We don't know much about him. Was he a capable and feared guy or did he get his position because of his brother? I know he was made way back in the day, but did he rise because of Chin? How about the other Gigante brothers?

Smart, tough and respected in his own right. Would have ended up with a crew either way. He split his time downtown and ran a huge book and shy crew up in Yonkers simultaneously for years. Fully retired now.

A guy that most people know almost nothing about , myself included, but was Arguebelly one most successful guys ever

We will never learn anything about him but I would love to learn a bout his doings during the 2000s

Still alive I think

Apparantely his brother Louis became a priest!...... I remember seeing an old news broadcast from the 1970's and specifically heard him defending Vincent and how the public was all wrong about him.....It REALLY makes me wonder if Louis becoming a priest was just part of The Chin's master shrewdness, meaning, who better to believe than a priest AND someone in his family.....No doubt in my mind that Vincent donated to his church.....Just kind of weird how BOTH his brothers enter crime and their brother the priest is unable to steer them away...Just saying!......Even Dellacroce tried the priest defense.

Father Lou was a true Priest with a genuine calling. What he did for the homeless alone in the South Bronx through SEBCO is amazing. Believing in your family may make you naive, but it doesn't make you a bad person. Vince having a master plan that included Lou becoming a Priest is something out of a terrible straight to DVD mob movie.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-capeci/gigante-family-earns-near_b_783355.html

Gigante Family Earns Nearly $2 Million a Year on the Waterfront
Posted: 11/16/2010 10:42 am EST Updated: 05/25/2011 6:10 pm EDT

The only time that Vincent (Chin) Gigante and John Gotti ever talked business as rival Mafia bosses, Chin made sure to tell Gotti how surprised and saddened he was to learn that the Dapper Don was going to induct his son into the Gambino crime family.

Twenty-two years later, it's clear that while Gigante frowned on bringing his sons into "the life" that he and Gotti had chosen, the legendary Genovese family boss made sure that his sons and his entire extended family would share in the riches of his gangster life long after he was gone.

So, as John (Junior) Gotti tries to sell his life story in an effort to maintain his lifestyle, Gigante's relatives are earning about $2 million a year as gainful employees of companies on the New Jersey waterfront, Gang Land discloses in this special report.

Led by Gigante's son-in-law Joseph Colonna and his nephew Ralph Gigante - they each "earn" $400,000 a year as shop stewards - there are 11 members of the Gigante family currently working for New Jersey waterfront companies at annual salaries that average about $175,000.
In addition, nine other Gigante family members, including four of the late Mafia chieftain's grandsons, his sons Andrew and Salvatore, as well as a brother-in-law, have earned good livings over the years as card carrying members of Local 1804 of the International Longshoremen's Association, according to recent fact-finding hearings conducted by the Waterfront Commission.

The poster boy for the working family legacy of Chin Gigante - and the main witness at a Commission hearing last month - is Ralph Gigante, a 55-year-old Gigante nephew who earned about $400,000 last year. In his testimony before the commission on October 21, Gigante did his best to be honest and forthcoming: He acknowledged that he expects to earn a bit more this year because he recently received a $3-an-hour raise.

For your ordinary worker, this would shake out as an annual boost of $6,240 in gross income.
But for Ralph Gigante, who is anything but your average worker, the $3 hourly raise alone shakes out to be an annual increase of about $34,000.

That's because, with very few exceptions, his company, Port Newark Maintenance and Repair, pays Gigante as if he works 24/7 at the Port Newark Container Terminal. That's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whether he's on the pier, or watching a ballgame on TV, or taking in a movie, or asleep in his bed, he's on the clock. It breaks down this way: Eight hours is figured at "straight time," 13 hours is paid at the usual time-and-a-half overtime rate, and three hours a day is computed at "double time."

Gigante's usual weekly salary comes to a nice round $7,738.50. This is based on an hourly rate of $33, using of course, the aforementioned overtime rates that PNMR has been paying him since he was elected by acclamation for the shop steward's position back in 1995.

