The Bronx priest whose brother was oddball Genovese crime-family boss Vincent “The Chin’’ Gigante has died at age 90.
The Rev. Louis Gigante, who as soon as headed up the South East Bronx Group Group and served as a metropolis councilman within the Nineteen Seventies, was recognized for his vociferous protection of his Mafioso brother.
Louis Gigante, who died final week, was described by The Publish in 1975 as a “priest who performs energy politics as a substitute of bingo.”
On the time, he advised The Publish his old-school party-machine politics had been “a query of energy.
“Individuals must eat,” Louis mentioned.
Born the youngest of 5 boys to immigrant Italian dad and mom, Gigante grew up along with his household in Greenwich Village. His older brothers went on to grow to be mobsters, with Vinnie rising by the ranks of the Genovese crime household to steer the group for many years.
The mumbling, pajama-wearing, Greenwich Village-walking don died in jail in 2005 after his conviction on costs of racketeering and conspiracy to kill rival mob boss John Gotti.
Presiding over his brother’s funeral Mass, Louis Gigante mentioned Vinnie “lived a Christian life and was an excellent man.”
Louis Gigante defended his brother throughout his trial — at which the mob boss would typically seem confused — telling reporters that “The Chin” had suffered from a degenerative mind situation because the ’70s.
When a Mafia turncoat advised the feds that Louis Gigante himself was a made man — testimony the informant later denied at trial — the priest was dismissive.
“Not a foul film, however even Hollywood doesn’t go that far,” Louis quipped to the Publish in 1997.
As head of SEBCO, Louis Gigante was instrumental within the revitalization of one of the vital impoverished sections of The Bronx, bringing relative security and stability to a neighborhood that had actually been in ruins.
However his success there caught the attention of presidency investigators within the Nineties, who suspected the involvement of Genovese-connected contractors in SEBCO’s rebuilding efforts. No costs had been ever filed towards Louis Gigante or his group.
Louis made headlines within the Eighties as nicely — when he used $25,000 of his personal cash to bail out one of many so-called “Central Park 5,” a gaggle of youngsters arrested, falsely convicted and in the end exonerated for the brutal rape of a Manhattan jogger.
“Everybody who’s so full of anger about these suspects ought to ask themselves, ‘what if this had been my son, wouldn’t I would like him helped?’ ” the priest mentioned on the time.
He additionally ended up within the information final 12 months when he was slapped with lawsuits accusing him of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy within the Nineteen Seventies and a 10-year-old woman within the Sixties. He didn't touch upon the 2 fits on the time. Each lawsuits had been nonetheless pending on the time of his loss of life, the New York Occasions mentioned.
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