Gigante is widely considered to be on the smartest and most shrewed Mafia bosses ever. By other mafiosi, by organized crime journalists, as well as by the very law enforcement officials who went after him. He certainly made a fatal mistake in letting Savino get so close but that certainly doesn't sum him up. He became boss precisely when the heat was really coming on strong against the mob in the 1980's. Yet, he lasted on the street for the better part of two decades. And it's his leadership that has been credited as the reason the Genovese family remained strong and largely intact while the other NY families suffered so many defectors and damage by the feds.