The Crazy Don | the FBI Files S1 EP7 | Real Crime

for 30 years Vincent again he wandered the streets of New York's Greenwich Village dressed in a tattered bathroom and babbling endlessly to himself to the FBI he was believed to be the boss of New York's most powerful mafia organization the Genovese crime family was gigantic crazy or was his behavior a shrewd attempt to disguise his position as a ruthless muffled us and that question would take years to it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] every family has a Centrex even crime families crime boss Vincent Gigante head of New York's Genovese family was undoubtedly eccentric the question remained was he truly mad justice rested on the answer I would Lee he roamed the streets is a dog a Leo man barely in touch with the reality but in the eyes of the law he was a cunning conspirator and responsible for murder I'm Jim Kallstrom former director of the FBI's New York office organized crime takes a concerted effort to crack the FBI is devoted to cracking it the case against you Gandhi hinged on his ability to stand trial was a strange behavior an act of madness or a stroke of genius anyone who witnessed you Gettys ravings would have found it hard to believe that he controlled the largest and most profitable family in the New York Mafia an organization with a long and bloody history the origins of the Mafia can be traced back to 13th century feudal Sicilian society bands of Sicilian families organize themselves to rebel against the oppressive and ruthless French invaders mafia the acronym for the Italian the morta alle Frankia italia Anela which translates to death to the French as Italy's cry became the name that he's organised families used to refer to themselves its meaning synonymous with men of Honor by the 19th century the mafia re-emerged in Sicily is a purely criminal culture mostly hiring themselves out to wealthy landowners to oppress upstart peasants more and more the goal of the Mafia became focused on how to generate illegal profits the tradition continued as waves of italians emigrated to New York in the 1920s most immigrants lived in cramped and poor conditions as a result of growing ethnic tensions Sicilian Americans became the target of growing resentment they needed mafia protection more and more Louis Schiller Oh a third-generation italian-american is head of the FBI's New York field office a 23-year veteran he is an expert on the Mafia and its intricate structure when they first became prevalent in New York City it primarily victimized members of the immigrant community were in in in lower Manhattan they became the victims of extortions and protection rackets and that's how that the Cosa Nostra families originally got their start with prohibition influence of the crime families grew out from the isolated neighborhoods and began to spread nationwide a new form of underworld cooperation emerged various crime families across America banded together to supply illegal alcohol to a country willing to pay for it I think that probably more than anything gave the Italian gangs the Italian Cosa Nostra families a foothold in American society not only from an organizational standpoint but certainly from a financial base a sense prohibition certainly they then expanded into other areas operating outside the law meant the Mafia had to police itself for an organization animated by self-interest there would always be conflict in opposition an elite group of killers were organized to enforce my family thereby ensuring its survival this group of mob and forces came to be known as Murder Inc by the early 1940s Murder Inc would be responsible for hundreds of mob related murders nationwide the powerful New York bosses during the Mafia's early years Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello set up a ruling body for the Mafia responsible for delegating territories and duties among the various gangs nationwide home for America's five largest families New York remained the center of the Mafia's expanding foothold in America it remains so to this day the five New York families consist currently of the Gambino family the Bonanno the Lucchese the Colombo and the Genovese family each of those families are also members of the Commission and also have their base in New York City the Commission composed of the bosses of the five New York families acts as a criminal Board of Directors settling disputes between families and making major decisions on mafia business each family is governed by its administration comprised of the boss the underboss and the consigliere or councilor who are responsible for directing their families criminal activity below the administration in the family hierarchy are the captains the captains are the leaders of crews of soldiers the men responsible for carrying out the day-to-day criminal activity to become a soldier properly known as a wise guy or good fella an individual has to first be made or officially inducted into the secret society he must blindly obey the rules of Cosa Nostra Italian for this thing of ours he is sworn to put the family ahead of all else if he is asked to kill he must faithfully do so it was against this backdrop a bustling immigrant community with an expanding Cosa Nostra influence that Vincent Gigante grew up his parents came from Naples and settled in lower Manhattan Vincent finished eighth grade and started trade school but soon dropped out less than a decade later Gigante became a wiseguy in the Genovese crime family Vincent giganta's crime career spanned a turbulent time in