Gangland Wire

Vincent “The Chin” Gigante Admits the Truth

In this episode, Gary sits down with former FBI agent Mike Campi, a key figure in the investigation that led to the downfall of Vincent “Chin” Gigante and the Genovese crime family. Mike takes us inside the complex world of organized crime, explaining how Gigante, infamous for his feigned insanity, managed to evade law enforcement for years while secretly running the family’s operations from the shadows. Mike shares the critical role of informants like Cookie D’Urso, whose cooperation provided the FBI with essential insights that brought them closer to Gigante. Together, we explore the meticulous surveillance and wiretapping methods used in the investigation, uncovering the challenges of gathering evidence against individuals skilled at evading law enforcement. The conversation covers the evolution of the case from labor racketeering to a full-scale investigation into the Genovese family’s activities. Mike recounts the internal tensions and bureaucratic obstacles within the FBI and local law enforcement during this high-stakes operation. We also dive into the theme of loyalty and betrayal within the mob. Mike tells stories of brutal retributions, betrayal, and hypocrisy in mob culture, where ambition and greed often overtake family loyalty. He highlights how figures like Cookie D’Urso and George Barone went from mob insiders to crucial witnesses, with their testimonies and recorded conversations playing a decisive role in bringing Gigante to justice—ultimately resulting in Gigante’s admission in court that he had faked insanity for years. The episode wraps up with Mike’s reflections on the current state of organized crime, exploring how some tactics have evolved, yet the underlying nature of organized crime remains largely unchanged. This episode offers a gripping look into the strategy, patience, and grit it takes to tackle organized crime from the inside out. Click here to get Mike’s book, Mafia Takedown: The Incredible True Story of the FBI Agent Who Devastated the New York Mob Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here! Transcript 0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers. Welcome back here in the studio of Gangland [0:03] Wires. Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City police detective from the intelligence unit. And I have a FBI agent today named Mike Camp. And Mike Campy was a case agent of a huge investigation on a Genovese family. This is the case that they turned a guy named Cookie Durso. And that guy ended up talking about Vincent the Chin Gigante. And in the end, that squad that Mike was attached to figured out how to get enough information to get Vincent Gigante to admit in open court that he had been put on an act all those years. You know, if you’re not familiar with their story of Vincent the Chin Gigante, he was a boss of the Genovese family and he had put on an act and he was crazy. Wandered around Little Italy and Greenwich Village, wherever he lived, [0:50] somewhere there in Manhattan, in a bath robe and talking to himself and all that. And he did it for years and years and really avoided a lot of a lot of heat when he was actually the boss of the genovese family and they put uh fat tony salerno out as the boss and everybody thought he was a boss and and so this is a guy that really ends up exposing that and he does this huge long investigation on the entire family so just sit back and listen to mike campy so uh we’re gonna talk about vincent the chin gigante today when When I was investigating, when my squad changed from labor racketeering. [1:27] Eventually became a focus on. [1:30] The Genovese organized crime family. Rather than being assigned, I wanted to open my own investigation. And we have control files that have historic information from cooperating witnesses and informants that stores the… So I went back and I reviewed the files from volume one up to the last volume [1:51] to focus on who I wanted to open investigation on. And I opened on… The reason I opened the investigation on nicky the blonde frustaci was because he was well liked by many people both chin gigante because nicky was involved in boxing as was chin yeah but also uptown with fat tony salerno and nicky’s neighborhood was over by historic where lucky luciano over on first avenue on the east side with 11th street and so he was my focus and originally. [2:26] But I had him, according to information, being placed by chin with Jimmy Ida, who was the acting consigliere, eventually became official consigliere. So the surveillance and all other topics, you know, tapped into Jimmy Ida being a focus with Nikki DeBlanc and others. And so it took a bunch of years because we had a bunch of problems with the title three reinstallations. They got caught a number of times, both PD and the FBI. But at some point right now, Jimmy Ida is doing life in prison as a result of that investigation because of his role as the consigliere in coordinating murders of various individuals. [3:14] Sanctioned murders from the Genovese family. And I thought focusing on Jimmy Ida and Nikki the Blonde, because Chin was pretending to be crazy for all those years, that the likelihood of somebody maybe wanting to cooperate because they’re taking a hit for a guy who’s wearing a bathrobe, living the life, you know, as bizarre as it seems. [3:38] I thought that that was a good possibility of getting cooperation. And that investigation resulted in the arrest and conviction pleas of the acting administration for the Genovese family to include Laborio Belomo, Barney Belomo, who’s the current boss. [3:56] He was the acting boss. Mickey D’Amino Generoso, who was the underboss, old timer, never gone. I don’t think he ever went to prison, but for this case, and Jimmy Ida and a whole bunch of other people. But that said, we didn’t get the cooperation, but the investigation facilitated the cooperation of Mike, future cooperation of Mike Durso actually reaching out in coordination with his defense attorney to meet with me to facilitate his cooperation. And, This was all supposed to be just a six-month investigation. This was in 1998, June of 98. And we were trying to get to December to arrest the people that shot him in the head, killed his cousin, his best friend, at their social club. And these guys were involved. The one guy, Carmine Pizza, Carmine Pulido, I had involved with previous bank robberies. And so the whole thing was going to address that type of criminal conduct. But because of the recordings we made right from Jump Street, you can clearly see that Durso had a unique reputation with his mentors. He was proposed for induction. He couldn’t retaliate and kill the people that shot him in the head. [5:25] Because, you know, there was so many different people cooperating between Al D’Arco, Sammy the Bull Gravano. They were like, you’d have to kill five of them. If you don’t kill five of them, somebody may cooperate. So this all, though, facilitated with recordings about Chin, his role in continuing to… [5:47] Manage and be the boss of the Genovese family, even when he was in prison. I mean, we made recordings with Tommy Cafaro, who was Vincent Fish Cafaro’s son, and this uptown crew of guys that were with Barney Belomo, who was also in prison. And these recordings were just so specific and detailed over a three-year period that it caused other problems for the Genovese family, to include a historic figure, George Barone, cooperating. And George Barone was somebody that went back to Vito Genovese days. [6:25] That he was the guy that the Genovese family utilized to really facilitate the [6:32] control of the ILA, the Longshoremen’s Union, on a national level. And that’s during the process of when it went from manually loading ships to the containerization process. So it was just and they wanted durso towards the end when we took the case down to basically kill george barone and and that’s the part i the things i like to point out in the book about the hypocrisy of that life you know to where your criminal family is supposed to come before your blood family yeah and i’ll say you know numerous murders that are to me clear examples of the hypocrisy. You know, you’re joining a group of guys with a lot of egos and, you know, they’re treacherous and even they may say that...