WEBVTT - 7- Enigma in a Bathrobe 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.840 You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.280 production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.560 In the criminal Justice System, landmark trials transcend the courtroom 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.280 to reshape the law. The brave man and women who 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.599 investigate and prosecute these cases are part of a select 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:31.800 group that is defined American history. These are their stories. Sunday, 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:37.479 April thirteenth, nineteen eighty six, early afternoon, Benson Nurst, Brooklyn. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.720 It was a quiet day outside the Veterans and Friends 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.919 Social Club. A Genevese associate approached a gray Buick Electra. 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.040 He slit a brown paper bag under the passenger door, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.800 then walked away like it was just another afternoon. That 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.640 car it belonged to Frank de Chico, the newly minted 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.679 Gambino underboss and the right hand man of John Gotti. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:11.800 Watching from nearby was Lucsey soldier Anthony Gaspipe Casso, notorious 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.720 for his brutal tactics, but today he wouldn't need a 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.360 pipe to get the job done. The order from the 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.280 Genovise bosses was simple, get Gotti. 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:29.679 Today. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.720 One man was killed and another critically injured when their 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.759 car was rigged with a bomb in Brooklyn. 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.160 In the kitchen having coffee. It's just sitting there and 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.160 all of a sudden, moms, just like that. I thought 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:42.880 it was back in a war. 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.039 Sources within the police department said that the man killed 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.800 was a lieutenant to John Gottie, the reported godfather of 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:50.080 the Gambino crime family. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.040 You're not with them because you want to be. It's 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.720 the gangster that decides whether you're his associated on. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.680 If you like your life, you will vote to acquit. 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:10.720 I'm Aniseega Nicolazzi. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:13.120 My father should have been a dead. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:18.359 Man from Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. This is law 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:28.680 and order, criminal justice system. How did the Genevise family 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:33.240 avoid federal prosecution for so long through a brilliant act 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:38.520 of leadership deception. For years, prosecutors were convinced that Fat 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.440 Tony Salerno was the boss of the Genovese. His conviction 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:46.280 should have brought the organization down like the other mafia families. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.800 But what the government didn't know There was a clue 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.520 buried deep within hours of surveillance that things were not 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.800 as they seemed. On a nineteen eighty four wire tap, Salerno, 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.040 frustrated for a list of recruits, was overheard saying and 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.000 I quote, I don't know none of them, but I'll 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.320 leave this up to the boss. That single sentence, I'll 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.480 leave this up to the boss was a bombshell. Salerno, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.519 the man authorities believed to be the boss, was revealing 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:23.440 that there was someone even higher. This comment shattered the 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.840 long held belief that Salerno was the one in charge. 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.600 Here's defense attorney James Leonard. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.400 When I first became aware of the Geneese crime family, 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:41.200 it was seeing fat Tony Salerno, the alleged boss. The 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.520 United States government sentenced him to one hundred years and 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.840 they got their guy, and the entire time he wasn't 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.560 the boss. That's what made me want to dive into 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.800 who are these guys that fooled the United States government, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:03.720 fooled the media, ooled some of the other organized crime families. 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.800 Rumors began circulating that the real head of the family 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.600 was Vincent the Chin Gigante, a man who managed to 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.960 stay in the shadows while Sealerno took the heat. Gigante's 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.040 low profile wasn't just luck. It was a calculated plan 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.120 that kept him off the radar of both law enforcement 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.640 and the media. This strategy wasn't new. As far back 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.480 as the nineteen sixties, a former Genovie's boss known as 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.159 Benny Squints had created the role of front boss, a 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:41.240 decoy to protect the real leadership. Former FBI supervisor Jim 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.080 Kostler explains. 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.880 The Genovie's family there were secret of these people would 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.359 tell you if your hair was on fire. 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.080 The idea was simple, Sellerno would be the public face, 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.240 while Giganty really called the shots. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.720 So they came to an agreement that that Tony would 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.920 be the titular boss and call the shots, with the 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.520 approval of Jinger Ganty. They kept it that way for 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:08.480 a long time. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:14.239 And so Vincent Giganti began his covert reign out of sight, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.200 shielded from prosecution. His administration was so cautious, secretive, and 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:24.799 powerful that it was described as the most sophisticated family 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.400 in the US. While federal prosecutors were busy rounding up 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:34.400 other mafia leaders, Giganty remained untouchable. Here's Michael Cherdoff. 