ended up with
about one hour to meet with Sammy to go over
what questions they're going to ask him. But once Sammy's
on the stand, he was an extremely effective, good witness.
Say he was completely candidate about organized crime, about the
(33:07):
life he was in, and didn't make excuses for it
at all.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Gravano told a jury that he first met Fitza Gigante
in nineteen seventy six. According to Gravano, although the chin
was unshaven and wore pajamas in a row at this meeting,
he spoke normally.
Speaker 10 (33:22):
Sammy the Bull testified. All these people are testified. They
turned state seven as they rated all of this. These
are people that are walking around that murdered thirty thirty
five people. You know, like, how do I understand? Like
what makes that okay? It still doesn't sit right with me.
They all did what they did. But you're going to
let one go because he gives you this one. That's
just how it went. That's how they did it.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Giganti is charged with six murders and conspiracy to commit
several others. The star witness against him is Sammy the
Bull Gravano, an admitted killer of nineteen people.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
You're a Jura, you're listening to this and say, wait
a minute. Here's a guy who did nineteen homicides and.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
He's accusing this guy won and he's on the streets
and they want to pull him in.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Darco and Gravano were high ranking mobsters, pointing the finger
at Gigante as the boss of bosses, but it was
Pete Savino, the low level Genevie's associate, whose testimony proved
most compelling.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
He was dying. He would really wanted to testify, but
by the time this case went to trial, he was
in a hospital. The doctors would not let him travel.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Savino was bedridden with cancer and could barely speak. So
prosecutors came up with an innovative idea.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
Remember this is nineteen ninety seven. There was no zoom,
that technology didn't exist, and we proposed to the court
that there be a closed circuit television where there would
be a camera on Peter Savino in his hospital. A
defense lawyer and a prosecutor would be there. They would
bring exhibits and things that they wanted to show him
(35:00):
and that would get beamed into the courtroom, and there
were television sets all around the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
In an attempt to avoid sympathy end level the playing
field for the defense, Judge Weinstein gave the prosecution a
strict directive.
Speaker 6 (35:16):
We were not allowed to tell the jury that Peter
Savina was dying. That judge said it would be too prejudicial,
and what he meant by that was it would be
too damning that he was clearly telling the truth, you know,
if he was about to die, Like, why would you
lie about this?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Savino suffered through questioning and did very well, but he
constantly needed breaks. He appeared a shadow of his former self,
but with his image projected throughout the courtroom, he delivered
the final blow against Gigante.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
I remember Peter was wearing a red shirt, and so
all around the room there were these screens with this
bright red shirt. He looked terrible, drunk down his testimony
to be as concise as possible. At every break, I
just remember the judge going, you have to go faster.
At lunchtime, he goes, you need to end your direct
(36:11):
We need to get to cross. This witness cannot go past.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Today Savino became the most convincing witness of the trial.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Peter was so happy that he was able to do
this because he had been living with us for so long.
He wanted to do it before he died, and within
a month after the verdict he was dead.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Andrew made sure the jury understood the full measure of
the reco charge, and.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
I remember making that point insummation and saying, don't let
a boss get off just because he wasn't at the
scene of the crime. That is the advantage of being
the boss.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
But as the defense was quick to point out, how
could the government prosecute Deganty as the boss, insisting that
fat Tony Salerno was the boss. During the commission trial
twelve years before, Andrew decided to address the issue head on.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
And I said, look, at the time that that happened,
Sammy Gravano was not a cooperating witness. Aldi Arco was
not a cooperating witness. Peter Savina was not a cooperating witness.
They didn't have these tape recordings. But that's not really
what's going on. You know what is absolutely true. The
government does make mistakes. No one's going to sit here
and tell you the government doesn't get things wrong. But
(37:31):
you have seen all of the evidence. I just explained
that to the jury. We had such a good jury,
they were so smart, it didn't cause them any concern
at all. And I do think that's a real lesson
of don't hide from issues and just be straight with
the jury and trust their intelligence.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Concluding a month long trial, the anonymous jury filed into
the jury room for deliberations, and after three days they
returned with a verdict.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
When the jury comes out, you can tell there's a
conviction because I have noticed that the jury is more
dressed up on the day of the verdict, which always
to me is a sort of sign of the solemnity,
And they don't look at the defendant as they're walking out,
so you have a very good tell on both fronts.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Giganty rolled his eyes as the fore women announced the verdict.
He was found guilty for his role as boss of
the Genopes family, for the window scheme and conspiring to
murder his rival John Gottie, but he was acquitted for
the six Philadelphia gangland murders, which proved to be little consolation.
After decades of unimpeded criminal Tyranny Vincent the Jin Giganty
(38:46):
was finally brought to bay, and while grateful that justice
was served, many had to tip their hats out of
respect for the odd father, including James Leonard.
Speaker 13 (38:58):
His run was absolutely legendary. The matter in which he
fooled the FBI and the matter in which he evaded
the criminal justice system for decades.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
There's a guy.
Speaker 13 (39:13):
If there is a mount rushmore of gangsters, that should
be the first face etched into it. Vincent the Chin Gigante,
absolutely Hall of Fame gangster.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
After a lifetime of lies, Rita Giganty had vowed to
never go to the uptown home of her father's mistress,
but in the end, she did visit the townhouse once
where she saw her ailing father for the very last time.