Gigante, who has never been arrested, didn't run away from his wiseguy relations under questioning by Waterfront Commission Executive Director Walter Arsenault. During the shop steward's testimony, he identified Chin Gigante, his brother Mario, as well as his late father, also named Ralph, as reputed Genovese mobsters who hung out at the Triangle Social Club, in the same Greenwich Village neighborhood where he grew up.

His own work history began when Gigante began working on the docks in 1980. He testified that in 1995 he decided to run for the position as PNMR shop steward after his cousin Andrew, who would plead guilty to waterfront racketeering along with his Mafia boss father in 2003, gave up the high-paying job.

According to most Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), the shop steward's role is to make sure that the dues paying union members are treated fairly by their employer. But Gigante described his role as a "liaison" between the workers and their bosses.

"I represent both the company and the men," he said under questioning by Commissioner Ronald Goldstock. "I go in between. They come to me, or my men will come to me" with problems. "If the company doesn't make money, we got to lay people off. So I try to make it where everybody's as happy as possible to get things done."

He has no duties other than his role as shop steward, and justified being on the clock "as long as my guys are working" because he sometimes gets called at night to "talk to the guys" and tell them that "we'd have to get more work done" even though some equipment was down.
He testified that he was unaware that his status as a shop steward with no other duties and his ability to earn "double time while sleeping" were at variance with the CBA that prohibited "preferential treatment" for him.

"Do I go and read the whole collective bargaining agreement word for word, no, I have not read it word for word," Gigante said at one point.

During his 15 years as a shop steward, he has filed one grievance against the company. But he disagreed strongly with the notion that he was a "dream shop steward" who did nothing for his men. "We do have our battles, but we get them settled. And if I can't settle them, it goes to the delegate and the delegate gets it done either one way or the other."

Gerald Krovatin, a Newark attorney who represented Gigante at the session, declined to answer any questions about his client's embarrassing record on grievances and his lack of knowledge about the provisions of Local 1804's CBA with PNMR, telling Gang Land only that Gigante "cooperated fully with the Waterfront Commission."

During his testimony, Gigante identified many family members as Local 1804 members currently working for other Garden State waterfront firms.

"So the port has been pretty good to the extended Gigante family, hasn't it," asked Waterfront Commission counsel Eric Fields.

"Unions are always good for family," said Gigante. "It's not only the waterfront union. It's also the construction union. If you look at the police unions, they have a lot of people that follow in that position too... Firemen do the same thing."

PB whenever you got a moment I was hoping you could shed some light on this for me. I mentioned this in another thread but what was the other brothers name again?
There was Chin,Louis, Mario and two more brothers? What was up with the other brother that died from AIDS if I'm not mistaken? Was he made?

Pasty and Ralph. Ralph is the one who died of AIDS. He ran a bookmaking crew in Yonkers. When he died Mario took it. They were Westchester based for years but kept apartments downtown. Just like Vince had his places uptown and by the Rockland/Jersey line. But unlike Vince, who rarely left Sullivan Street, they were hands on in Westchester. Mario still lives in Lower Westchester. But I won't post where, even though he's retired. One of these nuts might go ask him for his autograph. I wish I was kidding .

Lol. Thanks for this. Did Patsy have his own crew or was he a soldier or associate?
It makes sense how Vince got to be so powerful and/or influential, he had three brothers that were powers in their own right.

Was he an IV drug user?

No.

Chin's daughter mentions an uncle Pat who was gay in her book. Not sure if it's true or not. I'm assuming he wasn't involved in the family business. Then again u never know.

A true priest? I don't think it was any kind of master plan but I'm under no illusion that Father Lou didn't know exactly who his brother was. Furthermore, he played along and lied about the crazy act when he knew it was all a charade.

You say potato....

Maybe I'm shoveling it a little bit, Ivy. But that "Master Plan" comment just set me off. Father Lou took his vows before Costello was even shot. And he did do a lot of good in the South Bronx through SEBCO. It's a shithole now. But back in the '70s, the subsidized housing looked a lot more appealing than the burned down buildings that they replaced.

