U.S. Indicts 15 Reputed Mafia Figures

The Justice Department said today that 15 reputed Mafia figures, including the bosses of the Genovese and Luchese families, were indicted on racketeering charges in a racketeering scheme that defrauded the city of millions of dollars.

The charges involve a program to replace windows in the Housing Authority’s housing projects, according to the indictment.

The defendants include Vincent (The Chin) Gigante, boss of the Genovese crime family; Vittorio Amuso, boss of the Luchese family; Anthony (Gas Pipe) Casso, a Luchese under-boss; Venero Mangano, a Genovese under-boss, and Peter Gotti, the brother of John Gotti, said to be head of the Gambino crime family, the city’s largest.

Also named were officials of several unions who allegedly were paid off to allow non-union labor on the projects.

“The defendants and their co-racketeers maintained their control and influence in the window manufacturing and installation industry by identifying the enterprise with organized crime,” the indictment said.

The indictment said the defendants engaged in a pattern of bid-rigging and payoffs to gain a virtual monopoly over the last 10 years in replacing the windows in the projects.

The charges of racketeering, extortion and other crimes date back to 1978.

The Mafia used fear, intimidation and threats of labor unrest to control the window manufacturers and installers while paying the union $2 million in kickbacks to participate in the scheme, according to the indictment.

It said the Mafia-controlled businesses allegedly received the bulk of the $191 million in contracts awarded by the Housing Authority since 1978, as well as numerous private contracts.

The indictment, capping a two-year investigation, was announced by Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh.

“Operations of the type outlined in today’s indictment undermine legitimate businesses and labor unions while raising costs to the consumers and taxpayers for routine services,” he said in a statement.

Thornburgh said the case illustrates the influence of organized crime operations in New York.

When he was arrested today, Vincent Gigante, unshaven and haggard-looking, was wearing a blue bathrobe over his clothes and a blue cap.

Once notorious as the hit man who allegedly shot and wounded mob boss Frank Costello in 1957, Gigante has recently taken to walking the streets near his home on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village wearing a bathrobe, and sometimes pajamas.

His family claims that he is mentally unbalanced and until recently had been trying to have him declared legally incompetent.

Authorities say it is all an elaborate act, with Gigante still running the family that has an estimated 300 members and 1,000 “associates” and is reported heavily involved in construction, garbage and the New Jersey waterfront.