Rita Gigante's new book spills the family secrets of Genovese family's 'Oddfather' ~ My Fun World

Monday 17 September 2012

Rita Gigante's new book spills the family secrets of Genovese family's 'Oddfather'

06:49

Rizwan Muqaddar

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Rita Gigante - daughter of mobster Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante - wrote a book called 'The Godfather's Daughter' about growing up with her gangster father -- (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)

The Oddfather loved “The Godfather” — and dancing to “Jailhouse Rock.”

Notorious Genovese family boss Vincent (the Chin) Gigante, when not demanding John Gotti’s death or roaming the streets in pajamas, spent a little quality time enjoying fellow icons Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley.

The glimpses of her father embracing pop culture are favorite memories of his youngest daughter, Rita.

“I loved the times when we put on Elvis,” says the petite Rita, whose dad earned his “Oddfather” sobriquet through a combination of mob mayhem and feigned mental illness.

“I didn’t care if he was in his bathrobe and his slippers and whatever — he’d get up and start dancing to Elvis. He couldn’t sing a word — forget it. But he’d try.”

For years, Gigante never spoke of her father or her family to outsiders — and once went home with blood on her hands after bashing a high school classmate who ran her mouth about the clan.

The baby of the family grew up amid secrets and silence, sworn to an unspoken oath of omerta by virtue of her dad’s position as the nation’s No. 1 mobster.

The quiet went both ways — nobody told her anything either. Gigante knew nothing of her father’s murderous leading role among New York’s five crime families until high school.

The dark-haired Gigante, who bears a resemblance to her infamous parent, knows the whole story now — and she’s telling it all in a new memoir, “The Godfather’s Daughter.”

The book is due in stores Tuesday.

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante hold his daughter, Rita. Shortly after her birth, he left his family behind in Old Tappan, N.J., and moved to his mother's apartment in Manhattan.

The honest, unflinching tale provides a previously unseen look at the elder Gigante, who famously dodged attempted murder charges after shooting Genovese boss Frank Costello in 1957 when Costello refused to testify against him.

“The Chin” maintained a surprisingly high level of privacy despite 24-hour-a-day FBI surveillance. His public persona was forged by his Greenwich Village outings in a bathrobe, pajamas and slippers — a ruse that he continued to the death, even after admitting in court that it was a sham.

While Rita Gigante can be unsparing in her criticisms of her mob boss father, she also wanted people to know the son of Italian immigrants in a light beyond the street lamps of Sullivan St.

“I wanted people to see him as a dad,” said Rita, sitting in the living room of her suburban home. “He wasn’t just an idol, or this image that people saw in a newspaper or on TV.