Is mario Gigante active?? He's obviously probably getting up there in age. He was acting boss at one point no?? Is he on the shelf now though?

I doubt he's active. If he's got any brains left, he's in Florida enjoying the sun and staying away from these clowns in NY. I know Father Louis saw the light. He retired. Never too late to change.

i would assume hes inactive isn't he like 90 or something? I'd guess he's probably collecting some envelopes on the strength of his name/age/rep but probably isn't running a crew. who knows.

it's like the charts or whatever have Mangano as the Underboss (or acting underboss) - how active can he be? last I read he was pretty much all but dead from old age and the ailments that come from that

Regardless of how active he still is, he's certainly not on the shelf. That's what happens to somebody when they are put into forced inactivity by the family as punishment.

I disagree. On the shelf has many different meanings. In the life retirement isn't used as word...you can't retire. Being put on the shelf can easily be due to old age or many other reasons not exclusive to punishment. Whether he got out on is own is a different story, but i would speculate to say that someone eased him out because of the fact that his brother died and without the chin around mario was probably useless and more importantly powerless.

I've never heard the term used in any other way. The implication seems to be one of punishment. A guy that gets put on the shelf has done something where he more or less loses the recognition of being a made guy and the ability to continue in family-sanctioned operations. Though, like with the Colombo brothers, there may be exceptions. But I don't see Mangano being put on the shelf by anyone. And it's not a matter of him officially retiring or leaving the mob. Just more or less being inactive. At least in the day to day sense.