American Mafia history the mob had expanded its reach into legitimate businesses the various families fighting to control and in the ensuing turf wars violence was often the final arbiter the family that jaggedy attached himself to was steeped in Cosa Nostra's American origins the infamous Charles Lucky Luciano responsible for organizing and structuring the American Mafia was the family's first boss until he was imprisoned in 1936 as a result Luciano's family administration Frank Costello nicknamed the prime minister of the underworld and Vito Genovese fought for control of the family Costello one out but Vito Genovese began plotting his takeover a young Vincent Gigante first gained notoriety as a mobster in 1957 when he attempted to murder Frank Costello within the Mafia it was widely believed that Vito Genovese had ordered the hit to get rid of his rival giganta's bullet only grazed Costello's head but apparently Costello got the message soon after the shooting he put out word that he was retiring Vito Genovese was now the boss of the family that would take his name gigantea was arrested for attempted murder and brought to trial but the case was dismissed for lack of a witness the location and angle of Costello's wound indicated he probably saw the would-be assassin but at the trial he failed to identify jigani as the shooter even for an Austen boss the oath of secrecy remains safely gigantic continued to make money for the Genovese family through illegal enterprises two years after the failed assassination attempt he was arrested and convicted of narcotics violations he received a seven-year sentence convicted mobsters are expected to do their time and remain silent if Giganta served his time and kept his mouth shut he would be rewarded after his release it was up to Gigante to figure out how to avoid future arrests he was a model prisoner neat polite and willing to take on any job jig and ease cooperation was so impressive that some prison officials wrote glowing reports he was released early from the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg for good behavior when he was 35 years old chickadee now devised a secret plan that he hoped would prevent his return to prison forever he didn't want to leave his mafia life or give up his shot at becoming the boss of the family after his release in 1964 Jagan DS public behavior began to grow bizarre he became a frequent sight on the streets of Greenwich Village Giganta could be found wandering the neighborhood appearing disoriented and mentally unstable not long after he left prison Giganta learned of a police investigation over his association with known mobsters in 1969 he was indicted for attempting to bribe New Jersey police officers allegedly he offered the money in exchange for information about surveillance and ongoing investigations in the Genovese family now at almost forty years old he returned to his mental disability as a foil and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital for the first time to support his storage caddy and his relatives began to revise his medical history while Gigante was at Lewisburg his mother had been required to fill out a detailed family history she said Vincent was a healthy happy child she noted only a speech impediment and a slight heart murmur he had been a boxer but never had a serious injury by the time of the 1969 indictment however Gigantes lawyers claimed he was not competent to stand trial his family suddenly remembered a host of mental problems he'd been given to severe temper tantrums he had a phobia for the dark he had been taught from school he was at one time obese and had learning problems the incompetency argument worked Gigante never stood trial for the 1969 bribery charges that same year ji Gandhi's boss Vito Genovese died of heart failure while serving a prison sentence for narcotics trafficking in the decade that followed the Genovese family was so secretive that for law enforcement it was difficult to tell exactly who the boss was even had the FBI been able to identify the Genovese family leadership making a case against them was another story witnesses were hard to come by mobsters who violated the sacred oath faced certain death the best the FBI could do was to go after individual crimes there were no laws that focused on bringing down the entire criminal family educating is moving up in the family the federal government was about to make the FBI's job a little easier in 1970 Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act better known as the RICO laws what the racketeering law allowed us to do was to look at the family as a criminal enterprise and to attack the family as a criminal act that became much more effective you'll if you look back from the mid 70s to the 80s in terms of actually indicted the entire family in the entire hierarchy of that family the RICO laws require that the government prove that mafia families are essentially criminal enterprises they must show that the crimes committed by the boss and members of his family are committed to either expand the criminal enterprise or to increase the family members position within that enterprise to successfully bring down a family the government has to prove that any one of several criminal acts ranging from racketeering and extortion to murder has been committed by 1979 now armed with federal legislation aimed directly at organized crime the FBI had devoted teams to exclusively focus investigations on the five major families the FBI's Genovese squad finally learned that Vincent Gigante was on a fast