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.400 We had to focus on the people that we had 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.599 evidence were part of the commission actively. You know, there 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.560 were no recordings of Giganty. There was really no evidence 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:44.679 that we could. 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:49.080 Use Salerno's conviction and the belief that he was the 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.080 Genovese boss added a final layer of protection for Gigante. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.800 But who was Vincent Giganty? Law enforcement knew parts of 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.080 his criminal history, but much about him remained a mystery, 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:06.039 a man shrouded in both myth and legend. One person, however, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.279 knew the truth about arguably the most powerful boss in 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.239 organized crime, someone who called him Dad. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.880 Rita Gigante. I am the daughter of Vincent Giganty. 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.440 As a child, Rita was left largely in the dark 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:29.120 about her father's chosen profession, but his presence still loomed 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:30.200 large in her life. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.719 As a child, I can remember myself sitting in the classroom, 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.640 very depressed, crying all the time, wanting to go home, 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.160 never wanting to be in school. And I never understood 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.680 why I would be home a lot. My mother would 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.200 keep me home. So those are my first memories of him. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.360 I would have to say, probably about eight years old. 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.520 I would get sick a lot physically, so he used 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.400 to comfort me. I would lay on his lap and 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.599 he used to rub my back when I was young, 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.440 and I would fall asleep. That was one of the 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:01.320 first memories. 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.560 Rita grew up between two homes, her mother's home in 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.480 New Jersey and her grandmother's New York City apartment. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.600 We moved out here when I was about six months old, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.400 and then about a year after we moved, my dad 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:18.760 picked up and went back in the city with his mom. 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.360 This was in Greenwich Village, the Lower West Side, and 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.000 he lived on Sullivan Street with my grandmother. Kids were 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:29.520 split from him, and my mom and him were split 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.400 even though they were together, so we would be visiting 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.920 back and forth to see him. I had two older 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.000 sisters fifteen and sixteen years older than me, and then 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.760 two older brothers ten and twelve years older than me, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.280 So I was pretty much a change of life baby 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:49.840 or oops, you know. So, my brothers and sisters experienced 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.080 a very different energy and a very different father. By 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.640 the time I came along, he was very caught up 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.000 in his business, so he had less time and less 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:01.200 energy to connect to me. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.040 His business was running the Genevies crime family, but as 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.400 Rita remembers it, he still found time for his immediate 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.920 family too, gathering at her grandmother's house for weekly dinners. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.720 It would be at least twice a week, if not 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.800 three times, but always on a Sunday Sunday dinner. We 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.160 always went to spend at my grandmother so he would 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.600 be there. It wasn't exciting, let's put it that way. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.800 And there were no real conversations between me and my 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.920 dad other than maybe ten words each time I saw him, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.319 and that was how are you house school? You're taking 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.520 care of your mom. To be that young and being 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.640 asked that you're taking care of your mom, you kind 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:43.600 of think that's your job. 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:49.720 To Gigante, family was everything. His own father had died young, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.920 so he put a heavy significance on a child's responsibility. 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.520 He loved and took care of his own mother, and 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.640 while she loved him back, she also did approved of 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:01.400 his lifestyle. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.960 My grandmother couldn't stand what my father did. She wanted 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.280 him to go to school, She wanted him to become something. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.480 This began back in Italy. My great grandfather was a 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.960 pharmacist and doctor and he witnessed a crime by the 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.719 black Hand. Now the black handed in Italy back then 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.000 was the mafia. The black hand approached him and told him, 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.880 if you testify, we're going to kill your whole family. 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.160 And honestly, back then that's what they did. It was 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.080 very different in Italy than it is here. He ended 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:38.000 up killing himself. He took cyanide poisoned himself, and that's 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.360 how everything altered in my grandmother's life. She met my 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.400 grandfather Salvatore, and he wanted to come to the United 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.800 States because his family was here, and so she followed him, 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:52.920 left everything, left all the wealth. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.640 Then my father, comes Gigante, grew up during the Depression 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.240 on the West Side of Manhattan. His father there was 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.560 a watchmaker and his mother a seamstress who doted on 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.040 Vincent and his three brothers. But it was another woman 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:12.040 who would steal his young heart, his future wife, Olympia. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.480 They knew each other as babies. My grandmothers were friends, 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.160 so they grew up together. They had their first kiss 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.559 at twelve years old. But my mother remembers him as 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:28.240 this nice young boy who was very respectful. It was 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.800 that side of him that she could not get out 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.679 of her mind, and it's really why she never left him, 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.400 because she really loved him. It's like they never parted, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.440 you know. And then they eventually got married. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.560 But in the fifties, Lower Manhattan was not the wealthy 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.360 enclave of hipsters and fashionistas it is today. And to 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.480 survive the mean streets of his youth. To guant, he 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.319 knew he would have to use both his wits and 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:53.040 his fists. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.079 They were broke. I think he wanted to make sure 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.280 that he could provide for family. So my dad, he's 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.559 in the street, and eventually he wants to start boxing. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.000 He starts to train and wants to be a boxer, 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.360 and all that he gets like a little name in 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.439 the street that he's a good kid, he's reliable. That 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.240 so Vito takes some men underneath his wing, and that's 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:16.680 how it all begins. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.680 Veto, as in Vito genovis top brass in the Luciano 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.320 crime family and a cutthroat gangster with his eyes on 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:25.840 the throne. 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.960 He started driving for him. He started doing little things 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.320 here and there, and he start to build his reputation 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.000 and his name at that point. And I think once 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.920 he got a taste of the power and the connection 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.560 to the man Veto that really loved him, his ego 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.560 just got swept in and it was very easy to 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:47.480 get caught up in it. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.400 By the time Gigante was in his twenties, he was 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:56.360 Genoviz's top enforcer, and as his reputation grew, he was 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.600 given a nickname that stuck. Here's prosecutor Guilt Childers. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.120 He got the name Chinn because he was an amateur boxer, 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.000 you know, a chin of granite, so he was a 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.000 very physical guy. He made his bones through murder and 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.960 other violence, you know, launch sharking, collection and things like that. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:16.800 That's sort of how he roast to the ranks. 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.079 The moment to Ganty truly earned his mafia spurs came 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.080 in nineteen fifty seven when he walked up to the 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.000 boss of his own crime family, Frank Costello, pointed a 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.760 gun at his head and shot him point blank. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.240 This was sanctioned by Vito Genevies and this is how 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.040 someone moves up in the ranks. They show their loyalty. 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:41.880 That's something my father had to do. 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.560 And though Costello miraculously survived the shooting, he refused to 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.120 identify Giganty at the trial, which remains one of the 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.840 most famous examples of omerta in mob history. 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.000 My dad knew going in he was never going to 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.760 be convicted because nobody he was going to write on 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:02.760 anybody's soul. Frank bowed out. 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.719 Giganty was either destined for mob glory or perhaps he 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.040 was just lucky, because typically in Kosinostra bungling a hit 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.839 does not bode well for the would be assassin. 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.400 Now, the fact that he missed my father should have 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.040 been a dead man, because if someone screw something like 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.480 that up, there's no room for them to stay. But 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.040 Vito was He just loved my father. I can't explain it. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:35.000 There was just this connection between them. But surprisingly they 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.440 didn't take my dad out, and then he began to 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:38.439 rise further. 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.559 And rise he did. Over the next two decades, Giganty 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.240 climbed to the head of the Genevese family, his power 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.480 and survival a result of both his ferociousness and his cunning. 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.280 So how did Giganty do it? How did he manage 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.880 to run New York's most powerful family right under the 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.360 knows of one of the largest federal investigations in American history, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:15.960 with perhaps the craziest KHN in mafia history. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.400 The recruitment process starts, usually with young teenage kids, and 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.800 they visualize the glory of being in that life. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.600 During his career in the FBI, special agent Mike Campy 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.760 spent two decades battling organized crime, and there is perhaps 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.000 no better authority on what gangsters call the life. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.480 So say you grow up in a neighborhood and you 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.840 have social clubs where you'll see the wealth that somebody 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:53.800 may generate, or attractive women cars that can lure somebody 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.680 into it. That may not be what you would describe 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.360 as the best student. He thinks he's a tough guy. 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:04.760 The fistfights then changed into guns where you sort of 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.320 want to become a gangster, and you may align yourself 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:12.760 as an associate with an individual who is in organized crime. 