Speaker 10 (39:45):
One time, my mother begged me to go and see
him before they put him away. So I went once
to their townhouse. I would not go unless I knew
nobody was home, especially the other woman, because I would
never disrespect my mother.
Speaker 7 (39:59):
But I went to visit him there After that.
Speaker 10 (40:01):
It was letters that went back and forth, or sometimes
he would call on the phone and it would be
like when I was a kid, how do you feel?
Speaker 7 (40:09):
How's your mother to carry your mother? That would be it.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
With all the bizarre happenings brought by the Gigante saga,
it wouldn't be complete without one more surprise, which came
at his sentencing.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Jech Weinstein at sentencing did something a little odd. Vincent
Giganti was relatively old at the time, but not ancient
did judge sort of looked at the actuarial tables and
based his sentence off of that and gave him.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Twelve years, Calling Giganty an inveterate gangster who committed his
life to crime and not getting caught dodging legal bullets
left and right. The sixty nine year old head of
the Genovies crime family, the most powerful mobster in the nation,
was sentenced to twelve years in jail and a one
and a quarter million dollar fine.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
But the sense that was called for was life, So
I disagreed with him on the sentence in the Eastern
District of New York, though out of respect for the
role of the court and sentencing, we were trained that
that is a court function. Our job was to present
the evidence, but we did not take a position on
(41:20):
what sentence should be given by the court.
Speaker 10 (41:24):
The surprise was twelve years. We thought definitely he was
going in for life. Everybody was like, oh my god,
he could still get out. You know, we never thought
we would getting a gift like that.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Despite the short sentence, Andrew was proud of what they'd
achieved and grateful he'd been chosen for the task.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
I don't know that there's anybody who's been an assistant
the United States Attorney who doesn't say the same thing
about the first time you stand up in front of
a jury and you say, my name is Andrew Weisman,
I represent the United States, that you don't feel to
your core the enormous privilege and responsibility that comes with
(42:04):
that statement.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
As the years continued to pass, Rita slowly became ready
to live life on her own terms.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
Not until I was twenty four did I actually fully
come into my own where that was concerned.
Speaker 7 (42:21):
I had to make the choice.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
If I could have stayed in that victim energy and
said this is what they did to me, this is
why I am who I am today and hold on
to that, or I could have chosen to move forward,
and that's what I did. I went to my mother
and I said, you could tell him. They don't have
to tell him. I says, I don't want to speak
to him about it. I said, but this is my
life and I'm living it. She hugged me and she
(42:44):
said she understood, although she prayed every day that I
would change my ways because she.
Speaker 7 (42:49):
Was so afraid of my soul. That's what it was.
Speaker 10 (42:51):
She was so embedded in the Catholic religion and all
of that that she was more afraid of my soul
than she was anything. And she loved everyone that came
into me life. All the women that came into my
life she loved, and my wife being the last that
she know, just adored her.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Reflecting on her father's half century climb from the streets
little Italy to the top seat on the Mafia Commission,
Rita couldn't help but wonder what it was all for.
Speaker 10 (43:19):
You know, he was always looking over his shoulder. I mean,
the man went on vacation once in his life, on
his honeymoon, three weeks and that was the end of it.
Speaker 7 (43:26):
They went to Florida, came home.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
He never left, which is interesting because he had so
much money.
Speaker 10 (43:31):
Well, the money never matted as much as the power.
Money was his way of keeping people close and being
able to manipulate them. But to have that kind of
power that he wielded, the ego just immediately took over.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
It was an ego that earned him millions of dollars,
respect from the criminal underworld and a prison sentence that
would keep him locked away for the rest of his life.
But there was still some fight left the seventy year
old mobster, and rumor had it that Giganti was determined
to run the Genovese family from behind bars, with his
own son serving as his intermediary. But there was someone
(44:12):
else poised to take Giganti's crown, a man who had
been steadily amassing power for over a decade, the very
man who helped orchestrate the nineteen seventy nine slang of
Carmine Galante. His name was Joe Messino, and in time
he would be known as the last down.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Next time on Law and Order Criminal Justice System.
Speaker 7 (44:43):
They needed something to keep him there, otherwise he was
getting out.
Speaker 6 (44:46):
We ended up bringing a second charge against Gigante for
lying repeatedly about his mental condition. The bananas were an
absolute mess. To put it buoyantly, they had had problems
going back to the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
The gun was so close to Durso's head, at the
speed of the bullet, as soon as it hit the
scullt came down his.
Speaker 6 (45:07):
Neck, everybody knew there was a lot more to it
than just some guy got shot in the social club.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Law and Order Criminal Justice System is a production of
Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts Our host is Anna Sega Nicolazi.
This episode was written by Chandler Mays and Anna Sega Nicolazi.
Executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliott Wolf, and Stephen Michael
at Wolf Entertainment on behalf of iHeartRadio. Executive produced by
(45:41):
Alex Williams and Matt Frederick, with supervising producers Trevor Young
and Chandler Mays and producers Jesse Funk, Noms Griffin, and
Rima Alkali. This season is executive produced by Anna Sega Nicolazi,
story producer Walker Lamond. Our researchers are Caroline Talmadge and
(46:03):
Luke's Dents. Editing and sound designed by Jesse Funk. Original
music by John O'Hara, original theme by Mike Post, additional
music by Steve Moore, and additional voice over by me
Steve Zernkelton. Special thanks to Fox five in New York,
(46:23):
A b C and CBS for providing archival material for
the show. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Wolf Entertainment,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
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