track with the family Special Agent Richard Rudolph had been assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family through informants and other law enforcement agencies were exchanging information we became aware that Missy Gigante was a individual which with much respect in the Genovese crime family and operated out of an area in lower Manhattan because he was a an up-and-coming person with a lot of respect within the family we began to do some surveillances of mr. Gigante with the FBI continuing to build its arsenal against organized crime jig a DS cat and mouse game intensified he stepped up his public show of mental disorder in the late 70s and into the 80s he was admitted five more times for psychiatric treatment you the FBI continued to keep tabs on Gigi aunty agents learned that he frequented the Triangle social club a gathering place for Genovese crime figures he could be found there almost on a daily basis he lived in in the neighborhood he was an individual that could be found there in the late afternoons and into the early hours of the morning and people would come to see him as opposed to him going to see other people though Gigantes Association and the Genovese family seemed certain to investigators Jagr and E's family and doctors continuously told investigators that he led a very narrow existence they said his whole world was confined to the block where he lived and the church he attended with his mother he was barely functional at home and could not care for himself they said but with every passing day the FBI and New York Police were seeing a very different instance again in the early 1980s the Mafia in the Northeast went through a particularly tumultuous times internal disputes within the family resulted in a string of assassinations the FBI suspected jig ante was responsible for these playing land executions especially those intended as punishment for breaking Cosa Nostra rules Gigante was known to be a traditionalist he wanted the rules obeyed and when they were broken retribution was sure to follow [Music] it started with the murder of Philadelphia crime boss Angelo Bruno although Bruno's family was well outside New York all families answered to the members of the Commission Gigante was upset because Bruno had been assassinated by his own men in a grab for control of the family a casa Nostra rule had been violated no one can kill a boss unless the Commission sanctions it and they seldom do it was rumored that jaggedy himself launched an investigation into Bruno's murder retribution was Swift less than a month later Tony bananas Caponigro identified as one of Bruno's assassins was found dead he had been shot 15 times and stabbed in the back his body was stuffed in a trunk and $20 bills were littered around his body a clear message that he was killed for his greed on the same day another body was discovered this time it was Fred Solana dead of gunshot wounds dumped in a vacant lot he too had allegedly participated in Bruno's murder [Music] Phil testa had taken Angelo Bruno's places boss his reign was short almost a year after Bruno's execution testa was blown up entering his own home [Music] another boss killed without the blessing of the Commission another avenging Act would follow [Music] Rocko Marunouchi was next found dead with fireworks stuffed in his mouth a gesture designed to show that he was killed for the way in which he had killed tested if the Casa Nostra was to flourish all of its members had to comply with his rules there were no exceptions Gigante was believed to have ordered the murder of one of his own crime family members Genovese soldier Jerry Papa had murdered two Colombo family members without permission as punishment for his unsanctioned act he was brutally shot and killed by members of his own criminal family had Gigante become the enforcer for the Northeast Cosa Nostra informers within the mob told federal agents that all of these killings had been ordered by Gigante but information given by admitted criminals is always a problem for potential juries criminals will say anything if their cooperation can be traded for a reduced prison sentence the FBI needed more than the words of criminals looking for a deal Joe Gatti knew this and he protected himself accordingly it seemed that Jay Gandhi was now the boss the FBI began a more focused surveillance effort on gigantea they learned that the Genovese family had also infiltrated several of New York's major industries the garment trade trucking garbage collection Airport cargo handling and the city's seafood industry Vincent Gigante was known on the streets as the chin an abbreviation of chin z no little Vincent fearing FBI surveillance and wiretap family members were not allowed to speak his name they were to refer to him with hand signals touching their chins to communicate his nickname bringing down the chin was going to take every bit of know-how that the FBI could muster they were going to have to create their own look as a surveillance team member watched one day a telling crack and the Qin's ruse appeared the seemingly frail man was being helped across a busy street when oncoming traffic threatened he became suddenly animated racing to safety his helplessness somehow overtook him again on the other side clearly there were two Gigantes the mentally troubled one displayed to the public and the determined boss of the Genovese administration the FBI would soon learn of a third [Music] ji Gandhi's ex-wife and their five children lived in New Jersey while he maintained a relationship with his