Final Curtain Set For Gigante

The final curtain of Chin's World, the seemingly endless soap opera that began more than seven years ago in Brooklyn Federal Court, is scheduled for Dec. 18 with the sentencing of its main character, the legendary Genovese family boss and well known bad actor, Vincent (Chin) Gigante.

The executive producer - Judge Jack Weinstein - has planned a grand finale for the 69-year-old Gigante, who faces 21 to 27 years in jail after being convicted last summer on a slew of racketeering charges, including conspiring to kill rival Mafia boss John Gotti.

For the last couple of weeks, Weinstein has been working on the climax of this critically panned production, conducting a competency hearing which in most respects seems like a rerun of prior seasons in which Eugene Nickerson played the role of Judge. As in the Nickerson episodes, Gigante has been the focus of the action, but never shows up in the picture.

There were two brief scenes in the current episodes which set them apart from the earlier ones, in which various psychiatrists, neurologists, cardiologists, other doctors and professors took the witness stand and waxed poetically about Gigante's mind and body. In one, a Nurse Brown said Gigante seemed lucid to her when he said he liked tomatoes during his post conviction stay at a federal prison hospital in North Carolina. In another, Guard Sexton said he saw Gigante, who toiled briefly as a professional pugilist in a former life, shadow boxing in his cell at the same facility.

It's unlikely that these plot twists will alter Weinstein's final determination about Gigante's fate, but his lawyers are poised to make their final arguments to the judge late today at the conclusion of testimony about Gigante's competency. Michael Marinaccio will argue that Gigante is incompetent now, was incompetent during his trial, and has been incompetent for years. Steven Kartaganer will argue that Gigante should not be sentenced to prison or a mental facility - the only realistic options - but should be dealt with under a provision of the law that allows incompetent persons to be committed to an institution for an indefinite period, and reevaluated periodically to determine whether he has become either competent to be sentenced, or so far gone that he should be released.

Stay tuned. Like we noted at the top, Gigante's sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 18.

Meanwhile, don't look for any spinoffs of the soap opera so popular with journalists and mob buffs. The family’s acting underboss, Michele (Mickey Dimino) Generoso, enjoyed his court approved last supper at an undisclosed fine New York restaurant and reported to the federal prison in Lexington Kentucky to begin serving 21 months in prison for his racketeering conviction.

Generoso, 79, will celebrate his 80th birthday next month, and if he lives through his 21 months of incarceration, a concern of his and his wife, he will return to his Bay Ridge, Brooklyn home to serve an additional 30 months of house arrest.

Genovese capo Ross Gangi, long identified as a day-to-day "street boss" in charge of the crime family's rackets at the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan, has apparently been practicing his business acumen a few blocks away with the bulls and the bears on Wall Street.

Gangi and Bonanno capo Frank Lino were hit with stock fraud and racketeering charges for taking part in a classic "pump and dump" scheme involving the stock of a Las Vegas based company that supplied work-out gyms across the country.

Using the old fashioned strong arm, Gangi and Lino allegedly muscled in on the company and a Wall Street brokerage to pump up demand for the stock, then dumped their own stock at huge profits after the price of the stock had more than doubled.

Along with two other mobsters and 15 other defendants, including company officials and stock brokers, the men made more than $1.3 million in profits, said New York FBI boss James Kallstrom. (right)

Speaking about Lino, defense lawyer Mathew Mari uttered the best line picked up by Gang Land, one that would make any mouthpiece proud. "My client owns no stocks and doesn't even know where Wall Street is," said Mari.

ASK ANDY

This week, Andy blows holes in the old saw that law abiding persons have nothing to fear from mobsters in his account of a 27-year old homicide in a reply to a query from retired NYPD detective Patrick Picciarelli.