Ironically, well, not really ironically, Vinny Esposito runs SEBCO now.

I don't think it's a total black or white thing. I imagine he's done a lot of good as a priest. But, for whatever reason, be it familial loyalty or what not, it's like he set his vows and position as a priest aside when it came to his brother.



Interesting. I didn't know that.

Honestly I would have done the same thing if I were him, and suspected my brother ran a crime family. In that case, I'd let God judge me and not the government.

Meh, they pretty much let him walk on the button. He should have never gotten it to begin with. But I've heard that Vince gave in so he wouldn't feel like "the bastard son."

But regarding SEBCO, I guess it's something to put his name on. He may have given it up by now. But he was still on the board as of a year or two ago. Like I said earlier, the place is a shithole now. And the kid's set for life anyway.

PB according to their site he's no longer there. Here it is:

http://www.sebcodevelopment.org/board-members.html

Okay, Beans. Thanks. Like I said in the post above yours, he was still there as of a year or two ago. Kid's worth millions anyway.

The whole development's a toilet now, which is worth noting because when Father Lou was still an active Priest and physically able, it was a nice development, as far as subsidized housing went. The man was there EVERY SINGLE DAY. That's what I meant when I said up top that he did a lot of good, regardless of who his brothers were.

Man that whole port Newark still operates in a whole different time

Real tough guys down there , handle stuff of their own

A poor old friend of mine got looped into a short change employee benefits thing. I'm not one to make apologies but the poor kid had no idea they did anything like that , he used do work that worked with LE so he was probably just a front . Tragedy as he was so happy about running his own biz

back to Mario , I am anxiously awaiting the day to ask him about his role in late 90s and early 2000s . He is the one guy that almost no one knows anything about

That quote by Ralphie about unions is priceless , sums up a lot

Mario was away for most of the late '90s. But after his release in 2001, he kept it close to home. Like I said, Lower Westchester. Vince was already away, and Mario rarely even went into the Bronx, let alone anywhere else.

Now, that doesn't mean that people didn't come to him. Take the geography and do with it what you will. He's still alive, he's not all bad (relative to other wiseguys), and I don't want to post anything else about him.

It's been said that Mario Gigante was a ''Inducted'' member under Vito Genovese Greenwich Villiage crew when he was a Captain. This was ofcourse when Frank Costello and Willie Moretti ran the family in the early 50's.

Is this true?

The Gigante family is a good story...4 powerful mobs guys who had a priest as a brother...The boss who wore pajama's and a bathrobe on the street, yet put a hit out on John Gotti....That's good stuff that would definitely sell books...If there was ever a testament to Vincent Gigante and his secrecy, this it...These media hounds can't even come up with enough info on him to write a book...The way he would have wanted it !!!

Fuck ing spell check , hate it with a passion but in regards to Mario , I was referring to PB

No one talks about him but the guy was a heavy . A story that will never be told except a few PB tidbits that i will gladly take

The people coming to him is what I was referring to PB

As at some points IMO he was seriously involved in decision making . Thats just my opinion and can be totally wrong

Thanks a lot PB , I'm good now

Wonder if the older brother had to kick up. If Mario didn't get indicted in the early 80tys is he boss or even in the top 3.

Mario and Vince were skippers at the same time. Put it this way: If Cafaro flips two years earlier, and they indicted Vince instead of Fat Tony in the Commission case, there's a fifty/fifty chance that Mario's part of the administration by the late '80s. Mario was as close to Benny as Vince was. This was a VERY heavy guy in his own right. And it wasn't because his last name was Gigante.

I didn't know Chin had a brother that died of AIDS. Do we know how he got it? I know PB you said he wasn't a user and I know many got it from blood transfusions so I wonder if that was it or did he just get it from the broads?

These are the threads I love, one actually gets to learn something other than PB is a Mets fan