The Genovese Family
200 to 225 members
Boss: Vincent “Chin” Gigante, 76
Underboss: Venero “Benny Eggs” Mangano, 83 (Incarcerated)
Consigliere: Vacant
The Genovese clan, long considered the Ivy League of organized crime, is the only family whose heir apparent and official boss seem to be one and the same. Vincent “Chin” Gigante took over around 1982. He’s been in federal prison since 1997. The Oddfather, whose crazy-man strolls in Greenwich Village in his pajamas kept him out of prison for decades, is scheduled for release at age 82, in 2010— if he lives that long.
His genes give him a good shot. His brother Mario, believed by some to function as Chin’s acting boss, is active at 81. Their mom, whose calls of “Cinzini” out her Greenwich Village apartment window gave Vincent his nickname, lived to 95.
Until then, he has a committee of three serving as his eyes and ears: Mario, who ended three years of supervised release in June following a 42-month term for labor racketeering, and two longtime allies who hail from his downtown, or West Side, base: Lawrence “Little Larry” Dentico, 81, and Dominick “Quiet Dom” Cirillo, 75.
“Mario is a gangster in his own right,” says one law-enforcement expert. “He’s Chin’s blood-family connection. Larry and Quiet Dom are trustworthy old-timers who do his bidding with little fear of opposition from within or outside the family.”
As Gigante told a prison guard who wondered if younger inmates were bothering him: “Nobody ***** with me.” Or his disciples.
Genoveses 'top of five Mafia families'
The FBI considers the Genoveses to be the biggest and most powerful of New York's five Mafia gangs.
The four other families have seen their leaderships undermined by a relentless campaign against organised crime in the United States over the past 20 years, detectives say.
That has led to a new underworld order. The Genoveses - once seen as the second most powerful family after the Gambinos - have now moved up to the number one slot, the FBI believes.
The Gambinos were crippled by the arrests of their boss John Gotti and other leading figures.
Nobody complained about the Mafia when the Italians got the NAZIs off the docks at the ports.
The Chin died in a federal prison in Springfield, Missouri about a month or so ago. The same prison where Gotti died.
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