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.000 Over the course of his career, Mike put away and 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:22.160 flipped dozens of associates, soldiers, captains, and bosses. Mike also 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.480 had an aptitude for numbers, which led him to pursue 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:26.600 a degree in accounting. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.840 I did probably about three years in accounting and realized 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.840 that I could not visualize myself doing this as a career, 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.880 so I dropped accounting immediately, and about a year later, 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:44.160 coming home from working in the summer, I met an 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.800 individual named Jack McKenna who was an FBI agent, and 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.000 we had a conversation about FBI. 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.480 Similar to other investigators we spoke with It was a 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.640 family friend that set Mike on his proper path. He 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.160 arrived at the New York Field office at the hight 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.720 of the investigation into the Five Families. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.600 I got to New York in nineteen eighty five. At 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.480 that time I was involved in labor racketeering investigations. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.320 He immediately put his accounting skills to good use and 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.480 did so well that he even developed a reputation on 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:18.080 the streets. 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.280 I remember one time meeting a guy from the Bureau 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.720 of Prisons. He looked at me and he said, you're 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.760 Campy and I said, yeah, what, And he said it. 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.760 You don't know how often I heard your name on 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.040 prison calls. And I said, can you recall one? And 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.160 he said, oh, I remember somebody calling from prison to 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.440 a guy outside who said that he was just visited 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.280 by Mike Campy at FBI agent. And the inmates said, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.960 hire an attorney and plead guilty. He said, but he 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.840 didn't charge me with anything, And he said, hire an 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.480 attorney and plead guilty. I'll see you in a few months. 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:55.640 I mean, I took that as a big compliment. 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.040 With his number crunching prowess, Mike Campy was just the 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.560 rite agent for tackling the Genovies mobsters because one of 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.320 the family's foremost talents was making obscene amounts of money. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:09.960 Here's defense attorney James Leonard. 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.000 There were books written about John Gotti and the Gambino 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.920 crime family, but separated apart the genez crime family. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.240 In addition to their usual income from gambling rackets, the 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.800 Genevies had their hand in almost everything, and Mike was 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:30.320 uncovering a lot of it. 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:37.560 They can generate money through bank robbery and loan sharking, extortions, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.919 the stock fraud business, with the check cashing, I mean, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.640 there was another scheme where they were talking about a 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:49.240 blocking sewers scheme. On a holiday weekend, they would block 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.440 the sewers outside huge buildings in Manhattan with the purpose 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.199 of an individual in charge of approving an emergency to 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.400 unblock the sewer that they prevented the flooding in the buildings. 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.640 It was like a simple process outside which took nothing, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.560 and they cited like making a million dollars on a weekend, 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:10.760 and they'd split it amongst themselves. 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.119 In other words, even as the Commission trial was dismantling 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.720 the Concrete Club, the Genovise family was still raking in 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.439 the cash. They controlled the Fulton Fish Market, ports and 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:28.200 waterfront services, shipping container companies, convention centers, trade shows, as 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.040 well as garbage collection in all five burroughs, and if 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.680 another company attempted to encroach on Genovi's profits, they were 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.200 met with horror, like when a waste removal company began 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:44.480 competing for the city's business. One morning, the sales manager 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.159 found a dog's head on his front lawn. Stuffed in 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.880 its mouth was a note reading, Welcome to New York. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.159 These are not people that go to work. These are 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.560 people that just talk kind of regular basis, how they're 0:18:57.560 --> 0:18:59.720 going to use somebody in a business to generate money 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:00.960 for them. 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.919 And behind it all the family's cutthroat and elusive boss, 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.919 Vincent Gigante, who even had the audacity to extort the 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.560 biggest religious festival in little Italy. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.760 At the Feast of San Gennaro. Historically it goes back decades. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.160 It's as though it's a charitable organization, that the church 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.800 is generating money, but the reality is it's just a 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:27.520 front for organized crime. The city charges twenty five percent 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.800 of what they're collecting from the vendors, and the vendors 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.000 fill out forms with the city. Say, for instance, they're 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.840 being charged five hundred dollars for the stand, where in 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.480 reality they may be charged five thousand, depending on where 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.439 they're located, Like if they're right at Mulberry Street, just 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.359 off Canal, there's higher fee charged by the mobsters. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.440 That to me is a perfect example, as you're saying 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.240 it of exactly how so many people are just victimized. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.560 Here you have a food cart vendor, right, but like 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.840 where they should be paying, making the number up five hundred, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.840 they're having to pay up the little that they have 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.199 to the mob to even get that business, which they 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.480 should have every right to do for whatever it's supposed to. 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.200 Cost, right, and the city loses out. It's like hundreds 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.680 of thousands of dollars a year, you know. I remember 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.200 the priest fled New York to go to South America 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.720 because his life was in jeopardy because he didn't want 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.399 the church to be a sponsor of crime. And it 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.600 wasn't benefiting the church, it was benefiting organized crime. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.240 A lot of what Mike learned about these criminal operations 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.040 was from wiretaps planted in Genevie's social clubs. But there 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.800 was one person that continued to avoid ever being recorded 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.440 the boss himself, Vincent Giguanty. Here's Jim Costler again. 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.760 We did try to put microphones on, but we weren't 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:51.600 successful because he was that. 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.440 Secretive, employing a front boss that was just his first 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:00.480 layer of insulation. Giganty was known to only speak to 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:05.359 a select inner circle of trusted mobsters. Former Colombo capo 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.240 Michael Franzis, who managed to escape the life in the 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.400 early nineties, had this to say. 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:12.680 I'll tell you one thing about Chin. 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.240 He didn't care who you were. If he didn't want 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:15.719 to meet you. 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.000 Made guy Coppo on the boss Boss, he wasn't going 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:19.480 to meet you. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:20.560 That was it. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.680 He was the real power in New York for quite 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:24.479 a long time. 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.879 Anyone outside of Giganti's trust circle would receive messages second hand, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:34.240 and even those communications came with a dire warning. If 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.560 a mobster was ever caught on a wire speaking Chin's name, 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:43.480 the punishment was death. So during his investigations, Mike learned 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.080 of a type of sign language mobsters would use. 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.600 I made recordings where they wouldn't say his name, where 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.240 they would refer to Chin Gigante by just putting their 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.040 finger to their chin. They're talking crimes. But they would 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.399 say this guy and I I'm sure, and align it 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.240 to the recording where this guy was chin because they'd 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:06.960 point to this chin. He had the respect of the 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.920 people under him and they feared him. 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.840 Gil Childers also learned of a code name they used. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.879 He was extremely careful. Another case I did, which was 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:22.000 a Genevie's family case, the guys were on tape talking 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.600 about I've got to go downtown and see my aunt. 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:29.760 They always referred to him as a female, so that 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.480 was another part of his thing. But of course the 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.439 conversations that were on tape roysoul be like tell my 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:39.600 aunt I love him, mixing up the gender so it 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.840 became obvious who they were talking about. 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.919 Rita was no stranger to her father's covert communication style. 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.359 In fact, she often had a front row seat. 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:54.760 By the time I reached the age of seven or eight. 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:58.440 There was always this knowing that he was more than 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.960 what they were telling me, because I remember the phone 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.720 would always be off the hook. He never ever spoke 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.080 on a phone. These men that would come into my 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.880 grandmother's apartment very nice men. They would kiss a silo, 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:13.720 sit down, around the dining room table with him. The 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:15.879 TV was on, the radio was on, lad and I 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.600 would see these pieces of paper being you know, they 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:20.879 were just notes to give him information, and then he 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:22.639 would write back, and then they would take them and 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:24.520 rip them up and either flush them down the toilet 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.520 or they would burn them. Nobody ever really spoke above 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.159 a whisper, and if they wanted to directly speak to him, 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:32.000 they had to go up to him and whisper in 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.160 his ear. He would give them a direction to go 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:38.360 and do something, and they would nod and go one 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:43.119 by one. So this I knew was something's he's important. 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:45.239 I don't know how he's important, but he is. 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.720 When Rita asked about her father's job, the answer was 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:50.800 a lie, and. 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.919 She knew it. I was told several different things. He 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:59.200 worked for a hat company, trucking. Those were the two 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:00.000 most that I remember. 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.120 But secrets can be kept only for so long. One 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:08.359 way or another. They forced their way out, and being 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:11.960 an unwitting accomplice to her father's secret life was taking 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:14.320