long-standing companion Olympia Esposito [Music] he usually called on her late at night looking quite dead before he was aware of the surveillance we learned that he frequently visited a townhouse which was located upon 77th Street and the East Side of Manhattan where we later learned that a common-law he was living with his common-law wife and he had been married previously and this was his second family there at this residence soon the FBI knew all of the chins hangouts this gave surveillance teams an opportunity to observe G Gaddy without his knowledge the major break came when NYPD organized crime task force member detective Tom Bruno was able to snap photos of some of G Gandhi's activities in 1984 I was assigned to a joint organized crime task force that test was consisted of FBI agents and New York City police officers detectives and we were assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family then next step was to go to Sullivan Street where chin Gigante live his apartment was above a pet store alleged pet store and he also had a social club on the block and when you'd go by the social club you'd see numerous people that were in the photos and you'd see them standing in front of going inside and then sometimes crossing the street going to the pet store which was where the chin we believe met people pet store really never had any kind of business that we could see it had a little cat box in the window and basically that was it more and more Gigante was seen acting normally when he was unaware he was being watched I see chin Gigante and I see Andrew Gigante which is his son come out of his residence and I'm just minding my business walking up the block Andrew leaves to get in his car and chin is standing on the corner and he wasn't help out of his building and he was standing on the corner Andrew gets in his car pulls out as he pulls out there's a car coming up Sullivan Street it blows the horn chin Gigante yells hey what are you in a rush as he does this I come into the lighted area he looks sees me and all of a sudden his head goes down and he plays the sick point [Music] another break followed detective Bruno's surveillance successes the FBI managed to rent an apartment close to the talents of giganta's companion is Esposito an agent would exit through a back door in the rented apartment building and position himself about 50 feet from MS Esposito's townhouse from there miss Esposito and J Gandhi could be seen from time to time an agent watched the couple for four months between midnight and 2:00 a.m. assistant US attorney andrew westman who later would have to prove ji Gandhi's competency to stand trial was delighted with the agent's observations and lo and behold when he was inside in a place where he didn't think he was being observed he did all of the normal things that any of us would do a matter of fact what was unusual about those surveillances was that there was nothing unusual about him he was normal he was talking to people he was counting money he never wore a shoddy bathrobe indeed the only time he was seen in a bathrobe was not surprisingly when he got out of the shower he would wear a nice fluffy Brooks Brothers type bathrobe which was not at all like the bathrobe that he would wear when he was on the street so it became pretty obvious to the people conducting the surveillance that he was engaging in a concerted effort to give an appearance to the public that was false that was not the way he behaved in real life investigators continue to watch ji Gandhi's bizarre public behavior but photos themselves are only a single link improving criminal activity investigators needed hard evidence to corroborate what the photos were suggesting the Giganta was in fact the boss one wiretap conversation between Genovese crew members gave investigators more proof of G Gandhi's position in the family on the tapes known Genovese members were complaining about the chin assistant US attorney George Stan boletus reviewed these tapes to help prepare a case against you Gaby he's constantly nitpicking his men trying to always with a million questions drilling them and questioning them on what they're involved in he's always looking to get money from them or money from some of the schemes and how he earned and how much money he would make from the gambling operations at the Triangle social club and things like that while jaggedy micromanage the internal affairs of his family the tabloids began calling him the odd father he would check himself into a hospital once a year for what his colleagues in the Mafia sarcastically referred to his tuneups so that he would have a paper trail showing that he had some or giving the impression that he had some mental condition and with the assistance of people around him and people in his family he was able to cultivate this paper trail giving the impression to anyone who looked at the cold medical records that here's someone who year-in year-out was being treated for some form of mental illness J Gaddy knew how to protect himself both publicly and privately mr. Gigante was very clever and how he conducted business and he limited his contacts with with members of the family if there were messages or or items to be discussed regarding illegal activities conducted by the Genovese family there would be messages passed on to people immediately surrounding him access to him was very limited if the other family wanted to meet with him more than likely they would have to send a message Gigante avoided the normal sit downs or more formal meetings held regularly by