200 to 225 members
Boss: Vacant
Underboss : Venero �Benny Eggs� Mangano, 83 (Incarcerated)
Consigliere: Vacant
The Genovese clan, long considered the Ivy League of organized crime, is the only family whose heir apparent and official boss seem to be one and the same. Vincent �Chin� Gigante took over around 1982. He�s been in federal prison since 1997. The Oddfather, whose crazy-man strolls in Greenwich Village in his pajamas kept him out of prison for decades, is scheduled for release at age 82, in 2010� if he lives that long. Which he didnt, dying in late 2005.
His brother Mario, believed by some to function as Chin�s acting boss, is active at 81. Their mom, whose calls of �Cinzini� out her Greenwich Village apartment window gave Vincent his nickname, lived to 95.
Until then, he has a committee of three serving as his eyes and ears: Mario, who ended three years of supervised release in June following a 42-month term for labor racketeering, and two longtime allies who hail from his downtown, or West Side, base: Lawrence �Little Larry� Dentico, 81, and Dominick �Quiet Dom� Cirillo, 75.
�Mario is a gangster in his own right,� says one law-enforcement expert. �He�s Chin�s blood-family connection. Larry and Quiet Dom are trustworthy old-timers who do his bidding with little fear of opposition from within or outside the family.�
As Gigante told a prison guard who wondered if younger inmates were bothering him: �Nobody fucks with me.� Or his disciples. In today's world, the Genovese Family is more of a mystery than anything else. Keep an eye out tho.