The 'Oddfather', mob boss who feigned insanity to dodge jail, dies

Mob boss Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante, the powerful mafia man who avoided jail for decades by wandering Manhattan streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers as part of a feigned mental illness, has died in prison. He was 77.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but prison spokesman Al Quintero said Gigante had a history of heart disease. Gigante died at the US Medical Centre for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, on Monday.

Dubbed the 'Oddfather' for his bizarre behaviour, the former Genovese crime family head, a former boxer whose lengthy string of victories over prosecutors ended with a July 1997 racketeering conviction, finally admitted his insanity ruse at an April 2003 court hearing.

After nearly a quarter-century of public craziness, Gigante calmly pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his deception. He was jailed in the medical ward at the federal prison in Springfield - the same facility where rival mob boss John Gotti died.

Denying he was a gangster, Gigante would wander the streets of his native Greenwich Village neighbourhood in nightclothes, muttering incoherently. Relatives insisted Gigante suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Authorities said it was a brazen act to avoid the law - although it was not until 1997 that a jury agreed, and it took six more years for Gigante to concede his subterfuge. At the height of his power, Gigante's empire stretched from New York to Miami.

For the man described by The New York Times Magazine as 'the last great mafioso of the century', his admission was the final act in a 50-year career.