other family bosses he would take meetings when businesses demanded his attention he and his visitors would stroll the sidewalks through the neighbourhood ensuring that surveillance wiretaps would not pick up any incriminating conversations the always careful Gigante also suspected Ms Esposito's phone was tapped and it was he never taught business on the phone he would simply use a pay phone or make arrangements to talk elsewhere [Music] the FBI would not be able to use the chins own words to make a case against him other mobsters were not as smart sophisticated bugging operations were allowing the FBI to capture a multitude of other mob business on tape in early 1985 the Justice Department was bearing down hard on a number of high-level organized crime figures most were being charged under the RICO Act though Rico had been around since the early 70s it was only now receiving its first real test two of giganta's men had gotten wind that the bosses of the Gambino and Lucchese families would soon be arrested they wondered if the chin was vulnerable [Music] one commented that if he gets pinched all those years in the asylum would be for nothing On February 19th the arrests of several crime family bosses were made the next day Vincent Gigante checked himself into the hospital and stayed a week he had successfully avoided the indictment against the New York bosses among those arrested was Paul Castellano head of the Gambino crime family prosecutors never brought him to trial he was killed before they had the chance by Casa Nostra standards the unsanctioned murders of Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Bilotti who were unpardonable although John Gotti a captain in the Gambino family acted shocked at Castellanos death it was widely believed that he was responsible within two weeks of the murders Gotti had publicly taken over his boss Vincent Gigante issued a subtle warning to guy without mentioning names he told Gaudi that the murderer would have to pay it took two years but in 1987 Gigante acted to avenge the murder of his friend and partner in mob business through his councillor Bobby manna and some Lucchese family members to get applauded to have got he killed the planning session at a New Jersey restaurant was bugged and because it was the FBI saved John Gotti's life if agents intercept information of a murder plot they are required by law to try to prevent the killing so based on the tape agents warned Gotti acting on the FBI warning John Gotti changed his plans on the day the murder was to take place because he was not where he was expected the murder plot failed jaggedy however did not give up he asked Vic Amuso acting boss of the Lucchese family to supervise another hit it was up to a mousou and his men to work out the details and that was to have a mousou reach out to al d'arco one of his trusted men just as mana was one of giganta's trusted men and have d'arco use his contacts in other parts of the country to acquire a remote-controlled bomb but gotti was arrested and imprisoned before the second plot could be carried out he died of cancer while serving a life sentence for racketeering involving extortion and murder in including Castellanos meanwhile the FBI had Qin's men on tape conspiring the murder as the FBI's investigation into Genovese family operations continued information about a corrupt construction scheme was coming to light they learned that for years much of the Genovese family income came from one segment of the construction industry the windo business the family had managed to keep its hold on window replacement jobs for all of New York City's public housing projects we learned that at that time there was a an enormous amount of money being put into refurbishing some of the New York City Housing Authority windows there was an energy crisis underway and the timing of this was ideal for the organized crime people become more active in it what we learned was that the Genovese family and along with two or three other families were becoming involved in companies that were bidding and installing the windows in some of these housing projects from the late 1970s up until the late 1980s there was approximately a hundred and ninety million dollars worth of contracts given out by the city of New York for the window replacement industry it was classic mob business and a textbook example of racketeering the Mafia took over an industry to the exclusion of legitimate businesses Union officials were corrupted in this case Iron Workers Local 580 bids were rigged and companies or workers trying to play by the rules lost out for years the Lucchese and Genovese families operated their construction schemes autonomously by the early 80s they realized that a partnership would be much more profitable by this time the Lucchese family had a firm hold on local 580 and the Genovese family had corrupted several contractors they cooperated because it meant more business by using the local 580 as a tool they were able to exclude several contractors from coming in and bidding on some of these projects and in essence created a somewhat of a monopoly for themselves on nearly all City Housing Authority work and on much of the new construction for the city the Genovese contractors and installers paid $2 a window a dollar went to the Lucchese family 25 cents to the collector and 75 cents to the boss for the family's role in handling the union the other dollar went to the crooked union officials who look the other way as jobs went to non-union workers refusal to cooperate often carried a penalty