Mob boss 'The Chin' dies; was known for crazy act

He was head of the Genovese crime family, even in prison.
Long Island Newsday
Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, the New York mob boss whose crazy act aimed at frustrating investigators earned him the nickname "The Oddfather," died Monday at a federal prison medical facility in Missouri, apparently of heart disease. He was 77.
Once a driver for the late Mafia boss Vito Genovese, Gigante rose from being a mob street tough to the head of the crime family that bears Genovese's name.
"Gigante was a long-storied figure in the annals of organized crime," said Matt Heron, assistant special agent in charge of the organized crime section for the FBI in New York. His role in the attempted assassination of mob boss Frank Costello in 1957 cemented Gigante's stature in the mob, recalled Heron. Costello survived but retired from Mafia leadership. Gigante was tried for the attempted murder of Costello but was acquitted.
Gigante died at the U.S. medical center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Mo., said Bureau of Prisons spokesman Al Quintero. Gigante was serving a 12-year sentence for a racketeering conspiracy conviction and was due to be released in June 2010. Gigante is believed to have assumed the title of Genovese boss in 1980 and never relinquished the job, even while in prison.
What made Gigante a legend was his feigning of mental illness as a way of escaping prosecution. Unshaven and mumbling to himself, Gigante would wander around Greenwich Village in his bathrobe. When cops once tried to serve him a subpoena, they found him fully clothed in a running shower holding up an umbrella.