"The Neapolitan Noodle was a restaurant located at 320 East 79th Street in Manhattan," says Andy, seen at the right with one of his favorite books, Mob Star. "On Friday, August 11, 1972 it was the scene of one of the worst mistakes in Cosa Nostra history. It was set in motion many years earlier. For more than a decade, a Colombo family faction led by the three Gallos brothers, Larry, Joey and Albert, had been in various degrees of rebellion. In 1961, they had kidnapped four top aides to then-boss Joe Profaci under secret encouragement from Carlo Gambino. At the time, the crafty Gambino family boss was attempting to undermine Profaci and his ally Joe Bonanno.When Profaci, and his successor Joe Magliocco, both died of natural causes soon after, Gambino (left) threw his support behind Joe Colombo and he became boss in 1963 of the crime family that still bears his name. A shaky peace was negotiated in which the Gallo gang was promised a fair share of the rackets. One of the main factors in the success of the truce was the absence of hot head Crazy Joey Gallo who had begun a lengthy prison sentence for extortion. For the next eight years there was relative calm in the relations between the Gallos and Colombo. Larry Gallo had passed away in 1968, leaving the gang leadership in the hands of the youngest brother Al "Kid Blast" Gallo. When Joey Gallo was released from prison in 1971 the situation was ripe for an explosion.

"Colombo had vaulted into national prominence by forming the Italian American Civil Rights League to protest the FBI's arrest of one of his sons. The small picket line mushroomed into an organization which hosted a huge rally of upwards of 50,000 people at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Colombo (right) became a celebrity the likes of which was not seen again until the late 1980's in John Gotti's heyday. This was in sharp contrast to the decimated Gallo gang that was eking out a living in minor rackets. Joey Gallo was infuriated at his lost years, his lack of power and his subservient position to Colombo. It was a dangerous mix. If nothing else, Joey Gallo was a veteran of the streets, and was quick to pick up the growing dissatisfaction by Gambino and other mob bosses towards the publicity seeking Colombo. It was a chink in Colombo's armor that Gallo was ready to exploit.

"As Colombo prepared for the second years rally he was already at odds with Gallo and it became apparent that he no longer enjoyed the support of the powerful Carlo Gambino. Nevertheless, Colombo pressed ahead and was gunned down by Jerome Johnson just as the rally was to begin. Johnson in turn was killed even as he was being wrestled to the ground by police officers. It appeared that Gallo had struck spectacularly. However as the weeks passed it became apparent that there was no evidence to link Gallo or any other Cosa Nostra member to the crazed Johnson. He was apparently just a pathetic soul who attempt to gain fame by blowing away a major figure. Gallo still had problems, however.

"With the incapacitation of Colombo, a tough faction, led by Carmine (Junior) Persico, moved to the top. Persico's group was more than a match for Gallo. They gained Commission approval for a hit on Gallo and within a year of the Colombo shooting, Joey Gallo was bleeding to death outside Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy. It had been pure coincidence that he had arrived there to celebrate his birthday and also by chance he was spotted by a fringe gangster who rounded up some drunken allies who gunned Gallo down in the presence of his wife, stepchild, sister, his bodyguard and his date. It was a public execution with no planning and was to foretell the disaster to come at the Neapolitan Noodle.

"Albert Gallo was thirsty to revenge brother Joey's death. High on his hit list was Joe Yacovelli, the Colombo consigliere who had been directing family operations for the then-jailed Persico. Yacovelli had personally approved the Gallo shooting at Umberto's. On Aug. 11, the Gallos had pinpointed Yacovelli, Allie Persico, Jerry Langella and at least one other Colombo hood at the bar of the Neapolitan Noodle. Minutes before the hitmen arrived, however, the gangsters had moved to a table.In their place were five meat dealers, there with their wives celebrating the engagement of one of their daughters to the restaurant's manager. As this party moved to a table, led by the wives, the shooter, dressed in casual clothes and wearing dark glasses and a long black shoulder length wig, opened up with two guns killing Sheldon Epstein and Max Tekelch and wounding two other men. The killer escaped and was never found. The public outrage was led by Mayor Lindsey, who promised but never succeeded, in running the gangsters out of town. Columnist Jimmy Breslin, who had written a book which parodied the exploits of the Gallo gang, berated himself and others who had glorified the hoodlums. Unfortunately, it was all talk. It would be another decade before any significant progress was made against the well entrenched Cosa Nostra Families.

"Two decades later, two more innocent victims, including an 18-year-old boy working in a bagel store, would be among ten fatalities in another bloody war waged by factions headed by Persico and acting boss Victor Orena in 1991 and 1992."

Editor's note: Thank you for your support during the chaos and missed deadlines of the recent changeover to the current format. Please be advised, however, that Gang Land is still undergoing reconstruction and your continued support and patience will be appreciated.