and violence in the late 80s at carpenters union delegate had both of his legs broken by Genovese men for refusing to cooperate though he maintained that he was unable to get a look at his attackers and in 1992 a delegate from local 580 was shot and killed coming out of his house on Long Island over a disagreement of his Casa Nostra controversy the Lucchese and Genovese family arrangement was working very smoothly that is until Peter Savino was persuaded to wear a wire Savino was a Genovese soldier and point man for the window racket and we built a case on him a murder case on him and it was sufficiently compelling that he realized like many of these people that he didn't want to die in jail so what'd he do he he decided to cooperate and for an 18-month period made tape recordings of people in the Genovese family and people in Lucchese family operating this scheme Vincent Gigante didn't realize Peter Savino was turning on him he was happy with savino's work and satisfied that the window schemes progression Savino kept track of the money he managed the contracts I supervised the bids he arranged the payoffs [Music] the boss was happy but some Genovese family members began to suspect Savino when bodies were found in the basement of a building he owned Genovese members were surprised that he was never seriously investigated by law enforcement as a result of that people speculated well Savino wasn't arrested yet these bodies were found in a building that's tied to him maybe he's cooperating but nobody was really sure Savino was a cash cow for Vincent G Kennedy he was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Genovese family every month so when Gigante was told of savino's betrayal he chose not to believe it and initially refused to order it killed Savino continued to wear the wire trying to get other family members to acknowledge chin and his position as boss of the family giganta's troops however could never be persuaded to break the bosses rule about not mentioning his name remember uniseal Vinson had said when it came time that you allocate elements at work he he had said to go out and bid the work it was don't mention that name how can you talk like that that was pretty damning proof even though it didn't give you a specific crime it told you that this was a man to be feared it was hardly somebody who was incompetent shortly thereafter it came to Jionni's attention that Sabina was in fact cooperating furious at this betrayal jig and he ordered the murder of Peter Savino by that time the FBI had relocated Savino well out of Genovese family reach but not before he supplied agents with thousands of hours of taped conversations mrs. Savino was also in a position to provide us with the historical aspects of how the scheme developed his relationship with the leaders of both the Lucchese and Genovese crime family and what their participation was in this thing mr. Savino also was able to tell us how the various members of all of these families interacted with local 580 which was used again as the tool to make this game work the FBI was successfully employing the RICO laws to bring down New York's most powerful bosses as a result high-ranking family members saw that their only way to avoid long prison terms was to cooperate among them were Gambino family underboss Salvador Sammy the bull Gravano jacana was finally arrested and charged under the Rico laws with ordering six people murdered conspiring to kill three others and at least 24 counts of racketeering in short g-getting was charged with being the boss of the Genovese crime family but jag Andy still had his mental illness history to fall back on mr. Gigante was indicted in May of 1990 and his second indictment was filed against him in June of 1993 mr. the case against mr. Gigante was unusual that it spanned several years before it actually went to trial he eventually went to trial in June of 1997 during that period of time the issue was that was before the courts was that whether he was competent to stand trial or not that issue was finally resolved in in 1996 seven years after his arrest a federal district judge declared Vincent Gigante competent to stand trial Vincent the chin Gigante was 69 years old when a jury convicted him of conspiring to kill three mafia figures including Gotti and Savino he was also found guilty of extortion and union payoff conspiracies in the window replacement scheme but jurors failed to convict him on charges of directly ordering six murders now that Gigante was convicted his defense lawyers argued that he was not fit to be sentenced they claimed it was too old to fray and too mentally incompetent to understand the posture [Music] while awaiting sentencing eg Gandhi was confined to a prison hospital and examined by several doctors Gigante was given several PET scans a procedure that uses a radioactive tracer to measure brain chemistry [Music] a 1991 scan first read as normal was later found to be too flawed to use in diagnosis the 1993 scan did show some abnormalities but at least one expert dr. jonathan brodie judged these abnormalities as not consistent with dementia dr. Brodie is an attending psychiatrist at New York's Bellevue Hospital and a professor at New York University's School of Medicine he also conducts research on schizophrenia mr. gigantic at the time of the scan was purportedly taking medication that affects the brain and because it affects the brain it affects brain chemistry and brain chemistry is what a PET scan is all about chickadee was taking an anti-psychotic medication and antidepressants