Except for a brief reflex reaction, legendary New York Mafia boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante played the role of a crazy man to the bitter end last week as he was hit with a 12 year prison term.

Wearing borrowed gray trousers and a blue blazer he left behind, the 69-year-old Gigante looked nothing like the country's most powerful crime boss during what may have been the last court appearance of his life.

Looking dazed and confused, the frail Gigante walked into court unsteadily, grasping the sides of tables to keep his balance as he moved slowly to his seat at the defense table. On orders from Judge Jack Weinstein, Gigante abandoned the wheelchair he used during his racketeering trial last summer. He also changed the sweatpants he wore to the courthouse and donned gray slacks from a stash of used clothes the judge often uses for improperly attired defendants.

(There are no statutes that mandate proper attire for sentencing. But when you're 69 and facing 27 years according to sentencing guidelines, it makes no sense - apparantly even if you're suffering from dementia - to refuse a simple request from the judge who's about to send you to jail.)

"Good morning," said Gigante, along with his lawyers and virtually everyone else in the packed courtroom in response to Weinstein's "Good morning" as he took the bench.

After the prosecution and defense gave their opposing views, the courtroom grew silent for the only opinion that mattered last Thursday. "This defendant must be sentenced both for what he was, and what he is," said Weinstein.

Gigante's physical ailments permitted a "downward departure" from the guidelines but his life of crime proscribed home detention. In addition to the jail time, which translates as about 10 years with mandated good time, he also imposed a $1.25 million fine.

As his brother, the Rev. Louis Gigante protested, ("He's incompetent. What's a downward departure? Ten years? He could be dead in about three.") the convicted Mafia boss staggered feebly out of the courtroom to prison, probably one with an adjoining hospital complex. Before leaving the courthouse, he left behind his double breasted blazer as an apparant donation to the Judge's vintage clothes rack.

Gigante will have little trouble adapting to his incarceration if the two and a half months he spent at a federal prison hospital in North Carolina earlier this year is any indication.

During his stay at Butner Federal Correctional Institution, Gigante groomed himself, made his own bed, showered regulary, ate by himself, shadow-boxed in his cell, and maintained cordial relations with employes at the facility.

Gigante was friendly, often inquiring about the guard's family and friends, Sexton said. Once, Gigante "became pretty upset" when another inmate harassed the guard.

"I wanted to come out to help you so bad, but there was nothing I could do. The cell was locked," Gigante told him.

"He said, 'I know. I know it is not good for me and I won't do it again,'" she testified.

Courtesy of Dr. Hannelore Gude, a German historian who has done extensive research on the Genovese crime family, we bring you these 40 year old observations of Manhattan detectives who investigated the shooting of top Genovese mobster Frank Costello by Gigante in 1957.

"Gigante wasn't trying to warn Costello. (right) He meant to kill. The fact that he botched up the job can be attributed to his own stupidity. Gigante made several mistakes. This is in sharp contrast to the unusual smooth professional type gangland killings where the victim usually dies silently and is found in a remote section of the city.

"Tony Bender (Strollo) selected the man to do the job. Gigante was picked because he was big and tough and stupid enough to do the job. Notwithstanding the fact that Chin Gigante's reputation may have been enhanced because he shot Costello and was subsequently acquitted, he nevertheless is still small-time and probably always will be, even though he may be killed trying to live up to his new reputation."

So much for analyzing the intelligence of gangsters and predicting how they will turn out.

ASK ANDY

This week, Andy (seen at the right with one of his favorite Mafia books) explains the eight year run that Joe Biondo had as underboss of the Gambino family under the patriarch from whom the family got its name in this reply to a query from Gang Land viewer/reader follower Jerry Loy.

Joe Biondo was a native of Sicily and had been involved in the Prohibition bootlegging industry, according to author Paul Meskil. From there he
branched out into labor  racketeering, mainly in the taxi cab industry.
He was arrested numerous times over the years for things such as homicide, extortion and narcotics. He was considered a major heroin trafficker and his frequent trips to Italy, where he conferred with the deported Lucky Luciano, only added fuel to these suspicions.

Biondo and Gambino were close and it was no surprise that Gambino chose him as underboss after arranging the killing of boss Albert Anastasia (left) in 1957. Much like the later practices followed by Paul Castellano, the Gambino Family had a sort of dual structure in which some capos reported directly to Gambino and others to Biondo. This lead to a great deal of independence on  Biondo's part, and Gambino (right) soon heard  rumors that Biondo was cutting him out of some family  rackets - a  sure way to annoy the boss.

Because of an illegal bug, we have an inside view of how this drama played out. The FBI had placed a bug in the office of New Jersey boss Simone (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante and recorded a scheme in which Biondo had wangled a piece of a garbage dump in New Jersey, but failed to report it to the boss. When he learned this from Decavalcante,  Gambino was livid. In short order, Sam and his men were overheard planning a hit, probably for Gambino and most likely against Joey Fiolo, a Biondo loyalist. A few months later, DeCavalcante was overheard explaining that Joe Biondo was no longer Gambino's underboss. Biondo was a lucky man. Normal practice would have the retirement being announced as he took two bullets behind the ear. From that time on Biondo was a non factor in the Family. He was replaced in 1965 by Aniello (Neil) Dellacroce, (right)  a mentor of John Gotti's, but that's another story.

Books that include more information on the Biondo story:

Don Carlo by Meskil
Sam the Plumber by Zeiger

No matter which ones you celebrate, or your station in life, Gang Land wishes you a joyous and rewarding holiday season.