Chin Puts On A Memorable Performance

By Jerry Capeci
September 6, 1996

If it's a "crazy act," it's a damn good one.

For 12 spellbinding minutes today, Vincent (Chin) Gigante showed a standing room only courtroom in Brooklyn Federal Court why psychiatrists have been saying he's crazy for 30 years.

He twitched and he trembled. His lips quivered and his arms shook. He played with his ear; he rubbed his chest. He shook his head, stroked his chin and scratched himself. And as the judge and opposing lawyers spoke to each other, Gigante talked to himself.

Gigante's performance in his first court appearance in six years was so mesmerizing that federal prosecutors, who had intended to seek to revoke his $1 million bail, never did.

Wearing a three day old beard and a blue windbreaker over a white T-shirt, Gigante stumbled into court on the left arm of his heart specialist, Dr. Bernard Wechsler, who was carrying his black doctor's bag in his right hand.

With his gray hair flying out in front of him, his legs trembling and his eyes looking everywhere but where he was going, Gigante was led past Judge Eugene Nickerson to the defense table, where he sat mumbling and staring.

"I have not had a discussion in which I think we were communicating in any meaningful fashion," said Gigante's lawyer, James LaRossa, who entered a "Not guilty" plea for his client.

"Just getting Mr. Gigante here was an incredible task," said LaRossa.

Nickerson, who ruled last week that Gigante had been faking mental illness for three decades, watched intently Gigante's actions intently as he ordered him to return to court next month for a status conference and scheduled trial for Mar. 17.

Gigante, accused of ordering eight mob murders, conspiring to kill rival mob boss John Gotti and other charges, was supported in court by his seven children and about 20 other relatives, inlcuding his brother Louis Gigante, a Roman Catholic priest.

The reputed Genovese crime boss was driven to court in the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car between LaRossa and Father Gigante.

In an unusual accomodation, Gigante entered the courthouse through a parking garage with the approval of Nickerson, who said in his ruling that he would "devise means to shield Gigante from crowds of unfamiliar people."

After LaRossa entered the not guilty plea for his client, Gigante staggered from the courtroom on Dr. Wechsler's arm. with his hands clasped in front of him and his legs trembling.

"Today was a difficult day for Vincent Gigante," LaRossa said outside the courthouse. "He got through it, but it will take him a day or two before he returns to the health he normally enjoys, which is not so great to begin with."

Prosecutors Andrew Weissmann and George Stamboulidis declined to comment about their failure to request revocation of Gigante's bail, which they and their predecessors had sought during seemingly endless competency hearings that began after Gigante was hit with racketeering charges six years ago.