a low potency tranquilizer and sleeping pills so dr. Brody was skeptical about the PET scan but had yet to examine the patient when the three of us entered the observation room the examining room where he was then brought I was struck at first by his appearance which I said made me think oh my god he really is sick that I've missed the boat he's really very sick he came in wearing a bathrobe he was shuffling he was mumbling he was making allusions to God but as the examination progressed some of giganta's actions began to raise doubts but one of the things that really struck me was that I didn't note at the time but I noted a few seconds later was when I put out my hand for him to shake it he didn't shake it and that's a very automatic behavior you put your your hand down your worst enemy can put his hand out to you and you tend to take it wengie Gaddy was asked the names of his children he didn't know when he was asked where he lived he didn't know and yet these are the things that people tend not to forget you know the brain and a dementia tends to work on the process of accounting the last in first out so recent memory tends to be lost but that's why people who are very demented can often remember very well events from long ago even if they can't remember recent events while he was not consistent on that indeed he was asked the question about who the President of the United States was which is a standard question on a psychiatric Mental Status evaluation and he scratched his head and he looked perplexed and he said I should know that I really should know that answer it it's in there somewhere and some more questions for Asti someone I really shouldn't know that and then finally he said Bush George Bush and I sat there and thought oh he remembered the question what was striking was not that the answer was incorrect what was striking was that the question was remembered despite all of the interfering questions and there were other red flags he seemed to understand abstract concepts dr. Brody asked gigantea if he was proud of his children now pride is really quite an abstract notion and his response was yes they're all working legitimate jobs legitimacy well that was even a question legitimate employees yet something else that he was able to abstract from the question some intent as to what the question was involved with an awareness of a distinction between legitimacy and legitimacy and here was a man who didn't know what month it was he didn't know if he was in a hospital these and other inconsistencies contributed to dr. Cody's conclusion that you can t did not suffer from aggressive dementia vascular dementia or schizophrenia guards are something to watch to damage during his pre-sentencing hospitalization also found his behavior in morning they testified that he was active around his prison hospital cell and polite to the hospital staff he did not need help to shout to warm himself or to feed himself the lawyers were all put in affidavits that they couldn't communicate with Vincent Chianti at all well when he was in jail he managed to speak with the prison counselors when you sort of talked to the sort of low-level people in jail who have to take care of inmates on a day-to-day basis it turns out he knew exactly that what had happened he knew he had been on trial he knew that Gravano had testified against him and didn't have very nice things to say about him he knew that his sentencing was upcoming he knew what the issue was before judge Weinstein as to that he had to decide that he was competent to be sentenced it was completely at odds with what his lawyers were telling judge Weinstein some psychiatrists thought jaggedy really was incompetent others thought he was faking five months and dozens of tests later the judge ruled the judge said in short the defendants cognitive and emotional capacity and his communication skills are equivalent to other 69 year old defendants with limited education no hallucinations interfere with his abilities to participate in sentencing he understands the fundamentals of criminal substantive law and procedure he's deliberately feigning mental illness to avoid punishment which he fears defendant is competent to be sentenced and to serve an appropriate term in prison she liro described efforts of the FBI and prosecutors as historic and courageous this has been a battle that that certainly I've been involved with for the last 20 years and certainly I think agents that will continue that on over the next five or six years if the effort could be sustained and the resources maintain you know I think we're on the verge of really reducing the effects and the impact of the Cosa Nostra to be sure the government's legal victory in the gigantic cases partially the jury after all failed to convict him of the six murder charges he was originally sentenced to 12 years in 2003 he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and earned three more years finally admitting in court that he had been faking insanity the entire time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Real Crime

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Keywords: real crime, crime documentary, true crime, the fbi files, the fbi files full episodes, the fbi files season 1, fbi documentary, serial killer documentary full episodes, fbi investigation, murderer documentary, classic documentary series, forensic documentary, the fbi files season 1 episode 7, the fbi files s1ep7, The Crazy Don, Vincent Gigante

Id: rofGPPIAL14

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020